Friday, April 18, 2008

Conservative or not....?

There have been several comments about being raised in a conservative church. I have seen it all in our church, from legalistic to "loosey goosey anything goes". I personally prefer more conservative to the "loosey goosey anything goes stuff". That brought in some false teachers and an attempt to destroy the Baptist tradition of the church. However, the extreme legalism would be very difficult to go back to. For the most part, our church is somewhere in the middle, with no compromise of the Gospel, standing on our foundation, some hymns, some praise songs, some older people, some young people, modest dress, friendliness, welcoming to all who come, and a loving spirit. Some things are good and bad about conservative and "loosey goosey anything goes". With the one we have negatism and rules about every aspect of life, i.e. entertainment, music, dress, hair, etc. With the other, we have people wearing torn jeans, short shorts, and halter tops to church; rock and rap music; couples openly shacking up; false doctrines being taught by allowing anyone who wants to teach (after all, can't exclude anyone from ministry).
Yes, I know that under grace, we are supposed to let the Holy Spirit tell us if we're doing something that will shame the Lord. But I don't think everyone is dedicated to obeying the Holy Spirit's urgings. The definition of worldly is certainly open to interpretation, unless the Bible specifically says, "you will not do...". There are definite no's, definite yes's but most stuff falls in the gray area. That is where we trust the Lord to either convict us or give us peace about a decision. If we have been convicted about an activity once, it's probable that we can stay away from that the next time, too.

4 comments:

Julie said...

Hi MOM

Robin said...

Sounds like we go to the same type of church and have the same basic belief systems.

Jen said...

Does red mean angry?

By the way, and I'm just asking, is there anything wrong with wearing hole-y jeans to church, or shorts or having rap music? Or is that just personal preference?

Momstheword said...

Personal preference.