I recently ran across some news on the Zondervan website, I have to share, because this further confirms the problem I have with the institutional church. We have strayed far from what Christ had in mind. Origen started it with his lifting the Bishop to being equal with Christ, and Constantine building the temples. Catholicism to Protestantism, the game is the same, these two are on the same stick, just opposite ends. This has existed since the church no longer was the make up of all beleivers,(the EKKLESIA, called out ones) and the multiplicity of elders among each body and each operating in the gifts of the Spirit as given. It has become a place to go to and a man to hear. Sunday entertainment. Ask most folks within a day of Sunday service what the sermon was about and they can't tell you. We may have restored the Bible to the common people, but Luther never strayed from the concept of the one man show and the temple being a building. The church has remained in this darkness for over 1800 years. The article quoted below clearly shows how seriously we are off the track, and the purpose of Christ. To go into all the world and preach the Gospel. This was not a command for just those that are "called to preach" a misnomer from day one. All believers are called to the ministry of reconciliation and they are priest of the Almighty. We have left what Christ established to return to Judaism with the building of our temples and the creation of our high priest. Read these recent statistics.
Survey: Pastors Would Use Surprise Income to Build and Evangelize
(ER 5.11.06) - A new survey shows what pastors nationwide would do if their church received an unexpected financial windfall.
The research was conducted for Facts & Trends magazine and sought to clarify the overall budget and spending priorities of clergy and lay people. According to a survey conducted by Ellison Research, 31% of the more than 500 Protestant pastors surveyed said they'd build, expand, or update their church's buildings and facilities. That preference is even more pronounced among Southern Baptist pastors, 43% of whom say they'd spend the unexpected financial boon on facilities.
Sixteen percent of all pastors say they'd use the windfall to increase community evangelism activities. Paying off debt (12%) and adding staff (10%) are also among the priorities expressed. Only 1 percent indicate they'd use the windfall to increase the salaries or benefits for staff members.
In a companion survey of almost 1,200 Protestant lay people, the top 3 priorities for spending a windfall would be paying off debt (18%), increasing social programs (18%), and building, expanding, or updating church facilities (17%).
Dr. Thom Rainer, author of Breakout Churches and The Unchurched Next Door, says the surveys show the need for a balanced perspective on what it means to be a church.
"It seems as if the research confirms that we can lose our focus when we start focusing on that which matters but which should be more peripheral than the main things, such as evangelism," Rainer notes.
Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, says the findings may make it appear that evangelism, missions, and outreach are a higher priority for clergy than for their congregations. "[But] in reality, both put a fairly high priority on evangelism," he says. "They just have different priorities for where the evangelism should take place."
Rainer offers a different perspective. "More than half of all members of churches in America will meet their Savior face to face without ever having shared Christ with anyone," he says. "On the leadership issue, 53% of pastors have not shared Christ, by their own admission, in the last 6 months."
Rainer admits he may be oversimplifying things, but offers this observation: "It seems to me, when someone [asks]: 'What's wrong with the evangelistic health of our churches?' — I can give a simple response: We're not doing it." (Source: Ellison Research, www.ellisonresearch.com)
What this clearly shows, is a total error on the part of Pastors, and in my opinion much of the congregation as well. Being segregated into our own little shelters and thinking God dwells there, and that all there is to worship is going to the building.
Worship encompasses all that we are, if we are believers. Every part of our life, everyday. We have hidden ourselves in our selfish agendas to build bigger and better than the next guy- whatever denomination or other church there is in our community. Athens, Texas has over 47 (give or take a few) different churches, yet evangelism, feeding the poor, and missionary work is very low within this community. Not, that there aren't some programs out there to do these things, but the question must be asked, what impact has it had on this community of some of the highest known drug arrest for methamphetamines and more.
Very, very little. Lets look at some more facts.
91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non-Christians, but rather those who have already heard the gospel and have a number of churches in their area. while 67% of the people in the world still have not heard the name of Jesus and 200 million Christians live und some form of persecution for their faith.
