Message #11430

[Psalm 51:17]

Just to clarify, I don't attend this church - the way I wrote it in the OP was a little confusing - it was in the Fall 2009 when the Chinese New Year festival was going on, and this particular church decided to host it. B/c my parents know people here in the Chinese community, we decided to go(and the univs here in the city sponsored it as well).

This was the only time I attended it.(and the Chinese people that attend the church I and my parents go to will sporadically go there if they have trips, events, et al) With that being said, the way this festivital was celebrated at this church, it was pure pagan(and there was one time when the pastor's teen daughters were doing a skit on stage in provocating clothing). The only time the pastor mentioned Jesus Christ was toward the end, and he sounded like he said it just to make himself look Christian.

Any more comments I would appreciate it - thank you for all of your comments and prayers(thank you for the pms ak and Lisa).

Also, here's what is my gripe about all this - as we all know, churches and other NFPs aren't exactly private businesses that are in the business of selling and making money, quite simply b/c they LARGELY get their money from donations. But en yet, when the average Christian sees a megachurch like this, their reactions are like, "This church is hugely blessed!", "The pastor built this church with his own bare hands after starting from scratch and was ultimately blessed!"(which is my mom's reaction), etc, etc.

Again, I'll admit I'm speaking from a secular POV, but common sense obviously says any organization that largely gets its support from DONATIONS, and somehow blossoms into some rich empire SHOULD raise some RED FLAGS.

OTOH, look at the typical home church - Bryan Denlinger says that the donations box is put in some back room to where people can just sneak in and out while going unoticed(not letting their left hand know what their right hand doeth). His home church may not get much donations, but it's more than enough to buy tracts, among other things when they go around the city preaching to the lost.