Is this ok?

I attended a church, that was having a dedication service for a baby. It was held on a Saturday rather than Sunday because the church was closed Sunday.

We had the service, attended by many.

But it was what happended after that bothered me, and I can't put my finger on it.

After the service, using a video projector and a laptop, they watched the soccer world cup, in the church. It was projected onto a big screen.

Can't say I watched. Its not something that interests me.

But, I felt it was wrong to be watching this, just after having a service, in which God was supposed to have been honoured.

Is this ok? Is it acceptable to switch from God to any entertainment?

If not, why not?

Don't know if there will be any replies. But if there are, could you please use scripture to show your position.

There is a scripture or two that comes to my mind concerning this, but I don't want to influence people, so I won't mention them yet.

Thanks.

I so hope Enid that you read the Word much and pray. You already have the answer.

I John 2:20 says, "But you have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." This is a declaration from the Word that you have the Holy Spirit telling you when something is wrong. When we first bear witness to it, it is very strong. Then, when we begin to reason and ask others their opinions, our initial witness begins to fade.

James 4:4 declares that is we are friends with the world, we are enemies of God.

I guess maybe you had a picture of where the hearts of the people were. They wanted to serve God and then set up the idols afterwards. It is worldwide now. It is so sad.

We must simply choose to come out and be separated people. Every idle word we speak and everything fruitless deed is being recorded even in heaven.

God bless and give you wisdom in all of this Enid.

Well, I think you're on the right path Enid, and actually letting the Holy Spirit guide you about areas of ministry that become unscriptural, worldly, man centered ministries. I would think that your objections to this and the feelings of this not being right are not mere opinion or feelings. I believe the Holy Spirit convicted you of the necessity of something not being right. Seriously, if you wanted to watch the world cup, you could go to the local bar, Tgi Friday, etc, not in church. Very sad, when the only place left in society to hear the truth proclaimed, and lives changed the local New Testament Church becomes a place of carnality and cheap entertainment. I would align myself as quickly as possible with a church that preaches and teaches the truth of God's word without compromise and do not feel bad if you question. Remember in Acts 17:11, there was a group of people who "searched the Scriptures daily" to see if what they were being taught was right. What a challenge. Keep the faith and I think you're on the riht path to objecting to that type of behaviour in a ministry. God bless you.

There was a scripture that came to mind when all this took place.

In Matthew 21, Jesus drives out those who were using the temple improperly, for it was the be a house of prayer, but rather had been turned into a den of thieves.

Maybe they were not stealing, but they sure were not praying either.

Also, it tells us in 1 Corinthians 11v1 to imitate Christ.

I fail to see how the Lord Jesus Christ would do something like this in a place that is supposed to be used for prayer.

The flesh wants this, the spirit doesn't.

hi, i am not religeous at all and believe that we are the church and that the building is nothing but a building.jimp

Enid, I agree with your sense of unease. You know? sometimes something just does not seem right and we may be at loss to fully explain it, but it is there...we do well to listen to it - this is an act of faith. At some point the reasons will become clear.

God bless you
ginnyrose

Maybe a building is just a building. But if so, Jesus was being overly religious when He drove the moneychangers out of the temple?

What was the temple for? Didn't Jesus say it was for prayer?

So when we use a church building, do we use it to play pool, watch soccer, play air hockey?

What is the church building for?

Hmmm. Maybe, its for the church?

Are WE not the church? Do we not have lives outside of praying at the church? Watching football at church is not a sin people, it is the heart in which you do it.

Since when do people go to church to watch football?

Is that why we go?

Why kind of comment does, 'it is the heart in which you do it' supposed to mean?

I don't understand that comment.

I used to think Christians met at a church building to worship God.

I'm wrong.

I want to be careful in what I say. If the Lord is convicting you of these actions in your church, then it is not my place to say that it is right or wrong, regardless of my personal feelings on this. As I know you do, follow the leading of the Lord :-)

I like your statement before of "a building is just a building". That is all a church "building" is, it is a building. People can create an idol out of a church building just as much as they can out of football (soccer to us Americans :-)

The heart issue is just that, a heart issue. If you are doing something out of of a sinful heart, then it should not be done, regardless of where ever you are located. If you are doing it out of a heart of pleasing the Lord, then why does it matter where you do it, as long as it is done with a heart to glorify the Lord. If your church is doing this sinfully, then it is to be stopped.

I lead a House Church. Our House Church is held in my personal home and is considered by some to be a church when we meet. Am I now considered sinful if we do anything else in my home besides worship? Where is the line that we draw and why do we draw lines where we do? Is it because of "church tradition", or is it because of a sense of holiness that we feel can only be found in a church building?

A bunch of House Churches that we are affiliated with meet in a "church" building for Sunday worship. In this building there are many different activities that this building is used for outside of Sunday worship. Here are some of them...

Home School workshops/activites, birthdays, receptions, graduations, mens/womens groups, youth groups, day and night pray, conferences, missionary speakers, music practices, New Years eve movie night for families, trainings, etc... As you can see, not all of the activites that are held in the "church building" are directly related with prayer, but are used to glorify the Lord. Do you believe that these activities should cease?

Blessings my friend.