Christianity in the West flourishes as a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Statistics like these confirm that the Body of Christ has, for the most part committed it's rich supply of resources to itself. Pickup any Christian magazine (you'll find a vast selection) and see for yourself. They are loaded with ads for all sorts of conferences and seminars, Christian entertainment, books of every kind, T-Shirts, CD's almost anything you could imagine. In addition to T-Shirts and music, you can find a deluge of Christianized pop-psychology and the latest Christian romance novels. Everything from Christian debt consolidation to Christian singles clubs are all prevalent particulary in America. Just consider all the ministries that pop-up in our Christian world. Have you ever wondered about all the new approaches and solutions. There all kinds of seminars available. Seminars on divorce, addiction, and demon deliverance. There is someone new everyay proclaiming a solution or enhancement for everthing you can think of.
The truth is we are loaded with dollars. Higher wages are paid for the best entertainers. Larger the congregation the bigger the salary is for the Pastor- the one man show- minus the musicians and singers- who in most cases are unpaid.
We may say we don't have money enough for evangelism but the truth is someone is paying for all this.
With our position of wealth in this country it surely can be concluded: Love requires us to take seriously the responsiblity of helping the poor of this world so they might have enough food to eat. Along with this comes the responsibility to share the Gospel.
Wasn't this the first of only two creeds added by the Elders and Apostles at Jerusalem- "Remember the poor".
Yet, we go on building bigger and better!
The next time your church wants to vote on a building fund, you might consider these statistics as well.
* 854 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago.
* Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds.
In essence, hunger is the most extreme form of poverty, where individuals or families cannot afford to meet their most basic need for food.
Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness.
Countries in which a large portion of the population battles hunger daily are usually poor and often lack the social safety nets we enjoy, such as soup kitchens, food stamps, and job training programs. When a family that lives in a poor country cannot grow enough food or earn enough money to buy food, there is nowhere to turn for help.
Facts and Figures on Population
* Today our world houses 6.55 billion people.
* The United States is a part of the developed or industrialized world, which consists of about 57 countries with a combined population of about 1 billion, less than one sixth of the world’s population.
In contrast, approximately 5.1 billion people live in the developing world. This world is made up of about 125 low and middle-income countries in which people generally have a lower standard of living with access to fewer goods and services than people in high-income countries.
The remaining 0.4 billion live in countries in transition, which include the Baltic states, eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Facts and Figures on Hunger and Poverty
* Worldwide, more than 1 billion people currently live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day.
Among this group of poor people, many have problems obtaining adequate, nutritious food for themselves and their families. As a result, 820 million people in the developing world are undernourished. They consume less than the minimum amount of calories essential for sound health and growth.
Undernourishment negatively affects people’s health, productivity, sense of hope and overall well-being. A lack of food can stunt growth, slow thinking, sap energy, hinder fetal development and contribute to mental retardation.
Economically, the constant securing of food consumes valuable time and energy of poor people, allowing less time for work and earning income.
Socially, the lack of food erodes relationships and feeds shame so that those most in need of support are often least able to call on it.
Facts and Figures on Health
Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three people to die prematurely or have disabilities.
Pregnant women, new mothers who breastfeed infants, and children are among the most at risk of undernourishment.
In 2005, about 10.1 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday. Almost all of these deaths occured in developing countries, 3/4 of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrition.
Most of these deaths are attributed, not to outright starvation, but to diseases that move in on vulnerable children whose bodies have been weakened by hunger.
Every year, more than 20 million low-birth weight babies are born in developing countries. These babies risk dying in infancy, while those who survive often suffer lifelong physical and cognitive disabilities.
The four most common childhood illnesses are diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, malaria and measles. Each of these illnesses is both preventable and treatable. Yet, again, poverty interferes in parents’ ability to access immunizations and medicines. Chronic undernourishment on top of insufficient treatment greatly increases a child’s risk of death.
In the developing world, 27 percent of children under 5 are moderately to severely underweight. 10 percent are severely underweight. 10 percent of children under 5 are moderately to severely wasted, or seriously below weight for one’s height, and an overwhelming 31 percent are moderately to severely stunted, or seriously below normal height for one’s age.
That is enough statistics for now. You should by now stand firmly convicted and if not let me add this:
Revelations 3:14-22
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten:be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock:if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
I end with this thought, truly if what we have is what Christ intended, then why is it so ineffective in turning the "world upside down" as it did in the days of early Christianity?
It's time Pastors and Congregations to see the harvest is plenty the laborers few.
Dr. J.
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Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
A Statement About A Recent Poll of American Young People
A recent poll of American young people shows a startling difference between the last generation and the one coming into the world of work, politics and religion now.
