Recently in Church Category

My friend Mike, who sadly still pays for AOL email, told me about a hilarious example of spirit-led prayer gone awry, as witnessed by his sister. 

When you pass through the waters, 
I will be with you; 
and when you pass through the rivers, 
they will not sweep over you. 
When you walk through the fire, 
you will not be burned; 
the flames will not set you ablaze."

My wife pointed me to these clever videos posted on Godtube (who knew there was such a thing). Evidently these videos are receiving lots of media attention today for some reason.  

Yet another sign that the ultra-conservative powers within the Southern Baptist Convention continue extend their influence in truly backwards ways.

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, from which two of my friends graduated*, has introduced a new women-only program in, wait for it...homemaking. From the article in the Washington Post today:

Coursework will include seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation, seven hours of textile design and "clothing construction," three hours of general homemaking, three hours on "the value of a child," and three hours on the "biblical model for the home and family."

The article does a good job in identifying Paige Patterson as the leading force behind this new program and the general movement within the SBC to limit women's roles in the church and home. He was president of the SBC when the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message was adopted, which explicitly prohibits female pastors (not just senior pastors). The article also quotes baptist critics of the program and movement. Unfortunately, the many thoughtful critics of the ultra-conservative forces in the SBC continue to be ignored by those in control.

As evangelicals strive to be culturally relevant, moves like this are certainly very damaging to that goal. Many non-ultra-conservative Christians still support the Complementarian view of women's roles in the church, and healthy debate continues over this issue. But programs like the homemaking one at Southwestern can only damage the place of women within the Christian community and affirm our cultural reputation for being firmly planted in the 1950's. What does this say to girls who want to become doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers, or even astronauts?

That's nice dear, don't forget about the cookies in the oven. How sad.

*To be fair, Southwestern wasn't nearly as anti-women when my two friends attended (which was before Patterson took over).

My wife was approached to complete a survey following our viewing of Transformers this afternoon (great summer action flick, btw). The survey was evidently measuring the impact of the post-slideshow, pre-preview commercials. For example, the anti-drug campaign type commercials commonly aired in theaters out here, or for those of you in LA, the old LA Times commercials shot like an action film. The interesting thing was that Cynthia told the guy she didn't recall the advertised products, but she did remember the church ads (slides) before the commercials. The survey-taker responded, "That's what everyone says." So, perhaps advertising in movie theaters is a strong way for churches to make their presence known.

For the first time in eight years, Cynthia and I find ourselves in search of a new church. We've been visiting different churches for a few weeks now, some good and some not so good.

Years ago, I told Cynthia that I wasn't interested in any church without a building, without regular Sunday School, or without all the church trappings to which I was accustomed. Churches that met in schools and the like didn't seem like real churches to me at the time. You could say that my definition of a church was tied up with its building or location.

However, as we look around for churches now, I find myself feeling contrary to my previous bias. I'm now more attracted to churches that meet in elementary or middle school auditoriums and have home groups during the week. Perhaps this attraction is rooted in the type of church rather than its physical presence. It's the praise bands, casual environments, and home groups that draw me rather than choirs, semi-formal environments, and Sunday school. Not that these things are bad; they just have very little appeal to me at this time. Perhaps I'm "done" with church as I know it for the time being.

I should distinguish between churches that meet in schools and those that are casual. We visited a church in a nearby elementary school that managed to come across very stuffy with just eight of us in attendance (including the pastor)! And, there are several well-known large churches that are very casual (e.g., Saddleback in CA).

I'll keep you posted on our progress.