Question about a church in my neighborhood.. that I personally think is weird!

I was at a friends house who's home backs up directly to this church. I witnessed the most strange church related event I believe Ive ever seen.. and Im relatively old! These people had a live band cranking out Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest and other heavy metal music, plus they had bought a wrecked car from somewhere and were allowing the teens to hit it with a sledge hammer. I mean Id have enjoyed the live music if it werent for the religious ranting over the top of it. LOL! Over the ungodly loud PA system the preacher was screaming " BASH IT FOR JESUS!!!!" " HIT IT FOR JESUS!!!!" among other weird things, btu those were the 2 phrases that were repeated the most. They were saying go to so n so for some kind of jello shots. Now these were children and teens, so I assume they wer non alchoholic jello shots.. but why emulate the things youre telling the kids NOT to do??? The music and PA was so loud we were hearing it behind closed doors and the police showed up around 10:30PM to shut it down. A church had to have the police tell them to stop screaming and playing Ozzy on a Weeknight?!

WTF... I was quite curious about this. Never heard of it before. Its a non-denominational church. I really have never heard of this kind of thing coming from a church. Have any of you? Whats with the bash it for Jesus stuff??

Just curious. It was very different and I guess I wonder whats coming next outta them!

Originally posted by Advantage
I was at a friends house who's home backs up directly to this church. I witnessed the most strange church related event I believe Ive ever seen.. and Im relatively old! These people had a live band cranking out Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest and other heavy metal music, plus they had bought a wrecked car from somewhere and were allowing the teens to hit it with a sledge hammer. I mean Id have enjoyed the live music if it werent for the religious ranting over the top of it. LOL! Over the ungodly loud PA system the preacher was screaming " BASH IT FOR JESUS!!!!" " HIT IT FOR JESUS!!!!" among other weird things, btu those were the 2 phrases that were repeated the most. They were saying go to so n so for some kind of jello shots. Now these were children and teens, so I assume they wer non alchoholic jello shots.. but why emulate the things youre telling the kids NOT to do??? The music and PA was so loud we were hearing it behind closed doors and the police showed up around 10:30PM to shut it down. A church had to have the police tell them to stop screaming and playing Ozzy on a Weeknight?!

WTF...

I was quite curious about this. Never heard of it before. Its a non-denominational church. I really have never heard of this kind of thing coming from a church. Have any of you? Whats with the bash it for Jesus stuff??

Just curious. It was very different and I guess I wonder whats coming next outta them!

That's not standard. For sure, there are some wacky ways to show faith. The world is a reflection of man's fallen state. You should have taken your phone out and recorded.

Isaiah 64:6 is true for all of us. They prove this.

6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
7 No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to our sins.

See my latest thread on the subject: LINK

reply to post by Advantage


I remember doing something very simular to that in High school for a fund raiser. What better way to raise cash by letting kids smash a wrecked car with a sledge hammer. It was fun. And we made a heck of alot of cash. As for the Black Sabbath and Ozzy music....all the better. That mans they are moving past the stereotypes.

Unfortunately, most modern churches are simply business designed to make money...and that's what you were witnessing, a different marketing strategy. It says in the Bible that "they will make merchandise of you (Christ)". This is essentially what the churches are doing. Go to one of these big modern churches and you'll find HUGE staffs of wealthy, spoiled children acting under the auspices of faith yet drawing large salaries, but let a homeless man walk in and see how he's treated. It's pretty obvious. This isn't to denegrate all churches, certainly true faith still lives in this world and there are churches that reflect that faith, but look for them in small and decrepit building with a poor congregation and a pastor who preaches from the word, not by what the members want to hear. Here's a lil' test. Go to a big church and ask the preacher if he'll give a sermon on something that has you confused: Matthew 5:32. Betchya he can't do it.

Thank you all for your replies. I still dont understand it though. I really didnt see any worship or fellowship with that youth ministry activity though. Im not a Christian and was simply curious as I honestly didnt and dnt understand the purpose of that sort of church activity. It wasnt a fundraiser, it was the youth group of the church and their activity with the music, bashing a car, jello shots and all of that in a very quiet residential area. It just seemed exceedingly odd. Must be something tickling folks' ears... the parking lot is full sunday and at times throughout the week!

reply to post by Advantage


Sounds like they are trying to appeal to a younger crowd, and from the full parking lots you mentioned it seems like its working. I can imagine the kids telling their friends "guess what they let us do at MY church?! It was awesome!!" I agree that its a business tactic, but its better than the fear tactics used by the more stuffy, hoity toity churches, i.e. "watch the wrong movie, listen to the wrong music and you will go to hell" type of stuff... It's expected that 99% of churches will be an utter disgrace in the eyes of the lord, as the Bible states. Now I'm gonna go look up Matthew 25 or whatever that other person said...