churches

Chris Knight's avatar

I am somewhat in a state of flux at the moment.  See, I’ve been living in the Spartanburg, South Carolina area for going on eight years now.  But I don’t know if it can truly be called that I’ve “set down roots” here.  This is one of the fastest-growing areas in the entire country, there are people coming to live here in mega droves (the constant residential developing is something that’s irking longtime members of the community) but even so, there’s not been a peace on my heart about staying here.  If I can swing it I’d love to relocate to the Greenville area.  I have a lot of friends and family there, it would be nice to be closer to them.

One of the things that has suffered because of that “lack of peace” is my spiritual life.  I’ve been here for the better part of a decade and
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I’m reading a number of stories regarding churches turning their nativity scenes into political statements about immigration agents enforcing the laws.  Namely, these churches are replacing Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus with signs saying “ICE was here”.  At least one church went all the way and has ICE agents surrounding the crèche with zip ties and weapons drawn.

Photo credit: Matthew McDonald

I would not want to visit these churches, because they are demonstrating that they have no grasp of scripture at all.

Here’s the truth of the matter: Jesus and his parents were never refugees or immigrants.  Joseph took his wife to Bethlehem because that was their hometown, and they had to take part in a census that had been ordered by Caesar.  They may not have been fully citizens of Rome (few in Roman territory were) but they were certainly 100% legal residents of the empire. ...

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Very good friend Matt Smith (no not the Doctor Who actor!) and I go back a few years, all the way to our time together at that very strange television station in Reidsville, North Carolina.  I learned a lot about video and broadcasting from Matt, and I continue to learn much from him since his becoming active with the online realm, sharing his talents and his calling as a minister.

For the past two or three years Matt has been maintaining a weekly series of “Sunday school” lessons.  Every Saturday he posts a new one on YouTube.  I for one have been benefiting from Matt’s devotionals and I think that others might will also.  Click on over to Matt’s YouTube channel and prepare to be edified, enlightened, and maybe even a little entertained.

Thank you for all that you do my brother!...

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Regrettably, there is one goal that has eluded me in the seven years since my dog Tammy and I left our old hometown to find our place somewhere in America.  It was something I was very serious about, and still am.  I speak of finding a place of worship.  Somewhere that I can be an active part of a community of believers.

This area doesn’t lack for churches.  I’ve visited many of them.  Guess you could say that I’m hoping and praying that God will lead me to where He needs me to be.  It’s almost like a microcosm of the journey across America we did.  I’m still in that “let’s see what’s out there” mode.

In the five years since I’ve been here I’ve visited some churches that were very big, others that were quite small.  A few of them had beliefs that I can not for good reasons ...

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It is exactly two hundred miles from the driveway of my home
near Spartanburg to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Department office in
Wentworth, North Carolina.  That was the
distance I drove one morning three years ago this winter.

I went back to where I grew up.  Because I was finally ready to give a
statement to members of law enforcement about my being raped at age twelve.

For well over three decades I had kept the agony and the
shame close to me, sharing it only with a few people I absolutely trusted.  As if that would be enough to stop the
hurt.  But at last it became too much to
bear, this far into my life.

Why didn’t I go to the authorities years earlier?  It’s hard to explain.  Partly, it’s because on a primal level I
didn’t want to have to face ...

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This morning one of the local churches had a broadcast of their service from last Sunday morning.  They have adapted well to the coronavirus-engendered shutdown.  Several dozen choir members sang hymns together via Zoom and a father baptized his daughter in the family’s bathroom tub.  The sermon – delivered to an empty sanctuary – was no less potent and encouraging.

I imagine that much the same is happening across America and in other places also: churches holding virtual worship services across the Intertubes.  But really, it doesn’t matter where a church meets.  As Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered in My name…”, there is the body of Christ also.

Along those lines, there’s an idea I had a few days ago and I’ll pass it along to this blog’s readers and anyone else…

Churches should have a “Revital Sunday” service (or “Revital Sabbath” for our friends among the ...

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While driving through Virginia over the weekend there was a church sign that caught my eye.  It was much like any other found outside places of worship throughout the Bible Belt of America: usually the name of the church, some other info (website address, etc.) and then lots of space for some timely text or witty remark.  I think one of my all-time favorites has to be “SOMEONE CALL 911, THIS CHURCH IS ON FIRE!”  And I’d be horribly negligent as a blogger if I didn’t note one nearby congregation’s humorous reaction to all the precipitation we’ve had lately: “WHOEVER IS PRAYING FOR RAIN: PLEASE STOP”.

When you think about it, church signs were Twitter before we ever had the Internet.  And even today they convey their messages much better… and with far fewer than 140 characters.

But here’s what was emblazoned on this particular church’s outdoor sign:

A COUNTRY
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Church of Santa-Monica, Madrid, Spain, world's ugliest churchesRealClearReligion has scoured the globe to come up with this set of 35 pages depicting the ugliest churches in the world.  Be they Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, non-denominational or whatever, these edifices may not be an affront to God… but they are an affront to human eyeballs!  Some of them can’t really help it: they were obviously a convenience store or movie theater before being converted into places of worship.  But most of them – like the Church of Santa-Monica in Madrid, Spain – will have you scratching your head and wondering: “what the heck am I looking at?”  Others, such as Kappal Matha Church in Uvari, India, simply defy all attempts at rationality.  One can’t doubt the faith being expressed in these sanctuaries… but there is no loss of bewilderment about what their architects were intending when they designed them!...

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Meet “Hobo Joe”!

That’s the pastor of the church I’ve been going to, in his clown/hobo getup at the beginning of yesterday’s worship service. I forget what “H.O.B.O” is an acronym for but it’s something to do with kicking off the annual general fund drive.

Joe is quite a cool fella! Incidentally, I offered him the use of my Jedi Knight costume if he ever wanted to use it. A sermon preached by “Jedi Joe”? I bet a wazoo of people would dig that 🙂...

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There are some who throughout the history of Christianity have claimed to be the “one true church”: the only legitimate body of Christ that came into being at Pentecost in the days following the ascension of our Lord. I speak not of those who acknowledge parity with brethren of however peculiar perspective who yet profess Christ as Lord, but instead of those who deign to be the exclusive institution established by divine mandate. Such are the ones who incessantly badger, harass and even lust to destroy their fellow servants out of the notion that doing so makes them “first” in the sight of God and man (mostly man).

Such people are terribly ignorant at best, and outright liars at worst. Invariably their founding tenet is that they are the sole custodians and guardians of “the pattern” of worship found in the New Testament.

Therein rests the fallacy of their argument. ...

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