(Photo credit: Sean Molin Photography)

I have teenage sons.  The oldest, nearly 17, asks to sometimes visit churches of his friends.  I am thankful my son has friends who go to church.  But I well know that not everything that calls itself a church, is a place where my son will hear truth.  Yet as parents my husband and I operate under the philosphy that rather than simply tell our kids what to do, we try to allow them to do things they want, within reason, then we use this exposure to things outside our family’s speheres, as a springboard for discussion, helping them engage their own minds into the decision-making process, develop their own discernment, and learn to make good decisions.  Here is a litttle background on our family’s experiences with church.  I grew up in a small Presbyterian church, my husband in a small church that, from his desription didn’t believe anything.  Both of us pulled away from church and our walks with the Lord in our early young adult years, and came back in our late 20’s, and in fact my husband and I sort of “indirectly” met through a church funciton in which I ran into an old friend and former co-worker, who happened to be room-mates with my (now) husband.

We have as a family, spent time in Assemblies of God churches, Southern Baptist churches, Presbyterian, Church of God, and non-denominational, and the home-church movement.   We have witnessed church splits and division, we have witnessed a veering into “new apastolic” and other falsely so-called “moves of the spirit” and we both were pretty confused as to what had happened to “church” in the decade we were away from it.  We have since come to realize, first of all, that we are the church, and the fact that many of us fell away, or compromised with the world, was part of the problem, so we began with getting our own relationship with the Lord aligned with scripture starting with repentance, and applying ourselves in an effort to understand what the Lord really requires of us and intends for us.  We studied, and prayed, and over time the Lord gave us better discernment and understanding.  We both had been nominal Christians when we fell away from our faith, and by the Grace and mercy of God, He drew us back anyway.   Not to marginalize our own culpability in drifting from the straight and narrow, but I believe God allowed us to see the dark underbelly of the church world, to know firsthand what deceptions and false doctrines are plagueing the church, just for such a time as this.

Since our son had been a handful of times to visit this other church, we had intended to attend with him at some point so that we could guage what “flavor” of church this was he was being exposed to.  As it meets in a local movie theatre, I pretty much expected it to be one of the more “modern” “relevency-focused” churches, high-octane, energetic, with the praise music and all the electronics.  I was not disappointed on that score.  Most of the folks whipped out a smart phone or a tablet when the pastor said “turn in your Bibles to the book of Exodus”.

Source

Now, after all the exposure to these various “ways of doing church”, more and more we felt led, and had a longing, to return to the firm foundation of the old paths.  We became convinced that the best way to get back on track, is to backtrack to where you lost your way to begin with.  It wasn’t as simple as all that, but in the long and short of it, that is what the Lord led us to do.  Now we are in a Fundamental Baptist church, with the old hymns, with the King James and maybe it’s my age showing, but I find the peacefulness, the calm and order, very refreshing as opposed to the noise, clamor, constant striving that I see in so many of the “high-octane” services of today.

I am one of these people who has grown very leary of the church that tries so hard to attract the world by any means other than the gospel.   Christ himself had no “attraction” for the the world as a whole.

The discussion my son and I had on the way home was a good one.  First of all, I am grateful that my son sought for us to come and check it out, and to hear our input.  My husband is doing well, but was having one of his harder days, and did not feel up to getting to church so it was just me and my older son who went.

Keep in mind the last church our family attended before the Fundamental Baptist one we are in now, was along the lines of the high-adrenaline praise and worship focus.

It was interesting, after having come out of that and been away for a couple of years, to go back.  The first thing I noticed was the mixture of different skin colors.  I wish that were true in every church.  I also noticed quite a few gray-haired folk, and middle-agers along with lots and lots of younger folks.  Yes, we want to see them in church.

As to the music, which we missed some of, I noted that the words were the common, brief repetitive choruses, and that they tend to boss God around a bit.  Or, at least be very “me-focused”.  Lord, we want to see your face, righ here, right now, come join us in this place.  A little presumptuous and demanding.  But this gave us a great point of comparison for our discussion on the way home.  Hymns focus on what a rotten sinner we were before we met Jesus, and they teach Biblical principles and scripture itself.

