I was going to wait a while before i said something, and i won't say much here! But,
 Pastor Elam,done went and got me started! All i will say for now is (WOW)!
Thank you for that list and i'm sure it's longer.

I've been in about 12 Churches in my life and heard surmons in them.  All but one of them preached Jesus, the Biblical Gospel, the need for salvation, and God's goal - to conform his followers to the image of Christ.

The one church spoke of the superiority of Man, and rewrote Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring to be something that praised the moon landings (no joke, it actually did).  I only went once, because I was visiting my Grandfather.

Howdy Daniel, 

My question if you don't mind me asking you and all who can respond How Do We Tell Who is and Who isn't of Christ.

Here's my take on it, based on the parable of The Wheat and the Tares (tares = darnel in Amplified translation):

The Man:      Jesus
Believers:    Wheat
Unbelievers:  Darnel (aka tares)
Servants:     Angels

Matthew 13:24-30   (Amplified Bible)
24  Another parable He set forth before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25  But while he was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed also darnel (weeds resembling wheat) among the wheat, and went on his way.
26  So when the plants sprouted and formed grain, the darnel (weeds) appeared also.
27  And the servants of the owner came to him and said, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then how does it have darnel shoots in it?
28  He replied to them, An enemy has done this. The servants said to him, Then do you want us to go and weed them out?
29  But he said, No, lest in gathering the wild wheat (weeds resembling wheat), you root up the [true] wheat along with it.
30  Let them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather the darnel first and bind it in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my granary.

The biggest thing that strikes me as a believer: the wheat doesn't worry about whether the plant next to it is wheat or darnel.  It just keeps growing.  The servants (angels) are responsible for telling the two apart.

In my view, it isn't my responsibility to tell who is or is not of Christ.  I'm not even qualified to judge that.  In fact, in Romans 8:16, the Bible says we need God to tell us that we are God's children.  If I can't know without being told, how can I figure it out for someone else?

Rom 8:16
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

Actually I dislike this kind of question.  What is the point of knowing the difference?  Would we throw all the people who aren't of Christ out of the Church?  What if God's plan is that they aren't of Christ right now?  I guess I don't see any practical need to know.  The only thing we can use the answer for is, what, to pat ourselves on the back?

No Pastor, Jesus is not asking to be preached. When we study God's word it is quite clear that the commandments is to go make deciples. The first and formost commandment of Christ is to love God and the next is simaler, to love one another. Then we are commanded to go make deciples. Are we, the Church, His body preaching Jesus to the world by how we act and how we live and how we love?  He said if we lift Him up that He would draw all men unto himself. Pastors are to equip thier congragations to do the work of ministry, often time from the pulpit. So what I see is that we are commanded to preach Jesus from all areas of our lives, everywhere we go, not just the preacher from the pulpit. And yes, at least in my church Jesus is being preached from the pulpit....

Peace be with you! 

Somebody has to say something because the standard of holiness has been let down and what is being preached is not causing men to repent, become convicted of sin in fact this is what a lot
of what the televangelist are not preaching.
 Don't preach holiness
- Don't preach against sin
- Don't preach the consequence of sin
- Don't preach Hell
- Don't preach against the entertainment industry of America
- Don't preach against abortion, homosexuality, or fornication
- Don't preach against the influences of the world
- Don't minister effectively to the youth. Just baby sit them with worldly devices.
What would Jesus do? would he cry against leaders that are hypocritical? Now don't call me judgemental call me a preacher of righteousness.

Pastor Elam- Wow and Amen, The teuth must be told and it is our duty to preach the Gosple!

CHURCH

OVERVIEW
A church is a group of persons who come together for the purpose of learning about and worshiping God. Today, “church” is the most common term used for a body of worshiping believers. But that was not always the case. In New Testament times it was a relatively new term. The term appears in only two verses in the Gospels (Matthew 16:18 and Matthew 18:17). Luke used it a lot, however, in the book of Acts, so by then the term must have become more common. Paul also wrote about the church in most of his letters, and it is a common term in the Revelation of John.

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.