those interested in God and Truth...your invited.

[geoff]

i go to a church of around 350-400 members and next sunday feb.14 is our annual church family day. i would like to go ahead and invite all and anyone who has a thirst and hunger for God, who wants to build up faith, or who wants to grow deeper in God. we are a church that believes the Bible is the inspired Word of God and we preach only truth, so you may not get a feel good message. any way, below is a link to the church website, you can check it out and see if your interested. church is about 10 minutes from athens and the occonnee connector. if you want more details message me. God bless.

http://www.newlifeapostolic.com/

[quickdodge®]

. i would like to go ahead and invite all and anyone who has a thirst and hunger for God,

What about people who are full and satisfied and not hungry for God? Are they invited as well?

or who wants to grow deeper in God.

Will there be pastors and alter boys there as well?

we are a church that believes the Bible is the inspired Word of God and we preach only truth,

The truth as in how you believe it to be, yes? Sounds like fun, though. Later, QD.

[punkr6]

judging by the pics in the link, I don't think I would fit in....

[punkr6]

anyone? hmmmm, actually I am thinking about it.....I think they would LOVE me!

swing by and scoop me up....

[geoff]

any and all are invited. sinners, unbelievers, ect....we preach biblical truth. you wont get some made up theory. so anybody wants to come let me know

[geoff]

anyone?

[EJ25RUN]

lol at calling it truth.

[geoff]

yes i am calling it truth

[StreetHazard]

I thought about it, then I decided my time would be better spent looking at pornography instead.

Of course there are several good passages in the Bible. The ones that are carefully selected by your minister for Sunday readings. But if you find some chocolate in a pile of dog shit you don't eat it right? No. The good is tainted by the bad that surrounds it.

[EJ25RUN]

yes i am calling it truth

lol x2

[geoff]

well streethazard your more than welcome to join us. i would actually love to have you and i wanted to ask you a few questions about what you used to preach

[choiiiiiiiii]

any and all are invited. sinners, unbelievers, ect....we preach biblical truth. you wont get some made up theory. so anybody wants to come let me know

that is not the way to reach out to non-believers....

i'm a christian, and i hate the way that christians make it seem like they are better than those who are not by calling them sinners, heathens, lost... we are all sinners, christians and non christians alike.

[StreetHazard]

well streethazard your more than welcome to join us. i would actually love to have you and i wanted to ask you a few questions about what you used to preach

Ok let me set this straight because I don't want you to be misguided, I was never a "preacher" I was just a youth leader, I organized and supervised church events and held bible study and was just someone many of those teenagers felt they could relate too and talk too. That's it! I didn't have a congregation and I was not a pastor in any sense of the word.

But I was driving down "church road" here in lawrenceville which is a road that apparently holds most of the large churches here in gwinnett county. And low and behold one is a decent sized church for sale right on the corner of a major intersection and very close to I-85. I am pondering to see if I can buy it, and actually move into it as my home. I'm thinking about calling it the "First Unitarian Church of Satan". But I would not even seek a licence as a "non-profit"...No no, not for a church of Satan, I will run it as a business and a learning center where the licence I will acquire is a liquor licence to sell alcohol. I would find people that will teach ancient mythology and apply it to how it relates to modern monotheistic religion, I will have classes in philosophy studying the likes of Ayn Rand and her views on a philosophical system, called "Objectivism." which is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

And the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and his views on morality or as he himself termed it "Slave-morality", as a reaction to master-morality. Nietzsche associates slave-morality with the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Here value emerges from the contrast between good and evil. Good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission. Evil seen as worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. It works to overcome the slave's own sense of inferiority before the (better-off) masters. It does so by making out slave weakness to be a matter of choice, by, e.g., relabeling it as "meekness."

I will hold classes studying the spiritual adventures of Aleister Crowley just to spice things up a little and for extra credit, as Crowley almost used the scientific method to study what people term "spiritual experiences", making "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion" the catchphrase of his magazine The Equinox. By this he meant that religious experiences should not be taken at face value, but critiqued and experimented with in order to arrive at their underlying mystical or neurological meaning. And how this relates to an occult OR a religious state.

