Can you spot the oddity in this picture of an otherwise typical IFB auditorium?
Answer: Those of you who guessed the candles had it right. Here’s a quick overview of the liturgical use of candles. In short, if you’re using more than two around your altar then you’re headed straight for Catholicism.
It’s easier to spot the problem on the outside of their building: namely that there are two very large people stuck in it.
It looks like a Catholic church rather than a Baptist church with the candles and the ceiling lights!
We’ve got better sense than to stick a big thermometer on our wall, though.
Yup. Baptist churches tend to have fluorescent lighting. Ugh!
Was a Catholic prior to joining the IFB in 1995. I KNOW those lights from so many Catholic churches!
Went from the frying pan to the barbeque pit , right??? catholic then IFB???
Usually it’s the other way around.
I was definitely thinking Catholic or Lutheran when I first saw it… Cozy…kinda like it.
Well, the first time I walked into an IFB that had those kind of lights, it was VERY CREEPY for me — being an ex Catholic.
When I was growing up, communion was always in the evening service and always by candlelight. The pastor made a real thing about “come to our wonderful candlelight communion service”. DH grew up in the midwest and about fell over when he walked in on the candlelight service – said he wondered if he had gotten the wrong church.
And once again the brick and mortar is the central focus, candles or not.
The lights in the auditorium are an older style, much prettier than the florescent tube lighting, but they do use more electricity. The high, polished wood ceilings are also typical of many older church buildings.
The older construction seems to reflect the greater reverence people — even conservatives and fundamentalists — had for God. That reverence for God has slowly eroded away and been replaced by a militant attitude toward others instead of a zeal to win the lost.
The church building, then, becomes not so much a place of worship, but a place of utility. The auditorium isn’t meant to inspire awe or reverence, but is simply a place to gather. The speaker’s podium occupies the center of attention. The Cross becomes a background instead of the central focus.
“The speaker’s podium occupies the center of attention. The Cross becomes a background instead of the central focus.”
^THIS^
^this^
Fundraising thermometer larger than the Cross?
The problem on the outside….crusade Baptist church? Using the name crusade is Catholic through and through Lol so why be surprised at the candles?
It’s a Catholic Baptist church..for real there’s a church in my area called St. John the Baptist Catholic Church