Unfortunately, the way the church operates is a bit like MLM.
One thing that the church is over-obsessed with these days are
figures. I have attended two prostestant churches and the sad thing
about it is that there is over-emphasis in "recruiting" people than
the follow-up or guidance and fellowship.
I converted to christianity at a point when I didn't really know
much about the religion but was under a pressured altar-calling
session which turns out to be a bit forced as I was made to say the
sinner's prayer. Before I converted, people were warm friendly and
enthusiastic around me, but that changed after I converted. I was
thrown aside and assumed to be able to pick things up myself (ie.
read the entire bible) or learn how to say prayers, how to relate
to God, how the whole thing works. I didn't have the benefit of
sunday schools like my cell group mates. I felt neglected.
Regular church-attendance didn't help much either as sermons
focussed on selective text randomly from here and there and at the
end of the day, I only get a fraction of the picture, in bits and
pieces. Ultimately, I came to a conclusion that people seemed more
involved in clapping hands, jumping, shouting, yelling, fainting
and going into trances than the actual education of the word
itself. One particular mega church has its proportion of its
regular session flipped around such that more time is spent on the
concert part and the actual sermon is just flashed over, in point
form. Cell groups operate in similar fashion, and increasingly
caused my discomfort in this bizarre relationship with my
church-going peers, where it is an extreme cycle from nonchalent
relationship during the weekdays to uncomfortably intimate sharing
sessions on saturdays.
I dunno whats the rationale behind mega churches, whether its for
bringing in more money or preaching to the world so that Jesus
would return.
I am agnostic now largely because of the way the church operates.
It's scary. And attending a world religions module at NUS kinda
also opened up my perspectives to the other religions of the world.
And I realised the bible is not as flawless as I thought before. No
offence.
