Do you find a MILF pastor strange?

[Beet]

Not at all. If a MILF teacher can be common, so can a MILF pastor. I do, however, find the term MILF strange.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Well she's Presbyterian so not a hipster Christian, but Carol Howard Merritt definitely qualifies.




But she does write articles with titles like Deconstructing patriarchy, one ritual at a time so she does at least fit the progressive SJW bill pretty well.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

I know people who write articles with titles like that who'd kick your ass if you called them 'progressive'.

[they don't love you like i love you]

I know people who write articles with titles like that who'd kick your ass if you called them 'progressive'.

Well unless they're somehow conservatives who still write articles like that, then they have an odd case of labelphobia.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

I know people who write articles with titles like that who'd kick your ass if you called them 'progressive'.

Well unless they're somehow conservatives who still write articles like that, then they have an odd case of labelphobia.

There are leftists who distrust the concept of 'progress', believe it or not.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Yes, but that has more to do with the subject of the term than its object, i.e. seek help. Unless your church has a far more adventurous attitude toward sexuality than you've let on to, you shouldn't be ILFing anyone when he or she is presiding over a religious service.

1-The term isn't necessarily meant to be taken literally. Same goes for the "M" part, no one would ever describe a 22-year old mother as such, but it still is used for any attractive middle aged woman whether they have kids or not.
2-"Presiding over a religious service" is not a particularly accurate description of what the pastors here do, at least in the traditional sense and interpretation of what that means. It's more like "giving a motivational speech". More like a TED talk (complete with Powerpoint presentations) with scattered Bible quotes and a few prayers.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

You voluntarily watch PowerPoint presentations???

[RFayette]

Presbyterianism > Hipster Christianity.

Powerpoints in a sermon?  What the heck? 

[they don't love you like i love you]

Like I said, we're talking more like a TED talk or interesting college lecture than a business meeting type PowerPoint.

It usually starts with some video or them showing some picture of their kids/niece/nephew/pet or whatever that makes a lot of people go "aaawwww!" as a lead in or some picture with more meaning, like the selfie of Miss Lebanon with Miss Israel or pictures of women whose sons and husbands were killed in the Rwandan Genocide standing with then men who killed them...and whom they've forgiven. Then it leads into the main sermon which is usually college lecture style in that it'll slowly display a list of the main points they want you to take from it that people will write down or type on their phones while telling jokes or telling personal anecdotes that relate to them. And whenever they quote the Bible that verse appears there too. And sometimes they'll post their phone number if they want questions to be texted that they'll answer after the sermon, or a hashtag for people to use posting their thoughts or reactions on Twitter.

[Türkisblau]

WTF? And this is considered a f[inks]ing Church!? At least us Catholics have standards.

I wish Protestantism had been stamped out

[Oakvale]

Liberalism is evil.

[they don't love you like i love you]

WTF? And this is considered a f[inks]ing Church!? At least us Catholics have standards.

I wish Protestantism had been stamped out

How's it not a church? It has a cross up front. It gives out communion some weeks although unlike the Catholics they also give us name tags so the communion server can give it by name  (and usually say something before like "Be still and know that the peace of God is with you" instead of the same thing every time) and people get all reverent and into worshipping raising their hands during the songs. Catholics don't do THAT.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

WTF? And this is considered a f[inks]ing Church!? At least us Catholics have standards.

I wish Protestantism had been stamped out

How's it not a church? It has a cross up front. It gives out communion some weeks although unlike the Catholics they also give us name tags so the communion server can give it by name.

I go to a church small enough that the communion server doesn't need me to wear a name tag to know my name.  I can understand why name tags can be useful to help newcomers learn the names of those already going there, but if those leading the service need name tags to tell who's who among the regular goers, it's too large to be an effective church in my opinion.  If anything, the service is the least important part of being in a church.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

What I've never understand are modern church buildings. What's the point of going to church if the building isn't old as, at the very least, your grandparents?

[RFayette]

What I've never understand are modern church buildings. What's the point of going to church if the building isn't old as, at the very least, your grandparents?

In many parts of the USA, there are suburbs in which not a single building is that old.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Modern church buildings look modern inside too which is more cool. Like this one that resembles a strip club complete with no overhead lighting, just colored strobes.

[Torie]

This particular disengaged one from religion of any form, finds it interesting, that even to this day, so much psychological energy is expended on the issue of the style affectations and conduits for trying to get more in touch with the transcendental. It is almost as if, the dispute between Anglicans, with their pomp and ceremony, and dissenters, with their spare churches, and black garb, in late 16th and 17 century Britain, but basically with somewhat similar theologies, at least as viewed from afar, still has traction today. One would think, there would be more of the attitude, of well, dude, if it works for you, just go for it, but I guess not.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

What I've never understand are modern church buildings. What's the point of going to church if the building isn't old as, at the very least, your grandparents?

^^^^^

I completely share this sentiment although I would extend it to at least great-grandparents.

[Türkisblau]

I don't even know what to say...

[DC Al Fine]

What I've never understand are modern church buildings. What's the point of going to church if the building isn't old as, at the very least, your grandparents?

For the Word & Table of course!

[TDAS04]

No.

[they don't love you like i love you]

? Even my parents' Lutheran Church in North Dakota uses PowerPoint...

[they don't love you like i love you]

Don't see how that'd work. Though I know of a church in Brooklyn that meets in an actual bar. With a bartender serving communion.

[SWE]

Leave

[they don't love you like i love you]

I'm pretty surprised PowerPoint is the big controversy amongst some here. That's quite common amongst churches today.

If I was to think of very odd things that stand out here, I'd instead think of downright wonderful things like people sometimes hardcore dancing and even crowdsurfing during songs sometimes, cases of people using profanity during sermons, or that allowing kids to run up and down the aisles during the service is actually pretty normal and accepted.