For my "Gospel Choir" I will allow touring black metal and other bands (that are down with the funky goat) to play at our congregations (whenever it fits my schedule of course). As the "First Unitarian Church of Satan" should be the 1st stop of any decent, self-respecting rock band.

I will hold a Black Mass (as what form it would take would have to be decided...maybe I would work on it with some theater majors) every Sunday, I will have Satanic sports teams for the children (soft-ball, soccer, paintball...whatever) and put them up against the christian teams down the street. If I need extra money I will build a "Satanic Haunted house" during halloween that people will drive across states to come visit, I will conjour demons in a ritual involving a mock Satanic human sacrifice and blood ritual, and possibly an insinuated orgy if I set an age limit (that all paying customers can come witness) as a finally. And hold "Satanic Car washes" in the summer to promote my center where the all the girls will look as slutty as possible while they rub down your car.

All of this will require a membership fee of course to support my costs. I will hold interviews with the press and engage in debates with other religious institutions "in public" inside my own and their own congregations at my leisure to further explain these matters to the willfully ignorant and pious, and to promote idea's that directly oppose their conception of reality and everything they believe.



It's good to have dreams, I would love to be a pastor and preach my version of gospel. But sadly here in the american south, I would probably be killed for it. Ironically....by a christian.

[EuroTra$h]

that is not the way to reach out to non-believers....

i'm a christian, and i hate the way that christians make it seem like they are better than those who are not by calling them sinners, heathens, lost... we are all sinners, christians and non christians alike.

We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of god. and thats how the gospel should be presented in my opinion

[geoff]

yes we are all sinners, my point in using these terms is that some feel they are unworthy to come to God or too a church because they messed up so much. so i make the statement, ALL are welcome, sinners, non-believers, seekers, alcoholics, well rounded people, rich, poor, orphans, ect....

streethazard-sorry i thought from your thread about your story that you actually preached some word aswell. what made you leave if you dont mind me asking?

[quickdodge®]

We are all sinners ...

I'm not.

....and fall short of the glory of god.

I don't. Later, QD.

[idriveasloweclipse]

....we preach biblical truth. you wont get some made up theory.

biblical truth? no such thing

[punkr6]

streethazard-sorry i thought from your thread about your story that you actually preached some word aswell. what made you leave if you dont mind me asking?

I'm waiting on this one.....

[StreetHazard]

I'm waiting on this one.....

I have already addressed this, I grow tired of repeating myself

My Story

Of course I could offer further examples and go into further details but many of my experiences are personal experiences and would have to be placed into a context to convey them properly, a message board does not suit my type of dialog very well. Over beer and hot wings is more to my liking.

But many reasons actually, some more notable ones would be my gaining of knowledge of certain instances of sexual abuse, the situation was "complicated" to say the least, and I was a young man and could not really grasp the conentations of what I was told. That is all I will say regarding that.

But another I can discuss, is this

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/21912782/detail.html

I actually knew the girl in this story, and these arrests are years in the making. The "woman" now, in this story was a girl of 17 when we took her into our home to offer her a place to live when she told me of of her situation which is also described in that news story, her name is Tina. Her "services" where being offered inside my old church to some of the wealthier members while at the same time being told to "go to church" which is how she ended up in my bible study class. I was able to gain verification of this because obviously I had inside contact with the "higher-up's" inside the church and was able to verify that much at least. But the Babb's were NOT members of my church at the time.

So I invited her to me and my girlfriend's (at the time) home. And she told me long tale indeed, it moved me so much I allowed her to move in and cut off all contact with the Babb's, and my own congregation, but I had already realized church was not the place for me a long time before leading up to these events, I just had no real reason to "act" upon it until after some of these events. We bought her clothes, I taught her how to drive. We were able to get her in touch with an immigration lawyer that took on her case "pro-bono" after almost a year of searching and calling around. This started over 10 years ago, you can see how slowly the gears in government really turn.


