Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Worst example ever

I am always suspicious about articles such as this one that claim to give you 10 ways to keep people coming to Sunday School and stay involved in church. Get saved and then you will get involved in a church is the tone of my thinking. But obviously, churches can be friendly and unfriendly and make even the most gracious saint feel unwelcomed. But for one of his points, listen to what the writer says. This is exactly why articles like this are stupid. The author would probably explain what he means if asked but how could this ever make it past the proof reader??

Tip #7


Avoid church jargon.

Guests often aren’t familiar with such church language terms as “walking the aisle,” “the blood of Jesus”(emphasis mine) or “asking Jesus into your heart.” Teachers should be careful to avoid such phrases to avoid confusing visitors or making them uncomfortable, Beasley said.

I agree we should do away with the ridiculous idea of 'walking the aisle,' (I always think of a WWF wrestler who used that phrase- "if you want to be the man you have to beat the man and walk that aisle...This concept is not too far away from the salseman calling himself a 'soul winner' who during the 7th verse of 'Just as I am', says things like, If you have any lost-loved ones, come on down...)"

And anyone who knows me is well versed in my belief of the abomination of desolation that is 'asking Jesus into your heart." What a travesty and molesting of the gospel to call people to that. I often ask people where we get the word 'accept' in terms of presenting the gospel to people in the New Testament. "Except you repent..."

Back to the point, to say that we should not use the term, ' the blood of Christ' in speaking when visitors or unbelievers are around because it might 'confuse or make them uncomfortable' is an assault on the gospel. Forgive us if the bloody death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ makes you uncomfortable. Maybe we should tell them if they would just walk down the aisle and pray a prayer that we lead them in to accept Jesus into their heart that they could then leave and never have to darken the doors of the church again because once saved always saved?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would think he meant that the term confused people.

It did me when I went to church. The uncomfortableness came from the confusion. It wasn't that it was offensive and since I didn't get it I was an enemy of the gospel.

Joe VonDoloski said...

I agree that was the author's intent, and I would even agree that in a Sunday School where you have unbeliever's and visitors, you should be careful to define your terms. What better term for an 'enemy of the gospel' to hear explained than the blood of Christ has reconciled us to God the Father?