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I am posting on this page because I really want to hear from Christians who are members of a local congregation more than from the anti or former members (like myself)
I want to know what you as a person have benefitted from your membership in a local congregation. You can skip the "going to Heaven /Hell" Part, I am wondering what it has done for you in the here and now. Is it financial gain, friendship, support? What motivates you to be involved?
THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WORNG ANSWER ! I ask more out of curiosity than anything else.
Also
I ask because months ago, A friend of mine had emergency surgery was laid up for a month and during that time, tells me about how people from his church brought food, groceries did all these things for him that in all the years I was involved never happened.
We talked some about why I no longer go or seek a church. The bottom line is, it has never done anything good for me.
A few years ago, I was in the hospital, laid up for a while. The church I was going to at the time did not do anything like that, in fact, I didn't even get so much as a phone call asking how I was. WOuld love to have had the idea that people cared enough to look out for me and my family, but they didn't, they don't and I don't go anymore partly because of that.
I remember once being unemployed. LONG LONG AGO. I had no money. I did still go to church, Perhaps hoping something great would happen. I volunteered, spent the time while I was unemployed productively, helped repaint a room in the church, did some lawn work for them , for free of course.
One night they were having this big dinner. Tickets were $8. Being unemployed, I had no money to buy a ticket. So guess what? I did not go. Turns out the tickets are $8 regardless of who you are, or what your situation is. After all I did for them, no one would even give me a ticket for a meal.
I hear all the time of churches doing charity works, when I was unemployd all those years ago I went without because no church ever raised a finger to help me out.
Thinking back, I cannot remember a single time ever that a church or someone in a church tried to do something good for me. Just wondered what the secret was that I missed out on.
On a post note, I am pretty well off now. And not involved in the churches in any way. A few years ago, I was at a church where they were selling $5 tickets for a dinner. Some guy asked me if I wanted to buy one. I gave him $5 then, right in front of him, turned aorund and gave the ticket to someone else. Someone who looked like they needed it. (I also didn't want to eat around people like that)
My church taught me a lot about love,about bonding,about unity being as one and as one who love Christ. Before I came back to the church I was a lost soul,looking for something that needed to fill that void and that was in Jesus Christ who died for our sins. I was sceptical before joining and it did take awhile but ultimately I gained wisdom.
I didn't go looking for the church to give me hand outs or look at what the church could do for me but what I could do for the church.That is not to say that I haven't asked my church for help because I have and I myself asked for that help and they were there for me and there when I was in the hospital or what ever dire situation I was in,it would be pride if I didn,t ask. I have also helped with the church as so have many others ,the legs can not do anything without the feet.
Let me give you one example of what kind of church I belong to.
A friend's wife had been ill with Crohn's Disease for several years, in & out of the hospital. She died one night in her sleep. Within an hour, his entire Bible study class was there to support him. This was at 3am!
We love & care for each other. My wife & I feel as close to many of the folks in our church as we are to our blood family.
This is one of the many benefits to belonging to a local body.
I am very blessed to have found a church is filled with the Holy Spirit. It is a very loving and caring church and our Pastor preaches what the Bible teaches. I have never gone and wished I hadn't, I always get something out of it. The body of Christ is supposed to support each other and be there for each other. Keep searching till you find a church like that.
In all seriousness, my experience has been that it is more of place to support one another, like a community, and not so much of a place to rigorously challenge each others ideas.
I'm sorry that you had such bad experiences, OP. I know there are churches like that, but I've never been to one.
What I get from my church is fellowship, encouragement (from sermons, Sunday School class, and personal interaction), prayer support, physical and emotional help when I need it, and much more....it's hard to put into words. It's is also a place, as someone else pointed out, to GIVE to and HELP others in their time of need. If a person's idea of church is that it's only a place to GET, they will be disappointed every time.
When someone dies, we take food, sit with the bereaved. When someone has surgery, we take food when they come home, visit, help with any housework, etc., that needs doing. Recently, the son of one of my SS class members had a terrible wreck....there were probably 25 or 30 of us from the church who drove an hour, late at night, to be at the hospital with the parents, and many went back the next day to be with them while the son had surgery. Of course, we also took FOOD when they got home from the hospital! LOL I'm taking food to another SS class member this evening, as a matter of fact, who just had a hysterectomy. This lady's husband died recently, of cancer....people from the church helped her in so many ways while he was sick that I can't even remember them all. I do remember that the men of the church organized and went by their house regularly after he was bedridden, to turn him in his bed.
All that being said, I looked at your profile and noticed that you do not even profess to be a Christian. Were you of this mindset when you were attending the churches?
friendship
The ability to look across the room and see others who believe and worship god as you do and the binding that has our your heart to such people.
the chance to meet people that have real physical needs that you can help with.
The chance to share in watching Sunday school kids show their parents something they made in their class....
The chance to listen to a sermon, and then being able to talk to others about it later over coffee...
The chance to see a baptism and the faith that goes with that...
Yea it's touchy, I used to really admire Churches, however, the cruelest encounters of my life all have to do with Church....it shouldn't be that way. My heathen friends are much nicer. Then you get into 'what does being nice have to do with it (a previous thread) well for me it is important, sure I like Oscar the Grouch just as much as anyone, but when there's a room fool of Oscar the Grouches faking smiles with axes behind their backs I get a little freaked out...if Churches act like this they really have no right to wonder why people aren't in them. gee...let me think....Maybe I'll go back one day, but it won't be to conform and it won't happen until I have a good reason too. There's a difference between people leaving the church and the church driving people out. Who's guilty? Perhaps both parties a little.
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Then you get into 'what does being nice have to do with it (a previous thread) well for me it is important, sure I like Oscar the Grouch just as much as anyone, but when there's a room fool of Oscar the Grouches faking smiles with axes behind their backs I get a little freaked out...if Churches act like this they really have no right to wonder why people aren't in them. gee...let me think....Maybe I'll go back one day, but it won't be to conform and it won't happen until I have a good reason too. There's a difference between people leaving the church and the church driving people out. Who's guilty? Perhaps both parties a little.