This poll was a National poll done with 18- 25 year olds. The findings are that 81% of today's youth think that their top life goal is to be "rich" and 51% want to be famous. This can be contrasted with a 1967 study of college freshmen in which 85.8% said it was essential to develop "a meaningful philosophy of life,"while 41.9% thought it essential to be "very well off financially."
Now out of this poll recently done, here are some other findings.
Among other findings:
•32% attend church at least once a week; 20%
have no religious affiliation or are atheist
or agnostic.
•48% identify more with Democrats; 35% with Republicans.
•36% have a tattoo and 30% a body piercing in a place other than an ear lobe; 25% have dyed their hair a non-traditional color.
Overall, these young adults are content with their lives and optimistic about the future:
84% say their life is excellent or good; 14% say fair or poor.
The poll was part of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' Generation Next project. The margin of error for ages 18-25 is plus or minus 5 percentage points; for the overall
poll, plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Polls like this of course are usually drawn from a very marginal few individuals, in this case a 130, 18-25 year olds were called on their cell phones because they didn't have landlines ( that's plain old phone at home, for us old folks) and asked questions pertaining to their drinking habits, thoughts on politics all the way to religion.
I would say from the majority of not only youth in America, we could without a poll could say that most Americans think that their life's goal is to get rich and famous anymore. Our children are really just a reflection of their parents and the prevalent society they live in. Now most of the parents of these kids are in their 50's to their 60's's from the baby boom era. I am 53 years old and I would would have come close to falling in that poll of 1967. My parents who if there ever was a poll in the 50's, didn't put a lot of emphasis on money, power and fame. They were simple hard working folks that are now left to retire on Social Security, which without they would have no income at all. The odd thing is they are happy with one another and life, though they own very little. The newest generation after that would have been around college in the early 70's and if a poll was taken even then, I don't think you would find a lot of them wanting money and fame. We the 60's generation were the generation that laughed at the "system" in the 60's and thought all those over 30 were ready for the graveyard. Somewhere, in that transition of rebellion against a system that favored the rich and hated the poor, we reverted to worship of the rich and famous. I don't know what happened?
Here we were, all ready to change the world, we protested and marched, yet the world didnt get better, it grew worse and we joined in. We thought, perhaps if we couldnt beat them, then join them. I think the drugs of the 60's and the idea of tune in and drop out, played a large part in circumventing the minds of that generation. To be quite frank, it messed up my generations minds, and now we have this new generation, that doesnt care about eternal things, other more important things don't matter, the only thing that matters is just their position in life they can gain with money and power. One of the big problems for Americans is we do live longer, and with little day to day tragedy in our lives unlike so many people across the world who live in poverty and starvation, death and war, etc. We don't have a real picture of what real life is.
The other people in many nations haven't experienced what we Americans like to call "the good life". I'm not quite so sure it is all that good. For most of us, including myself, we are often deceived by this philosphy of life that the beer commercials so capitalized on, "You got to grab all the gusto, you can, you only go around once in life". The other saying that typifies our lifestyles in America is " The person with the most toys in the end wins." The question we must really dig deep and answer is, who wins? If life is only here what we know of it ( with your five senses), do we die and that's it? If so, then that philosphy carried by today's youth is correct. However, if you dig down deep and look around you, if you ever attended a funeral, can you recall any one person with a U-Haul with all their toys and stuff and money attached to them while they are being laid in the grave. I can't, even though their have been a few crazies that have, like the lady that was buried in her new Cadillac. Did they really take it with them to the beyond? Of course not! I hope we have grown up beyond the imaginations of some ancient cultures who held onto the physical so tight, like the Egyptians that were buried with their treasures for the afterlife. Is this, what we have become in America, that getting rich and famous is our whole goal for life? God forbid. It's true though, look around you, look at your own life, and I promise, you probably spend more time on accumalting things, then in investing in the greater things of life. I bet you spend little time in building relationships with your children, friends, other family or other people. Oh! you might say you love them, you might say you care for them, look at all I bought them or spent on them, or the college education I gave them. We wonder why they think this is important, we have exchanged the value of time, learning and loving one another for buying, and accumalting all those toys in the closet or in the driveway or in the garage. Where are the toys you bought yesterday, haven't they rusted, and turned to dust and now are corrupted. These things are temporal.
