But Our Church is DIFFERENT!

Comments

20 responses to “But Our Church is DIFFERENT!”

1. 

   January 17, 2015

   kittybrat

   Been there, done that? Yep!

   Reply
2. 

   January 17, 2015

   Monty

   But Bruce, all those churches you went to didn’t preach the TRUTH!!! Lemme tell ya, mine does! And our pastor is so loving and giving. He’s the REAL DEAL! It’s like he’s preaching right to you! And our congregation is full of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. And there’s no church in town that has the type of music our church has! Want to get holy-spirit filled? Come to MY church….You’ve NEVER had church like we do!!!!

   Reply
3. 

   September 22, 2015

   Avril

   I don’t want to challenge your experience of churches. It is, after all, your experience, not mine. But looking at the list it seems that you’ve only attended churches in five states of the United States. (I may have counted incorrectly, so forgive me if it’s more.) That might be over 200 churches, but all those churches belong to one very small part of the worldwide church. Might your experience of the church have been different if you’d also worshipped at churches in Tonga or Burkina Faso or Slovakia or outback Australia?

   Reply
   1. 

      September 22, 2015

      Bruce Gerencser

      Well, sure that can be said of any of our experiences, yes? While I have no doubt the worship, music, and preaching might be different, along with how that particular church practices its faith, these added experiences would not likely have led me to any different conclusion.

      Reply
      1. 

         September 23, 2015

         Avril Hannah-Jones

         If worship, music, preaching and faith practice are all different, what is the same – apart from the basic faith described in the ecumenical creeds? I agree that every Christian church is going to worship the triune God and believe that in Jesus God became incarnate. Is that what you mean by the ‘ice cream’? Because I can’t imagine anyone walking into a Christian church without expecting the Trinity and the Incarnation or finding that a problem.

         Reply
         1. 

            September 23, 2015

            Bruce Gerencser

            Sects can’t even agree on salvation, baptism, communion, three basic and important beliefs. And not every Christian sect is Trinitarian.

            The ultimate reason we deconverted is because we no longer believed the claims of Christianity to be true. While there are many other factors, but this is the primary one. If we no longer believed the central claims of Christianity, we were honest enough to say that we were no longer Christians,

            I’m not sure what you are looking for here, so if you’d be more specific it will allow me to better answer your questions,

            Reply
      2. 

         April 23, 2023

         Michael

         It appears that on this list you never attended a ward or branch of the church of Jesus Christ of latter, day saints. During the period between 2003 and 2008. The church is quite different to all the church’s on this list, and cannot be compared honey crisp to red delicious, to the other church’s. It’s more like winter pears to golden delicious.

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         1. 

            April 23, 2023

            Bruce Gerencser

            Damn, I missed the one true church😂

            Reply
            1. 

               April 23, 2023

               Sage

               Me sitting here, pondering the concept of irony.
         2. 

            April 23, 2023

            Astreja

            Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s any good, Michael. It’s as replete with nonsense as garden-variety Christianity, particularly its narrow view of human sexuality, “acceptable” relationships and execrable treatment of LGBTQ individuals, and its utterly laughable take on North American history and archaeology. Hard pass.

            Reply
         3. 

            December 3, 2023

            George

            Jehovah’s Witnesses say the same thing as the Mormons.

            There are 12-15 churches in our part of the county. Each has between 150 and 800 members. But there’s one exception. The little tiny, teensy-weensy, microscopic Church of Christ has 12 members. They phoned one day and invited us to attend, saying that nobody in the county was going to heaven but them. Just 12 people out of the entire county.

            I asked, “So the remaining 40,000 people in this county are all going to hell? That’s nuts.”
            They said I was lost and hung up.

            Reply
4. 

   September 23, 2015

   Avril Hannah-Jones

   Ah, I thought you were suggesting that churches could do something better, that there was something missing, which was the reason you no longer attended church. But if you’re no longer Christian because you don’t believe the truth claims of Christianity then there’s nothing that any church, no matter whether or not it WAS unique, could have done to keep you.

   I just suspected that contrary to this blog post you haven’t been to my church, or the churches I’ve been part of, because you haven’t been to any churches in the Asia-Pacific. Except for those two truth claims, Trinity and Incarnation, I don’t believe that all churches are alike. Until you have worshipped with the First Peoples in outback Australia, for example, I don’t believe you can say that “one church or another that I have visited over the past 30+ years is just like theirs”. But if your issue is the essential truth claims of Christianity, then it doesn’t matter which churches you visit, because you’re right, those truth claims won’t change.

   Reply
   1. 

