What exactly is an "Old Fashioned" Church?

[rsc2a]

[quote author=PappaBear]Alcohol is defended so that it flows like a river, breaking apart more and more families.  Immodesty is emboldened so that places of nudity, cursing, and carnality are promoted on billboards, serving "customers" at many exits and on many corners, across most airwaves, and in your face at public magazine racks and news stands everywhere, when it was absent in "Old Fashion" times...

However, since that time, no one thinks they have a right to own another based on the color of their skin, marital rape is no longer tolerated, factories cannot work children for 60+ hours a week, and families don't have to worry about death by starvation...at least in this part of the world.[/quote]

Oh yeah...as a bonus, the prohibition movement is only about 150 years old too with its heyday around 1920 . Not really that old-fashioned either.

 

[BALAAM]

Funny how you don't find those tent revivals all that much if you go much earlier than 1800. I guess Old Fashioned really isn't all that old after all....

Exactly. Finney called it "NEW measures and the altar call became popular when Billy Graham used it.

What is often passed off as Old Fashioned is just a 1970s method of ministry.

Right. Bring back those bell-bottoms and afro's!

 

[Recovering IFB]

[quote author=PappaBear]Alcohol is defended so that it flows like a river, breaking apart more and more families.  Immodesty is emboldened so that places of nudity, cursing, and carnality are promoted on billboards, serving "customers" at many exits and on many corners, across most airwaves, and in your face at public magazine racks and news stands everywhere, when it was absent in "Old Fashion" times...

However, since that time, no one thinks they have a right to own another based on the color of their skin, marital rape is no longer tolerated, factories cannot work children for 60+ hours a week, and families don't have to worry about death by starvation...at least in this part of the world.

Oh yeah...as a bonus, the prohibition movement is only about 150 years old too with its heyday around 1920 . Not really that old-fashioned either.
[/quote]

women who were beaten by their husbands had no place to go, Institutionalized racism was accepted.......

 

[JrChurch]

Apparently, the use of the term "old-fashioned" invokes visions of backwoods yokels.  That is fair, because the use of the word "contemporary" is interchangeable with "worldly" in my little mind. 

 

[rsc2a]

Apparently, the use of the term "old-fashioned" invokes visions of backwoods yokels.  That is fair, because the use of the word "contemporary" is interchangeable with "worldly" in my little mind.

Old-fashioned invokes visions of many things, some good, some bad. I find it bad reasoning to only look at the good and ignore the bad or vice versa simply because of my personal biases....

 

[prophet]

Or maybe it is what you are defining as the "Ol' Fashion" emphases?  I suggest that you should not be hasty to allow a man's enemies to define him or his emphases.  Be careful if you are forming opinions based on what you read on the internet from those against all things fundamentalist.  Now that the fundamentalist mega-churches have essentially castrated themselves, it is not so popular again to wear that badge.  Those whose only desire is acceptance and good PR in modern society have cast off the moorings and distanced themselves from the old time religion.

Funny how you don't find those tent revivals all that much if you go much earlier than 1800. I guess Old Fashioned really isn't all that old after all....



I read this and thought immediately of Billy Graham. My assumption would be that you didn't have that name in mind.



[quote author=PappaBear]...and whose arrogant grasp has always been for the spotlight and a place in history.  But after all, we are living in a Laodicean age of lukewarmness as the last Church Age prior to the rapture.

You know what else isn't old fashioned? Rapture-ready dispensationalism. In fact, it was started about the same time as those tent meeting revivals. I'd prefer something a little older myself.
[/quote]
I have to Amen the 'Rapture ready dispensationalism' line.  Very late to the party, is that heretical nonsense.  The word 'rapture' isn't even a concrete noun in English.  It is an abstract, an idea, and never an event.  But they will swear that it's Ole Fashunned!!!, bless gawd!!!, sumbutty say haymen!!!
Anishinabe

 

[pastorryanhayden]

Apparently, the use of the term "old-fashioned" invokes visions of backwoods yokels.  That is fair, because the use of the word "contemporary" is interchangeable with "worldly" in my little mind.

Exactly. 

I no longer think there is anything wrong with being "contemporary", what's wrong is being worldly.  I'm not against being old-fashioned, I'm against being an ignorant self-righteous yokel.

My goal is to be neither contemporary nor old-fashioned.  My goal is to be faithful to God as He's revealed in the Bible in a 21st century context. 

