Dec 11, 2005

divided we fall

Yes... unfortunately what you're about to read is real.

New Life Christian Church in Auburn, California attracted some attention by buying gasoline discounts for church members so they can fuel up their cars at $1.99 per gallon. "The idea," said Senior Pastor Bill Jenkins, "is to show God is interested in everyday things that affect people's lives."

Nice idea, right? Not to members of the Church of the Divide in nearby Garden Valley. They objected to the new church's "cheap marketing trick." A sign outside the older church proclaimed, "Jesus cares more about your sin and burning in hell than gas prices." A member of the Divide church dismissed the New Life's church reaching out to the community. "They might hear an ear-tingling sermon of what they want to hear, get some coffee and leave."

How'd that go over? A member of New Life responded, "There are many things to protest in the world, and this is not one of them. It's confusing. Hopefully, we all worship the same God."

So let's track this... a church called "New Life" is attempting something "to reach out to their community." Meanwhile, a church called "Divide" is protesting it.

Um...

    "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." (1 Corinthians 1:10)

7 comments:

Derek said...

Yeah... I'd be cautious about any church that had the word 'Divide' as part of their name.

lee said...

i protest this post as it's merely a 'cheap marketing trick' to get people to read it...

sad indeed...

but's what's sadder...

the protest or that i don't find it as much of a surprise...?

tonymyles said...

Derek -

What were you doing on the internet during the Survivor finale? Shame on you.

Melanie -

I think it's a great ministry idea, too. A church I've served at did this one year - they picked a price for gas and paid the difference for two hours for anyone who got gas. Same concept and it helped build relationships in the community. I kind of view this as loving our neighbors.

Lee -

If you have a grievance then you can file a form 10932-K and submit it for processing. Please allow for 9-10 years for processing and include all future address information so that we can be sure it gets lost in the mail properly.

Thurman8er said...

First of all, the protest doesn't surprise me in the least. It's pride. It's Satan. How much was he loooooving it?

Secondly, is it wrong on a Christian blog to say that both Danni and Stephenie looked HOT last night. For what it's worth, my wife agreed with me.

Hmmm.

tonymyles said...

Well... I wonder what makes a blog "Christian" to begin with. Kind of like what makes music "Christian" or a t-shirt "Christian." See another post for more on that.

I'm sure you're just joking, there's a big difference between the artificial images on the TV... and your real life wife next to you. She's always got to be #1 in your mind (and leave any potential #2 in the toilet where it belongs) :)

By the way... my two cents? They wore too much makeup.

Derek said...

I was watching the Survivor finale & blogging at the same time... MULTITASKING!!!

Yeah... they both had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much makeup on. Besides... the "reality" of their looks is probably somewhere between what you say last night on the reunion show & what you saw last night while they were in Guatemala.

Mark D said...

Good post Tony! Do we waiting for the community around us to decide to come to church or do we go out and bless the community? I think what they did was great. The fact that there were protests just goes to show that the devil didn't like God's kids coming to his playground.

Yeah, about Survivor, did they hire a retiree from Glamour Shots to fill in as the makeup artist? Every time I see Rafe I remember the episode where he dangled upside-down on a rope over the water and all that was in the water was his head. That totally cracked me up.