The Church Of The Cool And Groovy (A Worldy Christian View)

Well, with the person I mentioned, on his website regarding "contemplative", he refers the accused as:

"vampires" and "gnostic mystics"...so maybe I was off in calling them a Hindu. I think my point is that whenever I see someone accused of promoting contemplative prayer, it doesn't seem to fit the actual person.

Let me ask you this....since I'm still kind of in the learning stage of "contemplative prayer", what do you think it is?

 

No way to commune with God outside the Bible?

So define something for me...."commune". Because my next question is does that mean you don't think I can "commune" with God right now because I don't have a Bible handy? Don't you believe the Holy Spirit directs? In fact, I'm in the middle of something in my life where it is based soley on the Holy Spirit....not based on verses I read in the Bible. But it is a life decision I am making about my next ministry opportunity.

I would also add that this doesn't fit the bill of a couple "contemplative promoters" I've read, because I'm not aware of any that would disregard the truths of Scripture over an experience, nor would any kind of interaction they have with God contradict Scripture.

 

The ability to commune with God outside of the Bible doesn't contradict this; I agree with you. All I'm meaning is that I can communicate with, listen for, and interact with God without having a Bible.

 

Worldly gospel??????

Last year my wife and I visited a church on a Sunday night. The service was presented by the youth, and as part of the service they showed a video called "Baby Got Bible". My wife was appalled because this song is a parody of a vulgar rap song that her sister had to ban her kids from hearing.

We cannot understand why the church would allow the youth to use a parody of a song that is banned from tv and radio to present the gospel. We chose not to attend that church any more. (We have a child, and this is not the kind of youth group we want to teach him in)

A few weeks later the pastor came to visit us at home, and he kept pressing us to tell him why we hadnt been back. We finally told him why, and he admitted that he hesitated about letting them use that song, but he said that the church was competing for kids against "pop music and bright lights".

My wife told him that conforming to worldly culture is like eating cotton candy......it tastes good but you cant live on it.

I told him that I didnt believe that we could ever be godly by immitaing the world.

He just hung his head, and didnt have any answer.

The old paths are the best, and we should be wary of letting pop culture enter into our churches.

AJ

 

Yep, Gregorian chants are wonderful to use on Sunday morning...
Or Ancient Hebrew music...
Oh wait, you are not talking about the real old paths.. .just the old paths you are accustomed to... I see...
Paths that led to the boomers realizing the church was so full of hypocrites in the 50s and 60s... that they fled the church in droves..
Paths that led to the attitude that only the KJV is the Bible...
Paths that led to the POV that Christians are hateful...
Paths that led to the youth of the church not wanting to be in church.

There is nothing wrong with modern music... as long as the lyrics are god honoring....

 

:thumbs: :thumbs: The old paths only go back as far as the person talking is accustomed to. Go back farther and you will lose them again.

 

Jer 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Deu 32:7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

Job 8:8 For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:


These are God's words, not mine. I have no problem with new music being written for church......unless it is copying pop music. I am totally against turning a worship service into a form of entertainment just to boost attendence.

Rock, rap and country music werent created by god-fearing worshipers. They were created by rebellious people that use the lure of worldly lusts to make money. I dont see how we can ever be godly by copying them.

AJ

 

I have had this conversation with others before, and I know that it is useless to argue with you. Many in today's church look for entertainment instead of worship, and after experiencing the "feeling" that they get in comtemporary worship they refuse to return to humble, godly worship.

So be it, but for me and my family, we will seek godly, humble worship and forgo the goosebumps and the "feeling" that entertainment brings.

AJ

 

So.. enlighten us to as where the "old" paths begin and end.

 

I cant answer that, but I can tell you that my parents and grandparents didnt live in a world where drugs and violence prevailed. They didnt have churches that argued and split. They were never tempted by the the lure of the charismatic movement that is invading our Baptist churches today.

I dont know where the old paths started, but I do know that since churches have started letting pop culture into the service that many of them have turned to ungodly practices. The contemparary music movement started in the charismatic churches, and then spread to other mainstream churches, including Baptist. And now many of those Baptist churches have gone totally charismatic......speaking in tongues, faith healing, ect. I deeply believe in divine healing, but God is sovereign and heals who he wishes. A charismatic Baptist preacher doesnt have the power to lay hands on me and heal me.

No, I dont know where the old paths started, but I refuse to go down the new path of apostasy......and it starts with pop culture replacing humble worship with entertainment in our churches.

AJ

 

I think whether or not a church is compromising needs to be judged on an individual bases, never as a whole.

 

I agree Donna, but my question is why is it so important to some people to take a chance on corrupting their congregation? I am not saying that every Baptist church that has allowed pop music in has turned charismatic.....but I'd venture to say that most, if not all that have turned apostate started out with allowing pop music in.

So why even dabble in it? Do they think that they are so spiritually strong that they wont be affected by the influence? And what about their witness to others? If unbelievers dont see any difference between the church and the world, then why should they worry about thier salvation? What difference would they see between the church and a night club with rock bands playing?

AJ

 

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

The old paths started when God said "This is the good way and walk therein"; they ended when man began to seek his own paths rather than obeying God...when man said "We will not walk therein"

 

When you equate contemporary music with where churches are going wrong I tend to see that you've never been in a Bible preaching, uncompromising Church that also has contemporary music. We have contemporary music as well as a few modern things going on AND absolutely no Biblical compromise. Don't judge churches by "that isn't how daddy did it". I know of many older churches in my area splitting when I was a kid, you are wrong there. As with you, I have a lot of disdain of the WOF, charasmatic churches of today, not with their music but with their warped gospel. Contemporary music doesn't equate with apostasy either. It comes down to a matter of worship preference, you aren't wrong in how you wish to worship but don't accuse me of being wrong either. Come visit my Church and listen to the gospel and then make a judgement. We could go back to the old paths as the early church did and sell everything we have and live in communion and listen to the Psalms being sung. As stated earlier, balance is the key.

 

Well, I dont want to argue, although Christian debate and discussion is often healthy.

All I have left to say is to repeat what I said earlier:

We can never be godly by immatating the world.

AJ

 

I would say the "old ways" of your church Linda, aren't even close to the old ways Jeremiah wrote about in 600BC.

 

But Jerry, the old paths of our modern church are the only old paths we know.

Do you think that jer6:16 should be deleted from the Bible since it is 2600 years old?

AJ