does anyone go to the philadelphia church in sheffield?

Yes, lots of people :)

Sorry, had to say that. I have been before. Why do you ask?

when have you been? i go every week lets make sure wer on about the same 1 the 1 just off penistone rd ye?

Originally posted by oatescamilla
when have you been? i go every week lets make sure wer on about the same 1 the 1 just off penistone rd ye?

Yeah, in between the Skoda garage and the petrol station. My cluster is in Firth Park to I'm usually down there once a month, although I sometimes go on a Sunday evening.

Used to go when I lived about ten minutes away in Crookesmoor.

Originally posted by oatescamilla
does anyone go to the philadelphia church in sheffield?

Philadelphia, sounds a bit Cheesy to me :heyhey:

haha your so funnie

Originally posted by spiffymonkey
Yeah, in between the Skoda garage and the petrol station. My cluster is in Firth Park to I'm usually down there once a month, although I sometimes go on a Sunday evening.

Hi, I'm curious what is a 'cluster'? What sort of church is it as I've got 'churchy' friends and no-one seems to know about the church or that word 'cluster' Is it just a new word for a house group?

Originally posted by WallBuilder
Hi, I'm curious what is a 'cluster'? What sort of church is it as I've got 'churchy' friends and no-one seems to know about the church or that word 'cluster' Is it just a new word for a house group?

No, it's halfway between a housegroup and a full church. With the membership at St. Thomas' (the church Philadelphia is part of) being so massive, the church is split into smaller groups of a couple of hundred in a particular area of the city, which are in turn split into smaller groups of 10-30 people called Clusters. These clusters are free to run themselves and meet when and how they like. There are monthly meetings where more people can go (called Celebrations) from a group of clusters. There are services at Philadelphia, St. Thomas' church as Crookes and the Kings Centre at Nether Edge every Sunday, usually 2 in the morning and one in the evening.

http://www.sttoms.net/modules/wfsection/

St. Thomas at Crookes? I can remember that place was almost ready toexplode at the seams several years ago as the building had reached it's limit as to how many people could be shoe-horned into the place. When so many church congregations are aged and dwindling it's interesting to hear of one that caters it's meetings to the congregation rather than being pushed into attending on a Sunday morning.
One of my friends was a member of St. Toms and I even had friends who attended NOS [a long time ago now]

Originally posted by WallBuilder
St. Thomas at Crookes? I can remember that place was almost ready toexplode at the seams several years ago as the building had reached it's limit as to how many people could be shoe-horned into the place.

Yep, hence the expansion to the Roxy, then subsequently Philadelphia. I can't remember the exact figure but I think that the campus can cater for up to 1,500 people at any point in time. Quite large ;)

its a very good church all should try

Originally posted by oatescamilla
its a very good church all should try

You may think it's a very good church but I'm sure not everyone would agree with you. Maybe you should try and say why it is such a good church. I always thought St. Tom's at Crookes must of struggled with it's 'doctrine' after all it was or is a combined anglican/baptist, interesting when you consider the differing thoughts on baptism wouldn't you say?

Originally posted by WallBuilder
I always thought St. Tom's at Crookes must of struggled with it's 'doctrine' after all it was or is a combined anglican/baptist, interesting when you consider the differing thoughts on baptism wouldn't you say?

It's funny, this is the second time this particular issue has arisen in a week. The thing is, if you want a baptist baptism, that's cool and if you want an anglican one, that's cool too. Mostly it's baptism by immersion.

The puzzle for me is that people seem to think that the church should be falling over itself in confusion over what is, really, such a minor issue. There are bigger things in life than the specifics of the method of baptism. While I agree that the anglican church 'in the media' (that muppet in canterbury and such like) get all in a kerfuffle over nothing, the 'real' church, being the people in it, are much more laid back.

'Kerfuffle' what a nice word and I'd agree with your opinion. However I've known a lot of church goers and Christians and find that sometimes they just seem to blindly follow a churches teaching without questioning anything. This is a dangerous practice and so I like to ask questions. The anglican church for example are very keen on infant christening and yet can't back this up biblically and methodists can get very stroppy about complete immersion.
The churches that are growing seem to of sorted these things out and these church members seem more able to debate such issues in a coherent manner.

I don't understand, why does it matter if some people in the church prefer child baptism and some prefer full immersion.
Surely the diversity of opinion reflects what is so human about the church.
I think the only thing people have to really agree on is Jesus and the Ten commandments.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before
me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image or any likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, the
Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil-
dren unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me; and showing mercy
unto thousands of them that love me, and
keep my commandments."

The Second Commandment.


Aint religion grand!

Originally posted by Norbert
"Thou shalt have no other gods before
me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image or any likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, the
Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil-
dren unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me; and showing mercy
unto thousands of them that love me, and
keep my commandments."

The Second Commandment.


Aint religion grand!

This may help a few people as believe it or not there are bibles in use that are slightly more current than the old King James version. A modern translation makes understanding the text so much easier and as one of my friends beat me over the head with a 'New International' Version bible I had to admit a lot of my knowledge about church life was a bit out of date.

"for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me"

Same nasty vengeful tripe in the New International version.


JESUS SAVES SINNERS
And redeems them for valuable cash and prizes

Hi Norbert, Something one of my friends once told me was that people often take particular parts of the bible out of context or simply don't take into account the life and times that people were living in back then. So as I'm no biblical expert I had a google to see what this tiny bit of the bible is going on about. I've come to the conclusion that it is far more complex than it first seems as is often the case with religious things. I then ran back to a friend who tried to explain the old covenant and the new covenant, the new covenant that Jesus brought about when he spoke about the two most important commandments [sorry I've forgotten the bible verses] Just because I don't fully understand something though doesn't mean that I'm going to belittle it or be rude about it as I find that just closes me off to any debate.

I've visited a lot of churches lately and seen the 10 commandments displayed up behind the altar in big letters. This one strikes me as particularly repulsive.

Do you agree with punishing the children for the sins of the father? I Don't.

Any reasonable god would have realised the "life and times that people were living in back then" would change and worded the commandments more clearly. I'ts about time he released The Bible V2.0


The Big Bang theory: And God said 'Pulleth my Finger'

Originally posted by Norbert
Any reasonable god would have realised the "life and times that people were living in back then" would change and worded the commandments more clearly. I'ts about time he released The Bible V2.0

He did, that's what Jesus came for. It's called the New Testament.

Originally posted by Norbert
The Big Bang theory: And God said 'Pulleth my Finger'

Hehe :)