Articles about church 'stuff'
Christians may not appreciate that their own church has a set way of doing things but newcomers can feel very self conscious in trying to do the 'right thing' and not looking stupid.
Which reminds me of a funny, if not embarrassing situation, when I was asked to preach at a denomination I had not been to before. At some point in the service I asked the congregation to stand and everyone apart from myself and my wife remained seated - well, they NEVER stood at that part of the service, not ever!
Here are some articles about church life, unity, communion, our group's view on what is acceptable, baptism, gays, what the gospel message should be, etc:
Jesus knew that He was going to finish the meal in a different way, but He did want to eat the Passover with his disciples.
In initiating the Passover Meal, God wanted certain things in this meal to point to the Jews leaving Egypt, but also, and more importantly, to point directly to Jesus…
From my own personal viewpoint on Church leadership problems I have seen many good Christian leaders and unfortunately many ones that just should not have been chosen for a church leadership position in the first place…
Baptism meaning: There are different ways of getting baptised and this subject has caused a lot of conflict between different Christian groups. This post looks at this dilemma. I had to learn a lesson many years ago involving water baptism and I want to pass this on to you…
FACEBOOK has its doctrine. Doctrine contrary to popular opinion, is not legalism. What is church doctrine? Doctrine is just the working essentials for getting things done. Facebook has it, Twitter has it…
We see the Communion meaning when we see Jesus at his last supper with his disciples. He was celebrating the Passover meal and Jesus would certainly have seen this as a celebration of spiritual freedom…
A congregation takes on it’s own unwritten Christian code of conduct, a unique code of behaviour and appearance. To feel ‘accepted’ you need to follow this unwritten code. Roy (name changed) was naturally jolly and bouncy, but the congregation was more sedate and ‘spiritual’! Soon Roy was getting on everybody’s nerves and this was intensified when the church went away for a few days of camping…
There is a lovely symbolism of the Passover Meal – the Seder Meal. The Head of the house puts on a Kittel which resembles a Lab Coat, but has no pockets or buttons. The origin of the Kittel comes from the priests clothes. But NOT the High Priest’s elaborate garments. When he entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he wore simple linen garments…
After taking a sip from the first cup of wine with this symbolic food, everyone picks up the parsley and dips it in to salt water and then tastes a bit. This represents the Jew’s tears of slavery when they were in Egypt…
I felt very battered because of Christians behaving badly. God’s work in which we were involved in has been snuffed out! When you cut through the facade it boiled down to being trampled on by a Christian’s selfish ambitions. Why should the work of God be stopped by selfish ambition?
Isn’t it judgemental to say: “Gays can’t stay at Bed and Breakfasts or hotels”. But hasn’t that happened? How many people have been turned away from a Bed and Breakfast for being: Greedy? Or an angry person? Yes someone can be turned away for shouting at the proprietor, but not for living an angry life? …
In the Bible there are various examples of the Gospel message being preached. So when we look at them we need to ask: “Who is being spoken to?” [1] People who have no Bible knowledge. [2] People who are religious, who know the Bible but who are not saved. So what should the Gospel message be?
Every congregation will have it’s own view on what makes a sin terrible and what isn’t so bad. For example, a couple started to attend the church, and everyone was pleased to see two new faces in the congregation. Everything was going well, but then they said that they were remarried, and an awful silence descended on the church!…
What was the early Church worship like? We can at times feel dissatisfied with set Christian worship services.It can become just like a performance that we attend and then leave with no real involvement. What was it like in the early church, what did they do when they met together? From the Bible we can… Continue reading A return to early Church worship? Worship part 2
Here we look at the use of songs in churches, bringing in the Presence of God, anointed songs and worship that is real. What does it mean to worship?
An appalling illustration on What is Christian unity? I was in a church and someone leading the service asked us to pray for Christians who were being killed in Asia, and then he said an extraordinary thing…
