{"id":375,"date":"2020-12-13T17:48:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=375"},"modified":"2020-12-13T17:48:14","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:48:14","slug":"house-cats-or-barn-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"House Cats or Barn Cats"},"content":{"rendered":"

House Cats or Barn Cats<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me lay this out for you, I am not a cat lover. Some of you are. That is fine. They make me sneeze.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Now cats can be cute. They can be playful.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When I said cats, for most of you, what came to mind was a \u201cHouse Cat\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0A cat that lives in an environment designed to meet their every need. This includes one or more people to take care of it.\u00a0\u00a0In other words, to feed it, to provide entertainment, to clean-up after it and to make sure the litter box is clean and fresh. When its appetite is not as healthy as we would like, we buy special treats to entice it to eat and often get fat. It has been declawed to protect furniture and often neutered. There are very few challenges and very few discomforts or any unpleasantness. Cats are often a symbol of comfort, peace and no real challenges.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Read this again and think about your church and its role in your life.\u00a0\u00a0Similar?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now think about how a \u201cBarn Cat\u201d lives — those of you who are old enough to remember such things. It\u2019s a different kind of cat altogether. Many are almost feral. If you have ever tried to catch a feral cat, you were amazed at the biting, scratching, hissing animal that it was. Suddenly it was not \u201ccute\u201d or \u201cplayful\u201d. Rather, danger, strength, fear would be among your first responses.\u00a0\u00a0They had no desire to hang out in the house or sit on your lap.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They lived in the barn. They hunted their own food. They kept the rat population down. They were seldom fat and often on the move. They defended themselves with their claws and reproduced. Owners of \u201cBarn Cats\u201d were always looking for someone who wanted a kitten.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am afraid that many believers are more like house cats than barn cats and they look for churches that are like house cat owners.\u00a0\u00a0Churches that demand nothing and cater to their every whim.\u00a0\u00a0Can you imagine a barn cat waiting to be fed. No! He goes hunting and provides for his own needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, churches, in their attempt to count more attendees than the church down the street, make a practice of pampering attendees.\u00a0\u00a0They are not trying to attract cats or raise cats that are independent or cats who can protect themselves and even reproduce. I am afraid they want house cats that will sit on their laps and purr.\u00a0 Seldom challenged to go outside their comfort zones.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Lord, what have we done to the church of Jesus and his Followers?\u00a0\u00a0They aren\u2019t going to the ends of the earth.\u00a0\u00a0They are not challenging their cultures.\u00a0They are more concerned about how fresh the donuts are this morning,\u00a0who will feed them, clean up their messes for them and not challenge them.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Is my kitty litter fresh?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>If so, I will check out my food bowl, my water bowl and take a nap. I may go pester the dog for entertainment.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Cats or Barn Cats\u00a0 Let me lay this out for you, I am not a cat lover. Some of you are. That is fine. They make me sneeze.\u00a0 Now cats can be cute. They can be playful. When I said cats, for most of you, what came to mind was a \u201cHouse Cat\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0A cat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions\/376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}