Church Attendance Way Down

debodun said:
I feel the same way. Perhaps people have stopped attending because they do not want to be brow-beaten every week about giving for funding the church building project. This pastor is obsessed with this dream of a church building. Ever see the movie "The Bishop's Wife"?
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deb, that's exactly why I stopped going to our church. The mega churches certainly have had their effect on a lot of "regular" churches, huh. Enough is not enough, I guess.
 

Lara said:
All good questions rgp. God did not want to create Robots. He wanted us to choose on our own to Love and Obey Him just as an earthly father wants from his children. He wanted us to have a relationship with Him. So he created us to make our own choices between Good and Evil (devil and temptation).

Unfortunately, man chose the devil's tempting offer to eat from the tree of knowledge which God said not to. Thus the Old Testament is riddled with sinful atrocities and God's harsh discipline as He tried to get mankind to choose Good over Evil...to love and obey Him. Yes, God could have just made Man to be be good but that would just make them robots. He finally, in the New Testament, instead of punishment He offered forgiveness to all who believe along with teachings of love and obedience...also kindness, patience, joy, faithfulness, gratitude, and peace
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Sounds too me then like he just created entertainment for himself ? To see which one(s) of us would take the right or wrong path as he sees it. So while he's 'up there' having fun, many of us are 'down' here suffering . Not my kind'a guy.
 
When my son was four, he "wrote" a book (in pictures) and the story was about a lonely boy who invented the earth in a glass bottle. First he invented dinosaurs, but became bored with them so created people instead, to keep him company, and he was happy.

I never taught him any such thing, and spoke to his Pre-K teacher, and of course she did not either. I still have the "book" of pictures somewhere. Always weirded out by this.
 
Liberty said:
deb, that's exactly why I stopped going to our church. The mega churches certainly have had their effect on a lot of "regular" churches, huh. Enough is not enough, I guess.
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There is a local 'church' CrossRoads that is , as I understand it, doing a land office business. It, [as has been suggested] is not the typical [churchy church] but more of a community meeting. And again with the 'down-played' dress code, jumbo-trons, even christian rock bands, the whole bit. It is said that so far the most often heard negative said about it is parking, or the lack of? This makes [even me] curious to attend. Haven't yet though.

There is another 'church' / christian service? That I do support for disaster relief, Matthew 25 ministries . Not for the religious aspect, but because they have a reputation of proper help, & no administration cost in terms [of] their disaster relief.
 
rgp said:
Sounds too me then like he just created entertainment for himself ? To see which one(s) of us would take the right or wrong path as he sees it. So while he's 'up there' having fun, many of us are 'down' here suffering . Not my kind'a guy.
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So you think Earthly Fathers have children just for entertainment for themselves?
So they can have fun while their children suffer? No, they have them so they can have a relationship with them.

`
 
Lara, thank you for the 'like' for my post above, #29. I had wondered how much of this story was imagination, and how much was remembrance.
 
Lara said:
So you think Earthly Fathers have children just for entertainment for themselves?
So they can have fun while their children suffer? No, they have them so they can have a relationship with them.

`
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No, I never said that......I said "he" meaning this god that you & others profess to 'be-there'.

And if you go back [not that far actually] most children were born, just to help out on the farm. IMO one of the main reason child birth is on the decline....they're no longer "needed"
 
rgp said:
No, I never said that......I said "he" meaning this god that you & others profess to 'be-there'. And if you go back [not that far actually] most children were born, just to help out on the farm. IMO one of the main reason child birth is on the decline....they're no longer "needed"
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You misunderstood me, sorry I wasn't clear. I knew you were talking about God the Father and not earthly fathers but I was comparing the two to make a point. Because there are some similarities between the two.

I never knew that "childbirth is on the decline because they are no longer needed to help on the farm." Really? I only knew that millennials are putting birth off until later because they want careers and to be financially stable first. And then there are those like AOC who don't want children at all because she "knows too much about what the world will be like in the future".
 
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Lara said:
So you think Earthly Fathers have children just for entertainment for themselves?
So they can have fun while their children suffer? No, they have them so they can have a relationship with them.

`
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Lara, absolutely. Feel we are "powerful spiritual beings that descended into matter. We're like children playing, and our Father/Mother is calling us to come home to supper, and we simply can't hear them because we are so caught up in "our own" creating.
 
Lara said:
You misunderstood me, sorry I wasn't clear. I knew you were talking about God the Father and not earthly fathers but I was comparing the two to make a point. Because there are some similarities between the two.

I never knew that "childbirth is on the decline because they are no longer needed to help on the farm." Really? I only knew that millennials are putting birth off until later because they want careers and to be financially stable first. And then there are those like AOC who doesn't want children at all because she "knows too much about what the world will be like in the future".
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There were some "experts" on talk radio on more than one occasion that said child birth was on the decline, and sited....the "need" for them as one reason why. Do they really know?...who knows? But it does make some sense.

