HELP...Are all the old fashion churches gone

Lisa

Lisa

Well-Known Member
OK here is my problem I grew up in a very conservative Baptist church. The pastor always said clapping belongs at the ball park and AMEN belongs in the church. Now that I've moved away from home I keep drifting from church to church trying to find one that I'm comforatable in.

Other Problems: I don't like being told to clap, I don't like being told to wave my hands, and I don't like being told to dance, rock or move. Basically I don't like praise teams. I always have the feeling they are telling us to do these things to make themselves feel better more than to praise the Lord.

More problems: I feel disobedient if I don't do what they ask and I feel like I'm faking it if I do. I feel that when the spirt moves me I will not be able to stay in my seat or keep my hands down and I don't like feeling forced to do things.

I think I'm really an abnormal person because I always here people taking about you do it in the clubs, you do it at parties, you do it at concerts. I'm 35 and if you use your fingers to count up all of the concerts, clubs, and parties (including high school parties i.e homecoming, prom) I've ever been to I will still have fingers left and you better believe me if the music didn't move me I didn't move. Should I feel differently about this because I'm in church?

Does anyone else feel like churches have move too far into the mainstream trying to attract young people? I go to a church almost every Sunday and I can't remember the last time I've heard a good old fashion spirtural song. I'm longing for the days when deacons did the devotion and they would sing songs like Amazing Grace and get on their knees and pray between songs. Are these chrurches in existance now? Am I alone looking for a church like this?


So are all of these problems mine and I just need to get over them and do what is asked or do I keep drifting and not joining a church (being disobedient again) trying to find where I fit in.

Any opinions? Thoughts? Comments? :confused:
 
Me personally, I dont think anything is wrong with you. I dont feel you should be told how to act or how to praise the Lord. You should do what the Spirit leads you to do. Whatever it is, do it from your heart I think God would honour that more than doing it because the masses say do it. Juanita Bynum made a statement in one of her sermons a few years back about the churches changing and using the excuse that they are trying to draw the young people. She said maybe they were trying to draw someone God hadn't called. That made sense to me, although I know its not in God will for any to be lost, Juanita went on to say that God has not changed to try to reach anybody, for He is the same yesterdaay, today and forever. So the same Gospel it took to bring people to Christ in years gone by will bring them in today. It does seem that at times you cant tell the difference between the church and the world even when God directs us to be separate from the world. To come out from among them. I dunno....
 
One more thing. If ever you're down alabama way, come to my church. We still do things the old fashioned way. We have a praise and worship leader, but we sing from they hymn book, we have all the things you mentioned in your last paragraph. Come see us.
 
I know what you mean. As much as I love my pastor. He contradicted himself and I plane to write him about it. He was talking about how it is wrong for some pastors to command others to praise. Praise isn't taken from it is given by you but yet he sometimes says Give the Lord a clap offering of praise. I don't think he is commanding but it does make him look contradictory when he himself said he doesn't see why someone should feel compelled by directions given to them by a pastor to praise, it should be natural. Of course within the context of the service. You dont' want the offering basket to be going around and somebody jump up and just get to praisin'. Change flying er'where.:lachen:
 
John 4:23-24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The most important thing is that we worship him in spirit and in truth. I believe that true worship is not about whether we feel like it or not, or whether someone tells us to or not. True worship is something deep down on the inside. Church should already be in us before we arrive at the physical building, for we Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God looks at our hearts. We can wave our hands, clap, or whatever all we want to. If our heart is not right, God hide his face from us (Isaiah 1). It doesn't do any good to hold our hands up just because someone tells us to if we do not do it sincerely from our hearts.
 
Thanks Ladies. I was feeling convicted because I was thought I was being disobedient but my last straw was Sunday when we were told to dance! :eek: I don't dance. I've never been able to dance and it looked crazy for people to be jumping up and down and doing the grapevine in church.:mad: If it is natural GREAT! But to have all of this organized stuff seems to take the spirit out of it for me.

I keep thinking I'm just too old fashioned but if I don't feel it I like to sit and enjoy the song. When someone tells me to clap, rock or wave my hands I either lose the beat or I'm concentrating so hard on staying on beat I've forgotten about what the song is about.

I guess I just needed to hear I'm OK.

Thanks Ladydee if I'm in AL I'll email you. I'd love to come to an old fashion church.

Lisa
 
@Lisa, I know this thread is 12 years old, but what do you think now. The church has gotten so much more like the world that it feels like being at a rock concert or something. The black curtains, the smoke machines and the loud music doesn't even bother me as much as the fact that the Holy Spirit is not present in a lot of these churches. I am fully aware that the Holy Spirit in dwells the believer, but He doesn't seem to be welcome in many places. I have been looking for a new church home for the past 3 years and cannot seem to find a place that fits. A place where God is still God, Jesus is Lord and the Holy Spirit stills falls on the believers and leads us to worship God in spirit and in truth. I, too, grew up in a conservative Baptist Church where clapping, dancing and jumping around were not part of the norm. Every so often, Deacon so and so would get filled with the spirit and begin to shout or someone would raise their hands, but that was more the exception, not the rule. Church was really a place of worship, not entertainment. I am also aware that different people have different styles of worship and that it doesn't make my way the right way. I guess I just long for the days when the pastor would preach a sermon prompted by the Holy Spirit, people would be convicted of their sins and would repent and ask Jesus Christ to come into their hearts and save them. In other words, I miss the gospel.
 
I do think there is a type of worship that is pleasing to God. What's the primary purpose of church? Early Christians would said "the breaking of the bread." It was a time of communion and fellowship. Many churches today look like a Hillsong concert or the focus is on the pastor as a sort of demi-God.