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

Apparently, the use of the term "old-fashioned" invokes visions of backwoods yokels.  That is fair, because the use of the word "contemporary" is interchangeable with "worldly" in my little mind.

I think you hit the heart of the matter....at least in my mind.

Those who advertise their church as 'old fashioned' no doubt have a certain concept in heir minds, but what others perceive as old fashioned is probably something different altogether. The same can be said for those who call themselves contemporary or relevant.

I would suggest that, in this culture the term old fashioned is very confusing to the unchurched. Contemporary or Relevant might have their own problems, depending on the cultural context of the church.

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

Apparently, the use of the term "old-fashioned" invokes visions of backwoods yokels.  That is fair, because the use of the word "contemporary" is interchangeable with "worldly" in my little mind.

Exactly. 

I no longer think there is anything wrong with being "contemporary", what's wrong is being worldly.  I'm not against being old-fashioned, I'm against being an ignorant self-righteous yokel.

My goal is to be neither contemporary nor old-fashioned.  My goal is to be faithful to God as He's revealed in the Bible in a 21st century context.

I think many of those who use old fashioned to describe their church believe and wish to insinuate that other churches have compromised the old fashioned values...whatever they might be....

 

[BALAAM]

i remember a long time ago our dad telling us that some churches even in the 1970s claimed to be old fashioned too....  they tried to copy the 1940s and 50s and claimed the 70s were the evil modern era..... and then.... he also said that his grandfather told him the same thing about the 1930s and 40s.... only back they called it being old timey and tried to copy the period of time just before the 1900s began..... they thought the 1920s had been the most evil modernistic era to date and even blamed the great depression on Gods judgement of that evil time......

so is the idea of being old fashioned really new?.... did it really start in the 1970s?... or have there always been people through out history who wished they go back to a time period they imagine was simpler and easier to handle?..... the Bible says there is no new thing under the sun....  and that probably includes peoples attitudes and beliefs about the world they remember of their teenage years.. and early adult life.. being better than it actually was... or better than the life they have now past middle age.......



all i know is.... i hope i live long enough to see the time period in which i spent my teens and 20s called old fashioned...... i;ll know exactly what to
say to the younger generation of the future if they do something that irritates me .... :.... i have been paying close attention.....  and you guys
taught me well.... ....

Okay. For you Old-Fashioned would be a surf board mad out of a tree trunk.  Good Luck!
;D

 

[Izdaari]

I'll repeat, because I guess nobody noticed, the most old fashioned church (the least changed since 1st century Christianity (probably not what the OP meant)) is Eastern Orthodox. But while I agree with them on some things, I don't think they're the most correct or best overall, else I'd join them.

 

[BALAAM]

I'll repeat, because I guess nobody noticed, the most old fashioned church (the least changed since 1st century Christianity (probably not what the OP meant)) is Eastern Orthodox. But while I agree with them on some things, I don't think they're the most correct or best overall, else I'd join them.

I am sure that most of us noticed izzy and probably agree with you. If you spent a lot of time around ifb's you would have heard this term about 70 times a week. It is used to advertise most conferences and a lot of preachers. And it is not something that can be nailed down because it is used as a relative term.

But then again, I would probably argue a little about Eastern Orthodox being the oldest. I cut my teeth on "The Church that Jesus Started" and things of that nature to not believe that the NT church started in the Book of Acts (or a little before) was an Orthodox Church.

 

[4everfsu]

I often think when I hear a church advertise itself as old fashioned, it is saying, we are something special, other churches are not like us. Even other Baptist churches! My daddy can beat up your daddy kids mindset.

Think of it as RLS would say, if they don't dot their i's or cross their t's then they are not like us or with us.

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

I often think when I hear a church advertise itself as old fashioned, it is saying, we are something special, other churches are not like us. Even other Baptist churches! My daddy can beat up your daddy kids mindset.

Think of it as RLS would say, if they don't dot their i's or cross their t's then they are not like us or with us.

RLS was old fashioned but short people have no reason to live.....

 

[pastorryanhayden]

Who was/is RLS?
Sorry for the newbie question?

 

[JrChurch]

I often think when I hear a church advertise itself as old fashioned, it is saying, we are something special, other churches are not like us. Even other Baptist churches! My daddy can beat up your daddy kids mindset.

That is an oddly judgmental statement coming from you.

