Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

I remember there were a number of members that would use their vacation days at work during gospel meeting weeks, that way they could attend both morning and night services. I can imagine how that conversation would go at work. "Hey, I see you're taking next week off, where are you going on vacation?" "Oh, we're staying home. We're going to church every morning and every night next week!" Of course most families never took a real vacation. That would mean being away on a Wednesday night and Sunday, and there might not be a coc where you would be going, so it would be better to stay home and never travel!

MusicMan826 wrote:I remember there were a number of members that would use their vacation days at work during gospel meeting weeks, that way they could attend both morning and night services. I can imagine how that conversation would go at work. "Hey, I see you're taking next week off, where are you going on vacation?" "Oh, we're staying home. We're going to church every morning and every night next week!" Of course most families never took a real vacation. That would mean being away on a Wednesday night and Sunday, and there might not be a coc where you would be going, so it would be better to stay home and never travel!

This reminds me of the typical responses that I would get after taking vacation:

"Did you get a chance to worship with the saints in Timbuktu?"

"Where do you go to church when you were in Alakazam?"

"Is there a sound congregation in Whoseville?"

In my younger adult years, I would actually do research on whether a conservative, NI, church of Christ existed in my desired location before I would even seriously consider going there.

Toward the end of my time in the conservative coc, I didn't take a friggin' vacation so I could go to another mucked up coc! If anything, I used that time to take a break from it!

I bet a lot of them masturbated a lot. A whole lot.

I grew up in Hendersonville, TN in the 1960s and 1970s, and I don't remember too many kids my age who were really that "churched up", to the point that they would avoid any non-church activities. Now, when we moved to Nashville in 1977 and started attending the Crieve Hall congregation, my mom became acquainted with a few ladies that, she said, seemed to have their whole lives centered around church. She thought that was odd! (And so did I.)

Guess I'm in the minority. I've known cofc members who are well-traveled, sky-dived, bungy-jumped, joined various clubs in highschool and college. Some played music whether it be in a band or did jazz solos. A few ministers I knew were heavily into sports. Also knew some members who went to clubs and drinked (responsibly). I know a married couple who recently finished a 5k before church started. Yes! They started running at 6am and finished it before 10:30 Sunday worship. I worshipped with a church that celebrated the superbowl on Sunday evening. One of the deacons would host a superbowl party (they called it a devo) every year. This is just of the top of my head. However, I didn't have much of life outside of the church besides the usual (movies, shopping, etc). Mind you, a lot of these people squeezed all this stuff in and STILL attended services faithfully. Oh yea, they were teaching bible classes too. Over-achievers!!!!

Yes, it is very unhealthy to have your whole life wrapped up in church. Using vacation days for gospel meetings? Gross!

The CofC people I grew up with and knew over my adult life did regular fun activities and had normal lives. Maybe NI CofC people were more rigid.

Where in the NT is fun authorized in scripture? Seriously, I don't think either Jesus or his disciples ever had no fun. Once the authority of scripture goes out the window the Devil rushes in to grab wayward souls.

OneStrike_ur_out wrote: I often wonder about those who do nothing outside of church. What if this life is ALL we get. Once we are dead, we are out forever plus a thousand. That is why I always made sure that I had other things going on in my life. And the same thing goes for work, or anything else. I refuse to let one thing and one thing only dominate my existence.

I loved this comment! My idea of Hell is eternity in the COC. Probably because of long winded preachers

I was surprised my brother was allowed to be in the band in school, but it really didn't interfere much with church. They went to NYC for a contest once and my parents had no issue with it. If I had made cheer-leading , the only issue would have been Wednesday night basketball. And of course there was no issue wiht home ec club

It seems strange they condone football and cheerleading but not proms. Not all of us are/were into the typical sports.

School and extracurricular activities were only okay to participate in when they did not interfere with church, and when they did not include dancing, modern music, or too much interaction between girls and boys. It was also important that all activities be supervised by adults.

When I was in college, my mother called my geology professor to ask if our field trip would be properly chaperoned. He didn't tell me that until thirty years after - and he remembered it, because it had NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE (or, probably, since). I must have been at least twenty years old at the time, and a sophomore or junior in college.