Many of us from the MSC have been in LA for the Western Jurisdiction Fresh United Methodist Church Summit. We have been discerning what our church needs to look like in order to strengthen our witness and ministries as we seek to share the love of God with others in our unique settings in the West.
One young person at my work table talked about time capsules. I confess I found my mind wandering once she said that! Every since I was a child, time capsules have fascinated me. Perhaps it was because I saw the Westinghouse Time Capsule at the 1964-1965 World’s Fair in New York. I was in awe that things that were staples of the day were going to be buried for thousands of years, waiting to be opened and scrutinized by those in the future.
Sometimes, churches are like time capsules.
One of my favorite churches that I regularly stopped in to pray midweek was on a dirt road, tucked away in a valley, far from a tiny village. I never saw another person at this church. It had an outhouse in the back and no running water. Antique glass fire extinguisher grenades (look it up!) hung in obvious places around the tiny sanctuary. The hymnbooks were from a much earlier era of Methodism. It felt like a walk-in time capsule, a church that was still in the 1930’s.
If a newcomer walked into your church today, would they think they’d walked into a time capsule? What year/era does your church communicate? Or would they walk into a building that reflects the current age, that communicates “the old, old story of Jesus and His love” in fresh, contemporary ways?
This is our task: to keep vigilant lest we turn our churches into museums rather than mission outposts, dated and out of touch relics to an earlier age rather than ministry centers deeply connected to the current realities facing people in their everyday lives. In this way we ensure that we are putting “new wine into fresh wineskins." (Mark 2:22).
This is our task, my friends!
Madam, allowing same sex marriage in the church is simply pathetic. Cant be accepted because some one needs it. Christian churches are entitled to follow Bible. Not any individual doctrines. The one who goes against the bible doctrine should not name them as one who is following bible and destroy christianity ( May be they are guided by some other spirits, not holy spirits) . We can encourage such people to get married as a man and women, but you can't misguide them to go in the wrong way , against the bible doctrine ( That is the very purpose of churches and the duty of church leaders) . Church Leaders job is to guide the people in the right direction so that they can grow in the path of the preaching of Jesus Christ. But not the path of any bishop or some one who feels its right. That requires some other place where some other doctrines support it, not the church or bible. Churches can only follow bible and preach bible and there is no word called tolerance in it. You either follow it , or if you cant guide the people in the path of the preaching of Jesus christ , then you shouldn't be there in that place. The one who can should be in that place. You people have questioned the very purpose of the establishment of Churches. The churches were formed so that people are not misguided by bad spirits and the duty of the church leaders was to make sure their church members don't get distracted to these kind of worldly distractions. Organizing Sunday schools , Organizing spiritual conferences were all the ways and means to divert people from these worldly distractions brought forth by wrong spirits to destroy the very purpose of Christianity and the birth of Jesus Christ.I can see Only america is in these kinds of wrong distractions. Organise prayers to make sure these evil things doesn't enter into churches. Finally people will only mock us Christians for all these kind of funny doctrines. Few May be wrongly sexually oriented which may not be unavoidable. But knowing its wrong, its you peoples duty to guide them in the right direction. That should be your message in the churches. That is the very purpose of having a message section in the service. you can talk to them about it personally and change them .That's missionary work and You people are there for this very purpose and not to accept any wrong proposals which are brought forth by wrong spirits. Even Jesus was tested by saturn when he started his preaching career. Such will be the destractions for the church leaders and if you people don't keep yourself in prayer, you people cant over come these kind of situations. Lets not neglect them as they are human beings. Dont mock or yell at them. Allow them to come to church and preach them the right thing every day so that one day they will realize they are wrong and will move to GOD. Thats rependence. But don't encourage them to do all these wrongs by recognizing same sex marriage and all such stuffs in the churches, instead preach them the right thing . GOD has created humans as Man and Women and thats what christianity recognises. Else the other way around was sodom and Gomorah.Prach Good. Preach Right. Guide the church members in the right directions. Dont mis guide them. Practise the preachings of Jesus Christ so that you can be an example as well. Give Ordination to only those people who has the ability guide the people in the Path of Jesus Christ Preachings. Its not an oppurtunity Job, but a responible job that shapes the future of millions of people . The one who is in the society is good or bad only based on how they are guided and shaped at their younger stage. Dont destroy these youths life. When a Man think to marry another man, he should be convinced that he cant do it in a church. There is no tolerance in this. The purpose of church is to follow jesus christ preachings and practise it and not beyond that. Continued....
ReplyDeleteWhen a youth is wrong, even though there will be many factors, Maily because he doesnt have a spiritual parent to guide him and he is misguided by responsible people like you. Dont destroy peoples life by misguiding them. Any sensible people will say what I have written here.
ReplyDeleteEncourage them to have chlidren. Let them have children and be blessed. Let them also get opposite sex love and some one who can truely care for . Changing peoplw from wrong docrins is the only job of preaching and should be followed is my final conclusion. Let them have children, Protect them from all these evil things that never bring commitments in their lives, but dont expose them to these evil things. If partner, it should always be opposite sex people. Thanks Mam.
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