I recently received a question via private message that made me stop and reflect. The person said something like, “I think I might be in an unhealthy church environment right now. But before I leave, how am I supposed to know what a ‘healthy’ church looks like?” I answered her question privately, the best I … Continue reading »
I know I made a few friends nervous with my previous post: http://ericstarkey.org/2013/04/04/why-i-almost-left-the-church/ Frankly, I wanted to. I think it is very healthy to stop and take a long hard look in front of the mirror every now and then. I think St. James, Jesus’ half brother, said something about that in the scripture that he penned. With that being said, I did not leave the Church. I stayed and I think it is appropriate to take time to write a post and share why: Continue reading »
I almost left the church, the “established” church that is…. And sometimes, I still feel like leaving the church. There, I said it. Yes, Eric Starkey: husband, father, devout Christian and maybe most relevant to this post, “pastor” has seriously considered leaving the church, or at least “the church” as we know it.
Why??? Continue reading »
In my humble opinion, Christendom in the United State is losing its voice because we often find ourselves at one end of two extremes on controversial topics like homosexuality. There are the “conservative evangelical Christians” who vehemently oppose not only the lifestyle but often the people who live the lifestyle as well. Then there are those “open-minded” Christians who give in to the temptation to conform to the culture, submit to its seductive currents and compromise God’s most basic plan for the family. I personally think that both extremes greatly degrade our Christian influence. The “open-minded” extreme sacrifices basic Christian Truths in the name of love and faux freedom and the “legalistic” extreme shows no love, which makes the communication of basic Christian Truth practically impossible. Both extremes gut real Christianity and make it a hollow faith, irrelevant to our culture and its people. Neither presents the example of Jesus who practically loved people while declaring the Truth to them. Continue reading »
Furthermore, I simply cannot stop myself from asking this question: “What would Jesus do if he was living in Sullivan Indiana and a few spiritually, emotionally and sexually confused kids were planning to attend the high school prom?” How big of a deal would He make out of? How many fireworks would He set off? How many bridges would He burn? How many relationships would He sacrifice? Continue reading »
It has been almost three months since I have written a post on my blog. Can you believe it!?! I have managed to keep my mouth shut (well, more like my keyboard quiet) for three whole months! I just thought I would put a quick post up to let my readers know that I am still alive and kicking as my blog is still getting a fair amount of traffic from previous posts. I also wanted to give three quick reasons why I have not written in a while. Continue reading »
So I get home from work yesterday and we all take our seats in the dining room as we prepare to eat dinner together; this is our daily routine. During the course of eating our simple meal, sandwiches, my 13-year-old daughter asked a question; I am not sure of the exact question but it was … Continue reading »
