C cares, of the world

Life is Mostly Edges - Calvin Miller

Needless to say, we children didn't want to go to those churches that brought us baskets. The last place you want to go worship  is the place where people need you to be poor so they themselves can feel rich in the dispensation of their charity. There is something grandiose about giving a beggar a dime, but there is nothing grandiose in receiving it. Beggar don't ask for money so they can think well of themselves, but because feeling bad about themselves is usually less painful than starvation.

I think it was in this spirit that Mama received gifts from the church. She knew church members usually gave two ways. To their own well heeled members, they bake casseroles and dropped them off at elegant addresses with a sprig of parsley and a Hall mark card. But to the poor, they dropped off a basket and a can opener. Of course, Mama never refused their baskets, for the shame of it was less than the joy she derived out of being sure her little ones were fed.

There was one other difference in how church members gave food to their own peers. They never asked if they'd been born again when they dropped off a casserole. But it was mandatory that they win as many of us poor people as they could. They could have said they were giving a cup of cold water in Jesus' name. But it was demeaning to have to confess Christ every time they dropped off a basket.

CHURCH

Loneliness in Church

Passport Through Darkness – Kimberly L Smith

CHURCH

Life is Mostly Edges - Calvin Miller

11 Apr 2010 DCFC English Worship - [Building a Community in Christ] Eph 6:10-17 What about the devil?

Years later, at his mother’s funeral, an old man approached him, “Dr Miller, did you ever wonder where the two hundred and fifty dollars came from on your second year at OBU?” “I’ve wondered all my life about that anonymous gift that allowed me to continue my studies,” Miller replied. “I gave it and by the way, you were worth every penny of it and then some!” Miller comments on these two stories, “In such moments, I forgive the church for sometimes being so unlike her Founder. It wasn’t just Jesus that appealed to me. It was what Jesus did through people who could for brief shining moments stop thinking about themselves and turn their minds to someone else. To give up selfish concerns and think of others is a small miracle in a selfish world. This is the grand narcotic – self denial. How addictive it is in the life of anyone with the courage to put it into practice. This is Church.

Me Religion

More Americans tailoring religion to fit their needs

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY 9/13/2011

If World War II-era warbler Kate Smith sang today, her anthem could be Gods Bless America.

People take part in a National Day of Prayer gathering in San Antonio in May. Polls show that in 1991, 24% of U.S. adults hadn't been to church in the past six months; today, it's 37%.

Enlarge

By Eric Gay, AP

That's one of the key findings in newly released research that reveals America's drift from clearly defined religious denominations to faiths cut to fit personal preferences.

The folks who make up God as they go are side-by-side with self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed their ties to traditional beliefs and practices. Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of exaggeration, America is headed for "310 million people with 310 million religions."

"We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs — our clothing, our food, our education," he says. Now it's our religion.

Barna's new book on U.S. Christians, Futurecast, tracks changes from 1991 to 2011, in annual national surveys of 1,000 to 1,600 U.S. adults. All the major trend lines of religious belief and behavior he measured ran downward — except two.

Religious beliefs, practices shift

In a typical week, U.S. adults who say they:

Source: Barna Group OmnPolls

More people claim they have accepted Jesus as their savior and expect to go to heaven.

And more say they haven't been to church in the past six months except for special occasions such as weddings or funerals. In 1991, 24% were "unchurched." Today, it's 37% .

Barna blames pastors for those oddly contradictory findings. Everyone hears, "Jesus is the answer. Embrace him. Say this little Sinners Prayer and keep coming back. It doesn't work. People end up bored, burned out and empty," he says. "They look at church and wonder, 'Jesus died for this?'"

The consequence, Barna says, is that, for every subgroup of religion, race, gender, age and region of the country, the important markers of religious connection are fracturing.

When he measures people by their belief in seven essential doctrines, defined by the National Association of Evangelicals' Statement of Faith, only 7% of those surveyed qualified.

Barna laments, "People say, 'I believe in God. I believe the Bible is a good book. And then I believe whatever I want.'"

