Can a person be a Christ-follower without falling in lock-step with the institutional church?

[St. SteVen]

@St. SteVen, this is @GodsGrace's Christmas gift to you - an idea for a new thread.

I mistook it for a lump of coal. - LOL
(was I really that bad this year?)

We would need an outrageous claim in the title.

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[St. SteVen]

@St. SteVen, this is @GodsGrace's Christmas gift to you - an idea for a new thread.

Covered this somewhat in this topic.

Is the "free gift" of salvation really free? - Honestly?

This is the evangelical bait-and-switch. Where's the ethics in that? Should people be tricked into the kingdom? Do we lead someone to Christ and then cut them loose? Nope. They need to be discipled, right? So we pile on the expectations. - Daily Bible reading and prayer. - Regular church...

www.christianityboard.com

Could make a poll from the list.

- Daily Bible reading and prayer.
- Regular church attendance and tithing.
- Sharing the Gospel.
- Discipling others.
- Good works.

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[Lambano]

We would need an outrageous claim in the title.

Lessee...

"Are you a Christian? Click here and find out!"

 

[Lambano]

We would need an outrageous claim in the title.

How about,

"You are a Christian if you can answer 'Yes' to these questions"

 

[St. SteVen]

Lessee...

"Are you a Christian? Click here and find out!"

Five reasons why you aren't a "true" Christian - Are you toast?

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[Lambano]

Five reasons why you aren't a "true" Christian - Are you toast?

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How much does a job writing clickbait titles pay? You may have a vocation here!

 

[St. SteVen]

How about,

"You are a Christian if you can answer 'Yes' to these questions"

With the right questions, that could work.

All the answers on this topic were loaded.
But amazingly, topic respondents carried on as if they were none the wiser. - LOL

What makes a doctrine false?
Please quote what you would like to respond to. Thanks.
1. You've never heard it before. (knee-jerk defensive response)
2. You have heard of it before, but assume it's false. (haven't looked into it)
3. Doesn't align with your church's doctrine (your church would say it is false)
4. Doesn't align with your personal doctrine (your views differ)
5. YOUR "Bible" says it is false. (other biblical opinions don't matter)
6. It makes you uncomfortable. (therefore it must be wrong)
7. Everyone knows it's false. (except those who believe it)

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[St. SteVen]

How much does a job writing clickbait titles pay? You may have a vocation here!

Songwriting doesn't pay either. - LOL

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[PGS11]

That is where your faith came from if it wasn't there you would have not have the faith.But today's world wants to flush it all away and demonize it because it does not suit the ways of this new modern world.Its the foundation of you faith passed on for thousands of years but its no good anymore for some people it needs to be changed in their minds to fit today's world.

The church is not a building its the people.

 

[Lambano]

- Daily Bible reading and prayer.
- Regular church attendance and tithing.
- Sharing the Gospel.
- Discipling others.
- Good works.

- Believe all the correct doctrines (include a sublisting of what those doctrines are)
- Heterosexual
- Baptized (immersion only)
- Voted for the right candidate in the last election
- Speaks/Does not Speak in tongues
- ....

 

[Lambano]

Oh stop!


View attachment 54004

Still trying to figure out what the hell that is.

 

[Lambano]

A thread on what requirements are necessary to be DEFINED as Christian would be an interesting thread.
I tried a few years ago on another forum but it didn't work out well.
Practically all said: A FOLLOWER OF JESUS.
You could probably handle it better than I could.

On a more serious note, I'm surprised you had so many saying, "A FOLLOWER OF JESUS". I spent over 10 years on a forum sponsored by a Reformed ministry, and I saw a lot of what Rebuilder-something-or-other called "two gospel theology", which is really more about Pauline doctrinal belief than about denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus.

 

[MA2444]

What are the limits of individuality for persons in the church?
View attachment 53538

I think there's a term for that, when someone is a Christ follower but is not in lock step with the institutionalized church.

Oh yeah, I remember.

It's called Relationship.

 

[St. SteVen]

Still trying to figure out what the hell that is.

Looks like a collision of a knitting project and haute cuisine. - LOL

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[St. SteVen]

It's called Relationship.

Or the loss thereof?

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[Behold]

What are the limits of individuality for persons in the church?
View attachment 53538

One person born again is "the Church".

In fact, Reader....if you were the only person on this world.......just you alone... God would sent His Son just for you to die on The Cross for all your sin.

So, the "church".. the "body of Christ'.. and the "temple of the Holy Spirit".. are all one born again CHRISTian at a time.

 

[St. SteVen]

- Believe all the correct doctrines (include a sublisting of what those doctrines are)
- Heterosexual
- Baptized (immersion only)
- Voted for the right candidate in the last election
- Speaks/Does not Speak in tongues
- ....

LOL

Create a list of the MOST off-putting characteristics of the ugly Christian.

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[MA2444]

Or the loss thereof?

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That's a big leap. What does institutionalized church have that home church doesn't have?

Fellowship? So invite two friends over for home church and bible study...

 

[Lambano]

I mean, did the early Christians die for "some man" they were following?
I wouldn't go to the lions or to the frying pan over any man.

That also deserves a serious answer.

It took 300 years to get from "the Son of God" (and that took a divine revelation to Peter) to working out a reasonably coherent (and THAT's highly debatable) Nicene theology. I don't think they had it all worked out themselves, but they probably didn't think they were following your garden-variety prophet either.

That's why I'm willing to cut others some slack.

 

[RLT63]

Here's my story.
I was raised Protestant Evangelical in a nondenominational world missions-minded community church.
I became a member when I was an adult and was even elected to the Elder board.

It was not unusual for myself or others that I had fellowship with to have their own position on various doctrines.

After I married, we sought a Pentecostal/Charismatic church that supported our views on the exercise of spiritual gifts.
The church I grew up in took the Cessationist position.

Although there had been a soft shift away from that. At the point I left, the position was:
"If you want to speak in tongues in your prayer closet that is fine, just don't bring it to church." - LOL

We attended that church for decades when the Pastor approached us about membership.
I told him that we didn't want to rush into anything (humor) but would consider membership.
No membership class, nothing signed. We were just voting members in good standing.

Another decade passed and we moved home too far away to stay at our church and sought another.
We ended up at the church where the Pastor at our previous church had come from.
He contacted the new church with his glowing recommendation and our membership rolled over to that church.

I still to this day maintain my doctrinal autonomy.

But I imagine that some others might object to this approach.

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I went to a Baptist church as a teenager. When I got married I went to a fundamentalist Baptist church but eventually left and went to Pentecostal churches off and on.
After 10 years of marriage I went to a Baptist church that a friend pastored but he believed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I became the youth pastor there.
Eventually the pastor left for a bigger church and I went with him and became the youth pastor there. It was non denominational.
Now I attend a Church of Christ but I am not a member and I don't fully agree with everything they teach but I like the pastor and like it there