Ultimately, I think we
keep returning to church because we are part of the body and there is an innate spiritual need for fellowship and worship that keeps bringing us back.
It's actually not that uncommon for atheists to
return to a church at some point in their lives, particularly IF they were raised in a Christian home.
When Kayleigh Ferguson - Walker
returned to church for the first time since losing her arms and legs, she wore a bright yellow dress.
Bishop Eddie Long, the Atlanta pastor who has received massive media attention since four young men accused him of sexual coercion last September, is entangled in a dispute with an entrepreneur over $ 1 million in investments that Long wants
returned to his church members.
I don't feel like praying anymore, not even for the mom who begged me to pray for her gay son who vowed yesterday never to
return to church again.
That same family sought me out a few years later; thanked me for forcing them to face a blind spot in their faith, and
returned to church more active and committed than ever.
As far as whether she and her fiance would
ever return to the church, she said, «I won't say never, but it's going to take a while.»
Indeed, a number of British women who had been ordained priests elsewhere in the
Communion returned to the Church of England and willingly worked as deacons as they awaited a potential change.
In this Internet age there are many that will encourage maturity, coach maturity... and though some of them will
return to the church institution, they will no longer abide within the symbiotic and us - versus - them cultures.
If one in ten of the ex-Catholic JWs in
Britain returned to the Church, there would not only be a substantial increase in the sum total of human peace and happiness among all those people, but there would also be a strengthening of the Church in Britain.
Their efforts to
return to the Church catholic is finding new followers in ways that suggest there might be a Mercersburg moment in Reformed circles, a welcome development.
In the Southern Baptist denomination which I am a part of they reported 75 % of the ages 18 to 21 that attend college never
return to church attendance.
On the other hand, as the Big Book puts it, in discussing the alcoholic
who returns to church, «He and his family can be a bright spot in such congregations.
We always give 10 % of our
gross returns to the church or charity, and I was recently selected to be a Justice of the Peace here in Yellowknife.
Mr. Hawkins was not sure why he
kept returning to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, «but I think what really drew me back was the sense that if I spent enough time there I would come closer to whatever it was that drew the pilgrim Egeria eastward across the Mediterranean and that, centuries later, convinced thousands of Crusaders to kill and be killed.
Maybe this is the once - in - a-lifetime moment when they have plucked up the courage to confront some grave sin from the past, or perhaps they are
returning to the Church after a long absence, or they are in some other spiritual need.
The love of two people who never give up on her help her crawl out of the abyss,
return to the Church of her childhood, and into the arms of God.
I think you could easily flip this question and ask why are
they returning to Church... many churches offer opportunities for service to those in need, meet spiritual needs, when kids that grew up in the church have children of their own, they often return to churches.
If there were more like you - leading by example instead of preaching from a pulpit - I would
return to the Church.
We raked rubble from this deserted building, the first in the Moscow Region to be
returned to the Church.
well, my daughter is gay and i am grateful for people like you standing up for her and for me for supporting her < 3 (she has recently
returned to church for the first time in 7 years and fortunately it is gay positive)(i haven't returned to church in 2, but that's another story:P)
Despite this, this month I decided I am
returning to the church.
Many were brought freely to see their errors and
return to the Church.