tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9682979.post116798303636708076..comments2023-09-26T10:32:38.023-04:00Comments on the dumping ground: stupid statements from the pulpitmarauder34http://www.blogger.com/profile/00651154474169358422noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9682979.post-89821364744605764012007-02-05T10:17:00.000-05:002007-02-05T10:17:00.000-05:00Good to hear from you, Hunter. (And let this be a ...Good to hear from you, Hunter. (And let this be a reminder to all that although cyberspace is infinite, it is bounded on all sides and not as big as infinity would first appear.)<br /><br />I half-agree with your point. The megachurch label *is* inaccurate, provided the term's proper usage depends solely on attendance figures. I've always thought that whether a church counts as a "megachurch" depends on more than just how many people show up on a Sunday morning, though.<br /><br />Aside from attendance -- which at 450 is still more than nine times the congregation I now attend in Nova Bastille -- Zarephath Christian Chapel also has a radio station that broadcasts to most of New Jersey, New York City, and parts of Pennsylvania; a working farm; a dining hall; a gymnasium that is not in the church basement, and a separate library building; an auxiliary chapel the same size as (or bigger than) some churches I've attended; its own Bible college, with a freestanding cafeteria building that is also used for some church events; and a K-12 school with its own buildings and athletic fields, in addition to other buildings I never knew the purpose of. And the paid staff includes ministers for music, preaching, youth, drama, and children, plus secretaries and any other ministers I never became aware of. I don't know if there are any volunteer staff -- my impression is not, at least not in positions of responsibility or leadership -- but even without them, Zarephath has a sizeable staff directory.<br /><br />From my perspective, anyway, that's a megachurch.marauder34https://www.blogger.com/profile/00651154474169358422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9682979.post-30390113372056729682007-02-04T22:47:00.000-05:002007-02-04T22:47:00.000-05:00love your writing, but let me be a bit nit-picky h...love your writing, but let me be a bit nit-picky here and question your description of Zarephath as a "New Jersey Megachurch". Attendance while you were there hovered around 450. Hardly in the "mega" realm. Seeing your penchant for accuracy I thought I'd be a bit of a gadfly and chime in with a correction. alligators inflated to dinosaurs or inflating a church into "mega" status...rhetorical style can get the best of all of us, venerable preacher or man in the pew eh? :)<br />Hope your well. would like to a look at your scripts one of these days.<br /><br />peace.Hunter Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11406119521768622925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9682979.post-1168081133202633972007-01-06T05:58:00.000-05:002007-01-06T05:58:00.000-05:00I remember once hearing a pastor make the bizarre ...I remember once hearing a pastor make the bizarre claim that, even though Jesus turned water into wine, and that there was wine present at the last supper, "Jesus never touched booze." That was priceless.<BR/><BR/>I also went to a few schools that claimed that the dinosaurs and people lived at the same time. One of them, in Texas (of course) actually had yearly excavation field trips, and the teacher claimed to have once found a dinosaur footprint (fossilized, of course) with a human footprint embedded in the middle. <BR/><BR/>Sometimes I'm embarassed by my Christian family.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com