First United Methodists on the corner First and Elm. Wait, were you asking about Jesus Mendez or Jesus Mencia?
Yes, yes!! It's like how could god have sacrificed christ knowing full well christ is god and can't really die in the first place. Big whoop that one is.
XtCamZ might be trying to make the point that you don't have to belong to a "church" to be a Christian.
Like "offical" church membership yeah I agree - living out a life of faith as a "lone wolf" not intimately connected in a real everyday "bear each other's burdens" kind of way with other followers of Jesus then I disagree. One thing to keep in mind the word "church" is the word ecclesia in the Greek and means assembly. Caesar had an ecclesia in every Roman town. The whole use of the word "church" has alot of baggage attached to it that was put on there by people with alot of un-Christianlike agendas, so it's important to understand the orgin of that whole term.
I thought He was Swedish with Clarol hair, a white bath robe and a light blue beauty pagent sash.............
Both the Scriptures and Josephus tell us ol Johnny boy had disciples, so no he didn't live alone in a cave like some bizzare hermit.......LOL
Westy was getting at it. I'm tired of the really religious church goers looking down on me or treating me differently just because I don't go to church, nor have I been in a church nowadays that I like. I was thinking about this last night, and it dawned on me that even Jesus was not a member of any church, so now when anybody gives me any crap about not going to church, that's what I'm going to ask them..."What church did Jesus go to?"
But He did share His life deeply with others, He didn't just try to make a go of it on His own. As for your disatisfaction with typical churches these days (esspecially in Arkansas) I feel your pain brotha. If it weren't for being seriously invovled in the college/twentysomething ministry (I lead it) - I would probably find a more "progressive" church than the very right leaning fundamentalist Southern Baptist church I currently attend. There are some really cool, progressive churches out there, and I bet in F'ville with the university there might be something more your "taste". Anyway....................
Is this a good way to meet chicks? My neighbors are "missionaries". They missionize students at the local university. Yesterday they led a big paintball outing. I'm still scratching my head. I wonder if they had ye holy paintball handgrenade.
For me, no my wife might have a problem with that .LOL However, there are several cuties that attend. Oh you mean the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch .LOL I gots to gets me one of them. The whole missionary thing I dont personally care for as a title, it gives the impression youre doing stuff, for students in this case, with an agenda. If youre hanging out with students or doing stuff for them with an agenda, thats not loving them unconditionally, something I try very hard to emphasize and live out with our leaders and students in our ministry. Last night when I taught we had one of the girls bring a friend who is an atheist, it was so cool.
I'm not exactly sure what my neighbors do. When I met them they told me about the missionary thing and I expected to get the hard sell. Haven't gotten it, they have actually been really cool neighbors. These aren't the folks who told me I'm going to hell. I think you need to post some pics of the hotties in your group so we can all love them unconditionally. ink: J/K
I'm not a religious man Andy as I'm sure you've guessed but I do appreciate where you are coming from. You seem to be trying to put the young people you come into contact with on the right track. If that means following a religious path then that's good but you don't seem to be too worried if they're not as long as you can see they are travelling a good track. Good on ya mate.
That's where the the term came from, missonaries (Catholic no less) teaching pagan natives that the "Holy" way to have sex was that position...........
Thanks, seriously. You guys dont know how often I post on a different (Christian) forum, or sit through a sermon and get so discouraged or start to think Ive gone and lost the plot. So when you guys give me props, stuff like that is a huge encouragement to me ..anyway .. As much as Id love every student to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus, Im realistic and know not all will choose that path. My job is not to give the hard sell then say to them either pray a prayer and get on board with us or theres the door my job is to love them unconditionally, provide a safe environment for them to voice their questions and doubts (*gasp* a Christian might have doubts), and invite them to journey with us. Thats why I call the Thursday night gig I do The Journey the dominate metaphor for the life of faith in the Scriptures is that of a journey. So I emphasize with the students that this whole deal is a journey, and regardless of where they are at in that journey they are invited to come with us and see where this deal goes. Anywho .
When accused of Christian bashing here can we say in our defense that we give you strength to follow the rightous path
You guys also help me "test" out new stuff I discover, if I'm way off I know that you guys have unbelieveably finely tuned "crap detectors", so I know if it passes the PD forum test I'm good to go.............LOL
Sorry, that's my mission in life, to change the messed up perception that being a Christian is lame.......................
Yeah Andy that's the right way to go I reckon, believe or not I'm still gonna be with you as long as you try to do the right thing. That's proper religion, that's a proper way to live your life regardless of religion. Don't give up mate, I know you won't.
The crazy thing is, I've been posting on christianforums.com for almost the same amount of time as I've been on the Monkey. My post count is higher over there, but I've noticed, esspecially since I've "grown" out of my former fundy self that there is more of a sense of familyness here on the PD forum, in particular, than I have over on a forum that is "suppose" to encourage such an atmosphere. I guess over there we spend so much time proving what our position is, we loose site of growing as an online community of Christians. Anyway.................interesting observation none the less.