Amen  Dennis! With this type of thinking and going back to the basics, there is still hope!

Dennis, hey my brother,

Have you read Pagan Christianity by George Barna and Frank Viola?
At our fellowship we purchased everyone a copy and we are discissing the book on Monday Eve

Evangelist Keith,

This is so true! Religion= man's way to strive to try to reach God! Jesus= God's Way, the only Way...to reach man!!

I get real discouraged in the denominational blur! We quit going for a while. To not fellowship is wrong too...we finally found a little Calvary Chapel group. I am not saying all places are bad! But growing people, who Jesus died for, is what we are to be doing! Not growing mega church denominations. You can get lost in all of the programs and the sheer size. I've visited places in the past where people will not even look at you, let alone say hello.  Welcoming, forgiving, and loving?  People need to feel included, not rejected.

I belonged to a 'christian' barrel racing organization several years ago. I went to one of their 'out of town' barrel races. I drove from Anza, Ca. to Bakersfield, Ca. It was a 5 to 6 hour trip. My lights quit working on my trailer and I could not leave that night. One man tried to fix the lights. He couldn't get it done. One person said that if I could follow her..I could stay at ther place. Well, of course I couldn't. None of my lights were working. The 'christian' family who owned the arena lived next to it. This 100 or so people left me sitting there...to spend the night in my truck, beside the arena. No one offered help for me or my horse. I would NEVER have left a fellow believer like that. I had nothing to eat but some cookies, or crackers. I was too far away from town to walk. You know, I wasn't mad at all. I was sad...that people who claimed to know the Saviour would treat another believer like this.

What has happened! There are so many lonely people, even Christians! They just want some friendship. They want to be understood. They want acceptance. Too many people have turned away because of the artificial baloney!!

May the Lord help us all...me first!!!, to be more like Him in every way!

Blessings,

Cathy

Evangelist Keith yes I to know that the church began in homes, that's how Bible study I belive got stated

CHURCH HISTORY—500 TO 1500
Irreconcilable differences.
It’s a phrase that’s all too common in modern culture, used particularly in association with divorce. Sometimes a marriage lasts for decades, strong and seemingly unshakable. But then, for some reason, the couple drifts apart to the point where they desire an official dissolution. There’s no abuse. No mental anguish. Perhaps not so much as an argument about who is more at fault. Nothing “big” to cite as the reason. But those two words, “irreconcilable differences,” are enough to justify the permanent split.
As we follow the history of the church from where we left off in the last chapter, prepare yourself. Much of what we will witness is not a pretty sight. The church is beginning to fracture, on its way to certain splits for clear political or theological reasons. Yet sometimes the basic cause boils down to “irreconcilable differences.”
As a result of 2,000 years of the church dividing and subdividing like a randy amoeba, many of us have learned to express skepticism and suspicion about the segments of the church we’ve separated ourselves from. The question we usually raise is, “Who’s right and who’s wrong?” But perhaps a more basic question we should first consider is this: Can (or should) church splits be avoided


CHURCH HISTORY—1500 TO TODAY
These days if you want to protest something, you have a lot of options. You might write your congressperson. If that doesn’t work, you can run for office yourself and work the system to right any wrongs you find. You can start petitions throughout your neighborhood. You can boycott. You can picket. You can write protest songs. You can pen an angry letter to the editor of the newspaper. In today’s culture, there are many ways to be heard, even if you’re in the minority.
Yet any time you attempt to stand against a force much larger and more powerful than yourself, your voice tends to be lost among the cacophony produced by the greater force. People who persevere against such great odds tend to get noticed, as is witnessed in the success of such movies as All the President’s Men or Erin Brockovich.
In 16th-century Europe, perhaps no force was as great as the church. Sure, it had faced some obstacles and divisions, as we have seen. Yet it was still the big dog on the block. Even the monarchies and kingdoms of the time, as powerful as they were, were localized. The church spanned all of them. And from the crowning of Charlemagne (800) onward, church leaders had frequently rivaled national leaders in terms of ultimate power and prestige.
As we saw in the last chapter, speaking against the church could quickly lead to charges of heresy, ending in excommunication, inquisition, or worse. And for many people it was simply easier to go along with what the church said whether or not you agreed.

