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| Oh For a Simple Church! |
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Is it OK to wear shorts to church? Must the men wear a suit and tie? Do women need to wear a dress or can they wear jeans? Should the carpet be blue or should it be green? Should the pulpit be wood or should it be clear plastic? Do we use a keyboard or do we use an organ? Do we start at 10 AM or 11 AM? WHO CARES? There is a great restaurant near my house. It is always crowded. It is a tiny whole in the wall of a place. When you sit at the table, you can hear the heartbeat of the person at the next table because you are so close together. I don't think they have painted or spruced up the inside of the place for at least 20 years. But the food is incredible! Night after night, people flood that little place. It is amazing the things you overlook to get the best food in town. One of the things I love about our little church is that we have people in 3-piece suits and other people in shorts and T-shirts. We have women in dresses and women in jeans. We meet in a school gym now so we have a grizzly bear on the floor rather than carpet. The school gym smells like sweaty kids. The seats are hard. You have to walk about a mile to get to the restroom. WHO CARES? All of these little things are not to be completely ignored. But they are, in fact, little things. If a church studies and teaches God's Word, the people worship from the depths of their heart (even if it sounds bad), and the people fervent in passionate prayer, and the people love each other like true brothers and sisters in Christ, and the people are reaching out to the lost in the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ - all that other stuff suddenly doesn't matter so much. If the "food" is that good, it is worth putting up with a few inconveniences. 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. |
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| To add a comment to "Oh For a Simple Church! " |
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| March 12, 2007 |
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Reminds me of our favorite restaurant here in San Jose too. It's crowded, parking's always hard, the wait is easily up to an hour on a weeknight, and from the outside it's so dark you can't even tell it's a restaurant! But it's so true that if the "food" is good, people will come. |
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| March 12, 2007 |
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| yes I know how you feel It's what in the heart, not the outside, as long as we present our bodies a living sacrifice |
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| March 14, 2007 |
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| It sure is obvious when people are being "fed" properly, huh? |
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| March 14, 2007 |
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| This is awesome. When you have reality and the presence of God is touching peoples lives, then it will be like that little restaurant and we won't be able to keep people away. |
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| March 14, 2007 |
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| Amen brother! It's not the way a church looks, what instrument they play and how good the people look, it's what is taught from ther pulpit! When the TRUE Word of God is being taught, everything else seems so unimportant! Praise God for His wonderful leading Spirit in many churches.....Lord bless you |
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| March 14, 2007 |
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You know I was raised where we put on our best clothes each Sunday for service. And, the first time I went to any kind of activity in our church dressed in shorts I was uncomfortable, kept thinking my Mom would show up to set me straight. That was about 10 years ago, but now I feel completely different. We may have a large auditorium and campus, but we have a small church feeling. Nowdays unless it a formal occasion or special service I wear jeans and tennis shoes. Of course there are those that come in full dress, but we all fit in and worship together. It is nice to be so relaxed and concentrate on the message better. Reminds me of my days in boot camp where we attended service in our utilities and it does not make any difference how we are dressed. What is important is why we attend in the first place. OOPS had to fix something. |
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| March 15, 2007 |
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| AMEN i couldn't agree more..>> GOD BLESS |
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| March 16, 2007 |
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Amen! Never noticed that smell! Huh? |
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| March 16, 2007 |
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| Nice blog brother. Many times man has a tendency to fall into the trap of looking at the exterior and forgets that God looks at the heart. I couldn't agree with you more. I wear shorts on purpose just to "keep it casual." When I go to a church out of town, my first question is...."Is this a come as you are church?" If I can't come as I am, I ain't coming! When I read the Bible I see Jesus as a casual type person. |
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| May 29, 2007 |
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It is funny about the time that you wrote this, We were looking at the new big building right in the middle of town. Pastor Rich Wright at CC Nampa Idaho told me, "Mike, if the food is good you don't need to be in the middle of town, people will hear and they will come". A very good word, Brother.
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| May 29, 2007 |
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| This blog is great, in the sense that it puts the importance squarely where it belongs -- on the Object (Person) being worshiped, not the worshipers themselves. ~mike |
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| May 29, 2007 |
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| Amen |
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| May 29, 2007 |
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| I am speculating here, but I think when the tradition of getting in your "Sunday best" was started was when we were pretty much an agricultural society and didn't have the hot running water we have today, so before people would go sit in a crowded church, they would take a bath and put on their nice clothes. Nothing wrong with everybody having a clean scent on Sunday morning! Today is different. Some may still want to get in their "Sunday best". That is fine. Some, like me, wear a suit every day to work, so I don't want to wear one on Sunday, too. I do sometimes, though. Just depends on how I feel that day. I want to prepare my heart to worship God. If that means I come in a suit, so be it. If that means I come in jeans, that is ok, too. The key here is that I won't judge you if you want to come in your swim suit...or is that a little too far for some of you? |
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