Local Pastor Takes on Cedar Creek's Message

Oh I love the wacky Baptists. Nice to see them getting dumb up in Toledo like they are here down south. LOL

We ignored this the first time you posted it three weeks ago...still don't care.

Amen SensorG.

"I know that I posted this somewhere else ..."

Yes, here.

"... giant that is Cedar Creek"

Giant? Cedar Creek has four locations in the Toledo area. I assume more than four Baptist churches exist in the Toledo area and throughout the U.S.

I would consider the Catholic church a giant or mega-church. They're headquartered in Rome where the church "rules" are passed down, correct? And they have locations throughout the planet. And based upon the number of local, summertime festivals, I think more than four Catholic churches exist in the Toledo area.

The above are all reasons I find organized religion, of any denomination, difficult to accept as a path to God or Christ or Allah. Or whatever. It makes committment impossible for me. (But please, this doesn't mean that I don't respect other people's faith or their personal choice of faith I do. Very much. Its whatever works for you.)

We travel down south quite a bit. Its really astounding how many Baptist churches there are down there and nearly every one has a slightly different creed. And they all claim to be THE one. One church sniping another one is par for the course.

I still can't believe Cedar Creek is closing on Christmas Sunday.

That is unbelievable.

I always liked when Christmas fell on a Sunday when I was a kid. We woke up super early for presents and then went to 10:30 service. If Christmas was on a Sunday, that also meant Mom & Dad weren't going to drag me to another Christmas service later in the week (say, if Christmas fell on a Wednesday, we'd go Sunday, Tuesday night (Xmas eve), and then Sunday again). Sitting for another hour in church...in church clothes...was not exactly what I wanted to do.

We travel down south quite a bit. Its really astounding how many Baptist churches there are down there and nearly every one has a slightly different creed. And they all claim to be THE one.

Turn on AM radio as you're driving through Kentucky & Tennessee and listen to all the Southern Baptist preachers...all in full on "brimstone and hellfire" mode. Highly entertaining.

You are so right oldhometown. Once we caught a broadcast of one that was handling rattle snakes as part of the service. It was jaw dropping.

I don't think the baptist church I referred to is a southern baptist church. I'm pretty sure it is some kind of northern variant of the baptists. And as holland said, "nearly every one has a slightly different creed." I don't think there are a lot of southern baptist churches around here but I could be wrong.

As for Cedar Creek being a "giant" - I didn't mean "giant" in terms of numbers. Catholics, the various Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans and others in NW Ohio would outnumber Cedar Creek by large numbers I am guessing. I was meaning "giant" in terms of influence. I think Cedar Creek has been masterful in their advertising and it is interesting that the local newscasts seem to automatically interview someone from Cedar Creek whenever a religious issue comes up...whether created by Cedar Creek or not. I would assume that Cedar Creek is quick to provide resources for the news media as well (very smart - free advertising!).

As for posting a version of it again - I was previously posting within a thread (and I am still figuring out how this board works - I took a little more time this afternoon and figured it out). Since I am new here, I am still figuring out how things are posted and what kind of readership a post receives whether it is within a thread or as the subject of a thread. I apologize for posting again to anyone who was offended (or who didn't care about it in the first place!).

By the way - I am not necessarily saying the Cedar Creek movement is a bad thing. Seems churches have been "behind the times" for a long time...whatever they are doing appears to be working.

Generally speaking, I think people and churches are veering off course from what I remember as being "religious" as a younger fella.
More and more leeway is given for what is deemed "acceptable". I'd love to travel forward in time about 100 years and see how religion changes.

Is Cedar Creek soon to open in the old grocery site on S Bryne? Or is that a different mega-church that is also tax exempt?

Maybe Cedar Creek should get a liquor license.

Then they would be Catholics.

"The above are all reasons I find organized religion, of any denomination, difficult to accept as a path to God or Christ or Allah"

Holland

I heard Allah and Buddha were singing at the Savior's feast
And up the sky and Arabian rabbi
Fed Quaker oats to a priest.
Pretty good, not bad, they can't complain
Cause actually all them gods is just about the same

John Prine

+1 for the John Prine reference alone!

Or this, The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages - as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already.

Edward Abbey