ADN

I am just curious to the various reasons why we do or do not go to church...

I personally don't go, being in church makes me feel extremely uncomfortable, probably due to the fact that I believe so strongly that God is so much more than a building and a few songs...

I also don't like the idea that others are complacent in their behavior, as so long as they go to church every Sunday...I have not been to church in years...

OK, here goes... I am a retired Southern Baptist minister (Chaplain). When I got divorced because my wife was "friendly" with my music minister, the church turned its back on me. I'm about as un-Southern Baptist as a person can get as I drink, cuss, and generally speak my mind about what I believe. I don't toe the church line.

I tried going to church for several years afterward after I moved back down here to Florida, but it was hard to find one that wasn't so funDAMentalist and wrapped up in Republican politics that I finally gave up and quit trying. I haven't been in over a year now.

I too believe that God is much more than a building and a few hymns. He can't be contained in the small minds of most of the people that attend. ALL of us have minds too small to fully comprehend the fullness of God and HIS abilities. When I'd sit in church and find myself clenching my fists and chewing the insides of my cheeks raw, I knew it was time to leave.

I'm Catholic, but I don't go to church every Sunday...haven't been in awhile actually.

I do agree on the fact that God is not just a structure, etc...

In fact, I do believe in the Bible it actually says that church is where you make it (or s'thing to that effect).
In other words, one can pray at home or wherever. Just b/c u don't go to the actual building, etc doesn't mean God doesn't love u just the same!

Just take those unfortunate folks who can't go to church for one reason or another...u think God turns his back on them just b/c they don't go to church?

I tend to believe God loves us no matter what...church or no church, prayers or not.

AMEN!

I go to church almost every Sunday because it is more than a building and more than what is there. I feel that it is about fellowship with other believers...yes, you can do this outside of church, but it's easier in the church enviroment.

i also don't like the steriotype of the church and the complancancy of it all....ppl need to wake up to the truth...church doesn't bring that to you

I enjoyed the fellowship of being in church when I had it, but it seemed like once I got divorced, it all turned away. Maybe that's unique to Baptists or other conservative evangelicals, but I tend to think not. If not divorce then some other perceived "sin" that separates you from the rest of the congregation.

I've seen more politics (from the inside) going on in the Church than the DNC and RNC put together! I've seen good people driven out of the church in shame because of a moment of bad decision making. I've seen others who were within the power circle make the same bad decision time after time after time and have nothing happen to them.

What is happening in the Church today is definitely not what God intends. I can't pretend to speak for God (he got along just fine without me for thousands of years), but I CANNOT believe that it is God's will for us to hate ANYONE. If God is love (and I believe that), what gives us the right to hate?

end of sermon for now

i totally agree with you...there is so much hate going on in the churches today that it really sickens me. everyone wants to be better than the other and are never forgiving...it seems like since you go to church, you have to be perfect.

i hate this about the church...luckily i found a church where this doesn't go on as much as others but it's still there.

i think this is the main reason why ppl don't wanna be Christians. they see the way Christians act in church and don't wanna be like that.

Church is not a building, that's a chapel. Church is what is conveyed when three or more come together in the name of Eleheinu, or God, ruler of Kings. If you do not come together in his name, then you are doing something else, but it is not church.

As far as chapels go, the only time Jesuhua walked into a Temple, or some such, it was to get everyone drunk, trash the collection plate, and scourge the heretics running the outfit.

when he wanted to deliver a message of the spirit and name of Eleheinu, he had a drink and went fishing,..

some churches make good social clubs, though, and i have met some hot chicks and intelligent men (and a few intelligent women, some of which were hot) in some of those places. tHE FOOD IS USUALLY BETTER THAN THE CLUBS AS WELL.

vertical,
raum

lmao

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