And even these stories are not solely the reasons, it was a combination of reasons but in ways they certainly contributed to my split from religion. I know I cannot blame these actions on religion itself but it woke me up to the false piety, and phony virtue of those that claim "faith". I was forced to rethink my idealism, which then began to reshape the way I view this world.

I have searched elsewhere as well, you are paying to much attention to my time in Christianity.

I was also a member of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism and the Atlanta Chapter of Soka Gakkai International. My girlfriend (at that time) I was with for several years (and extremely Japanese) could be considered a type of "youth leader" for Buddhism inside that temple. I learned a good deal from that experience as well. She was (fer real JDM) LOL!

[Starrfire]

Ok let me set this straight because I don't want you to be misguided, I was never a "preacher" I was just a youth leader, I organized and supervised church events and held bible study and was just someone many of those teenagers felt they could relate too and talk too. That's it! I didn't have a congregation and I was not a pastor in any sense of the word.

But I was driving down "church road" here in lawrenceville which is a road that apparently holds most of the large churches here in gwinnett county. And low and behold one is a decent sized church for sale right on the corner of a major intersection and very close to I-85. I am pondering to see if I can buy it, and actually move into it as my home. I'm thinking about calling it the "First Unitarian Church of Satan". But I would not even seek a licence as a "non-profit"...No no, not for a church of Satan, I will run it as a business and a learning center where the licence I will acquire is a liquor licence to sell alcohol. I would find people that will teach ancient mythology and apply it to how it relates to modern monotheistic religion, I will have classes in philosophy studying the likes of Ayn Rand and her views on a philosophical system, called "Objectivism." which is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

And the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and his views on morality or as he himself termed it "Slave-morality", as a reaction to master-morality. Nietzsche associates slave-morality with the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Here value emerges from the contrast between good and evil. Good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission. Evil seen as worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. It works to overcome the slave's own sense of inferiority before the (better-off) masters. It does so by making out slave weakness to be a matter of choice, by, e.g., relabeling it as "meekness."

I will hold classes studying the spiritual adventures of Aleister Crowley just to spice things up a little and for extra credit, as Crowley almost used the scientific method to study what people term "spiritual experiences", making "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion" the catchphrase of his magazine The Equinox. By this he meant that religious experiences should not be taken at face value, but critiqued and experimented with in order to arrive at their underlying mystical or neurological meaning. And how this relates to an occult OR a religious state.

For my "Gospel Choir" I will allow touring black metal and other bands (that are down with the funky goat) to play at our congregations (whenever it fits my schedule of course). As the "First Unitarian Church of Satan" should be the 1st stop of any decent, self-respecting rock band.

I will hold a Black Mass (as what form it would take would have to be decided...maybe I would work on it with some theater majors) every Sunday, I will have Satanic sports teams for the children (soft-ball, soccer, paintball...whatever) and put them up against the christian teams down the street. If I need extra money I will build a "Satanic Haunted house" during halloween that people will drive across states to come visit, I will conjour demons in a ritual involving a mock Satanic human sacrifice and blood ritual, and possibly an insinuated orgy if I set an age limit (that all paying customers can come witness) as a finally. And hold "Satanic Car washes" in the summer to promote my center where the all the girls will look as slutty as possible while they rub down your car.

All of this will require a membership fee of course to support my costs. I will hold interviews with the press and engage in debates with other religious institutions "in public" inside my own and their own congregations at my leisure to further explain these matters to the willfully ignorant and pious, and to promote idea's that directly oppose their conception of reality and everything they believe.



It's good to have dreams, I would love to be a pastor and preach my version of gospel. But sadly here in the american south, I would probably be killed for it. Ironically....by a christian.

Sounds like lots and lots of fun...

[StreetHazard]

Sounds like lots and lots of fun...

