| I have been to many churches here in the South. I have visited many in North Carolina and Tennessee. Both of these states are flooded with churches. It seems to be mostly Southern Baptist. I have visited different denominations, but mostly Southern Baptist. I have been very disappointed in how we treat church down here in the South and for that matter the north as well. The overarching mindset here in the South is the phrase "My Church, My Life." The words Defragmented, Disassociated, Orthodoxy, and Self Absorbed come to mind as well. To sum it up, we are playing religion. Jesus said that you will know my people by their “Love.” (Paraphrase). What ever happened to that all important love attitude? Someone said that Sunday is the most racially divided day of the week. Blacks go to their church and the whites go to theirs. I guess we forgot that word UNITY that is mentioned so many times in the bible. It is all about my church, and what my church is doing for the week, and how my church is better then the one right down the street. Never mind about the people in the jail system, the people on the streets, the single mothers, the elderly, and the widowed. Instead we put labels on people. OH, don’t go near those skaters, stay away from the troublemakers, don’t go near those rappers, let’s not mention the silent, stay away from the black kids. I have been to at least twenty churches, mostly Southern Baptist and I can count on one hand how many black people attended. How sad is that. Then again I have been to three different Baptist churches where the church is all black and no white. Both black and white are wrong in racially dividing each other. I could go on about that subject; anyway, we have become a people of a “loveless heart.” We are constantly looking around judging others with a holier then thou attitude. It all starts with the HEART. I have been to a couple of youth conferences and youth pastor conferences and I keep hearing that this next youth generation is on fire and wants to change the church, they will be the ones that creates the next revival. They are the one looking for the authentic faith. Well that sounds good, but from what I have seen is that the youth are no better then the baby-boomer generation or the Gen Xers. So the ultimate question is how do we restore LOVE back into the hearts of Christians? How do we unify the races and reach out to the unwanted? How do we put action into our faith? Search deep into your heart, and don’t just come up with the appropriate answers, but come up with an answer and commit to it by putting it into action no matter how much flack you get at your local church even if it means you having to leave. DON’T CONFORM TO RELIGION CONFORM TO CHRIST. side note, here is just waht I heard from a group of college kids here at McDonalds. A girl was talking about her dream and what she might think what it meant. she also mentioned that she had gone to church in this same conversation. she then mentions that her mom knows this person who can interpert dreams. and how she might go to this person and find out what it means. in another words she is going to a psychic. How sad, we go to church on sunday and forget about Jesus. now this student is going to confirm the spirits. religion is just apart of our culture and we put the name Jesus in it.
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