I prefer a more traditional style of worship at church; but I do enjoy Christian concerts. I also enjoy worshiping at home. I feel those are the most appropriate places for that kind of worship.
 
I agree, the smoke machines, choir members trying to out sing each other, band members trying to outplay each other, ministers complaining that everyone isn't tithing, its all too much. I have faith though that there are still some great fundamentally sound churches out there.
 
newgrowth15 said:
@Lisa, I know this thread is 12 years old, but what do you think now. The church has gotten so much more like the world that it feels like being at a rock concert or something. The black curtains, the smoke machines and the loud music doesn't even bother me as much as the fact that the Holy Spirit is not present in a lot of these churches. I am fully aware that the Holy Spirit in dwells the believer, but He doesn't seem to be welcome in many places. I have been looking for a new church home for the past 3 years and cannot seem to find a place that fits. A place where God is still God, Jesus is Lord and the Holy Spirit stills falls on the believers and leads us to worship God in spirit and in truth. I, too, grew up in a conservative Baptist Church where clapping, dancing and jumping around were not part of the norm. Every so often, Deacon so and so would get filled with the spirit and begin to shout or someone would raise their hands, but that was more the exception, not the rule. Church was really a place of worship, not entertainment. I am also aware that different people have different styles of worship and that it doesn't make my way the right way. I guess I just long for the days when the pastor would preach a sermon prompted by the Holy Spirit, people would be convicted of their sins and would repent and ask Jesus Christ to come into their hearts and save them. In other words, I miss the gospel.
Click to expand...

newgrowth15, I feel the same way.
 
The church i attend still sing sacred songs as well as special singing, along with other displays of worship with the Spirit and understanding. I was like you 30 years ago and was searching like you and found it where i attend, just Bible believing, no added artificial service and all a really welcome.
 
@SUPER SWEET, I finally clicked the YouTube video you embedded in your post and I must say I am not shocked at the woman twerking in church. What does give me pause is all of the people around her who seem to celebrate and encourage her in her mess. Sinners sin -- no surprise, it's to be expected. Saved folks so afraid of being called "judgmental" by the world that they would give that woman a platform in the front of their entire congregation is THE entire problem. Has the church sunk so low in trying to reach the lost that it has gotten lost? God is the standard. He has NEVER changed, so why is the church lowering the standard and constantly changing to please the crowd? No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matt. 6:24 KJV (Mammon = noun. Riches, wealth or the god of riches. Websters Dictionary 1828 Edition.)
 
This thread is so sad....That twerking video was not in a church.. It was a funeral skit done on an HBCU college campus for a pep rally. We must worship in Spirit AND in Truth and only God knows who is worshiping Him with a clean heart, regardless of whistles, bells and smoke. Even a quiet, "conservative" congregation could be a stench in His nostrils, if their hearts aren't right with Him. I believe every church has true Believers, no matter the denomination. On the Day of Pentecost, people saw the disciples as drunks... what we see with our natural eyes belies us at times.
 
Last edited:
slwe415 said:
John 4:23-24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The most important thing is that we worship him in spirit and in truth. I believe that true worship is not about whether we feel like it or not, or whether someone tells us to or not. True worship is something deep down on the inside. Church should already be in us before we arrive at the physical building, for we Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God looks at our hearts. We can wave our hands, clap, or whatever all we want to. If our heart is not right, God hide his face from us (Isaiah 1). It doesn't do any good to hold our hands up just because someone tells us to if we do not do it sincerely from our hearts.
Click to expand...

Amen and Amen I love this post!
 
Thanks ladies for your replies it helps to know I'm not alone. I did find that old fashion church I was looking for and I enjoyed it while it lasted. I even went to Bible Study every week. The pastor left and started his own church but it's not the same. Before he started the new church I felt I was learning and I enjoyed it. Now....I don't know if it is me or if it is him (I think it is him). He use to preach and have the whole church on their feet now not so much, but I'm hanging in there. The new church is still a lot better than the others I've attended but secretly looking.

@newgrowth15 I would just fall out if I went to a church and they had smoke machines!! I mean what's next choir members flying around like it is a Pink concert? I just can't :eek:
 
This thread is interesting, I'm glad the OP came back to update us. It's interesting to see how what we were raised in can shape what is seen as traditional. I was raised in a Pentecostal background and if I went to a church where there was no clapping or shouting I would feel out of place. I do miss the days when church felt like church, now it just seems like anything goes in church. From hearing secular music backgrounds to a bunch of other things. Once I visited a church and a lady answered her cell phone right in the middle of service didn't get up to leave or anything.

I'm in the process of finding a church home myself and have been visiting different churches. I side eye churches that try to hype up people, or during offering time give sermonettes to get people to give. I don't mind some of the "new" stuff that happens in church nowadays (contemporary Christian music, illustrated sermons) and I actually like churches that get away from traditionalism as in looking like the church and where the Pastor and congregation is transparent with one another. I'm visiting a non denominational church now and I really enjoy how the Pastor breaks down the Word and also makes it life applicable. I will say I do miss choirs, but where I live choirs seem to be a dying thing outside of concerts.
 
Sometimes we mistake the building for the church. I am guilty of doing that very thing in this thread. I have been seeking a church in which to worship with fellow believers with the intent of "going" to church. We, the body of Christ, are the church and we can worship Him together freely right here in this forum. Jesus said my sheep know my voice. Let those of us who can still hear the voice of the Great Shepherd share with each other the truth of God's word and encourage one another to continue in love and patience as we fellowship with each other. I encourage all of us to continue to seek a physical building, but let us not forsake each other if we don't find a physical place to attend.
 
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