Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

F. LaGard Smith wrote a pretty scathing critique of this in his book "Radical Restoration." He's a patternist, himself, and he absolutely flayed open how the Church of Christ 100% does not follow any sort of pattern, but rather participates in a cafeteria-style Christianity. The book is a...

The sorts of things GH and Melanie describe are often par for the course at mid- to small-size CofCs. The larger the church, the more like a CEO the preacher is (and that's even more true in more numerous denominations). My dad only preached for a few years when I was very young, so I don't really r...

Never having been to a megachurch, I have to ask: what is a bumper? I didn't know what that was until recently, either - it's a presentation or video inserted between say, the singing and the sermon to dramatize or accentuate the message of the speaker or whatever is coming next. I only found this ...

My own experience was that my extended family didn't really take me seriously as an adult until my wife and I had our first child. The parental unit in particular behaved as if we were just playing house until son number one came along a few years after our wedding. We held off having children until...

Oh, I have a great story about my mom to share! This happened at the Crieve Hall congregation in Nashville, TN, in the 1980s, when I was in my twenties, still living at home, and hardly ever dating at all. One time at church, one of the "biddies" approached her (I didn't attend this servi...

So Jesus gives a balance between how to live in this life, daily, how to love and serve and to avoid sin. And Jesus links the living in this life to the next life. And even with all the heaven/hell/judgment references and teaching by Jesus and his apostles, Jesus then also specifically states that ...

In considering the actual (or theoretical) views of the Jews during the OT period, it in the end seems to me to be like considering another CofC obsession with patterns. If the NT accounts of the early church and its doctrine make for an actual pattern, it's a darned loose-and-lax-mix-and-match kin...

Speaking of family life, I came from a funeral today and heard the daughter of a deacon where I used to attend, broke up a marriage and is planning to marry the guy. No one's batting an eye. Double standards for the higher-ups I guess. Anyway, I finally fixed the wagons of those uppities who though...

In considering the actual (or theoretical) views of the Jews during the OT period, it in the end seems to me to be like considering another CofC obsession with patterns. If the NT accounts of the early church and its doctrine make for an actual pattern, it's a darned loose-and-lax-mix-and-match kind...

Guys - IF I had felt offended, I could have said something myself. There's a certain comfortable distance between 'don't really know/this is what I've heard' and 'I hate you and the ground you walk upon'. I think I can tell the difference. Oh, I know you're quite capable of defending yourself, and ...