Jack Boyette said:
BrazosDog02 said:
Four Seasons Landscaping said:
God can use anything to bring people to him but I'm always going to approach a business enterprise (which a movie that charges admission is) as a business before I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt as outreach.
That's why we stopped doing church. Church is a business too. They just use fancy words like "tithe". It's more palatable than "admission".
Dude this is so far off base it hurts, and it's obvious that when you were "doing church" you completely missed the point.
It's not off base at all. I felt the same until I realized It only seems that way beecause I bought into the informercial. We were invested. It's the sunk cost fallacy that keeps a lot of people going back.
We found that 97% of church goers are not there for anything more than checking a box. After 30 years of church, and raising a family with a part of it, we just stopped going. The family is all catholic and we all backed out. We don't buy it. It is far more useful to seek truth on your own, ask the hard questions, and research for yourself. The pomp and circumstance of church, especially the big money Catholic side is fluff and distraction.
If you study the ministry of Jesus, you'll find that the whole church business gig is completely out of line with it. You don't have to agree, I'm not interested in debating it. It's a decision we made as a family and it suits us better. We are not the kind that show up, throw a few bucks in the plate, and then accept the sermon as it comes. We read. We study. We question. We seek the answer. We are not interested in spoon feeding.
Jesus is where you need to be focusing.
Ask your fellow patrons what they are doing Sunday. They will likely say "we have to go to church". Think about that statement and what that means.