Out of Curiosity

[Poulet Frit]

See, my hair is currently…normal with a tint of purple, which is strange for me. Typically it’s bright blue. Or another funky color. And I have nothing against people who don’t like tattoos or colored hair or girls having short hair, I know what the Bible says about it. But I also don’t wanna be preached to about every single Sunday.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

I guess I just haven’t been to enough churches to tell what denomination somebody is in just by guessing. Plus, several of my friends are Presbyterian (and one is Anglican), and they’re not that different from me. What about me made by Baptistness obvious?

[Poulet Frit]

Now, I also do not justify people that get satanic, racist, inappropriate, etc. tattoos. My tattoos are nothing offensive or harmful and they have meaning behind them. I would never get a tattoo if it didnt have meaning. I also have piercings (funky ear piercings). If someone disagrees with it, fine. Let’s debate about it. But don’t tell me that I will be denied Heaven by God. (I have been told this).
I don’t mind pastors that preach against tattoos and the like (so long as they preach from the Bible and not their opinion), but I don’t like pastors that attack people during sermons.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

I mean yeah, the Bible says stuff about how long hair should be and that it should be tied up and stuff, but that was in a completely different culture, and I don’t think that it’s immodest or anything now. I mean, it’s not like we still follow all the rules in Leviticus… granted some of the stuff about hair is in the New Testament.

[Poulet Frit]

Well, you said you were a pastor’s kid, you were all for missions, and a few other reasons. I just got the feeling that you were. (Now don’t ask my to guess height, race, hair color, eye color, or anything else, because I can’t do that).
I have just been around the block enough times to make a logical guess

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Pastors attacking people in the congregation during a sermon and saying that God will judge them is immature and ridiculous. Humans don’t control whether someone goes to heaven or hell, and they can’t see inside someone.

[Poulet Frit]

People have used verses in 1 Corinthians to argue why girls shouldn’t have short hair. In that book of the Bible it talks about how women shouldn’t cut their hair. Which I take as, never cut your hair. And people that use this arguement don’t like it when I point out that they cut off 4 inches of their hair a week ago. If 4 inches is ok, why isn’t 8.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Okay, that makes sense. You probably wouldn’t be terribly far off if you tried to guess the others…

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

(reply #2199 is in response to #2196)

[Poulet Frit]

I probably wouldn’t be…
Mason is hard to tell, but I would say…nondenominational? He is hard to tell.
Brooke I would guess is Baptist.

[Masøn M.]

Interesting conversation… I’ve actually learned a little. Well, I’ll join in and say that I go to a Southern Baptist, and it’s kinda a mix between casual and formal. Like, we sing hymns for worship, but we don’t sing songs you would find on say K-Love or Air-1 or a radio station like that. Everyone isn’t wearing suits and ties (fair amount are, but not all), but no one is wearing t-shirts and stuff. Plenty of people will wear jeans, one of them being me. They aren’t against tattoos or anything, but they don’t necessarily encourage them.
Really, it’s basically “We’re under the New Covenant now. We aren’t under all the old laws and what not”. Kinda like what carrot said.
But yeah. We aren’t totally formal, but we aren’t super casual either.

“Nondenominational… You’re just a baptist church with a cool website.” – Tim Hawkins

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

I dunno, Mason could be Baptist or Presbyterian or something.

[Poulet Frit]

Mason is southern baptist. So I’m not right 100% of the time. It’s all good.
I’m scared to find out what mason has learned though. Probably something along the lines of “Kristen is a crazy person but at least now I know she has some connection to the military” (I mentioned the base)

[Poulet Frit]

(What mason described sounds like how the Chapel on base in Texas and how the Chaplin was)

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

My church is slightly more casual than Mason’s there are definitely some people that wear t-shirts, and we are singing less and less hymns. However, at least my perception of it is that a big part of the reason that we’re not singing a ton of hymns anymore isn’t that we don’t like them or anything, it’s more that we’re trying to do more with outreach and connect with non-christians. Yeah… that’s a decent description of nondenominational. It’s not accurate in all instances, but in quite a few it is. The church that my dad grew up in, and that my family went to before the one we’re at right now is technically nondenominational, but is basically Baptist.

[Masøn M.]

