| Poster | Thread | Sree
Member
Joined: 2011/8/20
Posts: 1953
| | Re: | | Quote:
Because first off, there are perhaps not local churches in absolutely every city on this planet (I might be wrong here, God knows) My point is just that you do not know the circumstances of each believer to judge about that.
We should never use our personal experience to drive our understanding of God's word. God's word is true even if we can experience it or not. But we should also be honest about our experience.
If I go by your logic here, someone can come and say that Jesus alone cannot be the only source of salvation because there are many remote parts of this world where salvation has not been preached. How can God allow those people to go to hell? So there should be salvation in some other name as well that those people call on. Can we come to this conclusion based on the reality?
Same way even if there is a local church or not in our locality, God's emphasis on the local Church is very real. We cannot negate God's word because we have messed up with local Church.
Now the Church that I am part of was started in the locality by 3 families who faithfully met together for close to 3 years. I joined them last year and now within a year we have more than 10 families and around 40 people attending every week. It is God who causes his Church to grow, all we need to do is keep our mind set on his will. It is God's will to see the Body of Christ represented truly in every locality. That is why there are so many scriptures on local Church, how it should be represented, how it should run etc. When we desire in line with God's will, he will definitely bring us close with other families or believers who also desire his will. I am not speaking some theory here, I have seen this happen plenty of times in my own life and in the life of others.
We cannot mess up our life and then twist God's word to allow some exception.
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Sreeram
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|  2017/7/10 21:11 | Profile | twayneb
Member
Joined: 2009/4/5
Posts: 2256
Joplin, Missouri
| | Re: Wrong expectations on church? | | I had an interesting experience with a Brazilian pastor recently. He was speaking to our church and had difficulty coming up with an analogy to use at one point because, as he put it, "America is not a relational society. We do not want to invade the space of other people, and we do not want other people invading our space." I thought this was interesting and has a lot to do with how we in America view the concept of church.
We in America have often come to view church as a weekly or biweekly activity that we attend. We give offering to pay the "staff" and the "staff" puts on the show and ministers to our needs. Unfortunately this is the polar opposite of what scripture teaches about the church.
A local church should function a lot like a family. Elders in the body oversee, teach, and minister to the body with the end goal being the maturing of the members of the body into the measure of spiritual adulthood. There should be much interaction, breaking of bread in one another's homes, praying together, worshipping together, teaching and exhorting one another. We should form close friendships that edify us spiritually. We should have a love for the lost and interact with the world to show them the love of God and lead them to reconciliation with Him. We should then disciple these people and the cycle repeats itself as men and women enter the kingdom, mature, and then make disciples themselves.
But I think we need to realize that this will not happen corporately until it happens individually. Are you pursuing Christ? Are you abiding in Him? Are you growing and maturing spiritually? Are you leading others to Christ and discipling them? Are you inviting people into your personal space? Is your home a place of hospitality to others in the body? Are you breaking bread with others, praying together, and developing friendships? Don't ask, "Why is my church not doing this or that?" Instead ask, "Am I doing this or that?"
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Travis
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| | 2017/7/10 21:37 | Profile | Sree
Member
Joined: 2011/8/20
Posts: 1953
| | Re: | | Quote:
"America is not a relational society. We do not want to invade the space of other people, and we do not want other people invading our space." I thought this was interesting and has a lot to do with how we in America view the concept of church.
This is true. Most Americans who get committed with our churches are those who are different but there are very few who are different from this general pattern of Americans.
I think the reason America is like this is due to lot of DIY (Do It Yourself) stuff. Because of this people have become self adequate. They do not think they need fellowship with others for anything in life. This is getting carried away in their spiritual life as well. For example in Gas station they pump the fuel themselves, self checkout etc.
But in Eastern countries like India, we need to depend on people or indirectly on God for our day to day life. There is no guarantee that we will get water, electricity etc everyday. Anytime they will be cut. Hence our dependency on one another is very high in our culture. That gets transformed into our spirituality as well.
Quote:
A local church should function a lot like a family. Elders in the body oversee, teach, and minister to the body with the end goal being the maturing of the members of the body into the measure of spiritual adulthood. There should be much interaction, breaking of bread in one another's homes, praying together, worshipping together, teaching and exhorting one another. We should form close friendships that edify us spiritually. We should have a love for the lost and interact with the world to show them the love of God and lead them to reconciliation with Him. We should then disciple these people and the cycle repeats itself as men and women enter the kingdom, mature, and then make disciples themselves.
This is exactly what we envision our church to be. We are almost there. There is a family meeting with us for 4 months. They do not agree with us in doctrines. But they meet with us because of fellowship and how we keep discussing the things of eternity in our time of fellowship. They keep saying that it is the only thing that keeps them meeting with us!
Quote:
Don't ask, "Why is my church not doing this or that?" Instead ask, "Am I doing this or that?"
Exactly, that is my point here. I am called judgmental for my points here. But I honestly desire the unchurched to examine themselves and find that the problem is with them. As long as we keep blaming the Churches for their moral failure, but take no effort to be part of a true Church that is the representation of Christ's body, we have no right to point fingers. We are hypocrites.
But when we see threads like decline of Church standards like what you hear about Church of England, all the posters are willing to throw stones at Church of England. But are they willing to examine themselves? Have they taken any effort to see a representation of Body Of CHrist in their locality? Are they at least praying for it?
It is easy to shed tears and pray for the persecuted in eastern world, but it is very difficult to meet in a committed fellowship with fellow believers in your locality. I call it fake love and tears. First prove your love for the brothers in your locality by meeting with them, then shed your tears for others.
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Sreeram
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| | 2017/7/11 10:53 | Profile | MrBillPro
Member
Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 3422
Texas
| | Re: | | Sreeram, I don't think anyone here is judging you, but I do think you're doing a lot of stereotyping. God made each individual on earth different, why? so they could follow the will God has for their on personal life. I personally do not believe for one second, God has called all his believers to be a member of a fellowship of church believers inside the walls of a bldg. If most Christians focused on what God has in his plans for their will, this whole world would probably have a better class of believers. Christians need to stop worrying about the way other Christians fellowship, I personally like my fellowship with the Lord, he is my shepherd, and no one should be discouraging me from what God has spoken to be, I feel I'm in his will for me life, unless he's told you something different.
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Bill
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| | 2017/7/11 11:19 | Profile |
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