[OBW]

ICA,

My responses have not been to argue in a hostile or antagonistic way. Its just I that have an opinion that I believe I have come upon quite honestly.

Of course, one of the things that I believe that I have to my advantage is something that you have as well, and that is the openness to have changed. Since we have changed from Lee's mess to something else, and probably done more changing than that, I now find myself less tied to some of the rhetoric that I even hear continually where I presently attend.

I began life in the Assemblies of God, a non-Calvinist Pentecostal group that dates to the beginnings of the Pentecostal movement 100 years or so ago. That was until age 18. Then the LRC for 14 years. Then Bible churches until now. But while Bible churches are a loose affiliation of churches that are somewhat Reformed/Baptist/free group. And while I grew to fit them so well over the years as I threw off the LRC, I find that as I really began to face the hidden junk of the LRC, I do not entirely fit in with the Bible churches. But they are about as close as it gets. What I would probably fit in with better would be a church that is more concerned with right practice than right teaching and knowledge. One that is somewhat morphed toward an evangelical form of liturgy that expands worship and turns the sermon into something closer to a homily. I don't particularly want kneeling rails and excessive outward demonstration, but do not want to stifle the acts of those who want to be demonstrative to an extent. I like the form of communion where they have everyone come by a table with the bread and some juice or wine in a bowl in which you dip the bread — not because I think it is most like the original rite, but because it is more easily a part of a time in which everyone is freer to be reflective, in prayer, etc.

I would not be comfortable with the level of reverence related to icons that I see in the EO. As I said, I do not condemn it as idolatry, but it does seem to be excessively prone to becoming that for the individual even if the doctrinal position is not consistent with that determination. That does not mean that I think that there are not similar things in all sorts of other groups, including Bible churches, that are not prone to becoming error. But from my vantage point, the proximity is too close for me to accept as a regular part of worship.

I will leave your posts alone. At least on this subject. BTW, you are free to pick over mine as well. Despite the perception that I am set in my ways, the changes that I have experienced during the 9 years I have been involved in these forums is somewhat dramatic. My wife even wonders about me sometimes now. Not in a bad way. But she wonders.