@staticsan
active 1 week, 4 days ago-
Wade started the topic The Paradox of Community in the forum The Church 1 year, 4 months ago
I’ve been avoiding sermons at the church I still attend. Mostly this is by attending less, but sometimes it is by being late, or being occupied during the service (for instance, I sometimes cook for the evening service meal). And sometimes I can’t really avoid it, like yesterday when I was rostered on to play in the service.
The message was…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic Trolling in the forum Trying to Move On 1 year, 5 months ago
Thanks to Fred Clark, I discovered a very interesting post about the Book of Joshua the other day. The post is about why is Israel encouraged to commit genocide on the peoples whose land they are taking.
I don’t fully agree with the blogger’s conclusion, but I liked how he came to it. But what I found more interesting was that this piece of…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic Actually reading the Bible. in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 6 months ago
(Cross-posted from my blog.)
How many churched people read their Bibles? How many read outside their daily studies? Or weekly study? Or Sunday message?
I grew up in a mildly evangelical but otherwise not terribly fundamentalist church in white suburbia. This involved Sunday School every Sunday it was on, and since this was before the …[Read more]
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Wade started the topic The anthropology of how we don’t want to grow up in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 6 months ago
I’ve opined elsewhere, perhaps several times, how our current Western secular society encourages adults to not grow up. In my opinion, this is a complex problem and one I am definitely subject to just as much as the next guy.
The main problem in describing and understanding this is that most people want to find “one root cause” so they can…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic Teaching Evangalism to the tired. in the forum Trying to Move On 1 year, 6 months ago
One more week, one more bible study/home group/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. I was expecting to start a study on Jeremiah or Ezekiel. No: apparently all bible study groups at my church are to eventually to the four week course called “Just Walk Across The Room”. And between last week and this, a copy became available for us.
It’s a DVD plus…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic So now they've noticed. in the forum The Church 1 year, 6 months ago
Noticed, that is, that I am coming to church less.
The pastor commented on it after church last night. Not in a bad way, but in genuine concern that he was seeing me attend less than I was a few months ago. I didn’t go yesterday morning, nor have I been to morning church at all in several weeks. And I didn’t go at all last week because I was as…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic What do I do with Sunday morning? in the forum Trying to Move On 1 year, 7 months ago
Stepping away from the church means several things. First and foremost it means I don’t feel so obligated to go to Sunday morning service. But that brings up another thing: now I have Sunday mornings to myself more often than not. And it’s a trifle weird having a whole ‘nother morning to myself on the weekend.
I’m used to doing my washing on…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic The Christian Homeschooled in the forum Family & Friends 1 year, 7 months ago
I came across this link in my Twitter feed just now. It’s about homeschooled kids coming of age … and rebelling.
Many of the homeschooled are from fundamentalist Christian homes, too. I know the article describes North America, but…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic It's happened. in the forum Family & Friends 1 year, 7 months ago
I re-shared an image on FaceBook yesterday. It was this:
And now one of my church friends has gotten all “aboriginal myths are false” on it.
I want to tear him a new one, but that would be exceedingly counterproductive.…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic I have a friend who doesn't know the Creation Story. in the forum Family & Friends 1 year, 7 months ago
In my experience, this is rather unusual. As far as I know, she has never been to church nor any sort of sunday school. That means she doesn’t know the creation story as told in Genesis, nor, in fact, any of the Bible stories that aren’t widespread in popular culture.
This came up because she and I and a number of other friends are having a…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic So who *isn't* worshiping at church this Easter? in the forum The Church 1 year, 7 months ago
The Good Friday service was okay in my church, although to be honest I went largely because I was rostered on in the church band. But Easter Sunday I wasn’t looking forward to. This church likes the callback “He is risen”/”He is risen indeed”. I never saw that in any of my previous churches, and for various reasons I’m now finding it more annoying…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic Telling my Bible Study in the forum Family & Friends 1 year, 8 months ago
One of the more difficult things I’ve discovered since “stepping out from under the Christian Guilt” is that it is quite difficult to talk to people at church about it. Almost all of them will have had no idea I’ve even been asking questions. Or that I’ve been searching in a wider and wider circle for answers… That’s kind of why I haven’t left…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic The old friend problem. in the forum Trying to Move On 1 year, 8 months ago
I have a friend I knew in high school whom I talk to from time-to-time. We lost touch after high school, which wasn’t really too surprising, and only re-connected a `few years ago with the help of Facebook. We’re the sort of people capable of having deep conversations about life, the universe and everything (and I don’t mean Douglas Adams’ novel).…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic Site feedback. in the forum Leftovers 1 year, 8 months ago
It’s been been bugging me for a few weeks that the TLS pages always reset the scroll point to the top of the page. It means if I start scrolling before the page is completed, it interrupts me when the page is loaded.
Why was that feature added? Could it be removed?
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Wade started the topic No more guilt. in the forum Trying to Move On 1 year, 8 months ago
I posted this to one of my blogs, but I feel it needs airing here, too.
I never realized before just how much Christian teaching is filled with “you should be doing this and you probably aren’t”. Things like regular quiet times, frequent prayer, daily Bible readings, just to name the obvious trio. In the less conservative churches, those preach…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic Just what did grieve Jesus? in the forum Theology & Philosophy 1 year, 8 months ago
As someone who is busy re-building the foundations of their spirituality, it can be a challenge in a bible study to not show off the bits I’m re-examining and trying to see if they still fit. None of the other attendees know what I’m taking myself through and wouldn’t approve either. But sometimes I catch myself leaving clues.
We’ve just…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic I skipped church this morning. in the forum The Church 1 year, 8 months ago
Woke up in plenty of time, but had an email to answer over breakfast, and felt a bit pressed for time. The only reason I was at all wanting to go to church this morning was because of being able to talk with one or two people afterwards. I know I’d only put my own cynical spin on the message on my sermon notes, and probably wouldn’t be able to…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic "Beware of half-truths…" in the forum Laugh Links & Ideas 1 year, 8 months ago
Not sure quite where to put this. It’s kinda funny, but kinda not.
A number of years ago my church bought and printed a whole heap of coffee mugs. One side had the church’s name, the other side has the text “Beware of half-truths: You might have the wrong half!”
I have one of these mugs and saw it in the cupboard this morning. Since my…[Read more]
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Wade started the topic Hello everyone! in the forum Meet & Greet 1 year, 8 months ago
Hello everyone!
I’ve come to this site from the recommendation of a friend at church who has read The Naked Pastor for some years. He’s an advocate of the Emerging Church and of churches in general being more progressive. But we’re both currently in a church that is mildly evangelical, solidly contemporary and in the middle of a firmly white,…[Read more]