We are all beasts...we are all lost sheep gone astray. It's easy with hindsight to rail on and on about how the church is this or that. God called us out of the same corrupt system just as He will do with everyone, eventually. This is the point Ninny, Philip, & Linny are making that is being overlooked. Too much preaching, not enough listening.
No one here is even defending this church in question. All that was asked was IF this church was headed in the right direction, in your opinions.
Also, because I know SOMEONE will say, 'will Jesus did it, and I'm trying to be like Him'. Do you know that Jesus saved most of His derisive comments to the church LEADERS who KNEW what they were doing was wrong? Look in the very bibles that you are quoting to the members above for yourself. Does anyone believe that the billions of Christians on this earth KNOW that what they are doing/believing is wrong? Did you?
James 1:23-24 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
Look at this verse and think about BEFORE you were a 'doer of the Word'. When God showed you your true self, and you looked in that mirror and saw a brute beast, how humbling was that? Probably was earth-shattering, wasn't it?
Well, apparently not, because we've 'immediately forgotten what kind of man/woman we were'. And that is why there is an almost complete lack of compassion on this forum whenever the subject of church comes up. We want to look at them for what they should be instead of seeing them as how we were.
Christ said 'you shall know them by their fruits'. That's how you know the spirit of God is actually working in someone, not posting scriptures that one doesn't even take to heart. I only see arrogant, condescending attitudes towards our soon to be brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead of showing maturity and realizing this church, or any other church in it's infant stage, is not where they will be eventually, we act like toddlers who grow impatient with our younger sibling.
I'm sorry but it really gets me how sound counsel is ignored because one would rather get on their high chair & preach.
Marques