We talked about the driving beat and proponderence of base, the artificial “mood-manipulation” as opposed to allwoing the Holy Spirit to do His own work.   I also noticed mostly the “praise team” performing, while the people stood and watched, or swayed to the music.  I pointed out how if a person were to come in who maybe didn’t speak the language, might mistake the whole thing for a rock concert, and how we are called to “come out of the world”, not imitate the world.  This was not the first discussion we’ve had on these differences, by a long shot.

I was proud that my son had noted some of these things on his own.  Could appreciate them.

When the preacher spoke, he clearly had Bible knowledge or familiarity, but he read from one of the versions which has taken the Word and “paraphrased it to within an inch of it’s life” so to speak.  Just a lot of liberty taken in the re-wording.  That was a bigger concern for me.  Yet, he was bold in his challenge, directly addressing sexual sin, pornography, drinking, gluttony.  The theme of the message was “taking that next step” in your walk with the Lord, and addressing the “elephants in the room”.  In a way, ok, he is addressing a major issue, how it’s not ok to be a Christian living a worldly life that is identical to that of the unsaved.  But I thought,” how sad is it that it has become “a given” that this is the lifestyle of most professing Christians today?”  The same mindset that created these conditions, isn’t likely to be very effective in rectifying them. (IE, lets be world-like so we can draw them in, and teach them how the Lord calls us to be set-apart).  I noted that even while he was “boldly” addressing these “touchy subjects” he was very quick to follow the statements up with “we don’t judge here, all are welcome”.  I think this is probably a guy who grew up in or has some background in a well-grounded (interpreted “old-fashioned) Bible-believing Bible-teaching church, but who has bought into the idea that big crowds mean a move of God.  When in actuality, big crowds probably mean the message has been so diluted as to no longer be offensive in any way to any one.  The Bible tells us that the message of Christ IS offensive and will not be popular.

Good intentions were clearly present.

Would we prohibit our son(s) from attending a church like this?  I can hear fellow Fundamentalists shouting “YES! ABSOLUTELY!”

The thing is, I grew up with no idea whatsoever that there was such a church.  My church of origin was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I do believe that when I was 16, (3+decades ago) one could go into a majority of churches, whether Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentacostal, Baptist, and hear the gospel, and basic doctrines that were fairly universal between the “denominations”, with the main points of difference being in preferences for worship, and minor things not related to salvation.  Relative inconsequentials.

The Pharasees of Saul/Paul’s day, were Fundamentalists.  They had zeal, but their zeal waxed militant, and extended beyond scripture doctrine to embrace what amounted to “nit-picking extremes” which man had tacked on, resulting in bondage to rules.   There is liberty in Christ, though we dare not abuse it, turning the grace of God into laciviousness, making His sacrifice “of none effect”.   Our gratitude to Him for saving us out of our hopeless sin, should compel us to desire to obey Him.  Yet fundamentalism today carries the same risk that it did in the Pharasee’s day.  (By the way, orthodox Judiasm today is the residue of the Pharasees, striving to be righteous by their doings).   The Fundamentalist/Old Path churches of today are dwindling.  Some would say it is because they remain true to the inerrancy of scripture, and the principle of Biblical separation, both of which are quite unpopular to the modern seminary-trained preachers of today.  And that is true all the more in this apostacy-riddled end of the age of Grace.  But findamentalists need to be cautious about crossing the line and forgetting it is not they who keep their garments clean, but the incorruptable nature of the cleansing power of the blood of  Christ.

