Greater Things

Here is the link to an article from WORLD Magazine's latest issue. Due to several recent posts on this blog regarding polls and news articles on the state of Christianity in America, some of which appear to paint a bleak picture, I thought it would encourage you to read this article. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15477

Many Churchgoers and Faith Leaders Struggle to Define Spiritual Maturity America may possess the world’s largest infrastructure for nurturing human spirituality, complete with hundreds of thousands of houses of worship, thousands of parachurch organizations and schools, and seemingly unlimited products, resources and experts. Yet, a new study from the Barna Group identifies an underlying reason why there is little progress in helping people develop spiritually: many churchgoers and clergy struggle to articulate a basic understanding of spiritual maturity. People aspire to be spiritually mature, but they do not know what it means. Pastors want to guide others on the path to spiritual wholeness, but they are often not clearly defining the goals or the outcomes of that process. The research was conducted by Barna Group in partnership with Living on the Edge ( www.livingontheedge.org ) and included a nationwide, random sample of adults and a similar national survey among Protestant pastors...

O Father, how we need mercy. We sin every day. We fall short of your command to love you with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. We are lukewarm in our affections. All our motives, even at their best, are mixed. We murmur. We are anxious about tomorrow. We get angry too quickly. We desire what out not be desired. We get irritated at the very attitudes in others that we ourselves displayed five minutes before. If you do not show mercy to us, we are undone. O God, let us see the mercy of Christ and savor it for what it is. Grant us power to comprehend his love. Incline us to read and ponder the stories of the mercy of Jesus in the Gospels. Let us so admire what he did that we imitate him. But let it be much more that external imitation. Let it come from the heart where we have been broken for our sin and where we have come to cherish mercy and live by mercy and hope in mercy and long for mercy. Make the mercy of Jesus the greatest beauty of the Savior in our e...

Here are two articles that I read today.  Unfortunately, both are pretty disheartening about the outlook of Christianity in our culture.  But don't forget that our Jesus is Lord, and he conquers all in the end no matter what things look like currently! The first article was written by Al Mohler, and is about teenagers' faith.  It was written in 2005, but hey, it is still good reading! http://www.christianpost.com/Opinion/Columns/2005/04/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-the-new-american-religion-18/index.html My favorite section is on the 3rd page and reads, " Does this mean that America is becoming more secularized? Not necessarily. These researchers assert that Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith. " The second article was one I found on CNN / Time today.  It's about a new thing going around called "debaptism"....

From the Christian Science Monitor: The coming evangelical collapse An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise. By Michael Spencer from the March 10, 2009 edition Oneida, Ky. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West. Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century. This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possib...

We recently read Psalm 139 in church and the last few verses of the psalm struck me in a way that they hadn’t before.  David asks our Creator to 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;        test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me,        and lead me in the way everlasting. David wants God to search him and know his heart.  His desire is to be completely and utterly transparent before God.  He invites God to find the offensive ways and to lead him the way everlasting.  It caused me to question my own heart.  Is my desire one of complete and utter transparency?  Do I want to be lead in the way everlasting?

I've been reading some posts on Facebook where those in the Conservative camp are decrying churches getting caught up in the Social Gospel.  So I decided to do some research on what it is or was and quite frankly I'm concerned about those Christians that are of the conservative persuasion who are simply carping and not doing. Here's what wikipedia defines the social gospel as:   The  Social Gospel  movement is a  Protestant Christian  intellectual movement that was most prominent in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The movement applied  Christian ethics  to  social problems , especially poverty, inequality, liquor, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, weak labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war. Above all they opposed rampant individualism and called for a socially aware religion. Theologically, the Social Gospel leaders were overwhelmingly  post-millennialist . That is because they believed the  Second Coming  could not happen un...

I called my drive to work this morning a “blessing.” Each morning I drive less than two miles to a parking lot, get in a stranger’s car and “slug” to Washington, DC.  The trip to the parking lot takes me through 4 traffic lights and 3 stop signs.  Two of the traffic lights are right turns so I don’t count those, the stop signs are never busy, and one of the two remaining lights is weight triggered leaving me with one annoying stop light.  Very often I get stuck sitting at this light watching the line behind me grow and a trickle of cars drive through the intersection in front of me.  (I write a few paragraphs about why it annoys me and even more reasons why it shouldn’t but that’s not what I’m going for in this post so I’ll just move on.) Today, I caught that annoying light just right.  As I drove through the intersection I said to myself “Thank you God for that blessing.”  In that same moment, I wondered what made getting through that green light a “bl...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3812762&sportCat=ncf In the top half of the article Tim Tebow says “…I mean, more people would do those things; they just don't want to sacrifice.”  That is very true.  People don’t want to sacrifice and that’s exactly what we need to do if we are to truly make a mark.  I often times think about how we as Christians hope to make a difference.  Many think that because we don’t cuss or don’t watch certain movies that that will be enough to draw people to the Creator (making wise decisions is a good thing, don’t get me wrong).  If our language is the only difference people see in us then I’d say we’re failing as followers of Christ.  Where is the sacrifice, the demonstration of unconditional love?  I think Tebow recognizes the need for sacrifice.

I thought this was a good article about why pastors should blog and I think it can apply to us as well even though we aren't all pastors. from desiringgod.org/blog 6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog March 31, 2008 | By: Abraham Piper Category: Commentary In this article I want to convince as many pastors as possible to sit down and start a blog today. If I can’t convince them , then I want to convince churchgoers to hound their pastor until he does. OK, all that’s overstatement, perhaps. You can still be a good pastor and not blog. However, here’s why I think it would be good for you and your congregation if you did. Pastors should blog… 1. …to write. If you’re a pastor, you probably already know the value writing has for thinking. Through writing, you delve into new ideas and new insights. If you strive to write well, you will at the same time be striving to think well. Then when you share new ideas and new insights, readers can come along with you wherever your good ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece   Great article highlighting humanity’s desperate need for a relationship with our Creator written by an atheist.