joshjosh:

a question i would like you to answer for me is how you think the churches should be funded and financed? thank you

joshjosh:

thank God you will never have your way. the church of God is always marching on and the gates of hell never prevails against it.

have a good day sir

therationa:

In the days I attended Christian churches, and now in my post-Christian incarnation, what I have notices is the selective cheery-picking manner in which ministers use the bible. Typically, they would select verse, here and there, to make a specific doctrine point. The majority of church-goers, not being very intellectually curious, never read these verses in their fully context.

The verses about tithes are a particular favourite in most of the churches I attended, for good reasons. Without the emphasis on these verses, the churches would be financially crippled. The verses about blessings, wealth, miracles are also favourites because these help entice the congregation to the notion of expected positive change in their circumstances.

But are there any verses in the bible that are deliberately avoided by the ministers on the pulpits? What would you like to hear preached about from the pulpits?


For instance, I would like to hear Number 31 preached from the pulpits, particularly the following verses;

15 "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them.
16 "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people.
17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,
18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.


Would you like to hear these verses more in your churches?

ty4real:

@Therationa!Haivng gone through your post, I must say that I am yet to get the point you are driving at! Why on earth do you think I would be interested to hear the verses you listed above in my church!You gotten the whole concept of church all mixed up and am appalled at the way you are going about it with your post!Obviously,you had it rough with a church you attended at on epoint in your life but I still don't see it as good enough reason to flaunt your gullibility here,every one knows that there are challants who parade themselves as church or whatever!Why you want to make a mountain out of it is what I am yet to grasp!or are you seeking attention here ni?Please Get a Life cause you piss me off!

therationa:

My goodness. If you have read most of my posts on this forum and still not got my point, then shame on you.

I have not only got a beef about churches, I have got a COW about the institution that is religion and all of its ancillaries.

They promote credulity, gullibility, ignorance, superstition, fear, destitution, exploitation of the poor, retard social progress, bigotry, zealotry, impede scientific progress, etc, etc. Do you want me to give specific examples? Or can you thing up some for yourself?

imhotep:

@therationa
You keep forgeting to add that communists in Russia murdered over 20 million people.
Communism also contributed to the irreversible decay of the Russian economy.

Communists believed in atheism, incredulity and rationalism------just like you do, therationa.

We worry for your future victims.

therationa:
Well, if I had my way, these churches should be left to die out naturally. They do very little but promote ignorance to poor, simple and sometimes credulous people.

joshjosh:
thank God you will never have your way. the church of God is always marching on and the gates of hell never prevails against it.

Church attendance across denominational lines has suffered a five-year decline and has sunk to its lowest level in two decades, according to research by the Barna Research Group of Glendale, California. "From the early '80s to the early '90s, there has been a definite change," said Bruce Hose, who was director of Sunday school programs for the 1-million-member Alabama Baptist Convention from 1985 to 1995. "Not only has attendance gone down but it is a graying culture, a graying congregation."

Mount Pleasant church cries for help. Years of decline in attendance has wrecked havoc on programming, finances, and morale. , Mount Pleasant is not alone. 70% of churches in America are plateaued or in decline.

a joke. quoting 1995 figures.

A Chapel Converted int Modern Apartment:
The decline in church attendance over the last several decades has meant that countless churches across the Netherlands have lost their function. They are crumbling, are demolished, or are put to new uses,

State of the Canadian Church in 2008:
Church attendance in Canada is declining rapidly. Atheism is rising. Christian moral values are being replaced by secular ones. Canada is no longer a Christian nation, and Canadian Christians will soon be a persecuted minority

Statistics are now confirming something common sense already told us; most people stay home on Sundays rather than attending church worship services.

The decline in Church attendance recorded over the past 40 years of Sunday Mass
Attendance Censuses has brought out an enormous response from people in opinions, plans
and actions to strengthen our Catholic faith.

Episcopal Church’s lost 50,804 members in 2006 while attendance fell by 21,945, the Episcopal Church’s national offices reported last week.

Alphazee:

@joshjoshJoshjosh, this is no joke. I only used 1995 statistics to show you that the sign of the churches' impending death emerged years back and from the very source that brought the religion to you .

Ofcourse if you need more current data, I've come across millions. Try these:
source: http://freshome.com/2008/01/22/a-chapel-converted-into-a-modern-apartment/
source: http://www.canadianchristianity.com/nationalupdates/071206state.html
source: http://rebeccabarnes1..com/2006/05/how-to-address-church-attendance.html
source:http://www.maltachurch.org.mt/Press/2007/Falling%20Church%20Attendance.pdf
source: http://geoconger./2007/11/10/more-pressure-to-postpone-lambeth-conference-cen-110907-p-6/

I can go on and on

you guys crack your heads over things that should not bother you too much. did you see anything about an african church or black majority church there?

joshjosh:

a question i would like you to answer for me is how you think the churches should be funded and financed? thank you

therationa:

You are thrashing about yet again. Deal with the subject of the post. Please have the decency to stay on topic.

therationa was banned for posting stuff attacking our is-lamic friends.

mockfu:

Imhotep, This is very insulting. I need not refute this. It's stupidity refutes itself.

BTW, mockfu = therationa. therationa was banned for posting stuff attacking our is-lamic friends.