Church

[aaroncam85]

i just wanted to ask if you thought it was okay for churches to hire out their worship area to outsiders. this is happening in the church i attend and it has got so bad that once the pastor had to leave his office because of the swearing. i am raising the point at a church meeting and i thought it would be good to get some advice.
Any scripture would be welcome.

 

[SpiritLedEd]

Church (outsourced worship)

A church that brings musicians in from outside the Body of Christ is a church that has switched from genuine worship to trying to lure people in by focusing on entertaininment instead of worship.

When I joined the church I'm part of some 15-20 years ago, we were holding one service on Sundays plus one Wednesday night meeting, drawing maybe 100 people on Sunday. Now we draw 1200 people on the average weekend (four services) and we've planted two more churches in our area. Plus, that Wednesday night church-wide meeting has been replaced by thirty plus small groups meeting in peoples' homes.

From the beginning, our worship has been kept in house in order to avoid turning it into a concert. We now have a paid worship pastor who truly loves God and all who work with him are Christ-following members of our church. We have high quality worship because the people involved volunteer their talents to help us to express our love of the Lord in song.

Is there no one in the church in question who loves Jesus, has some stage presence, and can at least carry a tune? If the congregation is so small and the morale so low that none can be found, maybe its time to lock the doors and have everyone go somewhere else because the cause of Christ certainly is not being served there.

SLE

 

[Fragrant Grace]

I am the Lord Thy God...Thou shalt have no other Gods before me
Ex 20: 2,3

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world James 1:27

Dear aaroncam85

I am assuming that you mean utilising the church for non Christian activities and music. Today as I walked by a prominent Christian Church in my town, I noticed the public message board of activities....

...There were slimming clubs, a yoga class, a local school music festival and a brass band performance all clearly advertised, as being great events to attend. I struggled to see the one small notice for the Church sevices this week

What a damaged testimony the church gives to the world if it allows anything but the worship of the Lord.

The scriptures are clear that Christians should not love the world. The church should never begin a relationship with the world, it is like an unequally yoked marriage

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
1 John 2:15

...Know ye not that the friendship of the world is emnity with God James 4;4

You mention swearing....it begs the question what type of church would allow such ungodly vulgar entertainment. I agree with the comment from SpiritLedEd

Is there no one in the church in question who loves Jesus, has some stage presence, and can at least carry a tune? If the congregation is so small and the morale so low that none can be found, maybe its time to lock the doors and have everyone go somewhere else because the cause of Christ certainly is not being served there.

I pray that your church meeting goes well brother

The Lord bless you

Julia

 

[Brother Mike]

Church and my yoga classes.

A church is just a building, with no spiritual power on it's own. We are now the Temple of God, and meet at places we Call Churches.

If you see the book of Acts it is recorded that God added to the church all that may be saved.

Act 2:47 Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Jesus said upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Even though we are the temple of the Lord, It would seem that Our God takes great interest in where he sends his people to go to church.

90 percent of all the people that go to my church are not originally from the area I live in. God has sent them from all over, including myself. God told my pastor to start a church here in Branson Mo, against what everyone told him. This is a baptist town, and a Word of faith church in a baptist town of only 6,000 people. He started only 6 years ago, and God has increased us. We now have thousands of people coming from all over, and we are on our second building getting ready to purchases another 51 acres at 32,000 an acre.

You just don't hand the world something that God has given you. If a pastor is renting out his church to help with the money to heathens, then something is wrong spiritually with the way the pastor is running the church. The money should always be there if that pastor is in the will of God or teaching the correct things. If the Lord is really involved in the that church, then there should be no reason to supplement the income with worldly activities.

Jesus Is Lord....

 

[aaroncam85]

I would just like to say thank you for all your help, i will be off to the meeting to raise this issue. please pray that God will open eyes and hearts.
Thanks again

 

[Mr. Armenian]

i just wanted to ask if you thought it was okay for churches to hire out their worship area to outsiders. this is happening in the church i attend and it has got so bad that once the pastor had to leave his office because of the swearing. i am raising the point at a church meeting and i thought it would be good to get some advice.
Any scripture would be welcome.

What is a Church? 4 walls where people congregate to worship Christ and talk about Him.

Now, if I started to do the same at my house. Have some people over, play some music and we praise Christ, does my house become a Church? Probably not, but is it any less holy or spiritually important than the Church? I know that some "religions" would disagree, but eh....

I don't see a problem in renting it out, but when their behaviour becomes unacceptable, it's time to stop renting to them.

Fill us in as to what happened!

 

[Blademan]

i just wanted to ask if you thought it was okay for churches to hire out their worship area to outsiders.

Do you mean that they rent the auditorium out to outside groups? (I ask this because I don't take worship so lightly that I place such an important word on the face of a mere building, or its inner rooms.)

this is happening in the church i attend and it has got so bad that once the pastor had to leave his office because of the swearing.

Well, he's the CEO, so if there's a problem, why not go and talk with him about it?

 

[Blademan]

A church that brings musicians in from outside the Body of Christ is a church that has switched from genuine worship to trying to lure people in by focusing on entertaininment instead of worship.

How do you define genuine worship?

From the beginning, our worship has been kept in house in order to avoid turning it into a concert. We now have a paid worship pastor who truly loves God and all who work with him are Christ-following members of our church. We have high quality worship because the people involved volunteer their talents to help us to express our love of the Lord in song.

So, what you're really talking about is praise, when you use the word "worship" in reference to these people? I ask because I don't think of worship and praise as being interchangeable terms.

Is there no one in the church in question who loves Jesus, has some stage presence, and can at least carry a tune? If the congregation is so small and the morale so low that none can be found, maybe its time to lock the doors and have everyone go somewhere else because the cause of Christ certainly is not being served there.

Wow. That's some criteria for judging as to whether the doors should stay open or not. What about fellowship that takes place without a tune?

 

[SpiritLedEd]

Church/A Correction

It appears that I was mistaken in my post. I thought Aaroncam was talking about bringing in non -believers to lead worship. Now it appears that he was talking about renting the facility out to the general public when its not being used for church activities.

However, if the church's finances are in such bad shape that it needs that money and the building is standing unused a lot, those things could be signs of a dying church that needs an infusion of Spirit filled leadership.

SLE