How was church today ?

When it just doesn't fit anywhere else.
Valerie
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Re: How was church today ?

Post by Valerie »

Today's service was excellent- brought me to tears at the end. We had a visiting minister from Scotland speak as these next few days pastors from all over are at Parkside for the Pastor's Conference- we had 3 of them, visiting our Sunday School class (we are just starting the book of Hebrews in Sunday School)
I wondered if Undershepherd may be at this??

The Sermon was on how much the Father loves us- by sending His Son, and How much the Son loves us, by His willingness to die for us. It was a beautiful sermon- I would love to share with everyone. Then afterwards we sang "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"

In Sunday School, I sat next to a younger man, who had married a Mennonite gal- he explained they had been into a Charity type church at some point- I was somewhat excited about that as we had sought out Charity too, and felt maybe there was a common belief between us- Neil was talking to people on his right- anyway- the young man explained they and the Anabaptist have a different understanding on "Salvation". Uh-oh. And he brought up the Reformers (which I am not a fan of) and when he mentioned Calvin, I felt uncomfortable- and brought up how the Reformers persecuted the Anabaptist- then he explained why, and I defended the Anabaptists and Calvin came up and oh- it was hard. I just said- well, I really don't see how Calvin could have been a Christian and persecuted/killed ANYONE, and if Jesus said to love our enemies, how can that EVER be justified?!?!

After Church & Sunday School, in the common area, I looked across the room while Neil was getting coffee & some older man was seemingly waving at me- I looked behind me- he made it clear it was ME he was waving towards- so we walked to meet one another and he asked me if I was "Eli Miller's" daughter. Oh boy- well- I was wearing my scarf and right away I knew why he guessed I might be- apparently she is a Mennonite that attends Parkside- then another lady came up and asked me the same :oops:

The young man in Sunday School mentioned keeping focus on the "Essentials" vs "Non-Essentials" when considering the different sects within Christianity at large (he also made it clear our "Pentecostal" background was vastly different- of course I am well aware of that.

I just emphasized we love Parkside, we just need a 'safe place' for awhile to not have to figure all of this out.

Bottom line- Sermon was excellent- will we fit in here or anywhere? Again realizing overexposure to too much has hurt and helped. Dear Lord have mercy on us all.
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Sudsy
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Re: How was church today ?

Post by Sudsy »

Valerie wrote:Today's service was excellent- brought me to tears at the end. We had a visiting minister from Scotland speak as these next few days pastors from all over are at Parkside for the Pastor's Conference- we had 3 of them, visiting our Sunday School class (we are just starting the book of Hebrews in Sunday School)
I wondered if Undershepherd may be at this??

The Sermon was on how much the Father loves us- by sending His Son, and How much the Son loves us, by His willingness to die for us. It was a beautiful sermon- I would love to share with everyone. Then afterwards we sang "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"

In Sunday School, I sat next to a younger man, who had married a Mennonite gal- he explained they had been into a Charity type church at some point- I was somewhat excited about that as we had sought out Charity too, and felt maybe there was a common belief between us- Neil was talking to people on his right- anyway- the young man explained they and the Anabaptist have a different understanding on "Salvation". Uh-oh. And he brought up the Reformers (which I am not a fan of) and when he mentioned Calvin, I felt uncomfortable- and brought up how the Reformers persecuted the Anabaptist- then he explained why, and I defended the Anabaptists and Calvin came up and oh- it was hard. I just said- well, I really don't see how Calvin could have been a Christian and persecuted/killed ANYONE, and if Jesus said to love our enemies, how can that EVER be justified?!?!

After Church & Sunday School, in the common area, I looked across the room while Neil was getting coffee & some older man was seemingly waving at me- I looked behind me- he made it clear it was ME he was waving towards- so we walked to meet one another and he asked me if I was "Eli Miller's" daughter. Oh boy- well- I was wearing my scarf and right away I knew why he guessed I might be- apparently she is a Mennonite that attends Parkside- then another lady came up and asked me the same :oops:

The young man in Sunday School mentioned keeping focus on the "Essentials" vs "Non-Essentials" when considering the different sects within Christianity at large (he also made it clear our "Pentecostal" background was vastly different- of course I am well aware of that.

I just emphasized we love Parkside, we just need a 'safe place' for awhile to not have to figure all of this out.

Bottom line- Sermon was excellent- will we fit in here or anywhere? Again realizing overexposure to too much has hurt and helped. Dear Lord have mercy on us all.
I still need to get to Parkside. Lots of Alistair's sermons right on youtube. Love to bring one up from time to time.

Have a little trouble though on what you said about John Calvin which I bolded. This brought this video to mind. In one of Q&As to Buxy and Greg regarding how they treat LGBT professing Christians, Buxy brings up Calvin in a comparison. Only 7 minutes but starting at the 3 minute mark Buxy brings up Calvin and whether he sees him as a Christian. You may want to hear his thoughts on this -
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Valerie
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Re: How was church today ?

Post by Valerie »

Sudsy wrote: I still need to get to Parkside. Lots of Alistair's sermons right on youtube. Love to bring one up from time to time.
Indeed- we do too- just not sure if we can truly be 'Parksidians' sometimes we hear explanations in Scripture which is different from our understandings (not our OWN but what we've been taught elsewhere, especially occassionaly in Sunday School)- like I said to the young man- do we just put all these on a shelf?

