So in exchange for a 24 pack of beer and a monster burrito, I agreed to go to church yesterday with my girlfriend. She's always trying to get me to go cause I'm agnostic I guess and thinks I could benefit from it. And to my own surprise, I actually rather enjoyed the sermon. It was about Jonah and the pastor made it very easy to relate to and even if I didn't totally buy into it, I found myself able to take away a positive message from it. I would be very open to hearing another sermon like that in the future, but... Everything else about church creeps me out. There were little skits where they tried to convince teens to go on mission trips. The discussion at the end about the financial shortage of the church's budget. And the singing. Oh sweet Jesus, the singing. That was the worst. The songs last forever, are a mix of bizarre old songs with contemporary christian music garbage, and the people who lead the song get way way too into it. Like raising their hand in the air as if they were giving God a reach around when they hit the high notes. Creeps me out. From what my GF says, the singing is pretty important as it's some garbage about praise and whatnot. And you have to stand up. I mean, it's not mandatory in the strictest sense but everyone will stare at you if you're the only one sitting and I don't want to stand out. Or shake hands and say hi to the people around me or any of that other garbage. My question is (I'm not in Houston though) are there churches/religions that have good, modern services but without any of that other...cra....stuff?
Was it a Baptist church? Also, in all seriousness, you probably enjoyed the sermon because most of the things preached in a Christian church are fairly common sense. Don't cheat on your wife. Be respectful of others. Don't steal. Don't kill without justification.
I go to Catholic mass, and some Catholic Churches play more of the contempory Christian crap than others. Man, I really hate that music too. But yeah, the sermons are usually pretty good. Definitely no skits at Catholic mass though.
Yep! I've also been to a Methodist church as well. Same stuff I didn't like, without any of the stuff I did. Although I'm sure that has more to do with the pastor or whatever.
I don't have a ton of experience with Church-going (I only went because of a girlfriend as well), but it seems like there's a trade off when you go from the traditional church to the uber contemporary church. At the traditional church, the people always seemed to be a lot more genuine in their faith and happy to have you there. With the more contemporary churches that I've been to, you run into a lot of the yuppie types that are there more for the image of being a Christian than actually attempting to live what they preach. Considering you don't seem to have any interest in actually attending church for the religious aspect of the experience, I'd venture to guess finding a church that you really like will take more effort than you'd want to exert. I have known several people that spend months trying to find a satisfactory church when they move to a new city.
This is genius, sir. Don't we all wished life was this easy? How was that BURRITO, by the way? Seriously speaking, though, most church stuff and preaching in any religion will be about the golden rule, and common sense stuff will apply. Thanks for the story, sir.
My wife was sponsoring an RCIA candidate one year, so we went to his church during Lent. During this time, they were "acting out" the Gospel reading for the day. During the reading of Lazarus rising from the dead, a guy came out from behind one of the walls, essentially dressed like a mummy. It was a very odd spectacle at a Catholic service.
I went to midnight mass with my girl on Christmas Eve a few years ago and I believe I posted a thread about it too. That certainly was a weird experience, I described it as almost cultish. I also went to a non-denominational church earlier this year and posted a thread on it in D&D. The thread in D&D centered around tithes but the weirdest thing of all was the activities. People would go up to the pastor and he would tap them on the head and they would fall down, shake rapidly, run around screaming, or a combination of those. When they played music it looked like a mixture of a track meet and a rock concert and a memorial. Just way way weird. Like you though, I did find some good in the sermon.
The best part is when they tell your young children how God loves them, but if they ever don't acknowledge Him, he'll send them to burn in hell for all eternity.
What church did you go to? When I use to go to church, all children went to heaven. However, once you became a young adolescent WATCH OUT!
I went to the one with all the crazy people that forever made me despise anything religious. Jesus is a good dude, and those who follow what he says and act like he did are on a good path. Those who twist and distort his words to fit their own twisted motives make me sad.
I think people that were told they were going to burn in hell without belief in God as a child carry a little resentment for religion as they grow older. My Young Life leader once told me "well, I know where i'm going!' after we almost got in a car wreck in his car. and thats pretty much when I knew I was done with young life.
Pentecostal? Did they speak in tongues? I've gone to all kinda of Christian churches. Baptist, catholic, apostolic, methodist, seventh day adventist, jehovah's witness, pentecostal (geeez). That one for me is by far the craziest. And yeah they'll tell the little kids they're going to hell for eternal damnation.
That's exactly how I've felt about church for the past 15 years. I had to put up with this **** ever since high school and it was making me bonkers. I'm so glad I don't have to go anymore. Be thankful,OP, you didn't have to grow up with this crap.