      September 23, 2015

      Bruce Gerencser

      That’s correct. Disaffection began long before we left Christianity. It was the catalyst that drove us to look far outside of rut of our own tradition. But, in doing so we began to reexamine the claims of Christianity and this ultimately led to a loss of faith.

      Reply
   2. 

      September 23, 2015

      Michael Mock

      “But if your issue is the essential truth claims of Christianity, then it doesn’t matter which churches you visit, because you’re right, those truth claims won’t change.”

      Well, and on those occasions where the truth claims really were different (e.g. “Jesus was just a great teacher!”) I find myself wondering why they insist on trying to hold on to the label of Christianity.

      I’m curious about what prompted your question. Were you hoping to find some input/advice on what churches could do to help keep people from leaving, or bring back disaffected former members, or that general sort of thing?

      Reply
   3. 

      April 16, 2017

      J.D. Matthews

      I have worshipped in several churches in the Asia-Pacific region. Different languages, same bullshit.

      Also, it’s kind of ridiculous to say “nope, five states aren’t enough! you have to travel to another continent to find the ‘right’ church!” Um… ok…

      I get it. You think you’re more enlightened because you’re a world traveler. Nice humble-brag and all. But your core beliefs are bullshit, as are your churches.

      Reply
      1. 

         April 16, 2017

         Bruce Gerencser

         For us, the sample size was large enough and broad enough — Evangelical, neo-Evangelical, mainline, liberal, Catholic, Greek Orthodox — that we could come to some reasonable conclusions.

         I wish the Christian critics of other religions/atheists/agnostics/humanists/ secularists would do the same. Before concluding that atheism is a terrible idea, how about talking to a few atheists or reading their stories. One of the most frustrating things I face on this blog is when some Christians read all of one, two, or five posts and think they now know who and what I am and are ready to pass judgment. I always appreciate Christians who will at least take the time to understand my journey.

         And that’s what Polly and I did with Christianity. We WANTED to believe. We WANTED to find a church to call home. Our failure was not from a lack of trying. On more than one Sunday we would visit one church in the morning, a different church at night, and yet another on Wednesday night. I remember one Wednesday night where the pastor and our family were the only ones who showed up. Boy, was that awkward.??

         Reply
5. 

   March 28, 2016

   DJ

   Tell me if I’m wrong, but with 41,000 + branches of Christianity, it would seem to me that most of these Christians can easily play the “No True Scotsman” Fallacy – to give the illusion that their church has got what it takes and others don’t.

   To be given the impression that the Bible is inerrant, then to find errors, then to have people play God’s lawyer – making excuses to cover for the mistakes…was so wrong.

   Anger from aggravation popped my bubble. Now seeing things from another perspective…well one just can’t un-see that.

   Reply
6. 

   March 29, 2016

   Brian

   I believe there may be a one true church in a small hut in Tonga. This TRUMPS all the aforementioned and means that Avril wins the set if not the game…. Bruce, you attend a hundred or two American real-estate sites and judge almighty God??? Tonga is the ticket…. What exactly is your problem with the Plan?

   Reply
   1. 

      April 16, 2017

      Brian

      Further to Tonga, or further than Tonga perhaps, there is the simple reality of sensus divinitatis, the knowledge that bathes over the biped when something entirely unexplainable happens, say, the spitting image of Jesus Christ Almighty -praise his fame- appears on a piece of freshly popped toast or someone given a death sentence by a doctor, outlives that death sentence by years! These feelings create believers who have surpassed the need to attend so many churches looking for a true one because their miracle bingo introduced them to the glory of belief, their salvation!
      Your sensus divinitatis, Gerencser, is faulty and your futile efforts on behalf of the Beezle makes me laugh. Why, right this very second somebody in Kansas or Ohio, one of those two locations, is being healed of a serious and life-threatening malady. That is happening right this moment!
      They will be led to read this blog and will contact you to let you know that God is real and that he offered his only one single son because of you, sir. You have a nice day now, you hear!

      Reply
7. 

   September 17, 2023

   amazumb

   “There is no perfect church” is often what I have heard when trying to share ‘why’ something feels off about that particular church. Yet, the same people who tell you ‘there is no perfect church’ are the same who go back to the pulpit or their home ministry group or community bible studies and try and convince the rest that ‘their church is different than the rest’.

   Denial is one of the stages of grief and now you know why so many in ‘the church’ face depression; it’s likely because like everyone else they know something is wrong but they continue to deceive their mind and pretend that what they’re experiencing will get better. It does get better but often the person MUST change their location and the people they associate with. Find people who accept your ideas, beliefs and thoughts not because their Bible tells them to but because they truly love themselves and people.

   Reply

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