Name? What's In A Name?

DSC00239, originally uploaded by thecat16.

So I got to thinking and I thought to myself in between being told to stay awake during one of the youth meetings, "What is a church anyway".

Well, the common and most popular definition these days is that it's a place where you come and worship the Lord. Kind of simple, right? Specifically because of that one line in the bible where Jesus states 'My house will be a place of worship'

But another part of the bible says differently, it speaks of the church not as somewhere to do things but as a place where believers go to not only find refuge from the oppressing world, but also to encourage and alleviate the pain caused by it.

And that lead to more thinking...

The next day, I started observing. Well, more like confirming a hypothesis of mine. Just how many people around were actually learning something in order to apply it? I mean, content aside, just how many were actually absorbing the message?

The reason why I wanted to check the answer was because I though about all the times the Pastor's wife asks the congregation on Friday's study service about the title of the previous week's topic.

It made me sad to think about this, mainly because it reminded me of some of my classes when I was younger.

What is the purpose of having only one person spout the teachings? I know there's the obvious answer of keeping control of the class, but what about when a person has a question? In a sermon, you're kinda screwed, specifically because you cannot voice your opinion or comment that may need correction or may actually be correcting the subject on hand.

I mean, isn't the point of studying the bible is to be a better person? To become someone who sprouts all the fruits of the Spirit? Hell, isn't that the point of living the Christian life?

I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

I'm not sure if it's an intelligent post or just me venting.

I'm kinda tired of basically being told during the church classes to 'sit down and shut up' just for asking questions about the topic.

Is that so wrong?

I mean, I just want to learn.

I'm tired of going through the basic lessons over and over.
I've been through those classes since I was about 7 or so and every time I ask about the necessity of having to repeat such topic is that 'we must study it just in case we weren't listening to it last time and also because we might find something new in it'.

On the one hand, that makes perfect sense.

But it's only good up until about the 4th time one is told that.

Kinda reminds me of another example, how can you keep feeding an 8 year-old milk when his body is clearly demanding solids?

Just a thought....