Misuse of the local church

Their behavior caused an offence. Paul wrote that he would rather not eat anything than to cause an offense, and while he was talking about Christian liberty, the idea applies here. They took liberty with the church facility, and caused an offense
I believe in the unity of the body of believers, especially, in a local body they should be unified and inclusive. Practicing the action of loving each other, excluding folks is not loving them.

I don't think that what Peter was doing was any different than what this op was talking about. He was being party to fellowshipping with one group at the exclusion of another group; one group being the preferred clique and the others treated as lesser.

If the op felt left out or separated it is division.

And while I may have over stated my position , I found it rather sickening that one person who wanted simply to excuse an offence layed accusation back onto the op, who actually has a valid point. That being Facilities are supported by the church so if it is not a church function do it elsewhere. Or at least get the support of the body first. You know those schmucks that pay the bills. May be they ought to have at least asked if it were ok to have a private function. Something like say , so and so family would like to have a private family event up here at the facility, as their home is too small for the numbers of people attending, it wouldn't be open to the whole church but they would appreciate the use of the facilities, all in favor say I ... Opposed neigh. Thank you for your support. Blah what ever.

It is very sad to me that the church body acts as if there is no further connection between each other than we come up to the meeting house for a motivational speech on Sunday and smaller speaches on Wednesday.
I was quoting an ex gang member who left church because when he joined the church he was looking for a family unit. It was his words I didn't think that street gangs act more as a family than the family of God. And his words are true. It's true we go to church on Sunday and that about it the rest is treated as an autonomous life. It's my goal to work toward changing that.

The more I hear of the behavior of other churches the more I love my church.
I've was invited a wedding of folks I dont even know ( had met them but nothing more) because they were having it at our church. The bride who don't live here anymore wanted to be married at the church where she was a member. They made an open invitation to the whole church and representatives of the church asked my wife and I personally, as we were new there, and didnt really know the couple, if we would like to come. We politely declined. They made an effort to make sure we didn't feel left out.

Their behavior caused an offence. Paul wrote that he would rather not eat anything than to cause an offense, and while he was talking about Christian liberty, the idea applies here. They took liberty with the church facility, and caused an offense
I believe in the unity of the body of believers, especially, in a local body they should be unified and inclusive. Practicing the action of loving each other, excluding folks is not loving them.
I don't think that what Peter was doing was any different than what this op was talking about. He was being party to fellowshipping with one group at the exclusion of another group; one group being the preferred clique and the others treated as lesser.
If the op felt left out or separated it is division.
And while I may have over stated my position , I found it rather sickening that one person who wanted simply to excuse an offence layed accusation back onto the op, who actually has a valid point. That being Facilities are supported by the church so if it is not a church function do it elsewhere. Or at least get the support of the body first. You know those schmucks that pay the bills. May be they ought to have at least asked if it were ok to have a private function. Something like say , so and so family would like to have a private family event up here at the facility, as their home is too small for the numbers of people attending, it wouldn't be open to the whole church but they would appreciate the use of the facilities, all in favor say I ... Opposed neigh. Thank you for your support. Blah what ever.
It is very sad to me that the church body acts as if there is no further connection between each other than we come up to the meeting house for a motivational speech on Sunday and smaller speaches on Wednesday.
I was quoting an ex gang member who left church because when he joined the church he was looking for a family unit. It was his words I didn't think that street gangs act more as a family than the family of God. And his words are true. It's true we go to church on Sunday and that about it the rest is treated as an autonomous life. It's my goal to work toward changing that.

Hi all.
Ive just posted this in the Bible Forum but just realised this may be the right place. My apologies.

Not long ago I discovered through Facebook that a birthday and farewell party was held in my local church.
One of the elders and his wife decided to do this for their 18 year old daughter.
Most of the church members do not know it as they werent invited and nothing was announed in the announcements on Sunday morning.

Ive spoken to the mother of this 18 year old how I felt. That this is a lack of respect to the rest of the church and that we shouldnt use the church for our own private and pesonal things as this is a misuse of the church and people can feel left out. That if its a church thing great but private parties and stuff should be celebrated elsewhere. We gotta divide what is of church matter and what is of personal use.
Her response was that we all see things differently but these things will continue to happen.

Im I being unreasonable? Its not the only case and Im wondering how many other similar things are taking place...
Knowing this, even though I might get invited one day I will not accept the invitation to respect the rest of the uninvited church members.

Has anybody here had a similar situation? Isnt this abuse of authority and favouritism?

