[Serious] What would you want in a church

[Aliza]

Thats like asking me how I would like food I do not eat.

It really isn't.  Tack is asking what you'd want/not want in a church, not in a church you'd attend.  Houses of worship are a fact of life, and - like it or not - we all need to deal with their impact on society. You're not (so far as I'm aware) a member of your government, but you surely have opinions as to what governments should or should not do.

It's actually a brilliant question.

Boru

Sorry, Brian, but it more or less is like asking how I'd like food that I don't eat. I don't care how you prepare bacon or ham because I'm not going to eat it. I can't even stand the smell of it. Having a discussion about how I'd like it prepared, presumably to see if I'd be willing to try it under different conditions, is almost like suggesting that my distaste for bacon is somehow invalid; that it can be fixed and I can be won over.

The primary reason that I don't like Christianity is because of Jesus. Jesus and bacon are extremely distasteful to me. If the Jesus concept and all the Christian trappings like the entire Christian bible, Christmas, Easter, the cross, and all of the parts of the code of morality that I find to be horrendous were excised, then I could be persuaded to take a look at it. Much the same, if you were to replace bacon with some kind of vegan alternative, and then you also throw out all the pots and pans that once cooked bacon, and then for added measure you threw out the vegan bacon and replaced that with a kale salad, you'd have my attention. But then, it isn't bacon anymore because it's a delicious and nutritious kale salad. Anything even remotely connected to bacon (or Jesus) is intolerable to me.

But it's cool if you like bacon.

[The Grand Nudger]

Wouldn't a better analogy be what changes you'd like to see made to the bacon industry?  You're never going to eat the bacon, but you probably do have some opinions as to how the industry can be improved.  

In your case it would seem that either the bacon or christian industries would need so much improvement as to be unrecognizable as such after the fact.  The bacon will become kale, the christianity will become jesus-free.

[Aliza]

Wouldn't a better analogy be what changes you'd like to see made to the bacon industry?  You're never going to eat the bacon, but you probably do have some opinions as to how the industry can be improved.  

I'd like to make sure that slaughter houses are held to government standards of animal treatment, whatever those standards are. That's about it. Outside of that, consumers of bacon can and should dictate the industry they support.

[Mister Agenda]

@Mister Agenda
1. could you please better explain "churchy"? IS the the stuffyness or the stained glass, etc.
2. Like a projection screen with the lyrics and with a bouncing dot?
3. Any particular method of outreach you would like to see?

1. In many ways, the UU service (at least where I live) is a copy of a typical Christian service, which is not in itself an issue, no need to throw out the baby with the bathwater just to create more space between the UU and Christianity; but do there even need to be traditional hymns at all? Maybe we could have a house band instead and pare the communal singing down to once at the end of the service. And a choir that doesn't steals from REM instead of the Episcopalians. I was raised Pentecostal, and even a church with less than two dozen active members would manager to have a three-piece band and a soloist. We sometimes have guest musicians but it's rare for members to showcase their talent; and we've got about 150 active members. 'Churchy' was probably the wrong word, all three of my issues boil down to 'the music sucks'.

2. Yes, that would be a great improvement. And I'm hearing that we're finally going to that soon. These UUs try to find a hymn that ties into the sermon, which means often singing unfamiliar songs, and they don't all read music. The projection thing would be a big help there.

3. I'd like to see a UU chapel on campus at the University of South Carolina and ideally at Benedict as well. Maybe our minister could visit an existing chapel on Mondays or something. Lots of college students are UUs at heart but aren't aware of it. I wouldn't expect many of them to stick to it, but people who are familiar with UU often come back when they have children, since UU doesn't indoctrinate the way other religions do, and their religious curriculum includes studying the other religions of the world. One thing I'll say about my UU: plenty of kids. Which reminds me of a saying: UU is where atheists go to have their children educated to become pagans.

[chimp3]

Rather than asking for the endless list of things most of the site will list that they don't like about "church" or religion, or focusing on the belief in God or which God, etc.
I'd like to know if a new Church denomination of Christians (meaning followers of Christ and the Abrahamic God) were to start a "new church"

what are 3 things you'd like to see in the church statements dictating church behavior and beliefs / what are 3 things you'd definitely not want to see in the  "rules of the church"?

I don't attend church. I would rather sit outside in the parking lot and listen to the radio. NPR on Sunday morning is very entertaining. "Wait,Wait! Don 't Tell Me!" is my favorite.