Have a little trouble though on what you said about John Calvin which I bolded. This brought this video to mind. In one of Q&As to Buxy and Greg regarding how they treat LGBT professing Christians, Buxy brings up Calvin in a comparison. Only 7 minutes but starting at the 3 minute mark Buxy brings up Calvin and whether he sees him as a Christian. You may want to hear his thoughts on this -
Okay so I am relatively new to studying Church history - (as a Pentecost, "Church" history wasn't something we pursued a lot of learning about) so the last several years it's been challenging to try to understand 20000 years of the Church.
Calvin- I watched & listened to what you posted- after just having read this article where I was trying to understand how people can dismiss Christians persecuting/killing Christians- like Calvin being like Apostle Paul before Jesus blinded than opened his eyes- consenting to the death of a Christian-

http://www.tvcresources.net/resource-li ... lled-a-man

even reading the article I just cannot see the persecuting of Christians being justified- even believed it to be doing a service to God- (isn't that what the Pharisees believed? Apostle Paul before conversion?) Of course as a Jew, if I remember right- Old Covenant called for the death penalty of so many different sins- heresy would have been considered sin. It's difficult to read this part of Church history. Would love to hide it from the world if possible :cry:
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Josh
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Re: How was church today ?

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In Charity circles you get pounded on an almost weekly basis with salvation being through faith alone. Many conservative Mennonite circles are similar.

I can't stop laughing right now about someone firmly convinced you are "Eli Miller's daughter". Oh my goodness. You are right - God help us all
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ohio jones
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Re: How was church today ?

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Valerie wrote:Okay so I am relatively new to studying Church history - (as a Pentecost, "Church" history wasn't something we pursued a lot of learning about) so the last several years it's been challenging to try to understand 20000 years of the Church.
Yes, that does look like an overwhelming task. Just focus on the last 10% to start with. ;)
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Josh
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Re: How was church today ?

Post by Josh »

ohio jones wrote:
Valerie wrote:Okay so I am relatively new to studying Church history - (as a Pentecost, "Church" history wasn't something we pursued a lot of learning about) so the last several years it's been challenging to try to understand 20000 years of the Church.
Yes, that does look like an overwhelming task. Just focus on the last 10% to start with. ;)
Or even the first 10%.
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Valerie
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Re: How was church today ?

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Josh wrote:In Charity circles you get pounded on an almost weekly basis with salvation being through faith alone. Many conservative Mennonite circles are similar.

I can't stop laughing right now about someone firmly convinced you are "Eli Miller's daughter". Oh my goodness. You are right - God help us all
Really Josh? Sometimes you really exaggerate, - I listened to Charity for quite some time and that was not the case, neither was it even presented in the sermon at their affiliation. How long were you a member of Charity? Or an affiliation? I was introduced to them by a former Amish and they said nothing of the kind-

Again, look at my post and your own words- nowhere did I suggest that anyone was 'firmly convinced I was Eli Miller's daughter- it concerns me how you always seem to do this and makes for frustrating dialogue at times-
I was 'spotted' by a couple of people who because they saw me covering wanted to know if i was- I have been asked before if I was Amish or Mennonite simply by my covering and wearing longer dresses or skirts which tells me the average person doesn't really know Amish or Mennonite dress at all, they wouldn't wear the clothes I do-
It's silly to focus on externals- but women covering for church may be an identifier of sorts-
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Valerie
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Re: How was church today ?

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ohio jones wrote:
Valerie wrote:Okay so I am relatively new to studying Church history - (as a Pentecost, "Church" history wasn't something we pursued a lot of learning about) so the last several years it's been challenging to try to understand 20000 years of the Church.
Yes, that does look like an overwhelming task. Just focus on the last 10% to start with. ;)
To me it is important to understand the history of the Church- to understand the present day Church and how it is what it is today- the last several years it has help me remove preconceived ideas, assumptions, and discarded things taught that were incorrect and also explained a lot that helped us to understand more about the Faith the Apostles handed down-
I have studied the Scriptures for decades but didn't really realize how we became a very confused looking Church at large.
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Valerie
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Re: How was church today ?

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ohio jones wrote:
Valerie wrote:Okay so I am relatively new to studying Church history - (as a Pentecost, "Church" history wasn't something we pursued a lot of learning about) so the last several years it's been challenging to try to understand 20000 years of the Church.
Yes, that does look like an overwhelming task. Just focus on the last 10% to start with. ;)

:o just saw my typo, now I understand why you said that- meant '2000' years! (and I'm a 'new earth' Believer so 200000 wouldn't even cut it no matter what)
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Josh
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Re: How was church today ?

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Valerie wrote:
Josh wrote:In Charity circles you get pounded on an almost weekly basis with salvation being through faith alone. Many conservative Mennonite circles are similar.

I can't stop laughing right now about someone firmly convinced you are "Eli Miller's daughter". Oh my goodness. You are right - God help us all
Really Josh? Sometimes you really exaggerate, - I listened to Charity for quite some time and that was not the case, neither was it even presented in the sermon at their affiliation. How long were you a member of Charity? Or an affiliation? I was introduced to them by a former Amish and they said nothing of the kind-
I attended a Wednesday night thing that I later learned was Charity, and about all they talked about every single night was salvation by grace / faith alone. (Although they had LOTS of works - they just kept emphasising that none of that was the core of Christianity or essential to salvation).

The same was true at a Midwest church I attended for 2 yrs. I'd say about every 2-3 weeks we get a sermon focused on grace.
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