It just seems wrong....

call the lawyers

you cannot cause an offense. sounds more like someone TOOK offence

maturity means NOT taking offence at everything and even if you do happen to get your twinkies in a knot, better to pray about it first and see if God thinks you should hire a hit man

View attachment 191485

Good thing or you'd be so offended about it. You're that important.

And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
1 Corinthians 8:12 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/1co.8.12.NASB

right

two things

fb....social spying network

and what did the mother of the girl say when you told her you were offended?

I'd really like to know

Totally disagree. Excluding others doesn't equate to not loving them. Such a notion is ridiculous and callow. It's leftism IMHO. "Everybody should have gotten a participation trophy!"



It's completely different...and you're misusing Scripture. Nothing in Galatians is about not being invited to the party. Not even close. No one was treated as lesser than any other person, but you'd certainly bring that up to the church and murmur.



Boo-hoo. It's called being juvenile. Actually it would be you causing the division by complaining and murmuring about not being invited.



Yes, you're offended over it, and would cause an uproar in a church over it, sowing discord, causing division, declaring your right to be invited too. lolzzz...



Your gang member illustration is apples and oranges. Lot's of emotionalism, and hurt feeling for nought, and nothing biblical to support it other than you would have felt left out too if you were there and would cause a stink over it in the body just like the Corinthians.

In the above you're taking Scripture out of context...and overreacting. This is why churches have problems, people think so highly of themselves if they're not invited they get butthurt over it.

It's callow. You're probably going to get offended about his because you want to; What you are propagating is the same ideology leftism is propagating, everything has to be "fair" or others will whine about it, always trying to find something to be offended about.

"That's not fair!" We did this, when, in Kindergarten then (hopefully) grew up? Why in the world would we need to revert to juvenile behavior because we're now in Church and supposed to be mature in Christ?

At least a couple in here got it right, just congratulate the others over it and go on with your life, it's nothing to be offended about.

It's time the church grew up and stopped acting carnal and callow. It's my goal to work toward changing that.

And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
1 Corinthians 8:12 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/1co.8.12.NASB

She has already answered that, "Her response was that we all see things differently but these things will continue to happen."

The first thing to remember is that this isn't about me at all. I am not a member or even know what church this happened at.
Some people did get it right.
As for me this wouldn't bother me personally at all. If it did happen at my church, I wouldn't know nor would I personally care. However if they did offend another member I would say something to them, something along the lines of it being our duty to make sure that we behave in a manner that is not offensive. If you can't give a better answer than "these things are going to keep happening" then they need to stop happening.
I learned a valuable lesson one time when I was a youngster. I was in a Christian band and we played punk style music. We played a couple of songs one night at the church for one of those everybody sings song service fellowship nights. Everyone was invited and people from the community we're also invited. It was a great night, I didn't know there was so much talent at that church. We played last. When we were done and packing up our gear one of the ladies a notorious nit picker approached us with questions, what was the songs about? What were the words? Kind of stuff. We just crassly dismissed her and went about our business. On Sunday pastor called us into his office and explained that he could defend and explain everything except our attitude. That our crass response made us un defendeable, that if we had taken time to explain to the lady we wouldn't be in his office and he would not have to explain why such a loud rocious band was allowed to play on the stage at church. He used scripture to shown us that we have an obligation to assuage offence as much as possible.

are you feeling ok?


are you her lawyer? I asked her and you were not there



you are really off base here

I would really not like to have to deal with someone with your perspective in real life. you seem to be hyper ventilating over something you actually do not even have all the facts for

pssst......if you REALLY want to follow scritpure? you would, according to scripture, have to hear the other side. if you have not heard the other side of this story, then you have no business going full throttle on judging people you do not know

seriously?

let's grow up

teenagers act like that. this is some of what is wrong in church. people take offense at things because it is all about me me me

well, certain 'Christian bands' are notorious for not taking advice or criticism very well. punk rock does not belong in the same sentence as Christian anyway and you can quote me on that.

see how you still call the woman who approached you a 'notorious nit picker'? apparently you are still not over the event

no comparison to the op at any rate.

Who have I judged? And with what judgement. To say a person did a thing that they did do is not judgement. They used church community property and facilities for private use and offended a member of their church. To which they should give an apology, not dismiss , and be more careful about in the future.

Utter nonsense bro, you judged. Be real with yourself, you judged, you too are offended. Or, if it happened to, you would have been offended to the extent you'd start a church ruckus over it. You've proven this to be true.

You consider yourself that important you'd stir up the entire church into discord if you weren't invited to the party. You go dude, congrats!