MOVE OVER DR. ATKINS, IT’S THE DIET OF WORMS
But it seems that certain people are never able to keep their mouths shut when confronted with situations they don’t agree with. One such person in the early 1500s was Martin Luther, a German in his thirties who had been a monk almost half his life. Luther studied Scripture and was known for six-hour confessions, yet he had never been able to feel at peace with God. When his mentors had no other answers for him, one suggested Luther pursue a doctoral degree in religious studies. (If nothing else, the work should keep him busy.)
It was from this academic pursuit that Luther struggled with biblical statements about righteousness that finally put things in perspective for him. He began to comprehend what he called passive righteousness.
Luther had done everything within his power to be a decent monk and a good Christian. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he never felt free of the weight of sin in his life. However, he finally came to the clear realization that, “The righteous shall live by faith.” In response, he said, “Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise.”
As soon as Luther began to crystallize his beliefs that salvation and righteousness had more to do with faith than with good works, he began to stand out in a church that at the time was still peddling indulgences. So while many were buying tickets to heaven, Luther began to spread the word that he had found a free entrance.
But how now could this lone voice stand against a power as great as the church? He started in 1517 with his well-publicized act of nailing his “95 Theses” on the door of the Wittenberg cathedral. The action itself wasn’t a defiance of the church, because the church door was the closest thing to the Internet of its time, where people would gather for news and interaction.
But what he hammered onto the door was essentially a Top 95 List of why indulgences weren’t such a good or biblical idea. And in the next few years Luther had churned out a series of books that not only explained his personal views but also challenged the authority of the church. He was among the first to make good use of a recent invention: the printing press. Soon more than 300,000 of his books and pamphlets were in circulation. And by 1521 he had been summoned to appear at a hearing in Worms, Germany, before a diet (an official assembly) chaired by none other than Charles V, ruling both as the king of Spain and Germany’s Holy Roman Emperor.
As Luther entered the room, he saw his works spread out over a table. When asked to officially recant what he had written, he replied, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures. I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor honest to violate one’s conscience.”
And whoop, there it was. Luther held to his revolutionary belief in sola fides, sola gratia, and sola scriptura (faith alone, grace alone, and Scripture alone). It was possible for people to find their way to God and righteousness through faith rather than good works, and through the truths of Scripture without making concessions to the church. Rejected by both the pope and the emperor, Luther the protester spearheaded the entire Protestant movement. Yet his passion was not sparked from an outsider’s antagonistic view of the church, but rather because he was one of its own and could not sanction all the customs and abuses he had witnessed firsthand.
Luther broke from the church rules in a big way. He got married, rejected five of the seven church sacraments, challenged churches to give up many of their holdings (up to 30 percent of the available land in many parts of Germany), rejected the hierarchy of priests within the church, and even went so far as to label the Pope “Antichrist” because Luther felt the church did more to occlude people’s understanding of the Gospel than to promote it.
You might think that with Luther’s bold stand, the church world would soon be divided into two large forces: Catholic vs. Protestant. It was, but only for a short time. If we visualize the church as a great timber log, we know that due to the great schism and other internal struggles, the log already had a few cracks and chinks in it. Luther’s nail into the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral was like a wedge being driven into the trunk, and the resulting Protestant movement followed up with such force that the great log, which had remained in one piece for almost sixteen centuries, was suddenly two.
Now we’re about to see, however, that while the Catholic (“universal”) church remained essentially united, the Protestant portion will continue to divide and subdivide into considerably smaller pieces of kinding

