{"id":1557,"date":"2009-11-22T21:36:06","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T05:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/11\/22\/reflections-on-an-evangelical-service\/"},"modified":"2009-11-22T21:36:06","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T05:36:06","slug":"reflections-on-an-evangelical-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/11\/22\/reflections-on-an-evangelical-service\/","title":{"rendered":"reflections on an evangelical service"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am in my home town, assisting my parents in a move out to the coast so that our family can more directly care for them in their old age. Today I went to church with my dad. It was in this church that I grew up and had my first preaching opportunities. It is a church almost 100 years old. It has had a significant impact on many lives during its existence, including at least 5 men in the ministry from its young people just in my generation.<\/p>\n

The style of service and many doctrinal issues make this a church I could no longer have close fellowship with, even if the Lord had brought me back to my home province for my ministry. I rarely attend here, not usually visiting my parents over a Sunday. In the last 27 years, I have probably been in the church for one of its services less than 5 times.<\/p>\n

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The pastor is a bit older than I, but not much. We were acquainted when I was a teen and he was in college. Our church was affiliated with a college where many of the students worked in summer camps and denomination-wide youth activities. The pastor was one of those who was involved in ministry to me as a teen.<\/p>\n

Today a guest speaker was in town, another man whom I knew from my teen years. He, too, was a part of those college kids who were involved in that province-wide youth ministry. Back in those days, this fellow was a leader among us, one of the spiritual young men whom I quite admired in our group. Today he is a missionary in the Pacific Isles, having spend many years in Guam, now heading to Yap. He preached a fine expository message on the Rich Man and Lazarus. He called it \u201cA Prayer from Hell\u201d. It really was a good message.<\/p>\n

The preliminaries involved the usual, the offering and announcements and the singing. The singing was of the more contemporary style \u2013 it wasn\u2019t absolutely horrible, but certainly not my style of church music. The songs were projected on an overhead (nothing wrong with that) and we moved from one song to another, most of which I didn\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t sing along \u2013 I am not a great singer and without any music, I am totally lost. The music helps a bit (some would say that it makes no difference if they could hear me sing!). At least I know that some notes are meant to be sung longer than others and I am supposed to go up here and down there. Anyway, the music wasn\u2019t overly offensive, but it just wasn\u2019t my style.<\/p>\n

During the announcements, a young lady got up to give them. There wasn\u2019t a lot wrong with that, I guess, until she mentioned going off to the college for a week in January for her \u201cpreaching course.\u201d My old church has been for women preachers since it\u2019s beginning. Not a thing I can agree with, but not a thing to make waves over as a visitor.<\/p>\n

And one announcement in particular made it crystal clear why all these little differences mentioned so far define an entirely different kind of ministry from my own and one I could no longer have any fellowship (i.e., partnership and monetary involvement). The announcement was about an upcoming multi-church Christmas service to be held one of the evenings in December. It will be held at the local Roman Catholic<\/em> church.<\/p>\n

This is my problem with evangelicalism in general. This is where its ecumenism and cooperation tend to always lead. They get to the point where they are willing to name false professors as fellow Christians.<\/p>\n