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CHRISTIANITYBlack outDate: 1/2007.101 DCFC Sunday School 2007 - Mark 3 February 2008 DCFC English - Mark 3 20-35 ~ Butt Print Legacy?? AMG Bible Illustrations Book 3 #221 Dennis E. Hensley writes: When I was a newspaper reporter, I did a feature on training procedures for Air Force pilots. One flight condition a pilot must understand is hypoxia or 'oxygen starvation.' Students are paired off in an altitude simulation chamber. With oxygen masks on, they are taken to simulated conditions of 30,000 feet. Then one student removes his mask for a few minutes and begins to answer simple questions on a sheet of paper. Suddenly, their partners force the oxygen masks on the uncovered mouth and noses of the people who are writing. After a few gulps of normal air, each writer is astounded at what he sees on his paper. The first few written lines are eligible, but the last few lines are unreadable. One minute earlier, the participant was absolutely sure he had written his answers in perfectly legible script. In reality, he was on the verge of losing total consciousness. Remarkably, he didn’t even know he was blacking out. Similarly, people can be spiritually starved. They may not know anything is wrong, but unless someone explains how to obtain the 'breath of life,' those disconnected from God will never gain spiritual 'consciousness.' Personal experience... CHRISTIANITY
Article | August 11, 2015 | Several years ago, I led a group of seminary students on a study tour of Rome, working through the Book of Romans and the relevant aspects of church history there. One rainy day we spent the morning in Saint John Lateran Cathedral there, and the afternoon in the ruins of the ancient Christian catacombs. I spent time alone from the crowds in both places, praying. As I did so, it struck me that we Christians sometimes forget the paradoxical grace of God in giving us a legacy of both cathedrals and catacombs. The catacombs, of course, are the legacy of a tiny persecuted band of believers, meeting in their underground graveyards, to escape the all-seeing eye of imperial Rome. The cathedrals represent a very different turn, a church that not only grew in size but, in fact, outgrew and outlasted the Empire itself. The catacombs represent simplicity and earthiness; the cathedrals transcendence and wonder. We need them both. I’ve noticed that American evangelicals who go on trips like this tend to be disappointed when they travel to sites of significance in church history. They want them to be a theme-park-like restoration of ‘the early church” in a way that makes it seem as though the faith went by time-warp straight from a pristine golden era to the Billy Graham crusades. This sort of Christian tends to like the catacombs for the same reason some people love working on their antebellum family histories but don’t like family reunions. The catacombs don’t talk back. But the catacombs and the cathedrals, taken together remind us of two things we need to know: God’s sovereignty in sending down the faith, and the frailty of humanity as stewards of that faith. We can’t romanticize the early persecuted church. After all, the New Testament Scriptures are often rebuking those churches for precisely the things we lament in our churches today: sexual immorality, division, carnality, arrogance (1 Cor. 4:7-13; 5:1-8; 6:1-8). And if Christianity had remained in the catacombs, it is quite possible that you and I would never have encountered Christ. The basilica at Saint John Lateran was planted there by the Emperor Constantine. As a Baptist committed to church/state separation, my skin crawls at the mention of Constantine. His vision of a Christian empire was, in my view, a failed experiment that led to persecution and to all sorts of nominal Christianity, which is the antithesis of my believers’ church conviction. And yet, God used Constantine to end a sometimes bloody persecution and to, among other things, call together the church to put down a deadly heresy or two. In the providence of God, the Trinitarian theism and the orthodox Christology with which I critique the idea of Christian empire came down to me due to the actions of the prototypical Christian emperor. Not to recognize that would be the sin of ingratitude. Crawling through catacombs and walking through cathedrals reminded me of the paradoxical wonder of the way Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God. One the one hand, Jesus spoke of the kingdom as tiny, a “little flock” hounded by wolves (Lk. 12:32; Acts 2:29). The way is narrow, he told us, and there are few who enter therein (Matt. 7:14). On the other hand, Jesus told us the kingdom is like a tiny seed that grows into a massive tree in which all the birds of the air may rest (Mk. 4:30-32). If we only see the catacombs, we could valorize smallness and persecution as equivalent to holiness. And we could ignore our responsibility to build institutions and cultures to protect future generations from persecution. If we only see the cathedrals, whether of the ancient sort or of the local suburban megachurch, we could identity godliness with bigness, and authority with “influence.” There’s a lot in church history that went wrong. The people who