How do you minister to the "bored?"

My recollection of reading about these revival meetings is that they were heavily centered on preaching. Interesting. Thanks friend!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbps9k5Dj0&feature=player_embedded

 

Tom, the revival went on for some time, but at the beginning preaching halted. The preachers virtually "lost" their tongues when they tried to preach. Indeed very strong preaching followed. Preaching on holiness, repentance, silence before an holy God, and such preaching.

I was schooled in Llanelli, Wales and visited many of these chapels in the 40's.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Whoa, whoa. Let's be nice. There are many qualified female pastors. You sound as if you've got this whole thing nailed down yourself. Make sure to remember to hold Scripture with an open hand. Truth is not ours, but God's alone.

 

"Qualified" by who's standards? If the Bible says that a woman is not to be a pastor, then no matter what their background or how many letters they have after their name, they're not qualified.

 

Yeah, that happens quite a bit. In the church we broke off from, the pastor was fond of showing clips from movies and then philosophising about the spiritual messages found in the movie (ie. "...Now, when Moe hits Curly over the head with the wrench, isn't that what we're doing to Jesus when we don't invite Him into our lives?"), rather than preaching the word.

If that's what people need in a church, then they're probably better off to keep driving when they see our church. All we do is preach the word of God and have meaningful corporate worship with those stodgy old hymns.

We're not hip. We're not "relevant" (that is, in the way the word is commonly used in pop-Christianity). We're not cool. We're not dynamic. We're not any of those things. Our preachers don't have goatees. We wear, at the very least, a jacket and tie. We don't sit on a stool or try to be informally familiar with the congregation when we preach.

We just want to worship God and have a hunger for His word.

...and we're OK with that.

 

As long as you're not a pastor or in any other position prohibited by scripture, that's between you and your church.

Anyway, that's not the point of this thread. . .My question was how to deal with the "welfare mentality" so prevalent in our town.[/QUOTE]

 

ABC, the problem is not spiritual.. it is political in your town.. .having been raised there, I can affirm it... I saw it before I moved away, If you look to the county just north east of the town, it is a very poor, welfare infected, Democrat county. That infection has moved down rt 4 into your town.

Back in the 70s and 80s, when Pennzoil was the main industry there, the town was a great place. But when Pennzoil shut down, many fell into depression, and some families got trapped in the "Welfare as a right" cycle. And your town has slowly become more and more like the welfare county of Clay!

What you are seeing in church is this political attitude spilling over into your pews.

This welfare attitude is a killer... because if you all preach the truth, they will just sleep in on Sundays, knowing their check and Foodstamps will be there in a week or two...

When Pennzoil left, there was a proposal to bring in more companies, (Actually some of the Businesses at Crossings mall at Elkview wanted to come to your town, but the all wise.. cough, cough... town council didn't want them there)... so they just moved down river to Elkview, along with the revenue and jobs....

There will be no short term answers...
But in the long run.. like 20 yrs from now... it may get better... if...

• The political climate changes..
• The right leaders are elected in the town who will do things to promote the growth of business.
• Preachers start preaching (or in your alls case, KEEP preaching) truth.
• Churches can start programs that will enable people to get their motivation back.
• And people realize that they are ACCOUNTABLE.

But until then welcome to your town.... It is a horrible place to live.. I know that.. and it is soo sickening to me to come home and see how the welfare attitude has destroyed the town....

But thank you all for being there as a light!

 

ABC, when I come to visit next week, I'll have some ideas for you all .. some have been working in our Hispanic ministries... and they may work there too.

 

In your case, and in your town, when the Lord comes... this may be the case:

Husband: John
Wife: Martha

John watching TV being a couch Potato:... scratch, scratch.. er... uh Martha... did you hear sumthin?
Martha.. in bed for her 11 am nap... HUH? Whatchu say John?
John:.. I Heard sumthin sounded like a big ol horn....
Martha:.. Maybe it was the neighbor kid.... I heard that his mom got him sum type of horn for Christmas, it was a Salvation Army present... or maybe a toys for tots present.

John.. NO.. this was louder... Maybe it was Jesus comin back...
Martha... Well don't wake me up when he gits here!.. you know that I need this nap. Afterall, I had to git up this morning at 9:30.. .I didn't git to sleep in.. .that stupid CPS worker. She doesn't think we are capable of raising our 8 kids in this 2 bedroom house.
John.. Yeah, imagine that, she even told me I needed to get a job... IF I git a job, i'll lose my medicaid card!... and you know we need that thang!. Anyway, if'n that was Jesus, he'll be back in 7 yrs... and by that time I will have finished all of my Star Trek movies!... I'll go then...

Martha dozes back off to sleep, and doesn't wake until, her kids gets home and cooks spaghettios for supper...
John changes channels and starts laughing at another "All in the family" rerun!

ONLY the people from Calvary Baptist come up missing from town over the next week...
But sadly, NOone notices the absence... because afterall, the Food Stamps got applied to their card, and they all went shopping at Save-a-lot on Sunday morning!

 

All too true... Thank you and Pocadots for being faithful... I for one appreciate the things you do in my hometown!...

 

What does that mean? can you elaborate on that?