Silly "church" rules

[Ps104_33]

Laurenda,
I am very familiar with your church as there are about five students there from my church. (I think I told you that before). My church is almost as strict as yours. Just curious. We allow people who sing solos to use taped accompianment tracks. Is that allowed at West Coast?

 

[Abiyah]

Pastors who must know what you buy and where
you are going are micromanaging and horribly
controlling. Even though I had pastors who
wanted to know why for every missed service,
I still wnder why the want to know and how they
have the time to be so interested.

But the buying thing -- why in the world do they
want to know what you buy? Thsis one is a new
concept to me! What purchases do they want to
know about? What makes them think it is any of
their business?

And why do we choose to allow these people to
contrl us?!?!?

 

[christine]

Abiyah, maybe they have no life, and are living vicariously thru others.

Seriously, As adults, I think it's dangerous to give up that much control of your own life to anyone. This is how cults become cults. They don't rush into your house and kidnap people, it's all a process. We give up our control little by little, until we have no free will.
As a child, our preacher said God was coming in 1976. They showed a movie (if the footmen tire you, what will the horsemen do?)that was meant to terrify our parents. I was not allowed to watch it, but I was scared anyway. I truly believed (and still believe) that she was so hypnotised by this preacher, that if she had been in Jonestown, she would have given us the poison koolaid, just to save us.
It's a very serious thing to put so much trust in a man, instead of God.

 

[christine]

I can laugh (sometimes) about it now, but it (that church and preacher), kept me from going to church for 20 yrs. Sometimes I still let the resentment get to me. However, I never did blame my mother for what she did, she thought it was the right thing to do, at the time.

 

[Glorious]

Phew!

I feel better now.

Ours isnt as "bad" in the rule department as some here

Christine, which church did/do you attend (the "strict" one)?

 

[atestring]

Originally posted by ONENESS:
We have alot of standards where I go. But I have no problem with them. They are just things we get to do.

</font>

• Our Pastor likes for our men to shave.</font>
• Men wear pants and woman wear skirts/dresses</font>
• Women dont cut their hair.</font>
• Does not like men to have long hair.</font>
• Woman dont wear makeup</font>
• Men and women dont wear jewelery except for a wedding band and a watch.</font>
• We dress modest</font>
• We have to wear dress clothes with tie to be on platform during a service.</font>

And there are many more.

For the most part our standards are scriptural based. I know for some it is just prefrence. Men shaving would be one of the prefered things.

I did not list these so we could debate, just wanted to mention somethings we do.

Now for the silly ones

</font>

• We chain our doors at the beginning of each service</font>
• We have to ask what we can buy</font>
• We have to bring our on snakes the first sunday of every month to help with expenses</font>
• We have to sacrafice our first born</font>
• We have to circumsize our goats</font>
• And once a month we have to empty our saving into the offering basket.</font>

Ok, dont take a single one of those serious. I was picking about all the ones on the second list. Just wanted to add a little sarcasim.

God bless

I respect anyone's convictions and the need for standards in a day when standards are becoming a thing of the past.
But on the standard of women not wearing makeup I will use the old phrase: "A little paint never hurt any old barn"

 

[christine]

Originally posted by Glorious:

Christine, which church did/do you attend (the "strict" one)?

I attended a church in Kalamazoo, Michigan called Temple baptist. The minister was Roy Finchum. I resently heard that he died, I am ashamed to admit my first reaction was "good, thank God!".
He was an example of a man putting himself before God, he made himself an idol to his congregation.

I've heard " If the barn needs paint'in, paint it!"

 

[Abiyah]

I think many of these controling preachers would
be surprised that the control only lasts as long as
the people are inside the church doors, in larger
cities where we just don't see one another
throughout the week. Pity the people in small
towns.

I know this was the case here, when I was in a
controlling church. The Little Dictator thought he
had it all under control, but he did not. When the
people are smiling behind your back, something
is wrong, and they will soon be gone.

When a pastor thinks he must control the people
in his church, there is something desperately
wrong with him, and the people need to send a
strong message. When the message is not heard,
they need to find a place of worship where they
can do so in peace, without a dictator who adds
to Scripture. It is clearly a sin to add to the
Scriptures, whether it is added rules or the BoM.

 

[Wisdom Seeker]

Originally posted by 3AngelsMom:
I was in at the Riverside Covention Center tonight and I thought of you.

How far are you from there?

If you are close you should come over on Saturday, we are having a 'Faith Summit' weekend there.

Sorry, I live about 4 hours drive north. Not a "just drop by" distance. But thank you for inviting me. That was very nice of you.

