Now, considering the fact that many don't share the same views as me and/or don't attend the same kind of church, I am not trying to bash churches that differ from mine.
I attend Heritage Bible Fellowship in Hope Mills, a family-integrated church.
In case "family-integrated" is a new term to you, it means the whole family worships together (i.e. there aren't classes for different ages).
Our church is unique in several ways (being a family-integrated church might be considered unique, but there are many others). To give an example, there is only one service per week - on 3:00 pm on Sunday afternoon. There are a variety of things I like about our current church (compared to previous, Independent, Fundamental, Baptist churches).
For instance, our pastor doesn't preach about modesty, but he doesn't have to; all the girls at our church dress right.
Also, our old church would probably be against girls wearing pants/jeans, etc. in any situation, whereas at my church now (Heritage), nothing is said about that, but everyone dresses well at my church as opposed to my previous church, where there was sometimes an issue with modesty.
And yet another difference is this: our church doesn't condemn contemporary Christian music, although we sing traditional hymns during the our worship services.
Furthermore, partly because of the lack of age segregation at our church, there is more of the "family" feel. And whereas previously, going to church felt like a necessity (you were pressured to attend basically whenever the doors were opened), one service a week (and in the afternoon) allows for a more relaxed Sunday-the day of rest.
Finally, we partake of communion (the Lord's Supper) once a week, as opposed to all our previous churches where communion was observed very rarely. At first I thought this strange, but I've come to see it as a good thing as long as it doesn't become ritualistic and lose its significance. The advantage of observing the Lord's supper every week is twofold: first, you'll have confront your sins at least once a week in case you didn't confess them earlier.
Also, Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24 & 25 say "this do in remembrance of me."
If we are to remember what Christ has done for us on the Cross, isn't it better to remember more than a few times a year?
I hope I have shown just a little bit why my church is different and why we do things differently and maybe I've gotten you to think about why you do things the way you do at your church.
-Max
1 comment:
Hey Max its Caleb, long time no see. I got your blog invitation and now I'm here. Whats going on. On the topic of churches, we have been kind of drifting back and forth beteween churches for a while now. We go to church every sunday and all, but we don't have a church home. Right now there is a group we participate in at gainsville which is about an hour drive away. They meet on sundays, and are a group of several homeschool families who get together in a house and read the bible and discuss. I find this quite interesting and uplifting. I saw all the pictures of cars you have. I just bought my first car its a mazda MX6 1994 with about 50,000 on it. Its in great shape for its age. I plan on fixing it up a little though. Let me know how its going e-mail me. Sorry if i don't get back quickly (I don't check my E-mail often.
Hope all is going well.
Caleb
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