Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

There's this constant idea that 'the Lord's work' seems to consist of Sunday morning services, Sunday evening services, and Wednesday evening Bible Class. Is anything else 'the Lord's work'? Not as far as I can tell (in a coc context).

Lev wrote: I once attended a COC whose building was along the route of a planned marathon on a Saturday. The race organizers asked the church if they could set up a water and first aid station in the church parking lot. Of course not, they were told. This building is for the lord's work, not for entertainment!

The infamous CoC silence of the Scriptures argument is the determining factor in quashing any non-church activities on their property. After all, how would it look having a bunch of half-naked sweating athletes running around in the church parking lot gulping water like a bunch of crazy lunatics ... Gotta keep up the image ya know!

I remember several years back we had a major ice storm knock out power in the whole town and every town surrounding us. Power was out in the middle of winter for over a week and most churches opened their doors as warming shelters for people who had nowhere else to go without freezing to death. Of course our COC didn't open their doors. "This is God's house, we won't just open the doors for just anyone to come strolling around trough here!" And you better believe next time we had services the preacher made sure to condemn those churches using their buildings to do something other than the Lord's work...

Lev wrote:
I once attended a COC whose building was along the route of a planned marathon on a Saturday. The race organizers asked the church if they could set up a water and first aid station in the church parking lot. Of course not, they were told. This building is for the lord's work, not for entertainment!

Lev

Matt. 25:35 (NIV)
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink..."

Oh yes, the old "silence of the scriptures" argument. In my opinion, it is one of the biggest heresies to ever come down the pike! The CoC seems completely blind to their inconsistencies in this area. If it's something they want to do, it becomes a 'necessary inference', but something they don't want to do gets the old 'silence of the scriptures' treatment. Doing something that is not in the bible and giving it to God is NOT in conflict with the word of God.

onward wrote:The infamous CoC silence of the Scriptures argument is the determining factor in quashing any non-church activities on their property. After all, how would it look having a bunch of half-naked sweating athletes running around in the church parking lot gulping water like a bunch of crazy lunatics ... Gotta keep up the image ya know!

Sure but it would look a whole lot worse to have those sweaty, half-naked runners passing out from dehydration for lack of a watering station. In all seriousness, I find it ludicrous that the COC (and many other denominations too, let's be honest) conjures up the entire idea of a church building when no such thing exists in scripture and then looks to scripture for the rules regarding how to manage the church building. Hint: if the concept isn't there in the first place, neither are the minutia regarding its management.

Lev

Lev wrote:

onward wrote:The infamous CoC silence of the Scriptures argument is the determining factor in quashing any non-church activities on their property. After all, how would it look having a bunch of half-naked sweating athletes running around in the church parking lot gulping water like a bunch of crazy lunatics ... Gotta keep up the image ya know!

Sure but it would look a whole lot worse to have those sweaty, half-naked runners passing out from dehydration for lack of a watering station. In all seriousness, I find it ludicrous that the COC (and many other denominations too, let's be honest) conjures up the entire idea of a church building when no such thing exists in scripture and then looks to scripture for the rules regarding how to manage the church building. Hint: if the concept isn't there in the first place, neither are the minutia regarding its management. Lev

Agree 100%. Difficult to see how 'the Lords work' meshes with a church's building. Even when churches have an adequate building (whether they should have one or not) they inevitably have a building fund in their budget for an even more ostentatious edifice in an attempt to lure new congregants; or often, just to create a plush country club atmosphere for the members.