Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

When I attend church with my mother (standard basic CoC church) I notice that 75% of the sermons come from the Old Testament, the other 25% are from the NT and some just general "make our church better" sermons. I find it curious that there is so little material in the NT that the preacher has to revert to the OT for material. I wonder if others have the same experience?

longdistancerunner wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 4:19 pm When I attend church with my mother (standard basic CoC church) I notice that 75% of the sermons come from the Old Testament, the other 25% are from the NT and some just general "make our church better" sermons. I find it curious that there is so little material in the NT that the preacher has to revert to the OT for material. I wonder if others have the same experience?

I don't recall seeing much of that, LDR. In fact, it seemed that they tended to use the OT mainly in those cases where they see it as supporting their interpretation of the NT. Ex: Noah's Ark as metaphor for later salvation through the church [of Christ]. They had to be very selective, though, because they didn't want to abide by everything in the OT, such as the directives about tithing, women wearing long hair, not eating certain "unclean" foods, stonings, etc., etc.

Paul. Paul says. the Apostle Paul says. In the book of Acts, pull quote from some of the grimmer prophets. Fleeting mention of some event from Genesis and/or Exodus. Paul says. Abihu and what's his name STRANGE FIRE. A dash of 'as Jesus said'.

We did have 'Bible knowledge competitions' with a lot of OT questions. Who was Moses' sister? How many sons did Jacob have? Where do we find...book chapter verse quotes.

agricola wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 8:40 pm Paul says. Abihu and what's his name STRANGE FIRE. A dash of 'as Jesus said'.

Oh, that's a big one. Nadab and Abihu, stricken down due to "strange fire" when they knew better. This is used to illustrate
why you should never add an "innovation" to the services, nor should you attend that lib-rel cofc down the road.

My old C of C focused on just a few books in the New Testament, mostly pertaining to Paul.

Well Paul was really the founder of Christianity wasn't he? Jesus just wanted to reform Judaism until a new kingdom arrived.

Lecture Sunday was about how Nehmiah fought his to develop a righteous nation. Tried to tie this to modern day Christianity. Really didn't make any sense.

longdistancerunner wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 12:27 pm Lecture Sunday was about how Nehmiah fought his to develop a righteous nation. Tried to tie this to modern day Christianity. Really didn't make any sense.

My thought would be that most likely, your CofC views the United States of America as a theocracy, so all of the Old Testament stories it uses with respect to the nation of Israel are meant to apply to this country.

longdistancerunner wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 12:19 pm Well Paul was really the founder of Christianity wasn't he? Jesus just wanted to reform Judaism until a new kingdom arrived.

Your church is really something else.

Actually I think they are just trying to find something to talk about in their sermons. The New Testament really doesn't have much interesting, Can you imagine teaching just from the New Testament twice Sunday and also teaching classes on Sunday and Wednesday night like most preachers do for say 20-30 years. There just is not that much material.