LifeWay Research reinforces those findings: A new survey of 900 U.S. Protestant pastors finds 62% predict the importance of being identified with a denomination will diminish over the next 10 years.

Exactly, says Carol Christoffel of Zion, Ill. She drifted through a few mainline Protestant denominations in her youth, found a home in the peace and unity message of the Baha'i tradition for several years, and then was drawn deeply into Native American traditional healing practices.

Yet, she also still calls herself Christian.

"I'm a kind of bridge person between cultures. I agree with the teachings of Jesus and … I know many Christians like me who keep the Bible's social teachings and who care for the earth and for each other," Christoffel says. "I support people who do good wherever they are."

And it's not only Christians sampling hopscotch spirituality. The Jewish magazine Moment has an "Ask the Rabbis" feature that consults 14 variations of Judaism, "and there are many," says editor and publisher Nadine Epstein.

"The September edition of Moment asks 'Can there be Judaism without God?' And most say yes. It's incredibly exciting. We live in an era where you pick and choose the part of the religion that makes sense to you. And you can connect through culture and history in a meaningful way without necessarily religiously practicing," Epstein says.

Sociologist Robert Bellah first saw this phenomenon emerging in the 1980s. In a book he co-authored, Habits of the Heart, he introduces Sheila, a woman who represents this.

Sheila says: "I can't remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It's Sheilaism. Just my own little voice. … It's just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself. You know, I guess, take care of each other. I think God would want us to take care of each other."

Bellah, now professor emeritus at University of California-Berkeley, says, "Sheila was a jolt to some at the time. But to a lot of people, it wasn't a jolt at all, they had been living that way for a while. Don't romanticize the past. Fervent religiosity was always in the minority. Just because people showed up in church didn't always mean a deep personal conviction or commitment."

Bellah sees two sides to the one-person-one-religion trend. On the positive: It's harder to hold on to prejudices against groups — by religion or race or gender or sexuality — if everyone wants to be seen individually.

"The bad news is you lose the capacity to make connections. Everyone is pretty much on their own," he says. And all this rampant individualism also fosters "hostility toward organized groups — government, industry, even organized religion."

Today, even the godless disagree on how not to believe, says Rusty Steil of Denver.

He grew up Lutheran and retained his parents' "strong moral code," but, he says, he couldn't stick with "ancient myths of people trying to make sense of the world."

"I don't find much comfort in imagining there's an all-powerful God who would allow people starving and all the natural and man-made disasters," Steil says.

Steil calls himself a "live-and-let-live atheist," as apart from the virulently anti-religious variety such as Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins, or "those who actively promote disbelief."

Paul Morris, an Army medic at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and veteran of six tours in the Middle East, says he has seen Christianity, Judaism and Islam in action, for better and for worse, and, frankly, he'll pass.

Morris grew up "old-style Italian Catholic," but says he never felt like his spiritual questions were answered. So, he says, "I just wiped the slate clean. I studied every major religion on the face of the planet. Everyone had parts that made sense, but there was no one specific dogma or tenet I could really follow," Morris says.

"So now, I call myself an agnostic — one who just doesn't know. What I believe is that if you can just do the right thing, it works everywhere."

Missing the obvious

Date: 12/2008.101

Speaking of missing the point, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are camping. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes wakes Watson. "Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce."

Watson says, "I see millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."

Holmes replies, "Watson, you idiot, somebody stole our tent!"

Application:

Gospel Message

Church

Purpose of Life

The Good Samaritan

Tim Hansel

The results were surprising, and offered a powerful lesson to them. The percentage of those good men and women who stopped to help was extremely low, especially for those who were under the pressure of a shorter time period. The tighter the schedule, the fewer were those who stopped to help the indigent man. When the professor revealed his experiment, you can imagine the impact on that class of future spiritual leaders. Rushing to preach a sermon on the Good Samaritan they had walked past the beggar at the heart of the parable. We must have eyes to see as well as hands to help, or we may never help at all. I think this well-known poem expresses it powerfully:

I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly

to your chapel to pray for my release.
Nice.

I was naked and in your mind you debated the

morality of my appearance.

What good did that do?

I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for

your health.

