What does Christian Fundamentalism do best/worst?

[Recovering IFB]

i tried to get my dad to stop smoking cigars once by grabbing one out of his hand and taking a deep long puff on it before he could get it back..  ???... i don;t know what i was thinking but believe me i will never do that again.. ..  ...... .i choked, gagged, grabbed a bottle of water to try and wash it all away and then just burst out crying... . he just laughed at me.... which started me trying to laugh and cry at the same time.. . . he still teases me about that sometimes.. . . . .

You're not supposed to inhale cigar smoke,  ha ha! Best site on youtube.com for cigar info and reviews

How To Smoke A Cigar

 

[Sherryh]

cigars have always made me throw up ..........if I get wind of them I'm hanging over in bad shape............

one time a man blew cigar smoke in my direction and without any control I threw up on his shoes........we were in line to eat on a cruise ship...

 

[prophet]

cigars have always made me throw up ..........if I get wind of them I'm hanging over in bad shape............

one time a man blew cigar smoke in my direction and without any control I threw up on his shoes........we were in line to eat on a cruise ship...

I'll bet he thought twice about blowing that smoke in your face again.

Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[prophet]

So how do you fix the first without endangering the second?

I think that the first order of business would be to teach our people that "the world" can be redeemed for Christ, one soul at a time, and that means we have to go where they're at.  That means not only soulwinning on Thursdays, but being a real part of people's lives who aren't Christians, and not living in holy huddles. 

While I was leaving my old church and was interviewing my new church's lead pastor, I was discussing things with the lead pastor at a coffee shop. I asked him what night was soul winning. He replied, " We don't go out on a specific night for soul winning, your life is soul winning" Our lead pastor encourages us from the pulpit,(though he doesn't use one) that in everything we do in our communities, from shopping,in and about the neighborhood, attending festivals, kid's soccer games, hanging at the cigar lounge,(my personal favorite  ) everything we do, we are about engaging our neighbors and trying to cultivate relationships for God.

I went into a cigar lounge, sat down with a coffee infused Nicaraguan, and commenced to starting a conversation, which I steered towards the Lord.  I soon noticed another set of hands on the wheel.
The guy I was talking to was a local presby pastor.  This is my one attempt at cigar lounge witnessing...But I've got hundreds of friends who's door I knocked, who are following Christ,  now.
Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk 2

Was this Karma in Merrillville?

No, Golden Leaf @6 n 51, in Hobart.

Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[prophet]

I soon noticed another set of hands on the wheel.
The guy I was talking to was a local presby pastor.  This is my one attempt at cigar lounge witnessing...Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk 2

And this was a bad experience for you?

One time, I was walking to my tree stand, at 3am, and i looked up, and a man was in it.  He quickly got down, apologized, and went on his way.

Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Sherryh]

I felt so bad I started crying and I apologized to him he just said he was sorry also. I never saw him again

 

[BALAAM]

i tried to get my dad to stop smoking cigars once by grabbing one out of his hand and taking a deep long puff on it before he could get it back..  ???... i don;t know what i was thinking but believe me i will never do that again.. ..  ...... .i choked, gagged, grabbed a bottle of water to try and wash it all away and then just burst out crying... . he just laughed at me.... which started me trying to laugh and cry at the same time.. . . he still teases me about that sometimes.. . . . .

You're not supposed to inhale cigar smoke,  ha ha! Best site on youtube.com for cigar info and reviews

How To Smoke A Cigar

Olivia Series 5 is great. A little pricey for my taste but worth the money1

 

[ALAYMAN]

there was a medical student here in hawaii who went homeless, and took up residence on the streets to do research for a term paper...  or maybe a thesis....  ???... . i don;t remembr...  but he might still be out there... it wasn;t that long ago and i haven;t heard anything else about him.. .. :-\ ... he said he thought getting personally involved in his research like that would make his report all the more authentic.....  8) ... ..  and no.. .  in answer to what i think you might be wondering.. .  when i did my term paper on medical marijuana i did not get personally involved in my research... ....  at least not to that extent...

most of the witnessing and outreach i do with my church group is to the homeless.. specifically homeless mothers with children... .but also to the people most would consider classic street drunks.. .. . sometimes it;s witnessing or reading the Bible with them and sometimes it;s no more than just taking food to the ones who really need it.. ..  .. there are a lot different people out there and a lot of different reasons for it....  a lot of them are mentally ill.. .. . and what i found really sad is that most of those all have family living here in the islands and some are even well off.. ....  but they either couldn;t, or just didn;t want to, deal with a mentally ill family member so they abandoned them to the street...  :-\. 