I think so too! I would just need a riot shield to protect me from all the thrown rocks.

[punkr6]

I have already addressed this, I grow tired of repeating myself

My Story

Of course I could offer further examples and go into further details but many of my experiences are personal experiences and would have to be placed into a context to convey them properly, a message board does not suit my type of dialog very well. Over beer and hot wings is more to my liking.

But many reasons actually, some more notable ones would be my gaining of knowledge of certain instances of sexual abuse, the situation was "complicated" to say the least, and I was a young man and could not really grasp the conentations of what I was told. That is all I will say regarding that.

But another I can discuss, is this

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/21912782/detail.html

I actually knew the girl in this story, and these arrests are years in the making. The "woman" now, in this story was a girl of 17 when we took her into our home to offer her a place to live when she told me of of her situation which is also described in that news story, her name is Tina. Her "services" where being offered inside my old church to some of the wealthier members while at the same time being told to "go to church" which is how she ended up in my bible study class. I was able to gain verification of this because obviously I had inside contact with the "higher-up's" inside the church and was able to verify that much at least. But the Babb's were NOT members of my church at the time.

So I invited her to me and my girlfriend's (at the time) home. And she told me long tale indeed, it moved me so much I allowed her to move in and cut off all contact with the Babb's, and my own congregation, but I had already realized church was not the place for me a long time before leading up to these events, I just had no real reason to "act" upon it until after some of these events. We bought her clothes, I taught her how to drive. We were able to get her in touch with an immigration lawyer that took on her case "pro-bono" after almost a year of searching and calling around. This started over 10 years ago, you can see how slowly the gears in government really turn.


And even these stories are not solely the reasons, it was a combination of reasons but in ways they certainly contributed to my split from religion. I know I cannot blame these actions on religion itself but it woke me up to the false piety, and phony virtue of those that claim "faith". I was forced to rethink my idealism, which then began to reshape the way I view this world.

I have searched elsewhere as well, you are paying to much attention to my time in Christianity.

I was also a member of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism and the Atlanta Chapter of Soka Gakkai International. My girlfriend (at that time) I was with for several years (and extremely Japanese) could be considered a type of "youth leader" for Buddhism inside that temple. I learned a good deal from that experience as well. She was (fer real JDM) LOL!

I found this VERY interesting, to say the least.....

[Starrfire]

I think so too! I would just need a riot shield to protect me from all the thrown rocks.

i would have to carry at all times there, and also drive a different car there too. Because I don't think the sides would have paint on them from all the keying that would happen to it.

[bodhi]

God sucks...

Satan's #1, simply because he's the only deity thats sane.

[StreetHazard]

Ohhh! I'm getting converts already!

you are all invited to my open house

[JDMEK18]

I'm not.



I don't. Later, QD.

You may not consider yourself a sinner but even you fall short!!!
No one lives up to there standard unless they don't have any. No one is perfect regardless of there belief.

[BABY J]

So how did it turn out? Were any souls saved? Or was it a church using a "holiday" as a good chance to pass the collection plate around? Excellent marketing - if I was a pastor and I saw all the Valentines Day specials and sales (walmart, restaurants, the malls, etc) where people were spending their money I'd start a V-day service as well to get some of that loot as well. +1

[JDMEK18]

So how did it turn out? Were any souls saved? Or was it a church using a "holiday" as a good chance to pass the collection plate around? Excellent marketing - if I was a pastor and I saw all the Valentines Day specials and sales (walmart, restaurants, the malls, etc) where people were spending their money I'd start a V-day service as well to get some of that loot as well. +1

lol.. Glad your not a pastor!

[StreetHazard]

You may not consider yourself a sinner but even you fall short!!!
No one lives up to there standard unless they don't have any. No one is perfect regardless of there belief.

I actually embrace "sin" in the abrahamic definition. But yes, I agree...I still think I am falling short in it's concept unfortunately.

