You got an iPhone, lol, last Christmas I visited my brother who is currently living in Northern Ireland. He’s doing an internship with Kathryn Scott and she proudly showed us her iPhone, so you have a fellow worshipleader-gadgetgeek, hehe.

I’m a youthworker in a tradition church and encourage the young people to look beyond walls created in history. Whether they are justified or not, I tell them to look for truth AND love. That is what Christians connect.

till next blog!

If you haven’t picked up a cover for it yet, I recommend checking out the Revo. I bought it at the Apple store but I think they sell them online too. It’s a bit more pricey than the others but seems to offer more protection.

Church denominations…I attend a non-denominational church. I think it’s good that we have different types of churches because all of us are different. We need to find one where we can connect with others and serve God in whatever way He has equipped us to do so. When Christ returns, He’ll unite us as originally intended. But for now, I think it’s best to focus on the things which unite as believers. Great question!

I am very impressed by the I-phone and they look like a lot of fun, but I just can’t justify the expense. Vicky, with your ministry, you can. I have (and need) the navigator programmed into my Verizon phone and when I visit folks, and I get it for just $10 a month. It works just fine for me.

As for denominations, I think that I have developed an interesting perspective over the course of my ministry.

The service of communion in my denomination begins with an invitation: “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin, and seek to live in peace with one another…”

I was ordained as an elder, a United Methodist minister, in 1984. I was baptized, confirmed, and grew up in this denomination, then went to a UM seminary, Duke Divinity School, and through my studies there really grew to appreciate my Methodist and Anglican heritage. I studied various Catholic writers (Augustine, Aquinas, mystics), and protestants – Luther, Calvin, and in particular, John Wesley. I then graduated and began serving a local UM church.

But after 2 years, I chose a slightly different career path and served for 20 years as a Navy chaplain, where one of my primary responsibilities was providing for the “free exercise of religion” for all the military folks and their families, regardless of their various faith beliefs. (I mean every faith belief, not just Christian!) As a Christian, that was difficult and challenging at times, especially when I had huge theological differences with a particular religious group, but I was able to continue to serve in the Navy this way by asking the question, “How would I feel if Chritianity was the minority religion, and I was the one simply seeking a place and opportunity to worship?” That made it easy to stand up for all religions, however, when I conducted worship services, they were protestant, and I was a Methodist. So my focus in facilitating for others was on the First Ammendment to the US Constitution, rather than my individual beliefs as a Christian. I had close Chaplain friends and military friends who were Roman Catholic, Jewish, LDS, and others, yet I still knew who I was and what I believed, I practiced those beliefs, and held them dear.

When I was stationed in the San Diego area there wasn’t a United Methodist church near where we lived that had a really good contemporary worship service with praise music, or a dynamic youth ministry, so my family and I began looking at other churches. We attended a great church, a Calvary Chapel, for a while, but it was too far away, and then settled on a nearby Presbyterian Church that was Spirit filled with dynamic worship and youth programs. I didn’t believe some of the Calvinistic theology of this church, but I loved the people there as dear brothers and sisters in Christ. The pastor was a dear friend. He invited me to preach, and to share my testimony. All along I discovered that the Christian family has many members with different last names.

So I really think that this denomination thing is sort of like last names – mine is Holley, Vicky’s is Beeching, and yours is (fill it in), and each family has certain beliefs. I think that it becomes a sad division when we choose to focus on our differences. It is a healthy diversity when look with the eyes of Jesus at the important and substantive things we have in common. The fact that we have different last names, yet are all part of the greater Christian family calls us to look to what we do have in common, the holy scriptures, to try to determine that which makes us truly Christian.

For me, gleaning common beliefs from the scriptures are pretty basic as I follow the Wesleyan theology of repentance, asking Jesus to be Lord of my life and knowing that my salvation/justification is by faith in Jesus Christ and him alone, and that Christ calls me to sanctification – to be ever growing in holiness of heart and life. No treatise here, just the three very basics of Wesley.

In John’s gospel (chapter 3), Nicodemus comes to Jesus, and receives a very important lesson from our Lord. Perhaps when looking at others, whether denominations, churches, or individuals, we should consider what it takes to see the kingdom (you must be born again); what it takes to enter the kingdom (you must be born of water and the Spirit); and for whom Christ came (John 3: 16-17).

Blessings Y’all – Pastor Frank

This is my first post! Love your blog and love your music. Yesterday’ is the soundtrack to my life!

Anyway, the question…
Hmmm, well I was brought up in the Anglican Church (Church of England), and then my Dad became a vicar for the anglican church, so that’s where I began. I moved to baptist church at the age of twelve, then moved to a Pentecostal church at the age of 16, then a free chuch and to be honest I haven’t found the ‘right’ church and I don’t think I ever will.

I see myself as a follower of Jesus, and that’s the only important thing to be honest…

I mean in the early church, I don’t think they had this issue.

I really think it’s important to be in a church, or engage in some kind of church for fellowship/suppourt/teaching.

I think essencially, we need to stop concentraiting on our denomination and start focusing back on God.

As long as a denomination is Bible-based and not totally off-the-wall, then I’d say I don’t have a problem with different denominations, as long as they don’t become exclusive and clubby.

Hope I make sense?! lol.

Anyways, take are

Love,
George.
Coventry, UK.

I have a fairly complicated background including several denominations and non-denominational churches. It was too long so I erased the list

Then I found Calvary Chapel Budapest, which has the qualities that I think are important: 1) It teaches the Bible, 2) Worship is great, even when it’s just Mike and his quitar (or when it’s 8 people) 3) We’re active in ministries, and 4) I found friends. It also matches my personality: it’s laidback in style, we always have lots of new faces, ministries are usually organized by the “laity” – pretty obvious as we don’t have a clergy – and I never feel that I have to pretend I’m happy all the time. Too bad I moved to England for a while so I’m a bit cut off…

I think denominations are great for the various personality types. Some people would feel awkward in my church, some other would feel overly restricted. So they go elsewhere, and that’s cool.

I think every denomination is fine if the Bible is thought and if it’s the authoritative source to the extent that *anything* (e.g. the theaching of the pastor himself) can (and is) questioned if it seems to contradict God’s written word.

the church i work at now basically has a set of “essential” values, and a set of “non-essentials” (eg: alcohol, speaking in tongues, calvinism vs. armenianism, etc.). having experienced both of these environments, i’ve developed the mindset that when it comes to denominational issues, are we creating unity or division? i feel like when we focus too much on these things, we probably more often than not are creating the latter, and shouldn’t we really be trying to welcome people, not alienate them because they may not agree with some of our denominational ideas?

But i miss it. i would say that you made an awesome purchase…one that would make dad proud.

I always knew I liked you for some reason, not just the looks, the musik but also the tech! I’ve been listening to you ever since I first saw you doing the worship cafe for worship together.

You now have another RSS subscriber, are you a Mac user?

FYI the iPhone doesn’t have GPS, it basically works like GPS by pin pointing your location through wireless networks.

—-
How does the Maps location-based service (LBS) work?
LBS provides your approximate location using information based on your proximity to known cellular network towers and Wi-Fi networks (when Wi-Fi is enabled and service is available). The more accurate the available information, the smaller the circle identifying your position on the map. The feature is not available in all areas. Known Wi-Fi networks are predominantly in urban areas. The data collected to provide your location does not personally identify you. If you do not want such data collected, you can choose not to enable the feature.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/questionsandanswers.html