Southern Porch Extension

[ready2go]

I mentioned about 18 months ago that I had found a different church after 30 years of worship in the previous one. The reasons for leaving the previous church are much too extensive to list here, but generally, in recent years they had begun to chase after the popular "seeker/social gospel"...they had begun to ignore Israel's significance in these last days...and the "Kingdom Now/Dominionism" heresy was being subtly introduced. The "saving gospel" had taken a back seat and was minumized. During the past 10 years that church slowly changed from a conservative gospel preaching church into one preaching things itching ears wanted to hear. Those reasons and more were why I had to separate from them (2 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV; Isaiah 52:11 NKJV; Revelation 18:4 NKJV).

For 18 months I attended a new church that on the surface, seemed to be everything my previous church was lacking. However, they have serious internal problems that I only recently discovered. The Elders rule the church with an iron hand. The Pastor and congregation have little or no input about anything. Because of disagreement over his preaching style, the Elders forced the Pastor to resign 6 weeks ago. I liked the Pastor as did 60% - 70% of the congregation. He preached the Word of God as it should be preached, but the Elders wanted it done differently. During the past month at least 250 of the 400 member congregation left the church...a most serious split from which it will be difficult to recover.

I also left that church because I cannot embrace what is being done there. Therefore, I am in the process of finding a new one. I am now attending a church that so far seems to have great promise, but one cannot know for sure until some time has passed. In these days sound churches that preach the Truth of the Word are difficult to find, but a few of them are out there. Although there are no perfect churches, I pray the Lord will lead me to the one He has for me.

Don

[Verna]

Don, I wish you could come to our church. Calvary's motto is "For the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ," and pastors, leaders, and congregation hold to that, thank the Lord.

Mariane, I read today that this particularly bad strain of flu was not covered in our flu shots. Oh dear! And I loved your idea for parts pick-up, repair, and delivery. ; )

[BeachGrandma]

Don, I assume these are Baptist churches. Before we retired at the beach, we lived in the NC mountains for a few years, built a small house next door to John's parents so we could care for them until the Lord took them Home. Both were in very poor health but they loved living in the little mountain home where my father-in-law grew up and wouldn't consider moving. I don't blame them because it was a great little community with a gas station/grocery store as its only business. The nearest town to do any business was 18 miles away.

This little hamlet stretched out over a few miles, with property almost never being for sale. But can you believe there were 11 Baptist churches there. Every time we saw a bulldozer going down the road, we'd joke, "I wonder whose pasture the new Baptist church is being built on." The churches would split and split some more until there were only splinters left. The Baptist church we attended was one of the very few that didn't. Oh, there were circumstances that made people upset and they left for another Baptist church, such as the head deacon in our church who was caught enlarging a peep hole in the wall of the outdoor women's bathroom at the nearby state park. On one side of the small wooden building were the bathrooms and on the other side was a storage room where tools were kept. This guy was caught with his eye up to the hole in the inside wall, watching a woman in the bathroom. He was the pastor's closest friend which was a major embarrassment to the pastor and to the small congregation when Mr. Peep-Eye's arrest was published in the county newspaper. The pastor quickly began preaching about forgiveness, knowing the deacons would call for Mr. Peep's resignation. The pastor knew his best friend would leave the church if that happened and who would he go fishing with? Besides that, Mr. Peep-Eye's weekly offering was larger than anyone else's (or so he kept telling people all through the years). How would the church manage financially without his generous offerings?

There's nothing quite so noisy and unruly as a church fight. A members' meeting was called for two weeks hence at which time Mr. Peep-Eye would beg for forgiveness and a vote would be taken about whether or not to remove him from the board of deacons. Members who had moved away years before were contacted by church members, asking them to travel (some from several hundred miles away) to the church for that important meeting. The church was packed and the meeting went as planned. Finally, the vote was taken and both Mr. Peep-Eye and the pastor were removed from office! You could hear the cheers all the way down to Tony's Gas Station. I found the whole situation enormously funny and had to keep pulling my face down to keep from laughing out loud.
It had all been handled so badly. I guess maybe 15 people left because of the decision, but others took their place in no time when the church they were attending had a split; this time over their church treasurer who had been dipping into the till for years and was arrested for embezzlement.

