Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Reading through the plastic flowers topic it struck me as to the impact the CoC has had on me and my wife at our new church. It was funny reading some of the comments about the stuffy setting and the strictness at which members will try and not waste funds on unscriptural items or activities.

It took us a while to become acclimated to all the icons on every spot in the church, the vestments and incense. Our first class was an introduction and tour of the church with an explanation about what everything meant and represented and that class was a great help. After several visits and always wide eyed in the building I noticed a food drive box. I also noticed they had two different societies one for the women and one for men to participate in to promote philanthropic deeds in the greater community. The women have a food drive box for people to drop food in each Sunday.

I could easily say none of those things are explicitly authorized either by command or example because they are not, only that I can read about acts of charity and piety in the book of Acts. So yes, to all my Coc friends and family there is not a shred of stated or implied authority for what I see but there are examples of worship to God and remembering those who have died in Christ and great acts of charity by the Christians in the new testament.

I'm ok with it now but the impact of the CoC on my way of thinking was so restricted to doing all things down to the smallest of detail and with great care to "speak where the bible speaks" my focus was taken away from the spirit of the law. Aren't people to see good works and be able to glorify God? Not, see your works and call you a pharisee? The CoC denomination impacted me in such a way that I became cold and indifferent and to some degree hostile to the things other denominations were doing. I feel bad about that and wish that I could have focused on the good and beautiful things even if I didn't understand or agree with their theology. The impact of legalism runs deep and I am sure during my path in Orthodoxy I will have to keep those tendencies in check.

Oh the legalism. I remember as a kid my mom worrying about my 80 plus year old grandmothers soul because she couldn't lean her head back far enough to get every last drop of juice out of the communion cup and the Bible says drink ye all. It's the little things that really stick with you and make you think that if there really is a heaven there's no way I'm going to make.

gordie91 wrote:It took us a while to become acclimated to all the icons on every spot in the church, the vestments and incense.

I love the icons in the Catholic and Orthodox faiths.....incense, etc., all so beautiful, and I do incorporate them at times.

The only "incense" we could have had in c/c would be the Air Wick freshener thingies in the bathroom. And of
course no art whatsoever, unless it was one of those old baptismal murals if the building was vintage.

Oops...sorry!! Wrong thread.

I was in a Catholic Church last weekend for a chess tournament that was held in the classroom building. When we parked and entered the building, I was struck by the quantity of statues. Then inside the hallway of the classroom wing, there were more of these. It was a nice change from the plain walls of my COC youth.

Mostly all of the art work is painted, actually all of it is, Orthodox tend to not have three dimensions. But what was interesting to me, is the amount of information contained in a single icon. Each icon that has been described to us has tons of information about the scene, who the person or bible figure is and why it looks the way that it does.

A few years ago, I joked with some friends who were putting up "visuals" for their VBS asking about their "icons". They just said you know we don't do icons, this is for the children it is artwork that tells the story we are studying. That about sums it up, the icon is there to inform, inspire and to bring to remembrance the life or event being depicted. In the CoC, it is seasonal and only ok if it is done in the context of teaching the children. In Orthodoxy it is always there and is for everyone. I was asked one time why I had long hair by a sweet older lady. I told her I wanted to be like Jesus. She looked at me funny and said "how do you know Jesus had long hair, we don't know what he looked like?" I said, "I've seen the pictures!" She laughed and was good natured about it.

Old protestant reformer once said, "We need four bare walls and a sermon" CoC to a T. Heaven forbid the CoC look "Catholic" or do anything resembling.

I have only visited one Orthodox Church, the one in in Sitka, Alaska. The icons there were wonderful and numerous. The town started when Alaska was part of Russia, so the church was Russian. It is open for the many tourists from cruise ships. They were not having a service either time that I was there.

The Russian Churches have a distinct style. I find that every time I am in the Church, I tend to find something I haven't noticed yet. The icons help to really focus the mind on the entire service and the words of the songs and readings as well. I haven't played one game or sent one text during church services since going to the Orthodox Church.

The Church we go to is Greek, so there is a lot of Greek language. In the hymnal it is in English, Greek and phonetical greek. I am starting to speak in tongues now! There is always the English equivalent to the Greek and we are starting to pick up on some of the songs. It is kind of cool.