build the majestic cathedrals were sinners deserving of hell. So were the martyrs of the catacombs. So are we. Lots of bad decisions were made, and some of them persist. But the biblical story too was filled with sinful people making stupid decisions, and, in all that, God was working everything out toward the glory of Christ (Rom. 9:4-5). In the heroic episodes of the church’s story (Athanasius defeats Arius! Augustine turns back Pelagius! Bonheoffer stands down Hitler!) and in the awful parts (state churches and political preening and scandal after scandal), God is orchestrating a flow of the river of redemption, taking it from the hillsides of Judea through the bustling streets of Antioch right down to that place in Dubuque or Dubai or Buenos Aires or Little Rock, or wherever it was where you first heard the name of the Christ of God. Seeing oneself as a prophetic minority does not mean retreat, and it certainly does not mean victim status. It also does not confer faithfulness. Marginalization can strip away from us the besetting sins of a majoritarian viewpoint, but it can bring others as well. We must remember our smallness but also our connectedness to a global, and indeed cosmic, reality. The kingdom of God is vast and tiny, universal and exclusive. Our story is that of a little flock and of an army, awesome with banners. Our legacy is a Christianity of persecution and proliferation, of catacombs and cathedrals. If we see ourselves as only a minority, we will be tempted to isolation. If we see ourselves only as a kingdom, we will be tempted toward triumphalism. We are, instead, a church. We are a minority with a message and a mission. This article is adapted from my new book Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel. Christian-liteSermonspice 21 Feb 2010 DCFC English Worship – [Building a Community in Christ] Eph 2:1-10 What is the gospel about? 2-4 Apr 2010 ACBC Revival Meeting (Mandarin) – [Growing in Love, Building the Church] Eph 2:1-10 The Purpose of a Christian 29 May 2011 DCFC Chinese Worship – Eph 2:1-10 What is the gospel about?
Mar 12 2012 DCFC English [Dan 12: Ultimate hope lies in God] Mar 12 2012 DCFC Chinese [Dan 12: Ultimate hope lies in God]
What Good is God? Yancey P201 I came across the writings of Rene Girard, a French philosopher and anthropologist whose brilliant career culminated in a position in Stanford University. Girard became fascinated with the fact that in modern times a “marginalised’ person assumes a moral authority. Girard noted that a cavalcade of liberation movements – abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, the civil rights movement, human rights, animal rights, gay rights, women’s rights, minority rights – had gathered speed in the 20th century. The trend mystified Girard because he found nothing comparable in his readings of ancient literature. Victors, not the marginalized, wrote history and the myths of Babylon, Greece and elsewhere celebrated strong heroes, not pitiable victims. In his further research, Girard traced the phenomenon back to the historical figure of Jesus. It struck Girard that Jesus’ story cuts against the grain of every heroic story from its time. Indeed, Jesus chose poverty and disgrace, spend his infancy as a refugee, lived in a minority race under a harsh regime and died as a prisoner. From the vey beginning, Jesus took the side of the underdog: the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the marginalized. His crucifixion, Girard concluded, introduced a new plot to history the victim becomes the hero by being a victim. To the consternation of his secular colleagues, Girard converted to Christianity Girard disciples has called the most sweeping historical revolution in the world, namely, the emergence of an empathy for victims. Today victims occupies the moral high ground everywhere in the Western world: consider how the media portray the plight of AIDS orphans in Africa or Tibetan refuges or uprooted Palestinians. Girard contends that Jesus life and death brought forth a new stream in history, one that undermines injustices. In the great irony, the ‘politically correct’ movement defending these rights often positions itself as an enemy of Christianity, when in fact the gospel has contributed the very underpinnings that make possible such a movmene.t
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "God is here, God is here," croons Singapore church official Sun Ho as she struts across a neon-lit stage and thousands of people in the congregation pump their hands and sing along. Kong Hee, the church's founding pastor and Sun Ho's husband, then takes the stage. In keeping with the electrifying mood, he invites his followers to speak "in tongues" and a pulsing murmur echoes through the auditorium of 8,000 people. During the service, ushers hand out envelopes for donations, which consume at least a tenth of the salaries of most church members, going to fund different ministries, mission trips and special events. Welcome to one of Asia's most profitable churches: Singapore's City Harvest. With a "prosperity gospel" that blends the spiritual and the material, City Harvest and other Pentecostal megachurches in the wealthy Asian city-state have perfected a popular and lucrative