Church Hunting: T Presb. Church

TPC

TPC came highly recommended... from very sweet, wonderful, good friends, who had previous recommended a church that Rebecca had to walk out, mid-sermon, and it was only through sheer will power, amid a growing migraine, that I endured. I never thought I would be in a church where the pastor said "the church is not just the people, it's also a building." No surprise they were trying to raise money for a new place. He said so much that was wrong. My friends didn't stay too much longer there. They are salt-of-the-earth people, but it is hard not to look askance if this is what they'll settle for.

This new place, I listened to the sermons online, and it seemed ok. It was a Presbyterian church, so if we stayed, if it ever happened I wouldn't have any significant function since I hold to a believer's baptism. But we went. A lot of people from our school go there. They were very excited to see us and we had to disengage from conversation with difficulty.

But when we got to the car, Rebecca was very upset with me for recommending it. The sermon. It was... How do people sit through that and affirm they have been taught? At the beginning the pastor condescended (nicely) to the young children and tried to help them understand some points about sin. But then the whole sermon wasn't much above that level and although I don't remember the specifics, he got some major points about sin very, very wrong. Things he taught to us, things to the children.

And this is a pastor who I understand from later conversations, is fairly well learned. But the sermon was a train-wreck in my book. And it makes it doubly hard to stay when everyone is milling around after and is this had been a perfectly edifying day and they were well fed spiritually.

I'm not convinced it's about truth. People just settle for the traditional forms of church worship. If you have those, you think this is what it is all about. If you have ever had more, and want more, it is difficult to settle for this and understand how anyone else can.