 |
 |
|
 |
| Home > ... Learn More > FAQ |
|
Frequently Asked Questions
|
|
|
1. Are you connected with other Chapel churches in the Akron area?
Yes and No. We have no formal governing or financial connections. Each church in The Chapel Consortium has its own distinct tone and emphasis. But we have similar doctrine, and associate for fellowship and sharing of resources.
2. Do you take the Bible literally?
Where the Bible is written historically, we take it as historically true. But the Bible is a mix of genres including law, poetry, history, prophecy, letters, allegories, parables and sermons. We interpret each section in its context. While the literal meaning is always important, it would be dumb to interpret figurative or poetic language literally.
3. Do you baptize? How, without a building?
Yes, we baptize by immersion. We have to borrow a pool or a lake to do it which limits us to mostly summer months. If you've been baptized in another church, we don't require you to be re-baptized unless, for some reason, you want to. We don't baptize babies, but we do have a simple dedication ceremony. We think baptism works best when the person understands what they're choosing.
4. Do you have altar calls or invitations at the end of a service?
Not usually. In fact, almost never. Invitations are a pretty recent addition to church life. For the first 80% of church history, there were no invitations (at least not as the American church did them between 1820 and and today).
We don't see the gathered church as primarily a soul-saving station. People might find faith by coming, but it's usually the end of a long process and many different influences. We don't push for quick or visible decisions because they can be easily manipulated and don't often last very long. We think when we gather on Sunday, it's primarily for building up the body through worship and teaching. The outreach should occur naturally as we are
salt and light out in the world. Every once in a while we challenge the congregation to respond in some way. Maybe ask to ask for prayer or have a quiet time of reflection. The sermon might even challenge you to make a decision about something in your life. But you won't be required to make a public show of it.
5. When will you build a worship center?
I wish I knew. As soon as possible, I'd say. Right now we're focusing on paying down our mortgage on the land. Our board is studying the whole building process, and doing research. An educated guess might have us starting a capital funds drive in 2009 and breaking ground a year later.
6. Do you want to be a big church?
What's big? We're already big by international standards. Americans like everything big and we often confuse bigger for better. We're not trying to be small, but we don't define our success in size. We mostly think of being healthy whatever size we are. There are lots of healthy small churches. There are unhealthy large churches. And of course there are unhealthy small churches and healthy big ones. I guess let Jesus decide who is what.
7. Why do you point at the walls when you preach as if there's something up there?
That's what we call Four Corners. Just a little way to keep track of 4000 years of history. See, the Bible people didn't all live in the same period wearing bathrobes and towels on their heads. Abraham lived around 2000BC so he's in the first corner. King David was 1000 years later at 1000BC. Then you have Christ in the middle at roughly 0. The Crusades occurred about 1000AD and then that brings up back to today at 2000AD. Each wall of the room represents 1000 years. It's just a way to see the story as one big story and to see ourselves in the story. We place everything where it fits on the wall.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
