tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post8361964181459516008..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Two Interesting Articles.Assistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-76699205098857698992015-10-25T13:46:12.157-04:002015-10-25T13:46:12.157-04:00We should not reject prospective church members be...We should not reject prospective church members because they look funny, but neither should we be surprised that congregations are for the most part composed of fairly normal looking and respectable people. It takes discipline to go to church every Sunday morning, and the same discipline that gets a man out of bed will get him to comb and cut his hair, hold down a regular job, and observe the conventions. It also takes a fairly strong sense of loyalty, since church services are often rather dull. Church-going is not for thrill seekers.<br /><br />I've watched this selection for normalcy in the Bible study that I attend before mass on Sunday mornings. Every so often an eccentric will join us, and we go out of our way to make them welcome. But they normally disappear after a month or so, I think because they are fundamentally erratic and inconstant people.<br /><br />I'm not saying anything about the relative spiritual condition of steady and flighty Christians, only that an organized activity like church-going selects for the steady and against the flighty. We all have our oddities, of course, but very odd people are odd through and through. It's not a lack of acceptance from normal people that has made them that way.JMSmithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14688984764464327681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-37627874568579838832015-10-21T22:43:03.040-04:002015-10-21T22:43:03.040-04:00I read The Purpose Driven Church back when the chu...I read The Purpose Driven Church back when the church I was then a member of looked to expand. I got the impression of "segregated by design." If you tailor your outreach to attract young families, or young professionals, or Hmong without a church building--you leave out others.<br /><br />The parish church model has some advantages here.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.com