Thanks Linny.
This was one of the very first things I started to feel was wrong in my Church. They went against everything in Mat 6. They prayed out loud, very repetitious, lots of "thank you Jesus" over and over again, very long prayers in prayer meetings, it almost got like a competition to see who could come up with the longest prayer and who could get the most "Amen" out of the group. Then there was their good works and charitable deeds, alms. They circulated a magazine throughout the town and had Church volunteers to post it door to door. Most of it was filled with reports of all the good things they'd done for people, with prominent people in the Church having their picture taken at the head of the articles. They had days in Church where they would bring people out to the pulpit and have them tell everyone about some charity event they'd done, and have everyone clap and cheer. I'm not knocking what they did for people, indeed these things are all part of what we should be doing in Christ. But you have to question their motives and if they'd ever read Mat 6.
Fasting was also a group activity. At prayer meetings in the middle of a fast they'd all talk about how hungry they were and what they'd given up that week. I confess I never joined in any fasting of food or water. To me the whole principle of fasting is about giving up your life to Christ, fasting from the world and everything in it. At that point in my walk the world to me was the world outside the Church.
They also did a lot of things contrary to most of 1 Corinthians, the many instructions Paul gives to the Church and how it should be run etc. They'd have people speaking in "tongues", usually complete gibberish, during sunday services, often in front of new visitors and new faith seekers. Well just as Paul said, they just looked at them as if they were mad. Usually, those people wouldn't come again. The pastors reasoning was that his preaching was just too hard for them, that they didn't like the truth. One can hardly be surprised that a sane rational person would be not a little alarmed at a bunch of people rejoicing over, and praising a God they were telling anyone who would listen is going to torture their Friends and relatives forever, and ranting in gibberish waving their arms in the air.
As for the Lords prayer, all the time I was attending the Church I never heard it once.
For a time, I did believe the doctrine, that was the journey God took me on through Babylon. But I thank God that he never had me doing all those things.