No, I would not prohibit my son from attending this church. For one thing, I understand that prohibiting an almost-adult teenager in an area such as this, is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. We prefer to choose our battles.  But more crucial is the fact that  he has to learn to figure these things out on his own, and better to have some latitude in which to do that while he is still under our authority, to guide, advise, and allow him to feel a sense of  arriving at the proper conclusion on his own.  As it stands, he sees some positives and some negatives in both worship settings.  He recognizes that the high-octane church is kind of like the Doritos and Little Debbie fare, it does provide some sustainance, appeals to the tastebuds, as opposed to the more bland but more nutritious fundamentals he gets at our own church.  On the other hand, the pastor is addressing topics that, like it or not, kids his age do face in this day and time.  Pre-marital sex.  Pornography. Drinking.  Taking care of your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It is my belief that God still works, even through the imperfect church.  That is tongue-in-cheek, of course, because not a single one of us has it all figured out and if we think we do, then we are in a dangerous and vulnerable mindset.  “The Church” is not the group we meet with every Sunday.  The church is much bigger than that, and though not everyone in my church or yours is necessarily a true Christian, many of those we might disagree with, ARE members of The Church, and we are to love them.  It becomes more and more difficult in the current climate of “compromised Christianity” to both hold one another accountable, and also refrain from judging true fellow-believers.  It is a very fine line.  Even harder to teach that to our kids.  I just keep coming back to the principle that we ought to all be so busy studying, seeking the Lord, praying and working out our own salvation in fear and trembling, getting the logs out of our own eyes, that we don’t have time to be evaluating the sincerity of the faith of another.  Whether they are tongues-speakers, or Sabbath-keepers, or what have you.  When I have addressed such things as those, it is with the concerns over my own experiences in an area, and my conviction that Satan has counterfeits for everything.  I also know that truth is not relative.  There are absolutes.  And the absolutes can be known.  But satan is working harder than ever to muddle that.

I guess the take-away from todays’ ramblings is this: We are living in days of confusion and chaos, both within and outside the church.  It behooves us now more than ever to concern ourselves with our own relationship with the Lord, to be sure we are watching for His return in complete trust, in all obedience, praying continually and in all circumstances.  Praying over our children diligently, now more than ever, that God would keep them from all the pitfalls of ths world, and snares of the devil, and dangers of their own fallen nature,  for we cannot protect them from everything, nor can we be with them every minute and every place.

………………

Now for a brief update on my husband Garrett; His surgical wound seems to have hit upon a slightly accelerated phase of healing, though I anticipate another 2 weeks of twice-daily packing and dressing.  His hemoglobin actually went backward on the last blood-test Thursday past.  Down to 8.7  The doctor says he is not too worried, as it does take a good 3 months for hemoglobin to get back up there to normal and stabilize.  Chemo was pushed back to Feb. 6 in order that the surgical incision wound could be healed up before we begin chemo, which will further compromise the body’s ability to heal itself, and will knock those blood counts back down further.

Meanwhile, he is released on Monday, as far as his surgeon is concerned, to return to work, though to me, if he is not well enough to start taking chemo, how do they figure he is well enough to go back to work? Thing is, one doc treats the surgical aspects, a different one the cancer aspects, so it’s a bit of a “fumble” in the hand-off.   It’s the red tape and hoops, you know how that goes.  So please just pray for his body to have that extra oomph it needs, to heal up, and for him to have the strength and energy he needs as he attempts to get back on the job.  We know that with his short-term disability and the Family Medical Leave Act legislation, his job is secure for a while by law, and we were instructed by the insurance person that if he goes to work, finds he just can’t quite handle full time, he can go to part time, and it won’t be a new “incident” but rather a “relapse” and there would be no lapse in his benefits for the short-term disability policy.   He has good days and bad days, as anyone does who has been through all this, and though most days he’s moving along, those days when he has less stamina somehow can be rather demoralizing for him.  Especially at the phase where you are starting to get your strength back, but it simply doesn’t last  long.

We still believe that God is sovereign and He has walked this out before us, and we are trusting Him to work out these concerns each in His own way and time.  It comes down to the matter of trust.  And despite my past history of worry, I have made an irrevocable determination that I will not take on the anxiety Satan wants to bind me up with.  My husband has made that same determination.  We have tried things our own way often enough in the past.  It is time to take God at His Word.  He has never failed us yet, and I really believe that He gives us the option to worry ourselves into a tizzy if that is the way we insist on having it, or placing it all in His hands and truly leaving it there for Him to take up for us.

I would not trade that perspective and all the trials and tribulations that have been required in order for us to obtain it, for all the smooth-sailing in the world.  I am not a glutton for struggle and strife, but I have learned the great value in the struggle.

Gods ways are very certainly not our ways.  His thoughts, not our thoughts.  But if He is willing to raise us up spiritually, by bringing us low physically, so we can appreciate the final product of His incomprehensible ways, that is enough for me, and is an honor and a privilege for which we are grateful.