SELECTED RESPONSES to E. Coli churches

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: E. coli Churches (Tuesday Column)
Good column (is that what it's called on e-mail?)  The question that comes to
mind is:  should the church that has been infected by E. Coli change names?
 I'm not sure that's the best way for God's grace to work.
Thanks.  Good to read your comments again.
Karen S. Smucker
To: Keith Drury 
What on earth does the fact that Hillary Clinton is friends with Don Tyson
have to do with E-Coli?  Or, that Tyson bought the distressed Hudson Foods
Corporation?  Or, that Hudson is both the name of a defunct car maker and 
failed food company.  Sorry, but you missed me on this one.
I give you 2 on a scale of 1-10, Hillary bashing takes away points.  Not to
mention, my cousin Harvey in Pea Ridge Arkansas has faithfully driven a
chicken truck for Hudson for a number of years.  Most corporations are made
up of people like Harvey, honest and hard working.  Hopefully, white knight
Tyson will help keep him and others employed and thus avert a disaster in
small town USA.
-- J. Doug Dawson
Broken Arrow, OK
From: "James J Lake" 
I`m so glad you are back at it again.Hope you had a marvelous summer.
I think some good names for churches today could be The Family of Faith
Church,
The Neighbor Fellowship Church, The Friendship Chapel Of Faith,      
Accountability Christian Center and The Spiritual Fitness Tabernacle.
What ever we call them is not as important as what takes place in them.
If lives are not being radically transformed by the grace of God then we
should just call it : The Country Club Cathedral of Show up and Go Through
The Motions. The Royal Family has been recently accused of being too
cold ,too slow to act and totally out of touch with people who needed to
see some compassion, emotion and warmth . The Church needs to 
throw off the E. coli of the past and step up to the plate and demonstrate
in very healthy and practical ways that she has been healed and is now
ready to bring healing to the nations. 
Thanks Keith for the spiritual health you bring to my life--Jim--
From: [email protected]
My first church was like that.  I went calling in the neighborhood next to
the church door-to-door, what did people remember?  A church that was so loud
with guitars and drums that they could hear blocks away.  They remembered
people marching around the church, they were offended.  I was there 10 years
later and that is still how they looked at the church even though we were a
completely different group.  We moved but kept the name.
I don't know if the name needs to be changed or the people in some cases.
 Usually you have to find a new location, get in some new people, and change
the name if the community is too small.  Yep, carnality can really be a mess
sometimes.
My present location started from some folk pulling out of a liberal Methodist
Church.  How has the church grown.   Either new folk or folk from other
communities around us.  What do the older folk in town think of us, not much.
That was over 30 years ago!  When I first moved here I met with the local
Ecu. council.  The Methodist preacher said, "oh your the ones!".  That was 20
years after and he wasn't even preaching around here at the time.  Yep
sometimes change of address, name, and in some cases people is necessary.
From:    BLK130
Mr. Drury,
Your article on E-coli in the church certainly hit a nerve with me.  This
very thing happened to my home church when I was teenager.  The church was
located in a small town (12,000) and thirty years later healing is finally
starting to happen.  Would I have wanted to be the pastor that came in after
the split and try to teach love?  I don't think so!  None of the pastors had
the slightest idea how to do reconciliation.  I doubt the subject of what to
do with "untouchable" churches is taught in seminary.   Ironically I wonder
how many "good" churches there really are?
As a teenager that experienced this abandonment I can tell you it has taken
me years to come to terms with the way the church handled the situation.
  The pastors had no idea how to minister to the hurting families.  The kids
were rejected, although they were not in any way guilty.  
Ma