Pirate Church

If someone said, "we do not want black people at our church," they would, rightly so, be judged as racist, unChristian, unbiblical, ungodly, and uninterested in true evangelism. Then why has it become common for churches to segregate by age, that is, to be designed only for teens and twenty-somethings? Or only for a certain niche? Here in North Georgia we have cowboy churches. I know some people who attend them. From what I understand there are also biker churches in some parts of the country.

Christianity Today has a good article on age segregation at its website http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/january/27.62.html Whose idea was it not to have a cross-generation body of Christ? I guess the same people who thought only cowboys can worship with other cowboys.

I can't help thinking about a former boss of my son's take on this subject. My son did an internship with a local newspaper, and the editor was sort of Ringgold's answer to Dave Barry, the humor columnist. Quite a funny and insightful writer, when this young man found out about cowboy churches in our area, he proposed the idea of a pirate church. Everyone would have to say ARRRRGHHHHH and wear an eye patch, but only the pastor would get to wear a pirate on his shoulder.

The body of Christ--locally and globally--should look like heaven as portrayed in Revelation 4, which is my favorite vision of heaven.

Comments

Hi friend, peace...

Your blog very interesting.
But I have some questions for you:

First, why were you believe that Jesus is your God?

Second, what do you response? If you know that Jesus is created by Constantine (the Roman Emperor at 325 AC) and the leaders of Christians in Nicea Convention on 325 AC (After Christ).

Third, how about this informations? (1) Deuteronomy 6:4 , “Hear O Israel Yahweh our God is the one, the only Yahweh.” (2) Paul wrote that “God is only one,” in Galatians 3:20 . (3) "I am Yahweh your God . . . You shall have no gods except me,” Exodus 20: 2,3.

Fourth, how about this informations? (1) Nowhere in the Bible is the day of worship changed from Saturday to Sunday. This change was not made by the Almighty, but by the Roman Church; (2) The name “Jesus” is derived from the Greek name “Ieasus,” which actually means “son of Zeus.” Sadly, when people call upon the name of Jesus they are actually speaking of Greek mythology.

Fifth, how about this informations? It was Roman Emperor Constantine who mandated Christianity to be the universal religion. Before he did this though, he made huge changes in the faith. Constantine gave several edicts that would separate the church from Biblical Judaism. These decrees mandated ancient pagan practices, like Christmas, Communion, Easter, and Sun day worship, as “Christian.”

Sixth, how about this informations? Christianity was corrupted by Paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians was changed, by the Church of Rome, into the incomprehensible dogma of the trinity. Many of the pagan tenets, invented by the Egyptians and idealized by Plato, were retained as being worthy of belief.

Seventh, how about this informations? There are many similarities between the pagan god of Christ and the Christian version of Jesus. For example, Greek mythology tells of Christ bring born to the virgin Isis on December 25.

Seventh, how about this informations? The word “trinity” cannot be found in the Bible. It wasn’t formally a part of church doctrine until the 4th century, when the Church first began teaching god as being in three separate persons.

Thanks for you answer.
I hope we can be friend, although we have different perspective.
If you willing visit my blog, and read my article at http://sosiologidakwah.blogspot.com
And... if you love books, don’t forget to read The Holy Qur'an please...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mr. Nugroho, I am glad you read Christian blogs and that you participate. I actually have read parts of the Qu'ran and plan to read more of it, at least, the English paraphrase, since my understanding is that only the Arabic version is the real Qu'ran and all other languages are not really considered the same things. I have read many books about Islam and as a college professor have students of Muslim background. I respect you as a person but as you say we have very different perspectives and I am not persuaded by the Constantine arguments, since I have read the early church fathers and the New Testament on the nature of Christ, the trinity, etc. Constantine did "governmentize" the church and I am very against that, as most Christians today are. As for some of your other arguments, I think you got your info from Dan Brown and the Da Vinci code, which is a work of fiction, or from cult groups. The church does not worship on Sunday because it's a sabbath, but because it's the commemoration of the resurrection.

As I would not come to your blog and spread myths about Mohammed, I am not sure why you are doing the same on mine. But I invite you to read real Christian theology, such N.T. Wright, an Oxford professor, or J. I. Packer.

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