Good on you for being willing to minister Christ to a very dangerous and difficult demographic.  I have very limited experience in that arena, and the little experience I did have was overwhelmingly challenging.

 

[ALAYMAN]

While I was leaving my old church and was interviewing my new church's lead pastor, I was discussing things with the lead pastor at a coffee shop. I asked him what night was soul winning. He replied, " We don't go out on a specific night for soul winning, your life is soul winning" Our lead pastor encourages us from the pulpit,(though he doesn't use one) that in everything we do in our communities, from shopping,in and about the neighborhood, attending festivals, kid's soccer games, hanging at the cigar lounge,(my personal favorite  ) everything we do, we are about engaging our neighbors and trying to cultivate relationships for God.
I'm really not against knocking on doors. I used to live in Virginia, it's part of the culture. but up here, I don't think its effective to the people up here. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but I think people don't warm up as easily. My buddy always says " People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"

While I find much to agree with here, I think it is an incomplete model of evangelism to only be a witness to those who we have some ongoing relationship with.

 

[Wherewereyou?]

It's been a bit slow so I figured I would try to come up with some topics to spur conversation. Topic 2:

What is most broken in Christian Fundamentalism?

What area does Christian Fundamentalism excel in?

welll... from my experience... and from what i have seen of the few fundamentalists that live in hawaii...  they are in general....

very good at reaping.. .  but very bad at sowing.. . . and even worse at tending the crops in the meantime..    ....... good at telling you what you need to do...  bad at showing you how to do it... .  ..

they are seen by many as placing more value on rehabilitating wolves than protecting the sheep.... 

in their ministries they go out of their way to reach out to the meth addicts and abusive men with histories of violence against women....  but they completely ignore the victims of those abusive men and treat them as something to be thrown away instead....  most every ifb church in the islands has a ministry to men who have either been in prison or addicted to drugs....  but i don;t know of one that has a shelter for abused women... ..  (that;s why most of us who either fit that category or came from that kind of life are members of either catholic or lutheran churches... .. )

but the thing i think they are absolutely best at is convincing themselves they are always right... regardless of what they believe and even when they change their beliefs... .. but not good at admitting they were ever wrong in the first place... ...  paul said "in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content". ... the modern equivalent would be .. "whatsoever i believe today.. therewith to be convinced"....

i have actually seen people on the fff change from one belief to the other.. (such as from arminianism to calvinism or back again..).. and go from being adamant and willing to fight to the death for what they believed one day.. to equally adamant and willing to fight to the death in favor of the thing they fought against yesterday... ..  ...  and wasn;t paul the same way?.....  he went from being someone who aggressively persecuted christians one day to someone who aggressively defended them the next...  but not only that... he became someone who aggressively instructed them as well... . .. 

my sister says that fundamentalists are a group of religiously minded people drawn together not by a common doctrine but by a common personality flaw....  .. if she is right about that then paul was definitely the first fundamentalist.... even before he got saved....  and i know of a few who remained fundamentalists even after deciding they no longer believed... .

but before you get all mad at me and start sharpening your swords.. .. just let me say...  i was saved through the bus ministry of a fundamental baptist church. ..  and when it came to choosing a family to live with i chose one with a fundamental baptist background.. .. .  so yes i believe they do a lot of things right.. ....  i just wish they were better at changing some of the things they do wrong... . 

Well said!

 

[rsc2a]

What is most broken in Christian Fundamentalism?

A little too much isolationism (which is an offshoot of some of the thoughts that go into the answer below), followed closely by an anti-intellectualism.

A little? I would say alot. It's practically an "us against the world" mentality.

I thought this article was fitting.