When someone says to me, “I am a Christian, I just don’t go to church,” I know there is one reason given more than any other. “I was forced to go to church when I was younger.” So, what does this mean?
Obviously, it means the person didn’t like church. I don’t think you will hear one of our children saying someday, for instance, “I don’t go to Disneyland because I was forced to go there when I was a child.” The church experience wasn’t a positive one if people say they were forced to go. Well, as an adult, you can actually go wherever you want. It’s not as if an experience with the Christian community is limited to what you remember years ago as a child. Church experiences can be quite different.
By the way, don’t too quickly buy into parents “forcing” their children to go to church as a bad thing. Being an active Christian is an extremely healthy lifestyle. Active Christians statistically have much better mental and physical health than people of no active faith life. I will say, however, that if parents attend a church which is not “youth-friendly,” then they are doing their children a great disservice, by "forcing" them to go there rather than taking them to a church that loves kids. This can make a big difference in the future.
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- audio (123)
- Christian Church (1)
- Christianity (1)
- church growth (1)
- Dana Hanson (4)
- discipleship (6)
- Easter (1)
- emergent (1)
- emergent church (1)
- evangelism (2)
- family time (1)
- fatherhood (3)
- fathering (6)
- fathers (6)
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- golf (1)
- healing (1)
- Holy Spirit (2)
- Islam (1)
- Jesus (1)
- just war (1)
- Konrad Lorenz (1)
- Law of love (1)
- Meet the Fockers (1)
- Name of Jesus (1)
- next generations (1)
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- outreach (1)
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Blog Archive
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2004
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December
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- Happy New Year
- I'm a Christian, I just don't go to church
- a public Merry Christmas?
- natural disasters
- Christmas carols
- Christmas in the public arena?
- what I can't do for you
- what I can do for you
- relax, I'm a Christian
- reaching out in the name of Jesus
- the silence is deafening
- A Newsweek Christmas
- what's the big deal?
- Famous Atheist Now Believes in God
- the atheist goes first
- and Christians are different?
- if there is no God
- girls just want to have fun
- some concluding thoughts
- rare earth
- random chance?
- starting from the beginning
- how do you explain the origin of life?
- intelligent design
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About Me
- Dana
- Pastor from LIFEhouse Church in Northridge CA, focusing on the theme, "How To Be A Christian Without Being A Jerk."
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