Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I defined "evangelical congregation" as a church where the gospel of salvation was actively preached, and the leaders were born again Christians.
That's not to say that some members or attendants were not yet saved.
I exclude non-evangelicals like the Catholic church I grew up in, which during all my years there, I never heard the gospel of salvation.
And, no, I don't do the same thing you do. My heart is enlarged to receive all believers, including you. And I don't play your word games.
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I understand, and somewhat agree a genuine church should be like that .But you've put some conditions on the meeting that others may not agree with. For example, one could say that any gathering of Christians is the church, and we just have to accept that not all of them will preach the gospel and the leaders may not be born again Christians (tares or, wolves, as they may be). But they are still the church and we should still meet with them. In fact I used to meet like this a long time ago. Is it right to partake of communion from someone, a pastor, or priest, who is not even a born again believer. I see many issues with the way church is done, not just the denominational names, but the insistence of a single qualified person (e.g. Priest) delivering the bread and wine, who may not be born again themselves. On topic - Hank has joined this kind of church, a church where the priest who gives him the bread and wine every Sunday may not be born again himself. In fact, Orthodox don't even know who is saved and who is not. That's why I say his "rejection of the LC" was actually more of a rejection of evangelicalism itself. According to the article in the OP, this is a problem that evangelicals are pondering over. How can a 30-year evangelical just join the Orthodox church?