model. Now they are working to export it to the world and turn Singapore into a hub for evangelical Christianity. "We want to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth," said Pastor Bobby Chaw, City Harvest's missions director. Evangelising missions by City Harvest, including pop concerts by Sun Ho in China, Taiwan and the United States, have helped it gather followers across Asia and set up 49 affiliate churches in Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and India. City Harvest - whose founder faces trial, along with five others, on charges of criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts over the use of nearly S$51 million in church funds - also has a bible college that trains church leaders from countries such as Norway, Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe. Last year the founding pastor of another Singapore megachurch, New Creation's Joseph Prince, toured the United States, preaching to a sell-out crowd at Long Beach Arena in Los Angeles and filling the country's largest church, Lakewood in Texas. Prince's book "The Power of Right Believing" made it to number two on the New York Times' bestseller list in the advice and "how to" category. SUCCESS, SCANDAL AND CONTROVERSIES Asia is a growth market for Christianity, with the religion estimated to be growing 10 times faster than in Europe, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. While the idea of megachurches originated in the United States, some of the largest are in Asia, notably South Korea's Yoido Full Gospel Church, with about 1 million members. Packaging the traditional biblical message into a more dynamic format of pop-rock music, lively services and social media has lured a new generation of followers and turned the churches into major enterprises. New Creation, which says it has a congregation of 30,000, collected S$75.5 million in tithes in 2012, while City Harvest took in S$38.6 million in 2009, accounts filed with Singapore's Commissioner of Charities show. "Whatever method that can most effectively convey the message to our generation, we will do it," said Chaw, who is also the vice chairman of City Harvest's management board. City Harvest, which says its congregation numbered nearly 20,000 in 2012, with about 62 percent single, ventured into the entertainment industry after seeing how enthusiastically Chinese-speaking youth in Asia responded to Mandarin pop music from Taiwan. The church's Crossover Project led Sun Ho to collaborate with Asian stars such as Jay Chou and she broke into the U.S. market under the guidance of producer David Foster, producer-songwriter Wyclef Jean and other veterans. With a wealth-affirming model and efforts to engage the young, fast-growing Pentecostal megachurches have helped to dilute Buddhism as Singapore's traditionally dominant religion. The most recent census showed the proportion of Christians rose 18.3 percent in 2010 from 14.6 percent in 2000, while the number of Buddhists fell to 33.3 percent from 42.5 percent. Rolland Teo, 25, whose family is Buddhist, said his view of religion as "very static" changed when he joined City Harvest. "It was something more dynamic, more relational," Teo said. "This was something I couldn't find in my parents' beliefs." But allegations of corruption have accompanied success. City Harvest's Crossover Project is at the centre of charges that Kong and five other officials financed his wife's singing career by funneling church funds of S$24 million into sham investments and then used S$26.6 million more to cover up the deals. Kong and the others deny the charges. Kong's wife is not on trial and has resumed her executive duties at the church. In South Korea, David Yong-gi Cho, Kong's spiritual mentor and founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church, was recently found guilty of embezzling $14 million in church donations to buy stocks owned by his son, at four times their market value. PROSPERITY GOSPEL Megachurches dismiss accusations of being wealth-obsessed, although Chaw has said that "prosperity is a byproduct of obeying God's commandments". Critics say wealth is not necessarily a bad thing but they decry selfish enrichment at the expense of helping others. "The prosperity gospel is a very big movement, a very visible movement, that doesn't represent what I believe to be biblical Christianity," said Paul Choo, founding pastor at Gospel Light Christian Church. But a growing number of people in Singapore have found an affinity with the megachurch doctrine of faith entwined with wealth and personal well-being. "That's quite attractive to many socially mobile Singaporeans who, in going up the class strata, do look for some moral bearings," said Terence Chong, a researcher at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Tithing - the donation of 10 percent of income to the church - is assumed by some to be a way of "buying" God's love. But New Creation member Jared Asalli and others say it is a way of thanking God. Either way, the practice helps swell megachurch coffers. City Harvest raised S$22.7 million with its Building Fund Campaign, helping it to buy a stake of 39.2 percent in the venue for its services, Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, for S$97.8 million in 2012. New Creation's Miracle Seed event raised S$21 million in one day, contributing to the S$348 million it spent on building the 5,000-seat Star Performing Arts Centre, one of four venues where it holds services. "I don't think there's been any era as materialistic as this one," said Choo of Gospel Light Christian Church. "If it promises wealth, it will have some ready audience." (Editing by Jason Szep, John O'Callaghan and Clarence Fernandez)