Hi guys and gals,

Perhaps the heart of it has to deal with amusement and worshipping of idols. I don't think it is just me but the comments of my friends on Facebook about the World Cup specifically, and sports in general, show another spirit at work. Pride, arrogance and accusation seem to be all over the place. What does that have to do with God's people? Ought not these things even to be mentioned among us? Peraps this meeting to watch the World Cup merely revealed what is in these people's hearts. Something with repurcussions but no direct evidence. Prayerfully consider this.

What I have found in most Christians, is that, you can't talk about God with them.

During the service, there is of course, the praise, worship, prayer, sermon etc.

Before and after the service, there is no mention of God, His word, the sermon they just heard.

They talk about the movies they have seen, the holidays they have planned, this, that and the other.

It seems alien to talk about God.

It all over for this service. No more talk about God until the next service, whenever that will be.

So football or parties etc after a service is quite the norm now. Msybe even God approves and rejoices in this.

So, like I said, I'm wrong.

Like I said, if the Lord is convicting you of this, it is not my place to say if it is right or wrong at your church.

I agree with what you write about no talk of the Lord until the next service. The Lord does NOT rejoice in this.

Blessings my friend.

Before and after the service, there is no mention of God, His work, the sermon they just heard. They talk about the movies they have seen, the holidays they have planned, this, that, and the other. It seems alien to talk about God.

This is something that has bothered me for some time. Even if a powerful message was preached, usually the moment the last word of the benediction is uttered, talk resumes about sports, weather, anything but what the sermon was about, how we were convicted or how we can apply that to our lives or how we were convicted.

I guess I'm guilty of letting others set the tone for the conversation, though.....and worse yet, sometimes I'm the one that immediately switches to the temporal things......

Lorijean

Think I have to come down with Jimp on this one. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we assemble in a building to worship the Lord, the temples of God are entering an edifice made of wood, brick, stone, or whatever. The physical building is not sacred. We, the living temple of the Holy Spirit are. Is it any different to watch the World Cup in the "church building" after an anointed service than it is to go to another "building" that I call my house to watch the same game? How often do we allow things in our home that we would be offended at if it occurred in the "church" building?

I was brought up to reverence the building as well, and have come to realize that this is misplaced reverence. Why would I ever allow something in my life outside the four walls of the church building that I would never allow to come inside the church building.

Now I do believe that it is good to dedicate the building to a particular purpose as it often helps put us in a frame of mind to accomplish that purpose when we enter. But this is practical and a bit psychological rather than spiritual. The holiness of the old testament temple is a picture of how we should view the new testament temple, our bodies. Just as nothing unclean or common was allowed in the physical temple in the OT, we should not allow unclean things in our own lives as the living temples of the Holy Spirit.

So, if the World Cup is wrong in the context of the "church building", why are we watching it outside of that context. And if nothing is wrong with it outside of the four walls of the church building, then should it bother us to have it inside the four walls? I ask the question not out of contention, but rather because this is a question I have pondered over the past few years in relationship to the super bowl. My bone of contention was that we rearranged and cut short time in God's presence so we could hurry up and get on with the Super Bowl Party.

Just some thoughts

twayneb

I agree that nothing should cut short the time we are spending with the Lord, unless it is something that cannot be helped (i.e. sickness, poopy diaper, etc... :-) If we are cutting short our time with the Lord because of a game, then the heart is not right. I cannot tell you how many times we have missed the first half of the Packers because we have been fellowshipping in the church building... And if you know Packer fans, you know that is a BIG deal. lol.

This is so true Lorijean I quess it must be happening in all churches. My husband and I picked up on this shortly after we were born again 3 years ago. As we were maturing in Christ we were becoming convicted of meeting in the coffee room after the service ended and there was no talk of the message or very little, just a time to drink coffee laugh and enjoy ourselves. My husband and I stopped going to the coffee shop and started going home to read the bible more to talk about the sermon and to pray.

It's refreshing to know others feel the same way and it's always good to admit our sinfulness to repent and to move into the direction of Christ.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Brethren,

I believe there is a time for everything and we being the church need to be able to separate a spiritual time from carnality.

I realize that people who are involved in “house church” have to use the same building for their home and they can’t open their home 24 hours of the day to people for worshiping the Lord.

But we also must realize that we are to consecrate a time and a place for spiritual worship with other believers and we are not to loose the vitality of that time for our spiritual enrichment.

On the other hand a building set a part and consecrated for spiritual service unto the Lord must also be distinguished from carnal things. I do not believe in idolizing a building but I do believe that when we are worshiping together in the presence of God that it is a holy time and should be treated as such.

At whatever time that a people come together in the name of Jesus in any particular place to participate in worship that we are to reverence God and receive spiritual enrichment. We must not be quick to do something carnal. Something is definitely wrong if we can’t wait to do something carnal/worldly over against a spiritual time of worship.

I am no different than any of you concerning things that I like to see or have been interested in over the years but it shouldn’t be something that I show more interest in than in a spiritual time with God. I believe that we have enough problems denying ourselves and making sure that we don’t spend too much time doing carnal things that would rob us of being more spiritual in the Lord. We definitely don’t need to be making more time for it, like right after a time of worship.

We also don’t need to be bringing more worldly things into church buildings and participating as the church in these things because we need to be doing these things less and not more. It would even be better if we died to it altogether.

Blessings to all!