Laurenda


________________________________________________

Bro. Ray...you are sooooo funny. It's not the collar bones that are sexy is the whole package. If they could legally make us wear Burka's...they might consider it

Laurenda

 

[stubbornkelly]

"I'm a clavicle guy."

Ray, you made me laugh. It made my afternoon!

 

[donnA]

Churchs that allow such rules as people are listing here are churches that abuse. Why does anyone think this is normal or alright? You can't force someone to obey God, to love Him. You can outwardly obey man made rules, and inwardly be disobedient. Following these rules means nothing good or righteous, unless the person is counting on their own righteoues. When one is forced to obey, then it will always casue a sence of rebelliousness.

 

[FriendofSpurgeon]

Thankfully, our church is very free of these "requirements." As a general rule, everyone dresses appropriately. The only rule of practice, per se, is that only our Pastors and Elders distribute the elements during the Lord's Supper.

Regarding dress, hair, and other non-issues, I'm not sure why I (or anyone else) would/should truly care about these things. I tend to believe that all of these other "issues" actually confuse non-believers as to what being a Christian is all about.

There are few scriptural references, other than modesty in dress, orderly worship, and doing all to the glory of God. I don't know why we feel like we have to add all these things.

 

[Briguy]

Thanks to everyone who posted here. It was good for me to see the extreme of some churches to see that my church, though it has a couple of rules that I think are wrong, is not dictated by "do's" and "don'ts". Honestly, It makes me sad to see that there are churches that are so controlling. Our actions follow our heart (unless we bow to temptation - different thread) and so by forcing actions, hearts are not changed, in fact it can cause bitterness, especially in children. We are not to provoke our children to wrath, that is Biblical. Where is LOVE in all the rules, If we don't have love (charity) we are nothing at all!

In Love and Truth,
Brian

 

[Hardsheller]

This is much - MUCH better than Reality TV!!!

 

[Briguy]

Good one!!

 

[Abiyah]

I know that this may be humorous (we who have
been in such churches laugh in wonder at
ourselves at times, that we could have swallowed it
all!), but it is also serious for many reasons.

First, the Bible says not to add anything to the
Scriptures, and it is very serious to do so. Those
churches which add requirements are sinning.
Pastors who force people to get resaved are
walking a dangerous road. Those who demand
rebaptism just because the person's baptism
was not in their church and those who demand
that the members do anything that is not straight
reading from the Word have set themselves up as
gods.

Second, people follow what these errant pastors
say for many reasons, some of which are that
they have just never been in other churches,
because of lack of discipline, for stability, to
have someone to blame when things don't work
out, because they do not know how to escape a
cult, because they do not realize they are in a cult,
because they want desperately to please God,
because they do not recognize that it is a works
gospel, and many other reasons.

Really, it is sad.

I stayed where I was, because I was promised
Hell for myself and my children, should I leave.
While my conscious mind knew better, my
subconsciious mind held me prisoner. Even when
I knew my God wanted me out, I stayed 13 more
years, in spite of some real abuses, because they
had gotten to me.

I watched people go. I said all the things like,
"They must not have ever ben a part of us," "They
just don't want the Truth," "They will regret leaving,"
etc. --the same things said of me when I was
excommunicated and did not atempt reinstatement.

One pastor said a funny thing to my husband
before he left. The man wondered aloud to my
husband that those who leave say they have found
such freedom. MtnWalker laughs about that now,
because indeed, that is exactly what he found.

A great number of that pastor's congregation
ex-members have found the same thing: freedom.
Many, many have left, because he was worse than
the dictators before him. I really need to get up
there some Sunday morning and see just how
many cars are there. There was a time when the
parking lot was filled, as were several buses, and
parking stretched around the block and the
adjacent blocks. Not anymore.

It does no one any good for pastors to be gods.

 

[Wisdom Seeker]

Originally posted by Ps104_33:
Laurenda,
I am very familiar with your church as there are about five students there from my church. (I think I told you that before). My church is almost as strict as yours. Just curious. We allow people who sing solos to use taped accompianment tracks. Is that allowed at West Coast?

I think so. If you go to their web site and e-mail your question I'm sure they would be happy to give you a better answer. As you are probably aware, our church has a full orchestra, so instrumental accompaniment is the norm. But I have seen people sing with a music tract before, usually when they are visitting from another church. You should ask if there is a reason that you need to know for sure. church web page

Sorry, I didn't answer you sooner, I hadn't checked on this thread in a bit.

Laurenda