Do you prefer meat or milk on sunday morning?

deeper biblical teaching or emotional but lightweight?

Deeper biblical training. My church is very seeker sensitive and doesn't offer much in this department unfortunately.

We go to preschool several hours a day, then on to formal education. Every day of our lives is spent learning to live "in the world". Jesus says we have to become like little children.. forget all we have learned about "the world" and relearn to live in a different world - a different society and culture. We cant do this if we dont AT LEAST get it from the pulpit on sunday... we dont need "12 step to effective Christian living" - we need EDUCATION both formally and informally, just as though we were children being raised up.

The problem is, most of us are adults and too proud to "be like a child". Well I have news for you, Mr and Mrs Proud, Jesus is waggling his finger at you like a disapproving adult.

Geoff wrote:

The problem is, most of us are adults and too proud to "be like a child". Well I have news for you, Mr and Mrs Proud, Jesus is waggling his finger at you like a disapproving adult.

wow. does jesus look like geoff?

rogermugs wrote:

Geoff wrote:

The problem is, most of us are adults and too proud to "be like a child". Well I have news for you, Mr and Mrs Proud, Jesus is waggling his finger at you like a disapproving adult.

wow. does jesus look like geoff?

I hope not.. poor fella. He did too much walking to be as fat as me

rogermugs wrote:

deeper biblical teaching or emotional but lightweight?

I always prefer deeper teaching. The light, emtional stuff tends to put me to sleep. That is one reason I don't watch Charles Stanley as much as I use to. I use to watch him every week. Now I watch him about every other week or so. Many of his "new" sermons are about emotional issues and not Biblical teachings.

I'm going to check out the other churches in our town; looking for someone who uses a lectionary. I'm thinking of going there early, and then to my church's second service. No idea if anyone here uses one though.

Nathan wrote:

I'm going to check out the other churches in our town; looking for someone who uses a lectionary. I'm thinking of going there early, and then to my church's second service. No idea if anyone here uses one though.

that seems like a pretty funny criteria for a church to mr nathan. What about community or a Sunday school that'll teach your children the joy of loving the lord?

Sorry, I meant go alone, prior to my normal rounds at our current church. I'm interested in seeing how a Lectionary is used, or more specifically, to have primarily scripture taught in a church.

ah now I c

Nathan wrote:

I'm interested in seeing how a Lectionary is used, or more specifically, to have primarily scripture taught in a church.

If scripture is not being taught in your church service, then what is? My wife and I have been blessed that our current church - we've been there just under a year - has such a strong scripture focus - it really is a teaching church.

Mostly it is topical stuff, with scripture mentioned on the side. I'd rather see scripture as the main topic, and the exposition added to that. Dunno, I'm just starting to notice some preferences and leanings that I didn't have before. I'm getting my fix from the blog-world for now, but it makes church feel like a dumbed down waste of time (sometimes).

i really see the point of a deeper meet-based sunday morning, and I really love learning such things...

BUT.

i also think the same thing of a sermon that i think of a book. if the book doesn't grab me in the first 5 pages then i want to put it down. I dont consider the author a gifted writer, nor do i feel that he valued my attention.

if the preacher doesn't grip me (and this is rarely with purely a head idea), i mean REALLY grip me to my heart in the first few minutes then I often forget 90-100% of what he'll say. i cant focus, nor do I fell like he cares to have my attention...

I want to preach with a sip of milk to start and whet the pallet, followed by a couple juicy bites of meet, then some more milk to wash it down, then more meet followed by more milk etc...

there is a golden balance. and often people care it to be leaned in the direction of "would you like some more meet with your milk" rather than the other way around...

just my take. and i'm still sorting this out

That is the difference between good and bad public speaking; it has very little to do with the content itself. I read something last year that I am starting to think really describes how I feel about it. Basically the person wrote that the church needs to teach it's beliefs up front, every Sunday and Wednesday. They claimed that the seeker sensitive approach hides the truth of the gospel behind a sort of mask in order for it to be palatable for unbelievers. Then, once they are hooked, they get the real deal, which may not be so palatable. Or they may reject it, or they may never get to the heart of the hard sayings in scripture if they are never taught.

So I feel that we should be teaching the 'meat' of scripture during sermons, sunday school, Wednesday nights. If someone comes to Christ, then they can take a 'milk' style of new Christian class for a month or two, however the main body of the church would still be getting fed meat. The seeker sensitive style of church is quickly becoming worthless in my mind as it seems to be geared more towards numerical growth than spiritual growth.

Nathan wrote:

The seeker sensitive style of church is quickly becoming worthless in my mind as it seems to be geared more towards numerical growth than spiritual growth.

In more or less words, that sums up why we left our former church. A new pastor brought in the "numbers mentality" to a mature church and ended up starving the congregation with milk. In hindsight, maybe that was necessary to create new growth in the Kingdom - just like a forest fire is needed to eliminate the underbrush and cause new growth - but the end result was a lot of dispersion into the surrounding church communities.