The birth rate is a matter of record, the reason(s) are all over the map.
 
Pepper said:
When my son was four, he "wrote" a book (in pictures) and the story was about a lonely boy who invented the earth in a glass bottle. First he invented dinosaurs, but became bored with them so created people instead, to keep him company, and he was happy. I never taught him any such thing, and spoke to his Pre-K teacher, and of course she did not either. I still have the "book" of pictures somewhere. Always weirded out by this.
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You have a very gifted child with a creative mind beyond his years, Pepper. That's a cool story.
 
Lara said:
You have a very gifted child with a creative mind beyond his years, Pepper. That's a cool story.
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There's an old Chinese saying that the mule was given the first choice to rule over all the other animals on the earth, but declined...which was why it was given to man! LOL
 
rgp said:
No, I never said that......I said "he" meaning this god that you & others profess to 'be-there'.

And if you go back [not that far actually] most children were born, just to help out on the farm. IMO one of the main reason child birth is on the decline....they're no longer "needed"
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I read that during China's ''1 child per household'' period (they ended it for many reasons), couples chose to keep a son and killed or abandoned or sold the others. Their reason was that in their culture, first sons were obligated to support their parents until death, but the daughters went to live with the husband and could not support them.

One of the other reasons China ended the One Child law is that 20-30 years down the line those sons could not find any Chinese women to wed and had to marry foreign women.
 
Olivia said:
You know what would be an absolute miracle? If everyone accepted each other just the way they are.
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Now that is an incredibly profound thought Olivia. Wonderful to employ that much power to do it. Remember what Shirley McClain said - that she "thought she understood spiritually and could handle anything now"...and then she went home for Thanksgiving dinner!
 
Trade said:
As nice as that sounds there are way too many people in this world that I find to be unacceptable.
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Okay, but remember that they would find you and your ideas acceptable, too. And maybe that way we could find enough compromises to make the planet a better place to live for everyone.

I know, Pollyanna type thinking. On the other hand, do I believe this would ever happen? Remember, I said it would be an absolute miracle. What's the odd of that ever happening?
 
Lara said:
To take that little girl out of this sinful world and bring her Home is beautiful, loving, and peaceful for her for eternity. We are all just passing through this life which is just a speck compared to eternal life beyond.
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WHO has any PROOF that there is a place beyond death? No one has ever come back to tell us about that heaven or hell. It was all invented by religious leaders during millennia to control humans and their actions (crowd control). It was all imaginary theories about what happens to us after death, simply because we refuse to believe when we die it's truly the end. That is why they invented the soul, since the soul is invisible but we can see that the physical body decays. It was the same kind of imagination they used when they drew constellations that resembled people and animals among the infinite number of stars in the night sky. Religion is man's attempt to explain mysteries of life and the universe.
 
Lara said:
He finally, in the New Testament, instead of punishment He offered forgiveness to all who believe along with teachings of love and obedience...also kindness, patience, joy, faithfulness, gratitude, and peace
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The real reason that the New Testament was written was because the Old Testament portrayed God as a cruel and vengeful god who pitted one tribe against another, it put off people. So, after Jesus, the new bible was written with a new and improved God who was all kindness and forgiveness, much more appealing to attract more followers (and donations).
 
PVC said:
WHO has any PROOF that there is a place beyond death? No one has ever come back to tell us about that heaven or hell. It was all invented by religious leaders during millennia to control humans and their actions (crowd control). It was all imaginary theories about what happens to us after death, simply because we refuse to believe when we die it's truly the end. That is why they invented the soul, since the soul is invisible but we can see that the physical body decays. It was the same kind of imagination they used when they drew constellations that resembled people and animals among the infinite number of stars in the night sky. Religion is man's attempt to explain mysteries of life and the universe.
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You either are a soul or you aren't. No matter what world you are currently taking up perfectly good space in. There are miracles happening everyday in and around us but who among us recognizes them, rather than just taking them for granted? Why not when we can always strain at a gnat.
 
PVC said:
WHO has any PROOF that there is a place beyond death?...It was all invented by religious leaders during millennia to control humans and their actions (crowd control). It was all imaginary theories about what happens to us after death, simply because we refuse to believe when we die it's truly the end. That is why they invented the soul, since the soul is invisible but we can see that the physical body decays.
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And where's your PROOF. You are basing these assumptions on your faith. That's okay, but I just want you to realize that this is all about faith. You just have a very different faith than I have.
 
Liberty said:
You either are a soul or you aren't.
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There is no such thing as a soul, another myth invented by religious leaders to control the populace with either hope (for eternal life) or fear (for retribution for bad deeds). What we consider a ''soul'' is merely our brain's consciousness, which ceases to exist once the heart stops and the brain stops working a short time later.

I am done with this subject, we'll agree to disagree while the conversation is still civil.
 

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