I’ll say what I think about tattoos in a bit more detail here…

It’s all about the motivation behind the tattoo. If you’re doing it in defiance of something or someone, probably not a good reason. If you’re doing it because you wanna be cool or fit in, probably not a good idea either. But if you’re doing it as a form of worship, like some people get verses or something, that’s cool. If it’s something that means a lot to you, or has some special significance to you, that’s cool as well. But if you’re just getting tats just because… Probably not a good reason.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

People can seem crazy and still be a strong Christian. For example, one of my youth group leaders doesn’t always exactly follow common sense driving rules, but he is one of the strongest Christians I know.

[Poulet Frit]

What I have learned is that, it’s not the music that makes a church Baptist or not. It’s more…the style of preaching and the version of the Bible they use

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

I agree with Mason on the subject of tattoos. I have a tendency to judge people with them, but that’s definitely not a good thing, and like I said earlier, humans can’t see the heart.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Is it? At least at my church we tend to use exegetical teaching in sermons, but I don’t know that that’s blanketing of all Baptists. Also, we definitely use several different versions of the Bible. Which ones are you thinking of as particularly Baptist, Kristen?

[Poulet Frit]

I agree with mason. My parents have tattoos because of meanings as well as because they are freaking epic!!
I will eventually be covered (two sleeves and an entire back piece as well as other tattoos), but until I get rich, that isn’t happening.
On my left ankle I have the VFD symbol, ASoUE was the first book series I ever read, if I hadn’t read it, I wouldn’t have the love of reading that I do now. That is that tattoos meaning.
On my right ankle I have a baby eeyore. Olivia drew it (so that has meaning right there) but it also represents a quote from eeyore, “it never hurts to keep looking for sunshine”. A daily reminder for me to stay positive.
Yes, ink is cool and I believe it’s OK to get ink just because you like the way it looks, but I think it’s easier to justify the payment (it’s expensive) if there is meaning behind it.

[Poulet Frit]

Ok, so the baptist churches I have been to tend to use new king James or NIV, whereas nondenominational uses NLT.
But it’s not 100% about where the Pastor draws the sermon from (I mean please draw it from you hearts, pastors, and not your wallets) (I have been to interesting churches). But it is more about the delivery, Baptist pastors have a way of speaking. It’s hard to explain.
Nondenominational tend to use videos and lighting and other stuff to help their message get across. Whereas, Baptist tend to rely on the verses and their own words (which I personally like better because I get easily distracted)
(This is only based off the churches I have been to and my perspective on it. I’m not stereotyping, I know every church within a denomination is different)

[Masøn M.]

I think you’re right on with the style of preaching right there. Interesting, though, because my church’s overall version is ESV, which I personally like because it’s a little more like KJV, but not super englishized (that’s a word. that’s totally a word) like NIV. It’s a good balance between the two, like NKJV.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

People in my church definitely use NIV, and I think some of the older members (probably some younger ones, too, but I’m not sure how many) also use NKJV. I think that NIV, NASB, and ESV are the three most popular versions in my church. Yeah, we definitely don’t use like flashing lights and skits and stuff. We usually have slides going with quotes the pastor is reading, or sermon notes or whatever, though.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Yeah, I would say that ESV and NASB are both a pretty good balance.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

I honestly haven’t really ever used NKJV…

[Poulet Frit]

And I’m not saying that Baptist churches don’t use lighting and video to get the message across. Nor am I saying that nondenominational don’t rely on the verses.

EST is a good version, I agree. I have a NIV and a “God’s Word” version (whatever that is idk), but downstairs on the shelf in our mini library, we have a lot of king James and nkjv. My brother does his school using a kjv, because it makes him understand his school better (when I was doing what he is currently doing, I just used NIV because kjv confused me)

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

I have two NIVs and ESV, and an NASB, though I use NIV and ESV the most. When I did AWANA and the Bible Bee, I memorized everything in NIV.

[Poulet Frit]

Esv* not est (autocorrect strikes again)
NKJV is insanely complicated, I feel like I need a dictionary right beside me.
I have tried to read the Bible in french…didn’t work because I barely know french

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

NKJV doesn’t seem too bad (I just skimmed a small section)… but I have a relatively large vocabulary.

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