Category: Church

Somewhere in the last 2000 years we’ve missed the point. Church is a solemn and depressing place in many denominational parishes. The quiet “reverence” of the buildings misses the point. Masses in latin, canticles in old English or the more modern service books all emphasise the necessity to be quiet in God’s presence.

Bethlehem Community Church in Laurel, Mississippi had advertised to the community that a “special guest,” would be speaking.

This top ten list comes from years of observation. No definitive study is being referenced, but we think this is a pretty close list of actions (or not) that turn people away from church and lose members.

Big churches have always been around, including Charles Spurgeon’s Baptist Metropolitan Tabernacle in London which drew 5,000 weekly in the 1800s, as did the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles where radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson preached. But size isn’t the issue.

The last article I wrote was all about how the world will know us by the way we love them as well as each other. But we have to be honest here. We are human … every one of us. And, as long as we are human, we will have conflict. There will be misunderstandings, miscommunications, and misattributions. What do we do to reduce the damage these things can cause?

Critics of the Chicken Church say its architect inadvertently laid an egg. A photographer had noticed that, from just the right spot, its highest windows resemble eyes, and some roofing tiles have the look of wings and a beak.