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If you just closed your eyes......

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by ShotGunWillie, Apr 6, 2009.

  1. ShotGunWillie

    ShotGunWillie New Member

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    And listened, you would have thought you were in a traditional Baptist Church or at least the preaching.

    Yesterday I went with family to a church that I have never attended before. I couldn't tell who was putting on the concert and I failed to get my cup of coffee before the show began. I wonder if they serve muffins too.

    During the concert, show goers were free to go back and forth retrieving additional cups of coffee so that their worship going experience would be caffine laced and "driven".

    All of the men who participated in the service, worship leader, the four guitarists, one rather large man singing 10 feet from the microphone, the associate pastor, and the pastor wore the same type of clothing. Long sleeve button up shirt and blue jeans (trendy pair of blue jeans, not wranglers, which would have typically been the norm for this community).

    As the show wrapped up the rather upbeat, energetic, middle aged pastor took center stage partially hidden by a wooden cross pulpit.

    If you would have just heard the message, on the radio, by closing your eyes, but anything to remove the visual side of things and focus on the word that was presented, you would have left the church with the blessing as it should have been. The pastor was more concerned about meeting time constraints than giving it to the congregation. He turned up the heat a little towards the end, but I think that was lost.

    The hussle and bussle of the church, the madness that insued following the congregation partaking in the Lord's Supper. Even that was rushed and not given the time it needed. For conservation of time, the cups were served together one on top of the other, as not to consume too much of our Sunday afternoon. I am not sure if the Pastor knew that football season hasn't begun yet.

    Just my thoughts or observations, I got something out of the message and also got run over on my way to the nusery by seven pre-teen boys wanting to get another cup of "joe" before the ride home......
     
  2. ReformedBaptist

    ReformedBaptist Well-Known Member

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    I am not sure I get the point of this thread...can you help?
     
  3. SBCPreacher

    SBCPreacher Active Member
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    He didn't like church last Sunday, I think.
     
  4. ShotGunWillie

    ShotGunWillie New Member

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    It was just that if it weren't for actually sitting in the pew, I think I would have really gleaned a bit from the message, but my surroundings were not condusive to the message. Meaning, I don't know when church got so lax and when reverence for the House of the Lord was removed and replaced by Star Bucks and Yuppy dress.

    Sunday Best is Sunday Best, but I don't think these people could say they were in their Sunday Best.

    Just thought I would share............
     
  5. Tom Bryant

    Tom Bryant Well-Known Member

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    I am sure you were a blessing too. :laugh:
     
  6. ReformedBaptist

    ReformedBaptist Well-Known Member

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    thanks. Yes, there does seem to be a lack of reverence among the gathering of the saints.
     
  7. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Culture is changing. Whether it's good or bad, I don't know but it's changing.

    Once upon a time, women wouldn't be caught dead going out of the house without matching shoes and purse, hair coiffed just so, and pearls on. A man would come to dinner in a suit and tie.

    It's just not that way anymore. Things, for better or for worse, are more casual. I don't think it's wrong to dress as the culture does because if the culture is casual, and you're always in a suit, it might make you "better" than them. But it's a sensitive reading of that culture - not an across the board answer.
     
  8. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    Curious...are Sunday worship services designed to "glean a bit"...or to gather to worship?
    Where from Scripture are we commanded to "revere" a building? Forbidden to drink coffee? Told how to dress?
    Give us a description of "Sunday Best" from the Bible. Robes and sandals...or tuxedo?
    Share what exactly...nothing but your opinions, likes and dislikes? Opinions are like nostrils...we all have them :)
     
  9. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    Based on what, music style, coffee or dress?
     
  10. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    My thoughts exactly. Thing is, the knife cuts both ways, as I read plenty "it's about me and my likes" from the OP...the exact thing being condemned.
     
  11. ShotGunWillie

    ShotGunWillie New Member

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    What does it mean to be in the House of the Lord, to you? In my mind it is disrespectful to eat and drink during services, in your eyes it is perfectly fine.

    And I think you know what it means to wear your Sunday Best, don't be silly.

    What I am getting at, is that people appear to have a lax attitude.

    I didn't say I gleaned anything from the worship service, I am to glean from the message or there is not true point to hearing a sermon and applying it to ones own life.
     
  12. just-want-peace

    just-want-peace Well-Known Member
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    Well, maybe I'm just an old fogy, BUT I see the point of the OP as saying that no matter how good the message is, if you're attacked by distractions all around, it's kinda hard to really "GET" the point of the message.

    Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, ShotGun!

    FTR, I agree that too often too much of "WORSHIP" is little more than a nod of approval toward God, and "let's party"!

    Oh, and do you complainers have a problem with a worship service being a soul feeding time for the participants?? Some of the comments seemed to indicate such; if this is not the point, please clarify further - Thanks!!
     
  13. ReformedBaptist

    ReformedBaptist Well-Known Member

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    Based on Scripture. It dictates what we should or should not include in the worship of God.

    In this manner I have every confidence that the worship is pleasing to God.
     
  14. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    I don't use the phrase "House of the Lord" so I don't really have an opinion on what it means. Did the early church in Acts use that phrase?
    I don't, really. The "best" attire according to our culture is black tie / black dress...yet I see no church take that approach to wear your "best".
    This I agree with....it's about the heart. Unfortunately, you have equated what people wear, drink, and music style as heart conditions, which they are not.
    Must a worship service include a sermon?
     
  15. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    I think I found it...

    1 Opinions 4:13 "Thou shalt not consume caffeinated beverages in the presence of thine Lord, and garments shalt consist of a strip of cloth hung from the neck, as it is written 'blessed is the man who has cloth hung around the neck'. Nothing but the lyre, symbol, organ and piano shalt be played, as the electric guitar and drums art an abomination. The House of the Lord shall not be defiled by such vile filth. Take off your sneakers...you are standing on holy ground"
     
  16. ReformedBaptist

    ReformedBaptist Well-Known Member

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    I can't find that book of the Bible in Scripture.

    Perhaps you misunderstood my post. I am saying that the worship of God should be ordered by the Scripture. Are you teaching otherwise?
     
  17. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    I really saw no complaining but the OP. The very things condemned, were done in the OP. It basically was "I didn't like this about the service..." which is nothing more than personal preference, what the OP attacked!
     
  18. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    Of course not, don't be silly. Scripture doesn't mention the things in the OP. We are to worship in spirit and in truth.
    How did the OP address the "order" of worship?
     
  19. ReformedBaptist

    ReformedBaptist Well-Known Member

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    It has to do with how things should or should not be done in church. I say the Scripture should determine that.
     
  20. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    How did the OP address that? All I saw were extra-biblical requirements of worship...
     
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