We are getting Cowboy "Churches" every where in Texas. They advertise that you can even wear your cowboy hat in the service. Really? I have a Stetson, as a matter of fact, I have two of them, but I do not wear one in the house or in the church building. My mama taught me not to. She said it is "ill-mannered." If we are going to have a cowboy church, we might as well have a cowgirl church, or a farmers' church, or a doctor's church, or a nurse's church, or a swimmer's church or a football church - oops, they already have one over in Arlington, and they wear helmets with a blue star. I think you get my point. It is hard to imagine a church with only plumbers or car salesmen. Henry Ford Memorial? The idea of having a church for a specific group of people is not a biblical concept. God did not allow the first church at Jerusalem to remain Jewish for very long. He sent Peter to preach Christ to the household of Cornelius and Paul to Antioch to bring Gentiles into the membership. In numerous passages in the epistles, there are references to great diversity in the church. Paul said every one of us cannot be ears or any other particular body part. God has given us many different talents and personalities for the building up of the Body of Christ. I was amazed at the multiformity of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London (Spurgeon's Church) and it is one of the most successful congregations in the world. Christ told us to preach the Gospel to every creature, not just a certain segment of society.
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The authorDr. Jack Warren was born in Floydada, Texas, in 1938, the son of a Baptist pastor. His family moved to Fort Worth when his father enrolled in the Seminary in 1949. He was in the first class graduating from L.D. Bell High School, Hurst, Texas, in 1956. He attended Arlington State College (now University of Texas at Arlington), Arlington Baptist College, Bible Baptist Seminary, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and received a Doctor of Divinity Degree from Landmark Baptist Theological Seminary. Archives
February 2018
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