But I needed you.

I was homeless and you preached to me of the

shelter of the love of God.

I wish you'd taken me home.

I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.

Why didn't you stay?

You seem so holy, so close to God; but I'm still

very hungry, lonely, cold, and still in pain.

Does it matter?

Anonymous

This is our place

Date: 3/2009.101

Welcome to our church

Date: 3/2009.101

What about the Church?

Date: 4/2009.101

CHURCH

Zappos

One of the most striking Internet success stories in recent years is Zappos, the $1+ billion e-commerce business which was bought last year by Amazon.

But, as is often the case, the Zappos empire was not created overnight.  Ten years ago, the online retailer known for selling shoes was actually desperate for sales.  It wasn’t until a young Tony Hsieh came aboard in 1999 -- as a business consultant and investor -- did that all begin to change.

Hsieh’s unorthodox approach to company culture turned Zappos not only into a very lucrative business, but one beloved by customers and employees alike.  He was named CEO in 2000 and attributes Zappos’ success to sticking by the company’s core values, which were designed to make employees happy.

“Our number one priority at Zappos is company culture. Our belief is that if we get the culture right most of the other stuff like delivering great customer service or building a long-term enduring brand for the company will happen naturally on its own,” says Hsieh who is also the author of a new book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose.”

Hsieh, 36, has stayed CEO of Zappos, despite making a salary that one would normally associate with an entry-level customer-service rep--$36,000 a year. Hsieh has been so successful as an entrepreneur that money no longer motivates him. What does, he says, is continuing to develop the company and culture that the Zappos team built over the past decade. And, so far, Amazon has allowed him to do that. 

He must be on to something:  Fortune magazine named Zappos #15 on its annual ranking of “Best Companies to Work For” at the beginning of the year.

Born for business

Hsieh, a first-generation Taiwanese-American, was only in his mid-20s when he joined the Zappos team.  He may have been fresh out of college, but he certainly was no stranger to creating and cultivating multi-million dollar businesses.

From a very young age, he had the entrepreneurial instinct. At just nine years old, he had started his very first business – a worm farm.  A few years later came his mail-order make-your-own button company.  Then while studying computer science at Harvard he started making his peers what every college student demanded more than anything: pizza.

His first “real” company

Shortly after college in 1996 at the age of 24, Hsieh co-founded LinkExchange a website development business from the comfort of his own basement. Two years later Microsoft paid him $265 million – yes, nine figures – for his creation.

Of course Hsieh needed another challenge and to feed his insatiable entrepreneurial appetite.  That challenge would be Zappos.  His goal was to make the company – at the time fighting for financial stability - the largest online shoe retailer.

Zappos named him CEO and he did what he set out to do. Hsieh grew the company that had nearly non-existent sales when he started, to over $1 billion in sales today. 

His guiding principle:  Happiness.  When you enjoy what you do and where you work, great things will happen.

“We have 10 core values at Zappos. We try to do is hire people whose personal values match their corporate values,” says Hsieh while also stressing the importance not hiding or holding back who you are outside of the office. “It is about being yourself in the office because we found that when true friendships are formed, that is when creativity really blossoms (in our employees) and great ideas come out, which is what has driven our growth.”

The company will not hire anyone who does fit within their corporate culture.

“One our values are to be humble, and that is the one that trips us up most during the hiring process. There are a lot of smart people out there that are also egotistical and for us it is not a question, we just won’t hire them,” says Hsieh.

In the same vein, the company will fire employees who do not live up to those standards.

Often, when growing companies are acquired by much-larger ones, such cultures are destroyed, as the acquirer seeks to wring out the "synergies" used by financial folks to justify the acquisition.

But that's not so in this case, Hsieh says.

Before Amazon and Zappos agreed to their deal, Amazon signed a document saying it would let Zappos continue to do its own thing. And Hsieh says Amazon has honored that commitment.

Basically, the only thing that has changed, Hsieh says, is that Zappos has swapped its old board of directors for a new one--at Amazon. Zappos still runs its own show, and that has enabled it to maintain the culture that it so carefully cultivated in its years as an independent company.