Uncle_Sol
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2024
- Messages
- 59
- Age
- 69
- Location
- England (U.K.)
- Gender
- Male
- Religious Affiliation
- Protestant
- Marital Status
- Single
- Acceptance of the Trinity & Nicene Creed
- Yes
In one of the previous phases in my life about 40 years ago when I was a fairly young man, christians didn't describe themselves as "reformed" - it seemed to mean Luther - and behaved and interacted differently, and allowed each other to act differently, from today. In those days if my sense of memory isn't tricking me, Bible studies were a conversation in which we gained light shared among each other.
I am all for getting up to date and also being in the utmost tactful. Here are some current phenomena I find shocking. I would value kindly observations from all who have experience and insight into these situations, of whatever current denomination.
I inadvertently dropped the B-word (belief) and was pounced upon. The person interrupting, a sub-animator, said belief is head knowledge and that I need heart knowledge - which I hadn't said or showed I hadn't got, and in addition equivocates as to the value of head knowledge.
There is the splitting of the "home group" into subgroups so that one gets less insight: the people one most went there to meet, probably aren't allowed in that subgroup (rapport builds to some extent on relationships and spreads precisely on that firm basis). Also I noticed that the other participants, who are less than half my age, are being interrupted every few seconds also.
Another time we were looking at the first two-thirds of Jn 4 and I said it is connected with worship in Spirit and in truth and was instantly declared off topic by the sub-animator (a different one in a different group from the one mentioned above).
These are people who are adamant that they are "reformed" and that is not a name I am applying to them.
For some time after I first turned up, there was one couple that were kind to me and of late kindness has widened a little.
When I look up statements-of-doctrine of the Reformed, I see a range from the muddled, to crystal clear and what I believed since my infancy (dreaded B-word again). The one this church published is towards the muddled side.
Almost everybody volunteers and almost everybody gets accepted into membership in a few weeks after turning up. Considering their music is very good, and their visual projectors are inefficient, the amount of bulky kit that needs continual assembling and storing is way over the top. (Any church I was at before now, required membership or equivalent "practice", only of senior volunteers and those wishing to vote on business.)
It's almost as if I don't push their buttons and I don't push theirs.
It's not clear where the sub-animators got their training.
I'm not going to gain sympathy by "contradicting" anybody the way I and others get contradicted. But, the assistant minister did tell me he wants to put a stop to the declaring of people to be off topic, and said he would back me up.
The new senior minister preached an excellent series on James in the last few weeks.
Any kindly suggestions please in addition to some far more than average amounts of prayer? I'm wishing anybody of any denominations that has brainwaves. It's just a subculture thing. I think that 2024 is not a time to idle as if the minds of the 25-somethings and the 45-somethings don't matter (40 years ago "we" were more earnest as well as freer - earnest precisely because free). Thank you!
I am all for getting up to date and also being in the utmost tactful. Here are some current phenomena I find shocking. I would value kindly observations from all who have experience and insight into these situations, of whatever current denomination.
I inadvertently dropped the B-word (belief) and was pounced upon. The person interrupting, a sub-animator, said belief is head knowledge and that I need heart knowledge - which I hadn't said or showed I hadn't got, and in addition equivocates as to the value of head knowledge.
There is the splitting of the "home group" into subgroups so that one gets less insight: the people one most went there to meet, probably aren't allowed in that subgroup (rapport builds to some extent on relationships and spreads precisely on that firm basis). Also I noticed that the other participants, who are less than half my age, are being interrupted every few seconds also.
Another time we were looking at the first two-thirds of Jn 4 and I said it is connected with worship in Spirit and in truth and was instantly declared off topic by the sub-animator (a different one in a different group from the one mentioned above).
These are people who are adamant that they are "reformed" and that is not a name I am applying to them.
For some time after I first turned up, there was one couple that were kind to me and of late kindness has widened a little.
When I look up statements-of-doctrine of the Reformed, I see a range from the muddled, to crystal clear and what I believed since my infancy (dreaded B-word again). The one this church published is towards the muddled side.
Almost everybody volunteers and almost everybody gets accepted into membership in a few weeks after turning up. Considering their music is very good, and their visual projectors are inefficient, the amount of bulky kit that needs continual assembling and storing is way over the top. (Any church I was at before now, required membership or equivalent "practice", only of senior volunteers and those wishing to vote on business.)
It's almost as if I don't push their buttons and I don't push theirs.
It's not clear where the sub-animators got their training.
I'm not going to gain sympathy by "contradicting" anybody the way I and others get contradicted. But, the assistant minister did tell me he wants to put a stop to the declaring of people to be off topic, and said he would back me up.
The new senior minister preached an excellent series on James in the last few weeks.
Any kindly suggestions please in addition to some far more than average amounts of prayer? I'm wishing anybody of any denominations that has brainwaves. It's just a subculture thing. I think that 2024 is not a time to idle as if the minds of the 25-somethings and the 45-somethings don't matter (40 years ago "we" were more earnest as well as freer - earnest precisely because free). Thank you!