The Pro's and Con's of the Apostolic Church

[stmatthew]

Thought maybe we could have some edifying discussion here, and maybe brainstorm some answers to better the body of Christ.

Part 1

What do you see as positives of the Apostolic church in general??

What do you think we can do to make it even better??

Part 2

What do you see as negatives of the Apostolic church in general??

What do you think we can do to turn around these negatives and improve it??

[stmatthew]

......here is a serious thread from a goofball poster.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by stmatthew

Thought maybe we could have some edifying discussion here, and maybe brainstorm some answers to better the body of Christ.

Part 1

What do you see as positives of the Apostolic church in general??
The worship and anointed preaching.

What do you think we can do to make it even better??
No other answer, IMO, than sincere prayer.

Part 2

What do you see as negatives of the Apostolic church in general??
I don't see the prayer rooms being as important as they were in times past. Some of the music promotes the talent and not vertical worship.

What do you think we can do to turn around these negatives and improve it??

Again, no other answer, IMO, than sincere prayer. We get no where if we don't pray. We can't be holy, right, directed, humble or forgiving if we don't have sincere prayer in our lives. Prayer moves mountains and changes us from the inside out.

[Jack Shephard]

This could take all day...

Pro's-in general most of the churches do well with community support inside our doors and helping the needs of the saints. Decent teaching on faith. Many great preachers and leaders.

Con#1-We can do better at teaching mid-teens and older better about how to live as a married person. Teach better control on finances, raising kids, sexual realations, etc. We teach them with words and actions a certain way. We spend all our money and have more month at the end of the money and teach how sinful sex is and hardly ever teach about how they should raise kids other than to say 'raise them in the church.' We teach them these things all their lives and then in 3 months of marriage counseling we try to reteach them all these things and we wonder why more than half our marriages fail.

Con#2-too many elitists. 'my way or the highway' is the phrase that comes to mind.

Con#3-we have lost focus on fellowship and replaced it with focus on running an organization or a business. NOT GOOD.

Con#4-we call ourselves the church, but we don't show all the characteristics of 'the church'. We are part of the body of Christ we are not 'the' body of Christ. While there are some churches that have great things for the community like POA and others, the majority of us could not use community in the name of our churches cause we don't even touch the community. We would be the classic example of bait and switch. The thing is we have a niche,the power of the HG. It is available to everyone, but we claim we have it all. We say we are right at the expense of damning others. Most of our members have no real clue what grace and mercy are. Ask them to explain grace and mercy you'd be shocked at the answers, mostlikely. We teach it to sinners to help 'reach' them, but fail to practice what we preach.

Just a few thoughts..

[Cindy]

Originally Posted by JTULLOCK

This could take all day...

Pro's-in general most of the churches do well with community support inside our doors and helping the needs of the saints. Decent teaching on faith. Many great preachers and leaders.

Con#1-We can do better at teaching mid-teens and older better about how to live as a married person. Teach better control on finances, raising kids, sexual realations, etc. We teach them with words and actions a certain way. We spend all our money and have more month at the end of the money and teach how sinful sex is and hardly ever teach about how they should raise kids other than to say 'raise them in the church.' We teach them these things all their lives and then in 3 months of marriage counseling we try to reteach them all these things and we wonder why more than half our marriages fail.

Con#2-too many elitists. 'my way or the highway' is the phrase that comes to mind.

Con#3-we have lost focus on fellowship and replaced it with focus on running an organization or a business. NOT GOOD.

Con#4-we call ourselves the church, but we don't show all the characteristics of 'the church'. We are part of the body of Christ we are not 'the' body of Christ. While there are some churches that have great things for the community like POA and others, the majority of us could not use community in the name of our churches cause we don't even touch the community. We would be the classic example of bait and switch. The thing is we have a niche,the power of the HG. It is available to everyone, but we claim we have it all. We say we are right at the expense of damning others. Most of our members have no real clue what grace and mercy are. Ask them to explain grace and mercy you'd be shocked at the answers, mostlikely. We teach it to sinners to help 'reach' them, but fail to practice what we preach.

Just a few thoughts..

Your Con #1 JT. Why is any of that the church's job and not the parents?

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by stmatthew

Thought maybe we could have some edifying discussion here, and maybe brainstorm some answers to better the body of Christ.

Part 1

What do you see as positives of the Apostolic church in general??

What do you think we can do to make it even better??

Part 2

What do you see as negatives of the Apostolic church in general??

What do you think we can do to turn around these negatives and improve it??

Oh...I thought Pros was a new catagory of like moderates conservatives...thought this was gonna be another pitched battle

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by stmatthew

Thought maybe we could have some edifying discussion here, and maybe brainstorm some answers to better the body of Christ.

Part 1

What do you see as positives of the Apostolic church in general??

What do you think we can do to make it even better??

Part 2

What do you see as negatives of the Apostolic church in general??

What do you think we can do to turn around these negatives and improve it??

A big pro that I see is that I see a big increase in the church reaching out to the community to meet more basic needs such as local food pantries, crisis pregnancy centers, clothing donations, etc.....

I also see more and more apostolics reaching toward groups that they would have kept a 100 meter distance from in the past in the name of "holiness". Reaching out to groups such as homosexuals, the homeless, and even the occasional prostitute.

The BIG cons is that they are not doing more. There are still far too many who DO keep that 100 meter court-ordered distance from gays and prostitutes, all in the name of being 'separated from the world'. Jesus seemed to spend the bulk of His teaching telling US to care for the homeless, the beggars, the widows, and the rejects among us, yet hat seems to be the one lesson most often forgotten.
Every single Church needs to have a food pantry, even if all it has is a single can of cheap baked beans in it, that is open to anyone in need who has no where else to go. I'm also waiting to see apostolics embrace programs which give expecting mothers a place to go.

[theoldpaths]

God's church is all Pros and no Cons.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by theoldpaths

God's church is all Pros and no Cons.

...in a perfect world. Which we don't live in, because we have people with their own thoughts, interpretations and personal goals.

[Michael The Disciple]

Pros?

They have the glorious revelation that Yeshua Messiah is the Eternal Father as well as the begotten Son. They are the only groups on Earth with very few exceptions that have testimonies about being saved that match/agree with the ones in the book of Acts.
They have in many cases exercised great patience in teaching these truths to a hostile religous system whether Trins or Arians.

Cons?

They feel because they are right on those issues they are automatically right on other foundation truths when they are not. They have followed the Protestants concering the second coming, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

On secondary points they have rejected many thousands of sincere seekers of truth by teaching such foolishness as its sin for men to have a beard or women to trim their hair.

Theres hope for the modern Apostolic movement but the hour is getting late.