This will be more of a venting post than anything else. I just can’t really post this on my social media, it’s more blog appropriate.
So, where we live is Southern Illinois. It is referred to as “Little Egypt” and I am not really sure why, nor do I care enough to look it up. We have things named after Egyptian towns, and a Lake of Egypt. That is just a little side note. But anyway, this area, especially in the church unity, lacks. People church hop like crazy, get offended, go to this church, go to that one, and make a life out of hopping from church to church. I am sure that’s common in a lot of areas, but here it is specifically bad. We have some independents, some organized, and some falling away from the rest of us. All that said, there are a lot of Pentecostal’s here. And a lot of ex-Pentecostals, including an very large church. All that is fine and really is whatever. But what I can’t understand is the amount of people that literally, for no reason, not even part of the conversation, tell us that we are legalistic. I mean, I understand why they think that, albeit not true whatsoever. I know that people twist it to be something that it isn’t, and that really isn’t the subject of the post. But a certain lady from a certain church came into our business and was talking about how she got to know of our place and started talking about church. Then, out of knowhere, she says “Pentecostals are legalistic.” I have no qualms with people that think that, but I just can’t believe that people say that. It’s literally equivalent to me saying to someone “you’re worldly.” No one would put up with that. I have another lady that consistantly would call us legalistic or Pharisees. Granted these people are backslidden Pentecostals and go to a church where the majority, including the leadership, used to be Pentecostal. The first lady mentioned even said after she called us legalistic, that that is what her pastors says. So is he saying this from the pulpit? It just boggles my mind. I don’t get it. When the lady said that we were legalistic, without hesitation, nor even realizing it was coming out of my mouth, I said “I love this legalism.” And that shut her up.
Coffee Shop Theology 