a church service
So the first thing that I thought when I woke up this morning was that I woke up late and now I'm missing church. So, the backup plan now becomes that I'll just go to the later service at Kerri's church. WRONG! It starts in 15 minutes and there's no way we'll make it being that we have to get up, shower, get dressed, then drive to Martinsburg.
So now my thoughts change to what a typical church service is today in churches around. Just as a disclaimer, this is only my OPINION and nothing else. Okay, here it goes...The Church of the Brethren, as a denomination, tends to have sermons related to how we as the church should live the Christian lifestyle. On the other hand, churches such as a Presbyterian churches that I've visited tend to talk more about theology, ideas such as Calvinism vs. arminiasm, specific doctrine, etc. They talk about this doctrine but then there is either no or very little application.
It seems to me that there needs to be more of a balance between what I am calling these two extremes. Don't get me wrong, I believe that both of these churches are doing good jobs at their particular focus and I know that there are also churches that tend to find an "easy medium" between these two extremes.
I guess that what I'm trying to get at ultimately is that I believe that a church service should have a little of both. There should be biblical teaching (not just preaching), along with application, not just one or the other. Many churches today have nailed this! I tend to find that the ones that are doing this are the non-denominational churches. They seem to be "released" from the bonds of doing what the norm of the denomination does, or better yet, what the denomination calls then to do. As you can probably tell I'm a big fan of non-denominational churches!
Without being taught what the Bible says and then how to apply it, I think we're missing the mark of Matthew 28:16-20 (The Great Commission) which tells us to go forth and proclaim the Gospel to the world! Also, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 say "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, "so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
To even go a bit further, we need to remember that we're there for a reason. That reason is Jesus. So to end, let me say this. If I ever end up being a pastor of a church, my service will begin with something like this..."Today we are here to celebrate Jesus."
So now my thoughts change to what a typical church service is today in churches around. Just as a disclaimer, this is only my OPINION and nothing else. Okay, here it goes...The Church of the Brethren, as a denomination, tends to have sermons related to how we as the church should live the Christian lifestyle. On the other hand, churches such as a Presbyterian churches that I've visited tend to talk more about theology, ideas such as Calvinism vs. arminiasm, specific doctrine, etc. They talk about this doctrine but then there is either no or very little application.
It seems to me that there needs to be more of a balance between what I am calling these two extremes. Don't get me wrong, I believe that both of these churches are doing good jobs at their particular focus and I know that there are also churches that tend to find an "easy medium" between these two extremes.
I guess that what I'm trying to get at ultimately is that I believe that a church service should have a little of both. There should be biblical teaching (not just preaching), along with application, not just one or the other. Many churches today have nailed this! I tend to find that the ones that are doing this are the non-denominational churches. They seem to be "released" from the bonds of doing what the norm of the denomination does, or better yet, what the denomination calls then to do. As you can probably tell I'm a big fan of non-denominational churches!
Without being taught what the Bible says and then how to apply it, I think we're missing the mark of Matthew 28:16-20 (The Great Commission) which tells us to go forth and proclaim the Gospel to the world! Also, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 say "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, "so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
To even go a bit further, we need to remember that we're there for a reason. That reason is Jesus. So to end, let me say this. If I ever end up being a pastor of a church, my service will begin with something like this..."Today we are here to celebrate Jesus."
posted by Brent Houp at
12:17 PM
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