Have you heard of the orange revolution that occurred in the Ukraine in 2004? Let me tell you a little known story about the unlikely heroes who help spark that revolution. Like other parts of the Soviet Union, Ukraine moved towards democracy as the Soviet Empire collapsed. If you think our elections are dirty, consider that when the Ukrainian reformer Viktor Yushchenko dared to challenge the entrenched party he nearly died from a mysterious case of dioxin poisoning. Against all advice, Yushchenko, his body weakened and his face permanently disfigured by the poison, remained in the race. On election day, the exit polls showed him with a clear 10% lead, nevertheless, through outright fraud the government managed to reverse those results. The state run television station reported, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we announce that the challenger Viktor Yushchenko has been decisively defeated.’ However, government authorities had not taken into account one feature of Ukrainian television, the translation t provides for the hearing impaired. On the small scree inset in the lower right hand corner of the television screen , a brave woman raised by deaf mute parents gave a different message in sign language, “I am addressing all the deaf citizens of Ukraine. Don’t believe what they say. They are lying and I am ashamed to translate these lies. Yuschenko is our President!” Deaf people, inspired by their translator, Natalya Dmitruk, led the Orange Revolution. They text messaged their friends on mobile phones about the fraudulent elections and soon other journalists took courage from Dmitruk’s act of defiance and likewise refused to broadcast the party line. Over the next few weeks as many as a million people wearing orange flooded the capital city of Kiev to demand new elections. The government finally buckled under the pressure, consenting to new elections and this time, Yushchenko emerged as the undisputed winner. When I heard this story behind the Orange Revolution, the image of a small screen of truth in the corner of the big screen became for me an ideal picture of the church. You see, we in the church do not control the big screen. Go to any magazine stand or turn on the television and you will see a consistent message What matters is how beautiful you are, how much money or power you have, Magazine covers feature shapely supermodels and handsome hunks, even though very few people look like that You parents know what a devastating impact the relentless big screen message can have on an unattractive teenager. We no longer value character but trumpet personality. Our society is hardly unique, Throughout history nations have always glorified winners, not losers. Then like the sign language translator in the lower right hand corner of the creen comes along a person named Jesus who says in effect, “Don’t believe the big screen – they are lying. It is the poor who are blessed not the rich. Mourners are blessed too, as well as those who hunger and thirst and the persecuted. Those who go through life thinking they are on top will end up on the bottom. And those who go through life feeling they are at the very bottom will end up on top. After all, what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose his soul? CHRISTIANITY
Nov 13 2011 DCFC English [Jesus came to the world to...] John 10:1-18 – Lay down His life As Pastor Rodney Buchanan said, “Jesus, the good Shepherd, has come to give us life. It is unfortunate that we have reduced the Christian life to a moral code. There is a moral code, but it is so much more than that. It misses the point when we present the Christian life as a set of rules, or a body of doctrine. It is tragic when we reduce the Christian life to some kind of formula: Believe these things and say these things in this order, and you will be saved and won’t have to worry about going to hell. It totally misses the point that the Christian life is a relationship. It means loving our Shepherd. Following him. Listening to his voice. Staying near him. Trusting him. CHRISTIANITY Tebow, Faith & CultureUT San Diego – Eddie Pells Jan 9 2012 DENVER — He kneels in prayer at times when many players would be pounding their chest, and is winning with a style the experts insist cannot work for long. Tim Tebow's formula for success and fame is not typical for the NFL. So, is it a football miracle? Or the perfect blend of luck, timing and big plays? That's the debate that makes the tale of the Denver Broncos quarterback one of the most compelling stories in America these days. Hardly anyone stands on neutral ground when it comes to the purveyor of this unorthodox mix of throwing mechanics, big-time sports and devout religion, a 24-year-old Christian who is the subject of comedy skits on Saturday nights and