Archives
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Church giving lacks external focus, study reveals
Posted: 1/19/07
Church giving lacks external focus, study reveals
By Matt Vande Bunte
Religion News Service
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (RNS)—An annual study of church giving shows most offerings go to activities and needs within local congregations, and activities focused beyond the congregations increasingly go unfunded as donations decline.
The authors, Sylvia and John Ronsvalle of Champaign, Ill.-based empty tomb inc., contend Christianity in the United States is becoming a “maintenance organization” that soon will have zero financial capacity for external ministry if the trends continue.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Semester missionaries merge vocational, ministerial callings
Posted: 1/19/07
Matt Miller (left), a semester Go Now Missions missionary, serves at Greater Good Global Support Services. Semester missionaries merge
vocational, ministerial callingsBy John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
ARLINGTON—Each week, Bryan Simpson leads a Bible study at Mitchell College in New London, Conn. At first, it was he and another person. Then someone else joined him. A third person has said he will start coming, but hasn’t shown up yet.
And it doesn’t matter to Simpson. He wants people to hear the gospel and study the Bible, but he’s not focused on numbers. He’s more concerned about discipling college students who have little knowledge of the Christian faith, helping them mature spiritually.
Matt Miller, a recent Stephen F. Austin State University graduate, explains his interest in mission in this short video. (requires Windows Media Player) 01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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People in house churches report greater satisfaction than conventional churchgoers
Posted: 1/19/07
People in house churches report greater
satisfaction than conventional churchgoersBy Adelle Banks
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Worshippers who attend services in independent house churches report higher levels of satisfaction than Christians in conventional church services, a new study shows.
The Barna Group interviewed more than 2,000 Americans about their experiences in traditional congregations and the nondenominational churches whose services are held in homes or other locations than a church building.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Jubilee USA urges multilateral debt relief
Posted: 1/19/07
Jubilee USA urges multilateral debt relief
By Katherine Boyle
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)—A coalition of religious and secular groups is working to ensure this month marks not only the beginning of a new year, but also a fresh push to eliminate the debts owed by impoverished nations.
Jubilee USA is using 2007 to advocate multilateral debt relief for poor nations, claiming they can ill afford to repay wealthy nations and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 1/19/07
Texas Baptist Forum
Drink to that?
The Baptist church has a dilemma—to condone or condemn the drinking of alcohol (Jan. 8). Has our lust for building bigger churches caused our pulpits to be silent on this issue?
<-- • Jump to online-only letters below Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
“The war in Iraq was unjust; to continue it now is criminal. There is no winning in Iraq. This was a war that should have never been fought—or won. It can’t be won, and the truth is that there are no good solutions now—that’s how unjust wars often turn out.”
Jim Wallis
Sojourners e-mail newsletter“The emerging Christian generation is more like the world than their predecessors. I think that shows the aggressive nature of culture. … We do not realize how aggressive and corrosive culture is in the lives of our kids.”
Gregory Kouckl
President of Stand to Reason in Signal Hill, Calif., commenting on research that shows young adults hold much more liberal views on extramarital sex, pornography, homosexuality and sexual fantasies than their elders (ABP)“The whole ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ thing is gross. Jesus is not your boyfriend. I mean, he is the lover of your soul, but he’s not going to take you out on a date on a Friday night.”
Connally Gilliam
Author of Revelations of a Single Woman: Loving the Life I Didn’t Expect (The Washington Times/RNS)In 1884, Leo Tolstoy wrote, “Then as now, it was and is quite impossible to judge by a man’s life and conduct whether he is a believer or not.” The overwhelming obstacle why people refuse to believe in Christ is not Christ himself but rather those who call themselves Christians. We must set ourselves apart, by word and deed, from worldly ways. Is having a glass of wine more important than the risk of hindering a believer or nonbeliever?
We, as a church, must choose to embrace or reject drinking. If we choose to condone it, let’s condone it publicly by putting a frozen margarita machine in our family centers. If we choose to shun drinking, let’s be bold in our belief.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
Posted: 1/19/07
Global peace a growing
priority for Christian groups
By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
DALLAS (ABP)—Worldwide, about 1.6 million people each year die due directly to violence. Violence is responsible for 14 percent of deaths among males aged 15 to 44 and 7 percent of deaths for females of the same age, the World Health Organi-zation reports. And it’s up to Christians to stop it, several groups working to promote peace around the world insist.
Steve Bostian, U.S. director of Hope Unlimited, said his group’s focus on investing in children in a Christ-centered way separates it from other attempts to eradicate violence among Brazil’s 10 million street children. That investment in individuals rather than broad social change is a model for peace that Bostian—a former American Baptist missionary—hopes to spread.
See Related Articles:
• MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
• Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
• Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
• Do conservative evangelicals regret justifying Iraq war?01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
Posted: 1/19/07
Time to call a mediator when focus
turns from problems to personalitiesDALLAS—When church members who disagree stop looking for solutions to problems and start focusing on personalities, it’s probably time to call a mediator, said Sonny Spurger, a church mediation specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Sonny Spurger Spurger points to five levels of conflict, identified by Speed Leas of the Alban Institute, as helpful markers for identifying how problems escalate to church fights.
• A problem develops that needs to be solved.
See Related Articles:
• MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
• Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
• Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
• Do conservative evangelicals regret justifying Iraq war?Some people may have conflicting goals or values, and interaction may be uncomfortable. But at this point, the conflict still is problem-oriented, rather than personality-centered. If the problem is not solved at this level, it likely will escalate to the next level where it becomes personal.
01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
Posted: 1/19/07
MAKING PEACE:
Creating a congregational
culture of peacemaking takes timeBy Ken Camp
Managing Editor
NACOGDOCHES—Helping a church become a peaceable fellowship is a never-ending battle, Pastor Kyle Childress acknowledged. But as Christians wage peace within church, they learn skills that help them build bridges in a divided world, he added.
“It’s a round-the-clock, long-term thing,” said Childress, pastor of Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches. “In the 17 years I’ve been here, one of the major challenges I consistently have had is helping people learn and practice reconciliation with one another.”
(Photo illustration by David Clanton) See Related Articles:
• MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time
• Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities
• Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups
• Do conservative evangelicals regret justifying Iraq war?01/19/2007 - By John Rutledge
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