Church activities, part 1: grandfathered events, altar calls, public prayer
The hosts walk through the article's first items. 'Events that are grandfathered in' (the Sadie Hawkins dance since 1927, the Betsy Ross Christmas luncheon) opens a wider critique: most church activities are insular, inside the building, and the infrastructure trains people to wait to be told what to do rather than see needs and fill them. Dan is noted as absent ('wish Dan was here') with his church-planting background cited as a missing perspective. Withering events steal resources from thriving ones. The prayer-related items prompt the altar-call debate: one host finds Ignite-style altar calls unsettling, Boova recounts going forward as 'little booba' at youth events at age 13 ('I got plans to ruin it more' the moment they got home), and the room weighs public sanctuary prayer against 'eye gossip.'
More on Prayer
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'When God is silent': what counts as hearing from the Lord?
- What does it mean to 'hear from the Lord,' and how often should we expect it?
Mike brings a question from his Bible study, whose paragraph heading was 'when God is silent': the author wrote that he experienced God's silence for a couple of weeks and freaked out, and Ben expected a relatable years-long drought story — 'Oh, two weeks.
From No. 603 · Found Out
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'What would I fight God on?': buildings, pews, and the zero-fruit youth group
- What would I fight God on — and would my heart go along with following him?
Ben shares what he ran into in the last couple weeks: 'what would I fight God on even if I knew it was him?'
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Is modern Christianity biased toward a personality type?
- Is modern Christianity (its sermons and worship music) biased toward a certain personality type?
A host asks whether what churches teach, focus on, and sing is biased toward a certain personality type — prompted by emotive worship lyrics (the 'sloppy wet kiss' line in a…
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Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
- Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
A host asks whether following Jesus should feel more comfortable as time goes on — noting the low-level tension many feel around am-I-doing-enough and the stigma that contentment equals laziness.