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Blood Washed Heretic
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2003
Total Posts : 167
| Posted 7/24/2003 4:31 AM (GMT -6) |   | I'm currently interning at a church, and one of my major tasks is to help the sr. pastor research and prepare a six-week sermon series (I'm a preaching major). The topic is "Christianity vs..." and each sermon will compare our faith with a competing belief system. Here is how it originally broke down...
Week 1 - Islam
Week 2 - Syncretism (Baha'i, UU)
Week 3 - Hinduism/Buddhism
Week 4 - Animism, Wicca, Neo-Paganism
Week 5 - Cults (LDS, JW, CS)
Week 6 - "Hollywood" Religion (Scientology, New Age)
I was never completely comfortable with the above arrangement, but it seemed to work best given the issues we wanted to address. However, we've decided that there's no way to present Hinduism and Buddhism together, so we need to rethink the whole series. Any suggestions? | | Back to Top | | |
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GregBoyd
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 1818
| Posted 7/24/2003 4:35 AM (GMT -6) | | How about simply "eastern religion" for Week 3?
"The responsibility is with the chooser -- God is blameless." Plato, Republic, 10. | | Back to Top | | |
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GregBoyd
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 1818
| Posted 7/24/2003 4:39 AM (GMT -6) | | Personally, I would construe it as Christian AND rather than Christianity Verses... for not EVERYTHING about non-Christian belief systems can be all bad, can it? And it might help for congregants to hear something positive about the other views as well.
Also, if this was a class on worldviews, I might do this list. But if these are sermons, I rethink it. How many people really wrestle in their lives with these beliefs? I would broaden it to more of a WORLDVIEW rather than specific religions topic. On this, a good general book is The Universe Next Door by James Sire.
later
Greg
"The responsibility is with the chooser -- God is blameless." Plato, Republic, 10. | | Back to Top | | |
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Archibaldo
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2003
Total Posts : 32
| Posted 7/24/2003 6:11 AM (GMT -6) | | Random Question BHW
Are you by chance interning at southeast christian?
Just curious
Nate
"anything less than passion is dog crap." -Paul Hurckman | | Back to Top | | |
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Fleetwood
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Date Joined Jul 2003
Total Posts : 110
| Posted 7/24/2003 9:46 AM (GMT -6) | | Greg, wondering about your mention that it would "help" for congregants to hear something "positive" re: false doctrine. I'm curious as to your thought process behind this comment.
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Laplace
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 138
| Posted 7/24/2003 10:06 AM (GMT -6) | | Blood Washed Heretic,
I would first consider the audience. Is this meant to be an "open discussion" sermon providing pro-against arguments for each religion (historical evidence, etc.), or is it simply to point out how each one is different from Christianity.
Secondly, since it is a sermon to the main assembly and not a small study group, you have to not get too detailed and lose people. The way I would highlight the differences are covering the following:
- Origins
- Beliefs about God(s)
- Beliefs about Man
- Beliefs about the afterlife
- Beliefs about how to get to the "good" afterlife (Heaven, Nirvana, etc)
- Beliefs about Jesus (used for contrast with Christianity)
Finally, to be fair, it might be good to add a week which covers Christianity's evidence last.
I see no problem in using the un-PC "versus". It does mean as a primary "against", but it validly can be defined as "in contrast to or alternative" (Merriam-Webster).
"Balance in all things" - Dak'kon, Planescape Torment | | Back to Top | | |
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Blood Washed Heretic
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2003
Total Posts : 167
| Posted 7/25/2003 8:59 AM (GMT -6) | | Archibaldo:
No, I'm not interning at Southeast. It's a smaller church in Illinois that's part of the same brotherhood, though (Ind. Chr. Ch. and Ch. of Chr.)
That's a lotta abbreviations...
Everyone else:
Thanks for the input.
Fleetwood:
Beliefs that constitute other religions wouldn't qualify as "false doctrine". The only sermon that's really on that would be the cults one. Groups that willfully distort Scripture are guilty of "false doctrine", not groups with completely different scriptures of their own.
In essentials, unity; In matters of opinion, liberty; In all things, love.
Edited by - Blood Washed Heretic on 07/25/2003 1:59:58 PM | | Back to Top | | |
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