In a Church Encounter of the 1st Kind, your experience of “what church is” is essentially a one dimensional experience–being a spectator in a boring setting once a week.
You are part of a church gathering in which you and almost everyone else are only spectators—and what you spectate is a dry, boring lecture about a dry, doctrinal topic. The only time you participate is to sing a few songs that are in an archaic musical style, have no emotional element, and almost entirely emphasize intellectual descriptions of some aspect of God.
You directly interact with only a few people in the group, and then only for a short period after the meeting, and perhaps at one other similar meeting later in the week that is dubbed a “Bible study” instead of a “service.” And your interactions with most of the congregation are primarily of the “how ya doin’?” sort where you exchange pleasantries about your jobs or families, or perhaps opinions of a recent news story.
The only “outreach” by the church, if any exists at all, will be done formally by the few in leadership positions.
There is nothing holy or particularly biblical AT ALL about this style of service. People who have been part of a one-dimensional church for their whole lives, and who insist we MUST always do what we’ve always done, are not preserving the holy, they are embalming the dead but treating it as if it is alive.
What we need to preserve are the PRINCIPLES of the Bible, and present them afresh in every generation … becoming all things to all people in all times, as Paul did.
You described what the 1st 15 years of so of my life in the church were like. I thank God that that has changed; at least for me.
That was unfortunately all to true.
I like this statement you make….”People who have been part of a one-dimensional church for their whole lives, and who insist we MUST always do what we’ve always done, are not preserving the holy, they are embalming the dead but treating it as if it is alive”.