Comments: The End of the High Church

As soon as the Church becomes self-consciously 'relevant' it instantly becomes irrelevant.

Posted by Tamquam at November 29, 2016 9:59 AM

There are a lot of reasons the pews are emptying and only one of them is liberal theology.

If I could collapse the others into a nutshell I'd say that we clergy have disconnected the Gospel and religious vocation from eternal purposes. We have made our religion all about us (the practitioners, not just clergy) and hardly at all about God and his eternal kingdom.

John Wesley said to "preach the whole offices of God," which will inevitably include some very unpleasant passages. But God means what he says, and we should take his commandments pretty doggone seriously.

We are all under God's judgment, and those of us who plead guilty have received God's sentence: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

Do that and then you will truly have The Time of Your Life.

Posted by Donald Sensing at November 29, 2016 12:07 PM

This is the schism within the Catholic church as well. When the pope says 'pastoral' what he means is yeah, doctrine may not change, but we will live as though that doesn't really matter.

Posted by Jewel at November 29, 2016 12:37 PM

Churches are fashion shows and have been since at least the 1960's.

One of the first large scale buildings I designed in the early 80's after stepping away from job 33 was a church. A very large and expensive church, ran by a charismatic guy originally from Russia. He and his wife had a TV show. They looked the part.

At the end of our first meeting things went spooky. They started the meeting with a small prayer and ended it the same way but the end prayer was more. Much more. Frankly, I got a little scared. Scared might be overt, but I was concerned.

He was telling me how successful my new business was going to become and that I should be imagining in my mind the type of office I will have and the signage, the people working for me, all that. As he spoke/prayed he put his hands on me and the tension rose. There was a murmur in the background that got louder. His voice got louder, more insistent and his grip on my shoulders tightened and was feeling like I was being pinned down. The background murmur was full strength now and I recognized it. The wife was speaking in tongues.

It sounded like a cross between jibberish and a foreign language. Her head was thrown back and and rotated from side to side slowly. His speaking kept at it and I was halfway expecting the window to blow in from some cataclysmic disaster. I got the distinct impression they were waiting for me to *do something*. Maybe get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness or something, I dunno. Or hand them my wallet, checkbook, credit cards, and first born.

15 mins or so elapsed and I hadn't caved so they decided to move on and the whole thing slowed to a stop and they collected themselves. An awkwardness was in the air and the pastor smoothed things over as his jibbering wife left the room.

I went home and drank a 12 pak straight down and smoked 1/2 a bag of sinsemilla and waited for my wife to come home from work so I could tell her about it. She told me to not accept the contract.

I designed the building, collected the coin, and avoided whatever was being directed at me. That was my one and only alien abduction moment.

Almost forgot. Mr and Mrs Pastor then hired me to design a large custom home for them directly on the river and it was a successful project as well, and I still have my soul. I never saw them again and have no idea what happened to them, and don't care.

Posted by ghostsniper at November 29, 2016 7:05 PM

Looks like he cashed that check, but she's still kickin'.


http://www.charismamag.com/site-archives/570-news/featured-news/11841-charismatic-minister-bill-basansky-dies


http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/news-press/obituary.aspx?n=william-basansky&pid=145240285


http://www.clydeoliver.org/m/0/496/images/dr%20bill%20basansky%20copy.jpg


http://becomingbeautiful.org/a-successful-life/

Posted by ghostsniper at November 30, 2016 4:01 AM

Wow,that's one heckuva story,Ghost. Thanks for the links,those 2 led interesting lives. I think your steadiness may have unnerved them more than they did you;may be a reason they trusted you for the projects.

Posted by Nori at November 30, 2016 5:55 AM

You won't find me anywhere near one of those after-life investment centers. Con artists all.

My belief is in God, not the enrichment of slick groomed liars operating from organized scam centers.

Posted by Terry at November 30, 2016 7:45 AM

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