Driving 50+ miles to church???

[terrpn]

Bro Glen I am all over and agree not they you are looking for an echo. I went to a IBC for the last 10 years plus only to find out after I was ordained, etc. the pastor, his wife are just as crooked as they come hiding behind scripture by others taken out of context- like touch not thine anointed and so on.
There are very few local churches left who are scripturally sound.
I am most disappoint with Christian men, elders who are spineless and just accept status quo and listen or do what their wives tell them to do.


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[Earth Wind and Fire]

I carpooled as far as 75 miles one way per week for bible study for a year or so. Not so much for fellowship, but to learn. And I know some who traveled 40 miles one way per week for fellowship and worship when their local church went off the rails. I once traveled 200 miles to visit a church with friends who later moved there for worship and fellowship.

You gotta be kidding

 

[1689Dave]

You gotta be kidding

No kidding.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

No kidding.

Another fanatic...

 

[1689Dave]

Another fanatic...

Probably so....

 

[elder_jeffery_endicott]

did not personally know the brother but I remember looking at an old minute (sometime in the 1970s) from another association. A brother that lived in Detroit Michigan was the pastor of a very small church in Phoenix Arizona. All of the churches in that association met only one weekend a month I am assuming that the brother flew out there once a month.

 

[tyndale1946]

did not personally know the brother but I remember looking at an old minute (sometime in the 1970s) from another association. A brother that lived in Detroit Michigan was the pastor of a very small church in Phoenix Arizona. All of the churches in that association met only one weekend a month I am assuming that the brother flew out there once a month.

Yes I grew up in a church that had a similar practice... Though we did have a Pastor he filled appointments at other churches too... We would also have visiting Pastors from other churches from time to time... I met another brother at a meeting one time and he's says, Hey!.. I know you, you are Brother Glen and a member of Elders Bob's church... Well I said that partially true... Elder Bob is the Pastor but it's The Lords Church... Brother Glen

 

[Salty]

Why did the churches only meet once a month?

 

[Reynolds]

Why did the churches only meet once a month?

That's the way all the Churches around here used to be. They would meet every week, but the pastor rotated a circuit. Some bi-weekly, some every third week, some every fourth week. Three Or Four preachers covered every Baptist church in the county. The bigger your congregation, the less churches you shared a pastor with. They church I grew up in had a "circuit riding preacher" until the early 1970s.
Why? $$$$ We were a very poor "Appalachian poverty zone" county.

 

[Covenanter]

Why did the churches only meet once a month?

Locally there are 5 villages sharing within about 5 miles, so each Anglican church has at least one service a month, with the church - the people who worship - go to the different church buildings.

We drive 10 miles through the Golden Valley to an evangelical church in another country - Wales - for consistent ministry & fellowship. They have 2 services, a midweek Prayer & Bible Study & children's activities.

We are attending the local church for special services, & are making friends. The 1,000 year old church building at Peterchurch has -
Communion on the second Sunday;
A bistro service on the fourth Sunday - collect tea & cake & sit around the table for reading & meditation;
Every Wednesday a 9 a.m. time of worship with reading & prayer - average attendance 3;
Bible study once a month;
Choir practice (secular) Mondays;
Lunch served Tuesday - Friday;
District Library Wednesday - Saturday;
Exercise & yoga groups every week.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Probably so....

Not just probably!

Let me just ask you, my area of the country is gone post Christian meaning that most here have rejected outright the phony Christianity preached in these Sunday gathering sights, I believe furvently that they all have lost the Love of Christ and substituted it with corporate clubs of mostly unbeliers who are not being churched. So you say that you should turn your back on the locals and travel out of the area to satisfy your own selfish desires? If so then how do you address the remnant believers in the local areas ... or do you just write them off?

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Locally there are 5 villages sharing within about 5 miles, so each Anglican church has at least one service a month, with the church - the people who worship - go to the different church buildings.

We drive 10 miles through the Golden Valley to an evangelical church in another country - Wales - for consistent ministry & fellowship. They have 2 services, a midweek Prayer & Bible Study & children's activities.

We are attending the local church for special services, & are making friends. The 1,000 year old church building at Peterchurch has -
Communion on the second Sunday;
A bistro service on the fourth Sunday - collect tea & cake & sit around the table for reading & meditation;
Every Wednesday a 9 a.m. time of worship with reading & prayer - average attendance 3;
Bible study once a month;
Choir practice (secular) Mondays;
Lunch served Tuesday - Friday;
District Library Wednesday - Saturday;
Exercise & yoga groups every week.

Do they serve cucumber sandwiches & and tea?

 

[1689Dave]

Not just probably!

Let me just ask you, my area of the country is gone post Christian meaning that most here have rejected outright the phony Christianity preached in these Sunday gathering sights, I believe furvently that they all have lost the Love of Christ and substituted it with corporate clubs of mostly unbeliers who are not being churched. So you say that you should turn your back on the locals and travel out of the area to satisfy your own selfish desires? If so then how do you address the remnant believers in the local areas ... or do you just write them off?

Thanks for bringing this problem to light. Most of my travels were during times of fellowship with locals even though we held opposing beliefs in come topics. And in the long distance bible studies, I always invited others to join me and shared what I'd learned to those interested. So it wasn't spiritual snobbery, just a hunger for more in depth study.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Thanks for bringing this problem to light. Most of my travels were during times of fellowship with locals even though we held opposing beliefs in come topics. And in the long distance bible studies, I always invited others to join me and shared what I'd learned to those interested. So it wasn't spiritual snobbery, just a hunger for more in depth study.