serious sermons on Sunday mornings. But what most people will agree on is that it's hard to take your eyes off Tebow these days - a man who unapologetically uses football to take his message beyond the field while also taking his team on an unexpected ride through the playoffs. "I'm just very thankful for the platform that God has given me, and the opportunity to be a quarterback for the Denver Broncos - what a great organization," Tebow said after his latest shocker - an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime Sunday to beat Pittsburgh 29-23 in the wild-card playoffs. The play, according to Twitter, spawned a record 9,420 tweets per second. Not lost in that flurry was that Tebow threw for 316 yards and set an NFL playoff record by averaging 31.6 yards. That's "316," as in John 3:16, one of the most-often cited Bible passages for Christians, the most widely searched item on Google for much of Sunday night into Monday, and the message Tebow used to stencil into the eye black he wore when he played college ball at Florida. Not that referencing the Bible or thanking God is anything new in sports. After NFL games for years, a small group of athletes gather around midfield, kneel, hold hands and pray. That devotion has been largely ignored or even criticized by media and fans. "The thing with Tebow is that he seems more genuinely religious than most athletes, who seem to be religious to win games," said Clifford Putney, author of the book "Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880-1920." That might help explain why Tebow's gestures are not being overlooked, but part of an ever-growing sensation. It started building when he won the Heisman Trophy and two national titles at Florida, though he was steeped in strong religion well before that - born in the Philippines to missionary parents. More recently, he introduced mass culture to the art of "Tebowing" - kneeling on one knee, elbow perched on the other, fist to forehead - while chaos is erupting around him. The practice now has its own website, with pictures of people Tebowing in a research lab, in front of the Sydney Opera House, in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, etc.
Tebow's five fourth-quarter comebacks and his four overtime victories - each more improbable than the last - and his steady, genuine, yet somehow unassuming insistence on bringing God into the conversation has forced an uncomfortable question upon those who want to make it only about what happens between the lines. Does God really care about football? "Not one whit," said Joe Price, a professor in the religious studies department at Whittier College. "But does God care about people who play football? You betcha." In a sports season filled with unsavory stories - NFL and NBA labor wars, child sex abuse scandals at Penn State and Syracuse, and a baseball MVP accused of using steroids - Tebow is seen by many as a sports star who really could be a role model, contrary to what Charles Barkley or anyone else might say. But the Tebow angst still exists, in large part because there is seemingly no way to analyze what he does on a football field without religion seeping into at least some part of that analysis. Opine about his unorthodox throwing motion - widely derided by scouts and coaches and seemingly more suited for tossing a boomerang than a football - and the quick assumption becomes that you might not like him because of his religious beliefs. Defend him as a winner who cares less about conventionality and depends more on moxie than mechanics - well, then you must be drinking the Kool-Aid, a Tebow fan because you're in line with his Christian beliefs. "I still have doubts about him as a long-term answer, as I think most reasonable people do," said radio host Sandy Clough, who has been manning Denver's sports talk shows for more than 30 years. "Does one game, if he plays well, not only invalidate his play from the other (bad) games but anything anyone's ever said about it? Well, no it doesn't. It's all part of the mix. It's a fascinating mix. He's the toughest player I've ever had to analyze, because there are all these extraneous factors you have to bring in." Sensing the excitement and loving his message, Tebow is also being courted by Republican presidential candidates. The quarterback recently told The Associated Press he's been asked by more than one of the contenders for his support. He wouldn't name names, but did say he'd declined the offer. "I think you have to have so much trust in who you support, just from product endorsements to endorsing a candidate because if that person or company does something (bad), it reflects on you," said Tebow, who's a pitchman for Nike, Jockey and FRS energy drink. Tebow has, however, placed himself in the political realm before - two Super Bowls ago when he starred in a Focus on the Family commercial with his mother sharing the story of how she gave birth to him in the Philippines in 1987 after spurning a doctor's advice to have an abortion for medical reasons. After being criticized for that ad, he didn't do an encore and instead tries to toe the line of showing his religion without shoving it down people's throats. DENVER — That hasn't stopped people from mocking him - and worse. After