The Town of Odyssey

lol @Top, that's what I was gonna say.

But yeah, hypothetically speaking, the whole idea of "church" is for corporate worship of God and for fellowship of the believers. "Thus saith the Lord, thou shalt have nurseries and potlucks or thou aren't a good church." never appears in the Bible. Nurseries and other "services" like that are merely amenities. It is convenient to have them. It is not required to have them. I would liken it to the states within the US. They are governed by the federal gvt, but they have the right theoretically *winkwinkcoughcoughhackhackcough* to govern themselves differently. Nurseries are provided for the convenience of the members. The "government" of the church has the authority, in this case dealing with these matters, to set the rules, if you will.

What's wrong with that?

The problem is that most of the church has decided to walk alongside the rest of the world which they SHOULDN'T be doing. The church has become so lenient to the unsaved, preaching what the people want to hear and not what God wants them to hear. Nurseries and other services are good, but they're definitely not to be the focus of how the church is supposed to function. The purpose of the other programs is to provide each person with the opportunity to learn about Christ with their respective ages and groups. The fact of the matter is that the church is to be the people and until the people remember they are there to worship God and to connect with each other, encouraging one another and bringing in the lost to learn about Him. But people won't come in until they see the church has gotten it's act together and don't buy into the cool-aid of the false prophets that are out there.

The false prophets have kool-aid? Adios, church!

I can't believe it, I finally agree with Darcie on something. If a person doesn't tithe, that's between him and God. I always knew when my previous church was low on funds because we would start to get slammed with sermons about giving every Sunday. It's up to the Pastor to preach the Word of God and it's up to the Holy Spirit to convict. For some it might take longer to get convicted than others. If a Pastor can't get people to tithe then maybe it wasn't God's will for him to Pastor that church. A Pastor needs to rely on God to provide. If the funds aren't there then he has to stop providing those costly services. It may come to a point where he has to close the church doors.