I’ve run this idea past different people on the Internet about having a new kind of church. I expected to see a problem. Internet forums that discuss Deism are full of asocial intellectuals (geeks), so I expected the feedback I received to have a geeky skew.
After receiving feedback, I don’t know that a Deist type of church is possible. There are really two main kinds of churches that I see. The largest kind uses mind control to bring people into conformance. I’m not condemning that. When people are out of control they sometimes need a strong outside force to bring them under control. Strong churches can help with that. The other kind of church is based on rebellion against the strong churches. The Unitarian Universalists are a good example of this. The kind of church I would attend is not the strong controlling kind or the rebelling kind. I see no example of my kind of centered church, even though the members of the strong churches and the rebellious churches would claim that they are the centered kind.
When I asked people in Internet forums about starting a church, I only got asocial intelletualisms. I do not see the Internet as being a good tool for creating my kind of church because it only seems to attract people who are caught up in their own ideas: Ivory tower types. A church based on the feedback I’ve received would attract too many kooks.
Why can’t there be a simple church of simple faith that doesn’t force myths onto people? Why can’t such a church attract people who aren’t kooks? Where are the people who want just a simple place to meet and talk and to promote and develop healthy family values?
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1 user commented in " Problems with a New Church "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThere are churches like that, just not many. If you are truly seeking a church that is really about community, love, family, then you need to do a good researching unfortunately.
I'm a young Christian and I go to a Baptist church that has its pro and cons, but the positive aspects so far outweigh the cons. This church I attend is very centered around community, family, and love. People are pleasant, you begin to know many people, there are small groups that develop deep bonding and friendship, and our church promotes love and the love of God and how we should strive to love as much as we can just as God does.
However, there are also the bad sides: the youth tends to categorize itself into groups and trends, the youth ministry doesn't know what they're doing cuz apparently, they haven't realized that their schedule doesn't fit anyone else's, and the church has become huge in numbers.
It's not a bad thing to have many people attend church but in a way this gave opportunity for the church to turn into a business. Is that bad? Not really, but sometimes the various sections that run our church might put the business as top priority instead of God and the community. They do not try to get money from people but their plans, how they are organized, what they decide to change and release has become too much of a large focus. Also, how they are always wasting money remodeling rooms and things so that it feels "modern" sends such a bad message. A business mentality usually ends up selfish.
Right now, I'd say my church is semi-strong. We use things such as moving music to manipulate people's feelings while someone is speaking towards the end(usually when they begin asking people if they would like to accept Christ and stuff). Do I like it? No, I test everything and see things for what they are and I oppose this. The way how certain speakers speak also can be manipulative but that's not easy to avoid. Any speaker uses that tactic. However, the pastor speaks well and mostly real throughout his sermon(with the exception of those emotional endings). What he speaks of is enlightening, useful, makes you think, which is good.
Do I approve everything my church does? No. In every church there will always be a lacking or corruptive influence especially here in America. But sometimes you have to see the good in it and use it. The best things about my church is that throughout all my years of going there I have made great and close friends, and truly realized that this is where I can find real community and feel loved by that community. Many people out in the world say love is what we need; they post peace signs, quotes and other stuff and say they love but they don't. They treat people they do not like differently and do not make an effort to show love to those who do not look good or are fit and sexy.They only love those who do good to them, not everyone(of course this is all a generic perspective)
I know that the first churches after Christ died were never like this. They weren't businesses or temples with strange rules such as the Catholic "no marriage rule" if you wished to be a priest. Churches then were communities of believers and they all saw each other as one big family. They would help the poor and serve God and it was simple. the only churches left like this are in poorer nations such as India, China(which the church there is underground), Africa, and some areas of South America where a Roman Catholic tradition is not central to church life.
If what you are really looking for in a church is high values in society, family, and love, you will have to look hard, but I'm sure if you do you'd find a suitable place.
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