Tebow was particularly bad in an ugly loss to Buffalo on Dec. 24, comedian and talk show host Bill Maher sent out a tweet that basked in the QB's misfortune, blaming Jesus for the loss. "And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler `Hey, Buffalo's killing them,'" Maher tweeted. Maher, in turn, was roundly ripped for the post. Less toxic was the recent skit on "Saturday Night Live," where "Jesus" materializes in the locker room with an actor portraying Tebow, admits he is pulling some strings during these Bronco games, then after being told the New England Patriots are next on the schedule, suggests Tebow substitute his playbook, "the holy Bible," for one with some Xs and Os. The "SNL" Jesus also concedes that he, personally, prays to the Broncos place-kicker, Matt Prater, whose excellence has defined what the Tebow sensation has been about for most of this season: a bunch of teammates, motivated by a less-than-perfect leader who never gives up, coming together and picking each other up when the going gets tough. A great story line that has held most of the year. The twist on Sunday, though, was that for the first time this season, it could reasonably be argued that Tebow was a one-man show. In the win over Pittsburgh, he completed five passes of 30 yards or more. And with his defense struggling, he threw a perfect strike for the game-winner to receiver Demaryius Thomas, who didn't have to change his stride and, thus, ran untouched into the end zone. "He was the same Tim, calm and collected," Thomas said. "He took it one play at a time and was in the huddle and said, `It's either we win or we go home.'" CHRISTIANITY
Change usually happens slowly in the Church. But a review of the past year's research conducted by the Barna Group provides a time-lapse portrayal of how the religious environment in the U.S. is morphing into something new. Analyzing insights drawn from more than 5,000 non-proprietary interviews conducted over the past 11 months, George Barna indicated that the following patterns were evident in the survey findings.
1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate. What used to be basic, universally-known truths about Christianity are now unknown mysteries to a large and growing share of Americans--especially young adults. For instance, Barna Group studies in 2010 showed that while most people regard Easter as a religious holiday, only a minority of adults associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Other examples include the finding that few adults believe that their faith is meant to be the focal point of their life or to be integrated into every aspect of their existence. Further, a growing majority believe the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God's presence or power, but not a living entity. As the two younger generations (Busters and Mosaics) ascend to numerical and positional supremacy in churches across the nation, the data suggest that biblical literacy is likely to decline significantly. The theological free-for-all that is encroaching in Protestant churches nationwide suggests the coming decade will be a time of unparalleled theological diversity and inconsistency. 2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented. Despite technological advances that make communications instant and far-reaching, Christians are becoming more spiritually isolated from non-Christians than was true a decade ago. Examples of this tendency include the fact that less than one-third of born again Christians planned to invite anyone to join them at a church event during the Easter season; teenagers are less inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than was true in the past; most of the people who become Christians these days do so in response to a personal crisis or the fear of death (particularly among older Americans); and most Americans are unimpressed with the contributions Christians and churches have made to society over the past few years. As young adults have children, the prospect of them seeking a Christian church is diminishing--especially given the absence of faith talk in their conversations with the people they most trust. With atheists becoming more strategic in championing their godless worldview, as well as the increased religious plurality driven by education and immigration, the increasing reticence of Christians to engage in faith-oriented conversations assumes heightened significance. 3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life. When asked what matters most, teenagers prioritize education, career development, friendships, and travel. Faith is significant to them, but it takes a back seat to life accomplishments and is not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams. Among adults the areas of growing importance are lifestyle comfort, success, and personal achievements. Those dimensions have risen at the expense of investment in both faith and family. The turbo-charged pace of society leaves people with little time for reflection. The deeper thinking that occurs typically relates to economic concerns or relational pressures. Spiritual practices like contemplation, solitude, silence, and simplicity are rare. (It is ironic that more than four out of five adults claim to live a simple life.) Practical to a fault, Americans consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal security and spiritual possibilities. Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience. 4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating. Largely driven by the passion and energy of young adults, Christians are more open to and more involved in community service activities than has been true in the recent past. While we remain more self-indulgent than self-sacrificing, the expanded focus on justice and service has struck a chord with many. However, despite the increased emphasis, churches run the risk of watching congregants’ engagement wane unless they embrace a strong spiritual basis for such service. Simply doing good works because it's the socially esteemed choice of the moment will not produce much staying power. To facilitate service as a long-term way of living and to provide people with the intrinsic joy of blessing others, churches have a window of opportunity to support such action with biblical perspective. And the more that churches and believers can be recognized as people doing good deeds out of genuine love and compassion, the more appealing the Christian life will be to those who are on the sidelines watching. Showing that community action as a viable alternative to government programs is another means of introducing the value of the Christian faith in society. 5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
The challenge today is for Christian leaders to achieve the delicate balance between representing truth and acting in love. The challenge for every Christian in the U.S. is to know his/her faith well enough to understand which fights are worth fighting, and which stands are non-negotiable. There is a place for tolerance in Christianity; knowing when and where to draw the line appears to perplex a growing proportion of Christians in this age of tolerance. 6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.
In a period of history where image is reality, and life-changing decisions are made on the basis of such images, the Christian Church is in desperate need of a more positive and accessible image. The primary obstacle is not the substance of the principles on which Christianity is based, and therefore the solution is not solely providing an increase in preaching or public relations. The most influential aspect of Christianity in America is how believers do--or do not--implement their faith in public and private. American culture is driven by the snap judgments and decisions that people make amidst busy schedules and incomplete information. With little time or energy available for or devoted to research and reflection, it is people’s observations of the integration of a believer’s faith into how he/she responds to life’s opportunities and challenges that most substantially shape people’s impressions of an interest in Christianity. Jesus frequently spoke about the importance of the fruit that emerges from a Christian life; these days the pace of life and avalanche of competing ideas underscores the significance of visible spiritual fruit as a source of cultural influence. With the likelihood of an accelerating pace of life and increasingly incomplete cues being given to the population, Christian leaders would do well to revisit their criteria for "success" and the measures used to assess it. In a society in which choice is king, there are no absolutes, every individual is a free agent, we are taught to be self-reliant and independent, and Christianity is no longer the automatic, default faith of young adults, new ways of relating to Americans and exposing the heart and soul of the Christian faith are required. About the Research This summary is based upon a series of national research studies conducted in the Barna Poll by the Barna Group throughout 2010. Each study was conducted via telephone interviews with a random sample of adults selected from across the continental United States, age 18 and older. With one exception, each study included a minimum of 1,000 adults; the exceptions were one study among 400 adults, and one among 603 adults. Each survey included a proportional number of interviews among people using cell phones. The data set for each study was subjected to minimal statistical weighting to calibrate the aggregate sample to known population percentages in relation to several key demographic variables. Mosaics are individuals born between 1984 and 2002. Baby Busters are individuals born between 1965 and 1983. Directory: cfs-filesystemfile.ashx -> key -> CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments -> General editors john baillie key -> Eternity! Eternity key -> Annotated Bibliography key -> [The first seventeen verses of Matthew consists of Jesus' family tree CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments -> Apr 24 2011 dcfc english Worship [The Master & The Disciple] Luke 24: 28-36 CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments -> A box of treasure by beverly carradine key -> The life and times — of — benjamin franklin, — by — joseph franklin, and key -> The flying inn Download 1.22 Mb. Share with your friends:
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