Heather
HeatherI'm listening to the #Robcast. Rob is talking about being in #church as a teenager and catching how a #pastor does the whole "bow your heads/close your eyes" and "if you just prayed that #prayer to accept #Jesus, raise your hand so only I can see" and of course then he does the whole "I see a hand there... Oh I see that hand... Etc" even though there are no raised hands. I caught a pastor doing that once and haven't really trusted a pastor since.
Jason Lilly@Vaashtii There are few things I despise more than the "every head bowed, all eyes closed" moment. My first instinct is to think, "No, if I want to pray with my head up and my eyes open I will." And there's no doubt in my mind that the "sinner's prayer" is one of the most impersonal and inauthentic ways to build a relationship with Christ. Even if there are raised hands, all the pastor has to do it point and say, "Amen! I see that hand." with no follow-up, but the person is "saved."
@WolfDreamer yes!!! This is exactly what one of my old churches did. Every week he did the head bowed thing and LIED about how many hands there were each week. And if there ever were any hands raised there was exactly ZERO followup. I can't believe that I stayed there as long as I did.
@Vaashtii Almost every church I attended growing up concluded the service with the "eyes closed, heads bowed, hands raised," and younger me bought into it. I "accepted Christ" for the first time when I was about 10 years old. I watched my father "accept Christ" on three different occasions at three different churches, and he smiled as people pat him on the back and made him feel proud. I think this was the (slowly but surely) beginnings of my deconstruction.
@WolfDreamer Yeah, I first walked down the center aisle to accept Jesus when I was thirteen, although I cried and begged in prayer to God for awhile before and after that because I didn't "feel saved". I can't remember how old I was when I walked down that aisle again to "rededicate" my life... But I was still a teenager. Then I did it again at a Christian concert when I was about 20. I was just so full of fear and anxiety (and shame).
@Vaashtii I would say with certainty now that I have an authentic relationship with Christ, but it happened through personal study and prayer, not through the discipleship of the church. If anything, my efforts and questions were often exacerbated by the church, which really broke my heart because they were good people who were just afraid to ask the questions or challenge the status quo.