[geoff]

actually the service was very nice and special. alot of people got blessed. and no it wasnt a service to pass around the collection plate. we rarely even mention giving. the offering went around like usual. and one thing about the church i attend that i personally like is that they show you were the money is being spent, how much was taken in, who gets paid what, and so on. each male member of the church is considered the church board.

[StreetHazard]

actually the service was very nice and special. alot of people got blessed. and no it wasnt a service to pass around the collection plate. we rarely even mention giving. the offering went around like usual. and one thing about the church i attend that i personally like is that they show you were the money is being spent, how much was taken in, who gets paid what, and so on. each male member of the church is considered the church board.

what about the females?

[geoff]

the females are what we consider on the voting board. the men are the ones who lead the church. its biblically correct.

[StreetHazard]

the females are what we consider on the voting board. the men are the ones who lead the church. its biblically correct.

Do they make good sandwiches too? I hope you guys got a big kitchen!

[geoff]

actually they do...and some mean chile too lol. yeah we actually do got a big kitchen. but the men cook right along with the women. the men are just the ones in leadership. the men make up the board of directors and the entrire family units make up the voting body.

[TougeGTR-33]

that is not the way to reach out to non-believers....

i'm a christian, and i hate the way that christians make it seem like they are better than those who are not by calling them sinners, heathens, lost... we are all sinners, christians and non christians alike.

Reps

[StreetHazard]

the females are what we consider on the voting board. the men are the ones who lead the church. its biblically correct.

here! you should take this quiz and see how your answers compare to the Bible

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0...leofwomen.html

I got them all correct!

[Starrfire]

I knew what the answers were, but answered as to what I believed to be right. Funny though, the truth according to the bible actually being so retarded and backwards.

[bodhi]

humans don't need to be told to help others.
it is part of our biological imperative. If you are standing at the edge of a cliff and the person standing next to you is about to fall over, your first instinct is to grab that person. this is hardwired into our genetic instructions because it aids in keeping the species alive.

Religion tells you to help other people when you already have that behavior instilled to begin with... then it tells you the reasons why you should help other people... which is ridiculous because you don't need a reason - it's already part of your instinctual behavior...
then religion tells us there are certain people more deserving of our help than others, etc... so religion actually doesn't encourage people to help others at all. It takes a naturally occurring impulse to help others and sublimates it... buries it behind religious double speak and bigotry.

Religion is the worst thing that ever happened to humankind

[NevrNufTorq]

humans don't need to be told to help others.
it is part of our biological imperative. If you are standing at the edge of a cliff and the person standing next to you is about to fall over, your first instinct is to grab that person. this is hardwired into our genetic instructions because it aids in keeping the species alive.

Religion tells you to help other people when you already have that behavior instilled to begin with... then it tells you the reasons why you should help other people... which is ridiculous because you don't need a reason - it's already part of your instinctual behavior...
then religion tells us there are certain people more deserving of our help than others, etc... so religion actually doesn't encourage people to help others at all. It takes a naturally occurring impulse to help others and sublimates it... buries it behind religious double speak and bigotry.

Religion is the worst thing that ever happened to humankind

tell that to the security guards that watched a girl get kicked in the head and did nothing!!!! sorry, good people 'do something' about a situation, most people dont give a you know what....religious or not

you put 3 five year old children in a room with one toy and you will see human nature!!!! ask any parent, the word 'mine' is usually one a child's first words or actions

[bodhi]

so the actions of a few spoiled lil brats means that every single child that will ever be born will have the "its mine" mentality? nonononooo! thats not how things work! 1. its the parnets fault for raising a kid to think that way, and 2. society right now is in a weird (not really since we're all using the mighty internets, iphones, watching live news through our tvs, ect. but you know what I mean) time where no one is out surviving on their own

if I saw a couple of young teens after some horrific worldwide disaster - i would try to help em out. not because I was told to do so, but because the feeling to help just comes naturally to me.

you read only what you wanted to in my post
not the entire message that i was trying to share with the rest of you.