The life of Anna Nicole Smith left nothing but others to fight over but her wealth, that's what the baby fight is over. It isn't because these people care about babies. America proved that with the acceptance of 1.5 million abortions every year. We don't care about life, we care about what we can "get out of it". We care about "me". If there was ever a sadder time in America it is today. We have become as one of my granddaughters T-shirts said (I hate that T-shirt) the "It's All About Me" society.
We have not listened to the wisdom of the Bible, when Jesus and his prophets and others spoke of a greater day coming. It's called JUDGEMENT! "It is appointed to every man to die once, and after this the judgement". That's right, the rich will be judged, harshly, I might add. The book of James speaks this clearly. If you scoff at such an idea or teaching, then that's fine, but what if the Bible is right? What if, you expend all your days on this earth getting and end up with nothing. Even if you don't beleive in an afterlife, then all that is left for you is nothing. So, why expend your whole life working toward nothingness?
I would rather expend my life on something. That something is loving others, caring more about them than myself, believing and trusting in a living God, who loved me so much he came down and took human form in the person of Jesus Christ just to restore truth and life back to me. I would rather sacrifice the goods of this life for the good of others, so that they can have real life, a relationship of value with me as their friend, their father, grandfather, brother, uncle or whatever. I think what we are missing here is to want and desire and to make one's goal only riches and fame, one has to be blind to the fact, that he or she too will some day come to an end as well. All that he or she did or accumalated will be forgotten. "We are but dust in the wind", as the old 60's song goes taken from a quote in the Bible.
I want to be remembered for relationship, not goods owned and my riches and fame. I promise you will be forgotten and your riches will be corrupted by time eventually, if this is all you want in life. What a terrible thing to have wasted your whole life on that and that alone. When will the 80% so called "Christians" of America wake up to this, and give their children something more than things, position, power and fame as goals to live for. Regardless, how we look at it, it's our fault as parents and grandparents. We failed, we joined into "the system" and we bought it hook, line and sinker, and now we are being caught in it, like a fish pulled in. We love money in America, that's the facts, and one must remember "having" money is not wrong, it is the "love" of money that is the root of all evil. If this is the new generations goal in life, then be prepared, evil is about to grow expontentially in the coming years ahead.
Dr. J.
This poll was a National poll done with 18- 25 year olds. The findings are that 81% of today's youth think that their top life goal is to be "rich" and 51% want to be famous. This can be contrasted with a 1967 study of college freshmen in which 85.8% said it was essential to develop "a meaningful philosophy of life,"while 41.9% thought it essential to be "very well off financially."
Now out of this poll recently done, here are some other findings.
Among other findings:
•32% attend church at least once a week; 20%
have no religious affiliation or are atheist
or agnostic.
•48% identify more with Democrats; 35% with Republicans.
•36% have a tattoo and 30% a body piercing in a place other than an ear lobe; 25% have dyed their hair a non-traditional color.
Overall, these young adults are content with their lives and optimistic about the future:
84% say their life is excellent or good; 14% say fair or poor.
The poll was part of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' Generation Next project. The margin of error for ages 18-25 is plus or minus 5 percentage points; for the overall
poll, plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Polls like this of course are usually drawn from a very marginal few individuals, in this case a 130, 18-25 year olds were called on their cell phones because they didn't have landlines ( that's plain old phone at home, for us old folks) and asked questions pertaining to their drinking habits, thoughts on politics all the way to religion.
I would say from the majority of not only youth in America, we could without a poll could say that most Americans think that their life's goal is to get rich and famous anymore. Our children are really just a reflection of their parents and the prevalent society they live in. Now most of the parents of these kids are in their 50's to their 60's's from the baby boom era. I am 53 years old and I would would have come close to falling in that poll of 1967. My parents who if there ever was a poll in the 50's, didn't put a lot of emphasis on money, power and fame. They were simple hard working folks that are now left to retire on Social Security, which without they would have no income at all. The odd thing is they are happy with one another and life, though they own very little. The newest generation after that would have been around college in the early 70's and if a poll was taken even then, I don't think you would find a lot of them wanting money and fame. We the 60's generation were the generation that laughed at the "system" in the 60's and thought all those over 30 were ready for the graveyard. Somewhere, in that transition of rebellion against a system that favored the rich and hated the poor, we reverted to worship of the rich and famous. I don't know what happened?