I understand the hunger part, still we are facing a time when people are reducing their own dependence on local assembly ... seemingly in favor of a more 1 to 1 personal relationship with Christ. Even now, in the cancer treatment wards of the hospitals around me, patients no longer embrace corporate religion... they view it as little value (and in its current iteration, I can see their point) and it disheartened me.

So I guess I must be sounding like a broken record, but what can the Church do to revive itself and be the beacon on the hill?

 

[Covenanter]

Do they serve cucumber sandwiches & and tea?

Do they serve Christ? Serving refreshments is a good way to encourage people to talk and we need to learn the best starting questions for profitable conversations.

At the Gospel church we go to on the Lord's Day, one of the members is very eager to talk - about Israel. She is proud of being born in the year when the nation was born in one day - 1948 - and maintains that Israel is above any international laws. Even that the OT stands complete with the NT. I maintain that prophecy is all leading to Jesus & the Gospel for all nations - all families on earth, through the Seed, Jesus. She gave me a tract with no NT references & only one reference to Jesus/Yeshua. "Followers of Jesus/Yeshua should recognise the land belongs to Israel. Palestinians have no rights there."

 

[1689Dave]

I understand the hunger part, still we are facing a time when people are reducing their own dependence on local assembly ... seemingly in favor of a more 1 to 1 personal relationship with Christ. Even now, in the cancer treatment wards of the hospitals around me, patients no longer embrace corporate religion... they view it as little value (and in its current iteration, I can see their point) and it disheartened me.

So I guess I must be sounding like a broken record, but what can the Church do to revive itself and be the beacon on the hill?

Thanks for your views. In my experience, I believe televised church broadcasts have left the local churches looking pale in comparison. A Bible Church I attended for a while drove off our pastor for not being enough like Jerry Falwell. He actually walked out of the pulpit one Sunday morning. And with limited budget and corresponding failed replacements, the church closed. Another fired the music minister when he refused to get rid of the traditional hymns and go contemporary. I also quietly left the church over this. But out of curiosity, I returned a year or so later only to catch a kid flying through the air with a tambourine in my peripheral vision. While the band rocked on behind plexiglass sound level barriers....Yikes!

I consider an IFB church my home church and these seem less enthralled by the world. But I feel straightjacketed doctrinally even if loved.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Thanks for your views. In my experience, I believe televised church broadcasts have left the local churches looking pale in comparison. A Bible Church I attended for a while drove off our pastor for not being enough like Jerry Falwell. He actually walked out of the pulpit one Sunday morning. And with limited budget and corresponding failed replacements, the church closed. Another fired the music minister when he refused to get rid of the traditional hymns and go contemporary. I also quietly left the church over this. But out of curiosity, I returned a year or so later only to catch a kid flying through the air with a tambourine in my peripheral vision. While the band rocked on behind plexiglass sound level barriers....Yikes!

I consider an IFB church my home church and these seem less enthralled by the world. But I feel straightjacketed doctrinally even if loved.

Why go then? They are imposing a different doctrine... one you indicated is not scriptural?!? They are not even fundamentally orthodox. I mean, I get the thing about these lax looney tunes , happy happy joy joy gatherings but the ones that are funatically orientated just suppress the HS.

 

[1689Dave]

Why go then? They are imposing a different doctrine... one you indicated is not scriptural?!? They are not even fundamentally orthodox. I mean, I get the thing about these lax looney tunes , happy happy joy joy gatherings but the ones that are funatically orientated just suppress the HS.

With me, it is take what you can get and be thankful. I know Arthur Pink threw in the sponge and finished out his years as a hermit. And I can see why. But I think we can meet at the lowest common denominator so long as we don't violate the ecumenical creeds. Trinity, Deity of Christ, etc. And replace Christ with ecclesiastical creeds and institutions.

 

[kyredneck]

at some time that person should try to start a Bible study as a ministry of the church

You're saying move in (more like 'slip in') to a church in your proximity and try to change it to fit your dogma? Never mind that it could/would cause division/dissension? Best to do as Icon did and move on to another church.

 

[kyredneck]

I just cannot go to any church and hear the sound doctrine I listened to for 50 years... They do not teach Sovereign Grace like I've heard it all my life... The nearest church to me of my belief of the same faith and order is over an hour and a half away... In my younger days it would have been no problem but in the sunset of my years it is, I miss the fellowship but go with my wife to hers and filter out in my mind what I disagree with... I can hear a sermon anytime from my people at the click of a mouse and listen to many a week of the sound doctrine I grew up with, even though not there in body... I fellowship with the Christians at my wife's church and am satisfied with my lot now and where the Lord has put me... Brother Glen

Just a side note... I grew up in a family church and we were a small group and others church of our faith and practice were also small... Many children who grew up in the churches, left for one reason or another and never returned... Eventually a lot of the churches had to disband... The internet is a godsend and one can listen to any living or past preacher they want to... Also if you can't listen to a preacher you can read a sermon... There are always resources at hand!

I relate, totally! And I agree totally with this:

"... filter out in my mind what I disagree with... I can hear a sermon anytime from my people at the click of a mouse and listen to many a week of the sound doctrine I grew up with, even though not there in body... I fellowship with the Christians at my wife's church and am satisfied with my lot...."

Be content with your station and don't subvert.