Church Pt. 2

I just got back from church! My roommate Erin goes to a church called Pine Lake, and she invited me to go with her this week. It was very pleasant. The sermon was about repentance, and it was based off the passage of scripture in Matthew 3 when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by John and were turned away. Just like the religious leaders that came to John, we can try to wash our sin off, or cover it up with "religious" actions and words, but if we never repent, then we can never truly walk away from our sin. These men thought that the act of being baptized would somehow bring them farther from sin, and closer to God. However, John points out that the Lord is looking for a change of heart, not a swim in a river, and that true repentance results in a changed life. (Matt 3:4-10).

The worship was okay. The songs they played were ones that I love, very contemporary! However, they only did 3 songs....which was not cool....I think that worship should be a bigger part of the service.

One thing I forgot to put on the list I made yesterday was #7-Ethnic variety-I would really like to go to a church that is a rainbow of color. The church I went to today was more like a cloud....very white...While that's not a bad thing, it's not what I'm looking for. I think that having many different cultures makes a church stronger, because each culture has a different strength. There is so much to be gained by worhsiping with brothers and sisters from different backgrounds.

Anyway, this church seemed to have #1, #3, #4 and #6, but not #2, #5 and #7, so it's 4 and 3.

(It feels funny to "rate" churches, but I'm not sure how else to decide which one to go to....of course prayer, but this seems like a good practical step.)

Church #1
4/3

Church #2
4/3

Hmmmm...I'm starting to see a trend (well, I've theorized about this trend, but it's interesting to see it in action.) It's almost impossible to find a Bible based church, with sound doctrine and good preaching that also has spirit filled worship, and uses the gifts of the Spirit. Something is wrong with that. Why do the Spirit and the Word seem to always be separated?? They're the same thing!!! The only difference is that one is written down, and the other is spoken. It's like the difference between a letter, and a phone call. They both have power, they're both valuable, they both teach us more about the Lord...they just have different approaches. The Lord gave us both so that we would have a more complete picture of who he is! Why don't we use them together instead of having to pick one as more valuable or more valid? Why try to limit God to one form of communication???

Unfortunately, we as christians have decided to split off into our own little cliques (yes cliques...denomination is just a nice name for them). We have the evangelicals, who think the Word/theology is most important, and the pentecostals who think that the leading of the Spirit/passion is most important. These two seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum....but maybe not......

What if we look at this under the old "opposites attract" rule of relationships? Let's say that the man is the evangelical (we'll call him Theology) and the woman is pentecostal (we'll call her Passion). Theology is very intellectual, he spends a lot of time thinking about the problems in the world, and comes up with ways to solve them....but he never takes any action. Passion is full of love and energy and she genuinely wants to help people too, but she has no idea where to start, so she runs around with good intentions but never really accomplishes anything. Well, the two meet, and begin to talk. They decide to start a relationship. A lot of people don't think it'll work out...they're just too different to be compatible. But as the relationship progresses, they realize that Theology's direction, combined with Passion's energy is the key to getting things done. It's a perfect match. One cannot succeed without the other.

See what I mean? The evangelical church and the pentecostal church are perfect for each other. They need each other to succeed. Sure they have their differences, but I think that if they tried to come together they'd see that they are the perfect match...armed with the Word and the Spirit they'd be unstoppable.