Here we were, all ready to change the world, we protested and marched, yet the world didnt get better, it grew worse and we joined in. We thought, perhaps if we couldnt beat them, then join them. I think the drugs of the 60's and the idea of tune in and drop out, played a large part in circumventing the minds of that generation. To be quite frank, it messed up my generations minds, and now we have this new generation, that doesnt care about eternal things, other more important things don't matter, the only thing that matters is just their position in life they can gain with money and power. One of the big problems for Americans is we do live longer, and with little day to day tragedy in our lives unlike so many people across the world who live in poverty and starvation, death and war, etc. We don't have a real picture of what real life is.
The other people in many nations haven't experienced what we Americans like to call "the good life". I'm not quite so sure it is all that good. For most of us, including myself, we are often deceived by this philosphy of life that the beer commercials so capitalized on, "You got to grab all the gusto, you can, you only go around once in life". The other saying that typifies our lifestyles in America is " The person with the most toys in the end wins." The question we must really dig deep and answer is, who wins? If life is only here what we know of it ( with your five senses), do we die and that's it? If so, then that philosphy carried by today's youth is correct. However, if you dig down deep and look around you, if you ever attended a funeral, can you recall any one person with a U-Haul with all their toys and stuff and money attached to them while they are being laid in the grave. I can't, even though their have been a few crazies that have, like the lady that was buried in her new Cadillac. Did they really take it with them to the beyond? Of course not! I hope we have grown up beyond the imaginations of some ancient cultures who held onto the physical so tight, like the Egyptians that were buried with their treasures for the afterlife. Is this, what we have become in America, that getting rich and famous is our whole goal for life? God forbid. It's true though, look around you, look at your own life, and I promise, you probably spend more time on accumalting things, then in investing in the greater things of life. I bet you spend little time in building relationships with your children, friends, other family or other people. Oh! you might say you love them, you might say you care for them, look at all I bought them or spent on them, or the college education I gave them. We wonder why they think this is important, we have exchanged the value of time, learning and loving one another for buying, and accumalting all those toys in the closet or in the driveway or in the garage. Where are the toys you bought yesterday, haven't they rusted, and turned to dust and now are corrupted. These things are temporal.
The life of Anna Nicole Smith left nothing but others to fight over but her wealth, that's what the baby fight is over. It isn't because these people care about babies. America proved that with the acceptance of 1.5 million abortions every year. We don't care about life, we care about what we can "get out of it". We care about "me". If there was ever a sadder time in America it is today. We have become as one of my granddaughters T-shirts said (I hate that T-shirt) the "It's All About Me" society.
We have not listened to the wisdom of the Bible, when Jesus and his prophets and others spoke of a greater day coming. It's called JUDGEMENT! "It is appointed to every man to die once, and after this the judgement". That's right, the rich will be judged, harshly, I might add. The book of James speaks this clearly. If you scoff at such an idea or teaching, then that's fine, but what if the Bible is right? What if, you expend all your days on this earth getting and end up with nothing. Even if you don't beleive in an afterlife, then all that is left for you is nothing. So, why expend your whole life working toward nothingness?
I would rather expend my life on something. That something is loving others, caring more about them than myself, believing and trusting in a living God, who loved me so much he came down and took human form in the person of Jesus Christ just to restore truth and life back to me. I would rather sacrifice the goods of this life for the good of others, so that they can have real life, a relationship of value with me as their friend, their father, grandfather, brother, uncle or whatever. I think what we are missing here is to want and desire and to make one's goal only riches and fame, one has to be blind to the fact, that he or she too will some day come to an end as well. All that he or she did or accumalated will be forgotten. "We are but dust in the wind", as the old 60's song goes taken from a quote in the Bible.
I want to be remembered for relationship, not goods owned and my riches and fame. I promise you will be forgotten and your riches will be corrupted by time eventually, if this is all you want in life. What a terrible thing to have wasted your whole life on that and that alone. When will the 80% so called "Christians" of America wake up to this, and give their children something more than things, position, power and fame as goals to live for. Regardless, how we look at it, it's our fault as parents and grandparents. We failed, we joined into "the system" and we bought it hook, line and sinker, and now we are being caught in it, like a fish pulled in. We love money in America, that's the facts, and one must remember "having" money is not wrong, it is the "love" of money that is the root of all evil. If this is the new generations goal in life, then be prepared, evil is about to grow expontentially in the coming years ahead.
Dr. J.
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