Churches in our area tend to put "Old-Fashioned" on their signs to indicate to visitors that they can expect a traditional church service.
Although I am comfortable in an old-fashioned church, I don't think churches that advertise TRADITIONAL SERVICE AT 9; CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP AT 11 are saying, "At 9AM, we are something special, other churches are not like us...."

 

[BandGuy]

This week I received an invitation in the mail to attend an Old Fashioned Conference and saw a couple of posts on FB about a church being Old Fashioned. So the question comes, what does that mean?
Asked this question on FB and received no good answer.

What does the old fashioned label mean when attached to a church?

It means it is a church which is run by whoever the oldest person in the church is and who demands that the church remain exactly as it was when they were children.

 

[Izdaari]

I'll repeat, because I guess nobody noticed, the most old fashioned church (the least changed since 1st century Christianity (probably not what the OP meant)) is Eastern Orthodox. But while I agree with them on some things, I don't think they're the most correct or best overall, else I'd join them.

I am sure that most of us noticed izzy and probably agree with you. If you spent a lot of time around ifb's you would have heard this term about 70 times a week. It is used to advertise most conferences and a lot of preachers. And it is not something that can be nailed down because it is used as a relative term.

But then again, I would probably argue a little about Eastern Orthodox being the oldest. I cut my teeth on "The Church that Jesus Started" and things of that nature to not believe that the NT church started in the Book of Acts (or a little before) was an Orthodox Church.

Well, thanks for noticing at least!  :-*

It is true that I'm pretty much "out of the loop" when it comes to IFB subculture. Pretty much everything I know about them, I learned on the old FFF and its various successors.

 

[Boomer]

so is the idea of being old fashioned really new?.... did it really start in the 1970s?... or have there always been people through out history who wished they go back to a time period they imagine was simpler and easier to handle?..... the Bible says there is no new thing under the sun....  and that probably includes peoples attitudes and beliefs about the world they remember of their teenage years.. and early adult life.. being better than it actually was... or better than the life they have now past middle age.......



;D

Nailed it! I look around life, faith, and politics in this 21st century, and I long for the simpler days of my childhood in the 1980's. Why? Because it was simpler and easier!

The truth is that I don't need the "Old-Time religion." I need Jesus Christ right here and right now! I don't need a tent to be revived, I need to surrender to the Holy Spirit.

I'm not against the "Old-Time religion" or tent meetings, but I think people put their faith in those mediums more than they do in the Lord. The end result is that people my age are taught that God cannot work in our generation because He is to weak to overcome modern technology, trends, politics, etc.

Don't give me that ole time religion, Give me Jesus Christ Crucified, Risen, and Coming again. Give me the Holy Spirit in my heart right here right now so I can live for the Lord at work, at home, at the neighbor's house, and at the gas station. Give me a religion that not only works under a tent, but also captivates me on facebook, twitter, the fff - wherever I am!

When I see "Old-Fashioned" on anything, I think the people doing it have good intentions, but do not realize what they are saying. They unintentionally announce that God died about 40-50 years ago, and we have to hold a seance to recreate that atmosphere and bring Him back into our lives. That is what "Old-Fashioned" means to me when I see it. 

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

I often think when I hear a church advertise itself as old fashioned, it is saying, we are something special, other churches are not like us. Even other Baptist churches! My daddy can beat up your daddy kids mindset.

That is an oddly judgmental statement coming from you.

Churches in our area tend to put "Old-Fashioned" on their signs to indicate to visitors that they can expect a traditional church service.
Although I am comfortable in an old-fashioned church, I don't think churches that advertise TRADITIONAL SERVICE AT 9; CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP AT 11 are saying, "At 9AM, we are something special, other churches are not like us...."

Some churches in our area do the same thing.
They assume that means they dress up for church, use hymns (and hymnals, don't have instruments other than piano and organ, and usually are KJVO. I understand that...BUT in this cultural climate, even here in the Bible belt, most of the unchurched have NO idea what old fashioned means.

I teach a class of 20 something's...young married couples. I asked them what old fashioned on a church sign meant.
They all had different ideas. One thought it was a church for senior citizens! 
Out of the 24 present, only 4 said what you and I assume to be true...and they came from churches that call themselves old fashioned.

And, unlike you, I would say that many of the contemporary churches have the idea that they are right...better...smarter...hipper than other churches. The old fashioned's seem to think (many of them) that they are more spiritual, more biblical because they hold to the old paths and haven't compromised like the rest of us.