I can and will stomach it.  Please continue.  You have my rapt attention.

LOVE IN HIM,

Mari



At 01:14 PM 3/18/2007, you wrote:
>We have a mega church here in Denver, well, one of several mega churches,
>and when we were looking for a church several years ago, this mega church,
>actually it is several minutes north of where I live but my mom and step dad
>went there, started a church probably a mile or two west and a little south
>of my home.  I heard the new pastor on the radio.  This mega church starts
>new churches all over Denver.  Generally, they start a new church in an area
>where they have several dozen people already driving half way across town.
>That group is then used to start another branch church off the big mother
>ship, if you get my drift.  After hearing this new pastor on the radio for
>several weeks, I called him.  This was when the church was small enough that
>the pastor took his own calls.  I explained my situation and that none of
>our children were old enough to drive yet.  He said, "Let me check with
>others in the church and see what we can work out."  By the way, the pastor
>literally drove passed my house every time he went to the church further
>south because he personally lived up north.  About a month later, I had
>already figured he would never call back again, I got a call from him.  He
>said, "I'm sorry but we just don't have anybody who can pick you up."
>Remember, I doubt we were more than two miles, at the most, from the church.
>Yes, we have taken buses and even cabs to church before when it was possible
>to do so.  There was no Sunday bus service in that area of that church at
>that time.  Needless to say, we never went.  I have a bag filled with
>stories like this.  Thank the Lord, we finally found a church, and it
>lasted, as I mentioned before, 5 years.  The last two years were very rocky
>and bumpy.  The pastor finally was asked to leave by the denomination, fired
>in other words, because in 13 years of being the pastor, the church had
>dropped from a hundred down to about 3 or 4 people.  It was one of the
>saddest experiences of my life to watch the closeness of fellowship and the
>great spiritual potential of this church just slowly drip down the drain.  I
>felt as if I were dying myself at the time.  I wish I could be more
>encouraging along these lines but except for a few isolated areas and places
>in the country, I have been watching the church in America slowly dying by
>shift their focus to arketing techniques and other mundane methods other
>than letting the Lord build the house.  If you have a special gift of music
>or some sort of a talent or happen to be rich, your chances of making an
>impression and being accepted are a million times greater.  In fact, try it.
>Your first trip to the church, hire out a limousine, and if you can afford
>it, rent some out of this world clothes.  Note the type of interest you
>receive.  Wait a month and then find somebody with a VW from say the late
>sixties.  Dress poor.  See if you are even noticed.  You ask, "Why is it
>this way now?"  Because we have taught for a couple of hundred years, if not
>more, that there are no apostles and prophets today because they died out
>with the last apostle, whoever he was, and we have lost our Biblical
>foundation of church government.  It will not change until the Body of
>Christ returns to the Bible model, as they so often say, and Body structure
>is renewed to square with Scripture.  Ephesians 2:20 confirms we were built
>upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the chief
>cornerstone.  They are also listed as number 1 and 2 in Ephesians 4:11 ahead
>of evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  Pastors, according to church
>government, are listed as number four.  We have allowed churches and
>denominations or religious organizations and parachurch ministries to
>elevated pastors to the top, eliminating apostles and prophets all together,
>voting and electing our way to the top.  There is no such Scriptural
>evidence or model for such activity in the body of Christ.  Pastoral
>leadership was once assigned by apostles and prophets and overseen by these
>apostles and prophets to insure they maintain Bible doctrine and a
>Scriptural foundation.  I could go on preaching like this on this topic for
>hours but it isn't well received so since this isn't Sunday school or
>church, I will stop now.  I'll take up the offering, however, later.  I've
>studied this for years and came to these conclusion through the Biblical
>evidence.  If you can stomach it, ask me what the church would look like
>today, in my opinion, if we were living under the bible model instead of
>this made up outfit we have running now.
>
>Phil.
>
>
>Phil.