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See I dont see how it is preparation for what we do in the world if we dont remember half of what is said because we are to busy trying to stay awake. If we dont feel like we benefit from spending an hour in a pew, I think it would be more worth while to be apart of something you understand and enjoy, like a youth group or a night where they focus more on music

great conversation! Love hearing the different views, and how everyone is respecting everyone else.
Yay! rofl

What about communion?
What about your fellow Christians? The church isn't just 18-30, OOOPS! that's MY age group... the Church isn't just 12-19. There was a famous evangelist... I think he was a baptist but I'm not sure, who's last name is Marney. I know a priest who's a big fan, or I probably wouldn't have heard of him. There are many many legends about the great "Marney" that Fr. Jake tells but the one that applies to this situation is a story about how Marney went to visit a parishioner who had stopped going to church. The man invited the preacher in and they sat and watched the fire for a while. The man told Marney that he didn't need to go to church keep his faith. Marney didn't say anything... he just took an ember out of the fire and set aside on the hearth. After a few minutes... it went out. The next week the guy was back at church.

The Church is the WHOLE church, old folks, young folks, that screaming baby in the back, the alter boy sucking on his cross and that preacher who bores the snot out of you. You can't isolate yourself from them, even if you want to. If faith is like a fire you need all elements of the fire....the big log at the base, the kindling to start it, and the smaller logs added to it. You, much like the ember cannot burn alone. Likewise your fellow "small logs" aren't enough.... you need the old folks to keep you on track, just like the old folks need you to keep them from thinking about nothing but getting the air conditioning paid for and whining about how much they liked the old prayer book better!!!

We're all connected.... so I'm going to end this post with a word from another famous preacher. John Donne in his Meditations wrote:


Meditation XVII
from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris.
Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.
Perchance he for whom this bell tolls1 may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me and see my state may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that2. The church is catholic, universal, so are all her3 actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too4, and ingrafted into the body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author5 and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language6; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice7; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves8 again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another9. As therefore the bell that rings a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. There was a contention10 as far as a suit (in which piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled) which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early11, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit12 again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island13, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory14 were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee15. Neither can we call this a begging of misery or a borrowing of misery16, as though we are not miserable enough of ourselves but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbors17. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did; for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion18, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current moneys, his treasure will not defray19 him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels as gold in a mine and be of no use to him; but this bell that tells me of his affliction digs out and applies that gold to me, if by this consideration of another's dangers I take mine own into contemplation and so secure myself by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security20.

I see what your saying and it makes sense, however I dont think that not attending a sunday worship service secludes you from the rest of the church. It is possible to be a part of the church and not go to the Sunday morning service. I am not saying that not being a part of the church is just as good being a part, I am saying that it is okay to not be a part of the Sunday worship. Often times I am at church wednesday nights and I talk to the members who are a part of the different committees and clubs and we are talking about the same things we would have talked about had I seen them Sunday morning. You say faith is like a fire that requires all elements of the fire however isnt going to sunday service worship and praise not faith, isnt it possible to praise God without the company of an entire church? I would think so.

Ha ha ha well it was fun while it lasted!! You really put up a good arguement I look forward to hearing your opinions on other things

Hahahahaaha? I stopped because you exasperated me to the point of not caring. You didn't convince me.

I know thats why I was laughing I was going to do the same thing if you had posted again. I wasnt laughing because I thought I had convinced you I knew I wouldnt convince you, I just liked hearing your opinion to see if I could learn anything from what you believe and why you believe that (and believe me I did lol). However it was getting kind of long and I knew that we really werent getting anywhere thats why I was going to do the same thing had you not beat me to it.