And the beat goes on, Don....

[ready2go]

Mariane, the church I left after 30 years is Baptist. It's my understanding that many Baptist churches such as the one I attended are straying into areas they shouldn't go. Way too many of their members don't know or don't care what is happening within their church. They are comfortable, and are like blind sheep being led down the wrong path.

The next one I recently left after 18 months is a non-denominational Bible church. The members and Pastor have no vote in anything. The Elder's decisions are the law there...acting much like a small-group dictatorship.

The church I am now visiting is also a independent/non-demonational Bible church, but all entities within the church have a vote in its operation. Their traditional church service is wonderful, and they are not hand-cuffed to denominational rules and guidelines.

In some churches the Pastor alone runs the entire show...bad!

In other churches the Elders alone make all of the decisions...bad!

In many churches the congregation does the voting on issues after the leadership presents them, and then, the leadership will implement/install the changes following the congregational voting...good!

Don

[Edy]

P.S. to Edy: Is "rommegrot" related in any way to "rotgut?"

On another subject, have you given any thought to getting a flu shot? Take a look at this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... worse.html

Here's a rommegrot recipe - I might like to try this one, using rice instead of flour to thicken (and do it in the crockpot!). Otherwise, I make a roux with butter and flour and gradually add cream, stirring as I add it, and keeping at it until it is cooked and the right consistency. Some links suggest using sour cream, but I'm familiar with the sweet cream recipe.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142605441/rommegrot

Now, you'll have to tell me if rommegrot is related to "rotgut," since I'm not familiar with that recipe.

I have heard recent reports about the bad flu season. But, it makes me more concerned for the children than for myself. Hubby had a bad bout (coughing three nights straight) between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we've both had pneumonia shots, which I think should lessen that danger. Thanks for your concern! You are appreciated.

[deejay]

I'm Foursquare, and we as such don't have elders in our church; the pastor, staff and congregation help each other make decisions. Sometimes denominational rules and by-laws are good, if they are based on the Bible and interpreted correctly. We don't normally have scandals in Foursquare, and if there are any, they are handled according to Scripture. There was a couple that took over running Angelus Temple, and they tried to remodel it, including covering the mural on the wall with a sound-reflecting wall. Sister Aimee's son Rolf begged them not to do that to his mother's church, but was ignored. This couple were very headstrong and rebellious, and thankfully left after a few years. I met them once and spoke to them about this issue, and the husband was totally full of himself, and answered me in the old tells-you-to-go-to-hell-so-nicely-you-actually-look-forward-to-the-trip style. What a jerk.

We have someone better in their now, following God, and a benefit to Foursquare.

[Verna]

Mariane, how delightfully you tell a story, and that one's a doozy.

[ready2go]

Sven and Ole Humor

Sven and Ole, two Minnesota engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up. A woman walks by and asks what they are doing.

"Ve're supposed to find da height of dis flagpole" said Sven, "but ve don't haff a ladder.

"The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground. Then she took a tape measure from her pocketbook, took a measurement, announced "Twenty one feet, six inches", and walked away.

Ole shook his head and laughed. "Ain't dat just like a woman! Ve ask ferda height and she gives us da length!"

Sven and Ole have since quit their engineering jobs and are currently serving in the United States Senate.

~ ~ ~

Okay...I am a licensed, registered professional engineer, but the story is still funny to me.

Don

[Laurie]

Good one, Don.

Debby, I'm so sorry to hear of your injury.

Church. I have a few experiences of my own, but I'm too tired to tell about them at the moment.