WHAT IS CHURCH?
In the Old Testament Israel was simply “the congregation.” The term was also used by early Christians. In fact, it is the actual meaning of the word “church.” Christians often referred to themselves simply as the church or the congregation. (The “of God” part was assumed.) The term could be applied either to all believers in the world or to any local group of them. It meant the total presence of God’s people in a given location. The New Testament often uses the singular “church” even when many groups of believers are included together (Acts 9:31; 2 Corinthians 1:1). The term “churches” is rarely found (Acts 15:41; Acts 16:5). Each group was the place where God was present (Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:17). God had purchased the congregation with the blood of his Son (Acts 20:28). In the Greek world, the word translated “church” designated an assembly of people or a meeting. This could be a political body, or it could be simply a gathering of people. The word is used this way in Acts 19:32, 39, 41.
The specific Christian uses of this word vary widely in the New Testament.
1. It sometimes refers to a church meeting. Paul says to the Christians in Corinth: “When you meet as a church . . .” (1 Corinthians 11:18). This means that Christians are the people of God, especially when they are gathered for worship.
2. In texts such as Matthew 18:17, Acts 5:11, 1 Corinthians 4:17, and Philippians 4:15, “church” refers to the entire group of Christians living in one place. Often, it refers to the specific location of a Christian congregation. Note the phrases, “the church in Jerusalem” (Acts 8:1), “in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2), “in Thessalonica” (1 Thessalonians 1:1).
3. In other places, house assemblies of Christians are called churches. For example, some met in the house of Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19).
4. Throughout the New Testament, “the church” refers to the universal church. All believers belong to it (see Acts 9:31; 1 Corinthians 6:4; Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18). Jesus’ first word about the founding of the Christian movement in Matthew 16:18 has this larger meaning: “I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (RSV).
The church is a universal reality. But in its local expression, Paul refers to it as “the church of God” (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 10:32) or “the churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16). In this way a common Greek term receives its distinctive Christian meaning. It sets the Christian assembly/gathering/community apart from all other worldly or religious groups.
The Christian community understood itself as the community of the end time. It saw itself as a people called into being by God’s purposes in sending Jesus of Nazareth and his divine presence. So Paul tells the Christians in Corinth that they are those “upon whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11, RSV). That is, God had called out of both Judaism and the gentile world a new people. They would receive the Holy Spirit’s power. They were to share the Good News (gospel) of his absolute love for his creation (Ephesians 2:11-22). The Gospels tell us that Jesus chose 12 disciples who became the foundation of this new people. The church was understood as the fulfillment of God’s intention in calling Israel to become “a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6, RSV; Romans 11:1-5). This allows Paul to call this new Gentile-Jewish community or new creation “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15-16). In this new community the old barriers of race, social standing, and sex are seen to be shattered. Such barriers divided people from one another and made them fit into inferior and superior classes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, NIV). This one entity is called “the body of Christ.”
Paul is alone among New Testament writers in speaking of the church as Christ’s body (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 4:12; see also 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). He also calls it “the body” of which Christ is the “head” (Ephesians 4:15; Colossians 1:18). The origin of this way of speaking about the church is not clear. Two suggestions may help reveal Paul’s thought:
1. The Damascus road experience. According to the accounts in Acts (Acts 9:3-7; Acts 22:6-11; Acts 26:12-18), Jesus identifies himself with his persecuted disciples. By persecuting these early Christians, Paul was actually fighting against Christ himself. Paul may have later felt that the living Christ was so identified with his community that it could be spoken of as his “body.” That is, it would be seen as the expression of his real presence.
2. The Hebrew concept of solidarity. Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews (Philippians 3:5), and his thinking was thoroughly Jewish. In that context, the individual is largely thought of as a part of the nation as a whole. The individual does not have real life apart from the whole people. At the same time, the entire people can be seen as represented by one individual. Thus, “Israel” is both the name of one individual and the name of a whole people.
The reality of the close relationship between Christ and his church is seen by Paul as analogous to the unity and connection of the physical body (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). For Paul, the Lord’s Supper reveals that unity: “The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16b-17, RSV). Since this is the case, Paul argues, all the functions of the body have their rightful place. Division within the body (i.e., the church) reveals that there is something unhealthy within. This image of the church as the “body of Christ” lies behind Paul’s repeated call for unity within the Christian community.

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hope you don't mind I had a lot to post

CHURCH, GOD’S WORD ON

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH?
Acts 2:47 . . . Each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.
The church is a gathering-place for those who are saved by faith in Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 . . . Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple.
One of the purposes of the church is to exhibit God’s holiness to its members and to the world.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 . . . The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.
The church exhibits the unity and reconciliation between different people which is possible in Christ by his Spirit.
Ephesians 4:11-12 . . . He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
The church exists in part to equip God’s people to do God’s work and to encourage them in their faith.
Revelation 19:7-8 . . . Let us be glad and rejoice and honor him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She is permitted to wear the finest white linen.
The church is Christ’s bride-a picture of the intimate fellowship which God’s people will enjoy with him.

AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD SAID AMEN!!!!