Attending Church-The Body Of Christ

[sheep wrecked]

Thanx for starting a good thread, Mark! And the responses are really great, too!

I will throw in my worth.

I have not been to church in about 5 years. And to be honest, I do not miss it one bit, which I will explain.

I was raised in a very traditional evangelical denomination and went to church my whole life - twice on Sundays and to other programs whenever they were available. I served there for most of my life - 46 yrs worth. I taught sunday school, sang in the choir, did nursery, did outreach mission work [at drive-in church for 25 years], etc. I helped out in many different areas. I was raised believing the church was how you related to God, and serving Him there, fulfilled Biblical mandate.

Then one day, that all changed. I discovered that I was serving God, but I had not committed my life to Him. He turned me around on my ear, so to speak, and I have not been the same since.

Through the next several years I went to many churches seeking "truth", which led me down a very destructive spiritual path. After finally getting "clean" of all the junk teachings I had consumed - by the grace of God, I quit going to church.

This is my "beef" - not that I am also to blame for following after heresy by the boatload, but for all the "catechism" and sunday school teaching, studies, and preaching there was no good solid scriptural instruction as to why Jesus died. By that I mean no in-depth study of why I believed what I did about His sacrifice and why His death was so important or to prove His deity - or even what the term "New Covenant" actually means! It seems that the emphasis of church is tithing and programs.

Part of those years of "prodigal" - away from Scriptural Truth - was spent in two different "pig pens" of deception. But, I was convinced that the corn husks I was eating was real good food. So my question, after being back "home" is why wasn't I taught about the false stuff out there?

Especially HR. It's an explosive movement making tremendous inroads into the church and snatching people out by the car loads. So why are the churches not teaching about this stuff? I even wrote to some of my former pastors and offered to come and show them. I never got one response back.

My personal opinion is that the church [church at large > organized religion - not the bride of Christ] has failed. Maybe it was never designed to be something different? It seems that God uses the church, but ultimately, the church is not about furthering the Kingdom of God as much as it is about furthering a place to serve herself.

I just know you are going to ask me about fellowship God has been good. I have lots of friends on the net. Some are real good friends and we are on the same page spiritually. God is always bringing people that I can share with - so very cool! In real life, I just let Him bring people to me that need love, attention, care, direction - whatever. Perhaps that has filled the "void" of social activity for me. Or maybe I just don't need it like some people do. I often wonder why the social end becomes more important than the spiritual

Anyway - that's where I'm at presently :tomatoes: