Another attack against the church.

Link is here



Pray for this good church!
Jim Norman
Northside Baptist Church

Sic'em, Gibbs!

Amen! Go after 'em Brother Gibbs! If anyone can get the Church out of this mess the State has caused I am confident he is the one. I have the utmost in confidence in Dr. Gibbs. I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking with him a number of times. He has preached at our Church twice recently.

this is another example of government not maintaining the separation of Church and State the herald so much. I just don't understand how any government in this country can believe they have the right to get involved in the things preached from the pulpit and/or in this case moral issues that follow the teachings of the Bible. It appears to me this case is all about greed. they want the money generated from liquor sales and will stop at nothing, including investigating a body of believers, to achieve that end.

Another sad day for Christianity in the United States.

In Christ,
George

I hope the battle over alcohol doesn't damage their ability to share the Gospel with the community.

Well Brother Nate that depends. I do not believe that a Church should have any kind of event in a public park where there is drinking allowed. This atmosphere attracts all kinds of people who are unsavory at best. The possibility of drunks attempting to disrupt things is rather large. We are also not to fellowship or hang around with such people or frequent the same places they do.

However I have done a lot of work among the homeless in our community to bring them to the Lord. The vast majority if not all of the ones I have had contact with have had or still have alcohol problems. Yet that does not prevent me from sharing the Gospel with them. Myself and one other man have been successful at leading a number of them to The Lord. Some of them are still abstaining from their old addictions. Praise God for that!

However some of them are in jail or prison because they just would not change.

We have been known to bring people to Church who smell of alcohol. We were greatly criticized from some quarters but our Pastor was very supportive of our efforts on behalf of The Lord. I believe the primary difference to be seeking such people out on an individual basis rather than going en-mass to where they hang out and socializing in those places.

In Christ,
George

I'll expand on my previous thought to clarify where I'm coming from. Our church has encountered a situation which is similar to the one mentioned in the article in some ways, so it brought some thoughts to mind. In reading the comments responding to the article, it seems the community takes offense to people who do not live in their community desiring to influence policy without contributing in other ways. As one said, "pay some taxes, then we'll talk". It seems that the community would be more willing to simply disagree with the church if the members actually lived there.

This is the attitude our church encountered in the 7 years we have been in existence. Because most of our members, including myself, are from a neighboring city 15 miles away, we are viewed as outsiders trying to come in and change them. Our pastor had a burden to reach this community since there was no solid Bible church there, though there were several liberal denominations in place. We have had difficulty reaching the community as it is, but if we were to be extremely vocal about a voting issue in the community of which we are not a part, it would cause great offense and make our task even more difficult.

I'm concerned that we as the church communicate the wrong message to the communities in which we seek to make a difference. The message that comes across by protesting this and that is not the love of Christ, but rather that we are trying to make them follow our standards. In our own communities we should definitely involve ourselves in the electoral process to the fullest extent. However, if we minister in communities in which we do not live, perhaps caution should be used lest we bring about unintended consequences that hinder our ministry.

The background of the community we are ministering to goes back many years to its history of raising tobacco. When the Tobacco Days celebration has come around each year, our church has not participated in any way. To clarify, it's not a big cigarette smoking marathon and its name is only because of the town's history. The actual events are a chili cookoff, bakesale, car show, parade, etc. though there is alcohol served in some areas. I feel that our church had a chance to connect with the community if we had chosen to participate, but we did not. We have blanketed the city each time the church organizes an event, but we separate ourselves from the community events. Is this the right strategy? I truly wonder if it is. Our ministry at the youth center which the church finances has been wonderful, but the remainder of the community remains unreached. Could it be because we've missed the whole point by focusing on the alcohol and tobacco instead of viewing the festival as a chance to bond with the community? These are the questions that come to my mind.

God bless your work with the homeless and praise the Lord for the success, Brother George. That is truly showing Christ's love to them. Our church has assisted with staffing a homeless men's shelter and it has been fruitful, also.