I spent time this evening starting to "pencil" out my income taxes. I don't know if I blinked the whole time. It sure doesn't feel like it. I have always done my own taxes, and there were years they weren't so simple to do. I've just been so cotton pickin' determined to figure them out on my own and to save money. But I'm getting tempted to get a tax preparer this year. I hate to spend the money since there's so little of it these days, but, as we all know, taxes have to be right.

I'm going to bed.

[BeachGrandma]

Edy, Rotgut is a very bad, very cheap whiskey usually made by moonshiners back in the hills who sold it in old plastic milk jugs which wouldn't pass any test for cleanliness. I doubt then that your delightful dessert is any relation to it.

But I had to ask.

[Laurie]

I posted this in the water cooler and thought I'd post it here, too.

"As some of you know, I've been unemployed since August, 2011. I plan to start a new business later this year. I'll work as a virtual assistant so I can provide clerical and bookkeeping services for small businesses. I'll also offer services to the elderly - to help them pay their bills and maintain their checkbooks.

I want a name for the business that is short, easy to remember, and clear about the services I offer. If it would work well for search engine optimization purposes, that would be great. Does anyone have any ideas? My ideas have been pretty blah so far and yet I'm not looking for something particularly clever - just something that fits the criteria I mentioned above."

[Edy]

Laurie - if you give us some examples of your "blah" titles, it might prime the pump for our ideas. First thing that came to my mind (besides "Virtual Office Service") was "The Bottom Line."

Ledger! That's the word I was racking my brain to find. "Laurie's Ledger Connection?"
Hmm: "Laurie's Ledger Connection - Your virtual bookkeeping service online." There ya go!

[Allison]

For those that don't venture off the porch, if you didn't see it, I posted a review of Urbana in the water cooler. I thought I'd try to avoid posting the same thing in three places.

[Laurie]

Thanks for letting us know, Allison.

Thanks for your ideas, Edy. I was thinking of Your Office Assistant, but it sounds boring. Office Services doesn't sound much better. I thought of something with virtual in the title, but not sure about that since virtual assistants are relatively new, so the services I offer wouldn't be immediately clear to just everyone. For example, when I called for an insurance quote and said I was going to start working as a virtual assistant, the agent asked, "What's that?" Hmmm...

[Allison]

Okay. I've decided I'm going to pick a color to post with. for this thread. Hope it's not too close to anyone else's color. I'll concede if it is.

I thought of this right after my other post and didn't want to post twice in a row. But now that Laurie posted, I can post again. Even if it's less than 30 minutes later.

I got the opportunity to share my testimony/life story with the Commissioner of Education for the state of Missouri. She like... one or two steps below the Governor. Granted, there are about 30 people who are heads of departments who are at the same level she is, but still. She's the Commissioner of Education. My department at work is technically under the department of education, even though we don't deal with education directly a whole lot, and my job has almost nothing to do with education. Anyway, she (the commissioner) sent out an e-mail on Monday that was thanking everyone in the department for their hard work and what not. Then she said something about her 6 month old grandson, and how she appreciates the thoughts and prayers. She mentioned he's progression slowly, or something to that effect. So clearly her grandson has some difficulties.

Well, this was the first time I had hear about it. So I sent an e-mail to her that basically said "I hope I'm not overstepping any boundaries in sending you a personal e-mail, but I"m praying for your grandson. I have a special place in my heart for babies that have extra obstacles to overcome because I <i>was</i> one of them." Then I offered to share my story, if she wanted me to. I figured she might be encouraged that someone in her own department struggled as a baby. You know? So she responded almost right away saying she'd love to hear my story. I gave her the option of "just the facts" or "inspirational" and she chose the second one. So I sent her the "old" version of my article "Except God" that doesn't include all the recent stuff. I figured she didn't need to know all the recent stuff. That was Monday, and I haven't heard back yet. But I haven't gotten any reprimands from my direct supervisors, so she must not have decided it was TOO bad, if she's read it yet. I'm not sure if I want her to respond back to me or not.

Anyway, I just thought that was kind of a cool story, and thought I'd share it.