Christian Church Search

An interesting twist. Even though as a Christian I don’t observe Lent I find the imagery and connection with the Muslim Holiday very misleading. What similarities or connection does Ramadan have to the Resurrection? Other than the emotional appeal to the younger crowd not aware of Lent why do it? What point is there to attract people to Lent without referring to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Here’s the article if you didn’t see it.

We’re playing telephone today: we got a link from the Cheapertising blog who highlighted the Got Religion blog who covered a story from the Telegraph. It takes a timely look at the season of Lent in the Netherlands, and a current re-branding that’s under way. I’ll quote:

“Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the ‘Christian Ramadan’ in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.”

As the season of Lent has become less important for the Dutch over the past years, they feel something must be done. Martin Van der Kull, director of Vastenaktie, a Catholic charity, had this to say:

“The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent.”

I’m not a big fan of religion for notable reasons. My reaction changes when challenged to follow Jesus Christ. But to the article in USA Today. The good news is that if you are reaching out to people with various “religious” backgrounds you may find the ability to win them over to a new point of view about who Jesus Chris really is. The bad news is that they may treat a real commitment to Jesus Christ no differently than their religion. If they had only token loyalty to what they believe they may have the same reaction in the long run to Jesus Christ.

A good illustration was Saul (who later became Paul) who was absolutely committed to his religion. That zeal and loyalty carried over when Jesus Christ became real on the road to Damascus. With that in mind here are some key results from the article.

[USA Today] Key findings from the survey:

•Faith is fluid: 44% say they’re no longer tied to the religious or secular upbringing of their childhood. They’ve changed religions or denominations, adopted a faith for the first time or abandoned any affiliation altogether.

•”Nothing” matters: 12.1% say their religious identity is “nothing in particular,” outranking every denomination and tradition except Catholics (23.9%) and all groups of Baptists (17.2%).

•Protestants are fading: 51.3% still call themselves Protestant but roughly one third of this group were “unable or unwilling” to describe the denomination in which they fit.

•Immigrants sustain Catholic numbers: 46% of foreign-born U.S. adults are Catholics, compared with only 21% of native-born adults. Latinos are now 45% of all U.S. Catholics ages 18-29.

Like the Catholic Church, other public institutions will have to accommodate the impact of immigration. Already, more than 34 million of the nation’s 225 million adults are foreign-born, and half of these are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census.

“The Catholic Church may be a microcosm of what’s going to happen to the country in the next 40 years,” says Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum.

The Pew survey was based on random telephone interviews conducted in English and Spanish, May 8 through Aug. 13.

Another 1,050 interviews were added from an earlier 2007 Pew-sponsored survey of Muslims in the United States, which included interviews in Arabic, Farsi and Urdu.

The margin of error is +/- 0.6 percentage points for the full sample, but higher for each of the subgroups.

Another challenge for those trying to reach the recent generation: They not only see the modern church as irrelevant but just one of many choices that are acceptable. Considering the state of the modern denominational churches and their confusion over basic issues hasn’t helped either.

[Barna.org] Change of Heart

For decades, American Christians, who comprise more than four of our every five adults, assumed they had one legitimate way to practice their faith: through involvement in a conventional church. But new research shows that this mind set is no longer prevalent in the U.S. The latest Barna study shows that a majority of adults now believe that there are various biblically legitimate alternatives to participation in a conventional church.

Each of six alternatives was deemed by a most adults to be “a complete and biblically valid way for someone who does NOT participate in the services or activities of a conventional church to experience and express their faith in God.” Those alternatives include engaging in faith activities at home, with one’s family (considered acceptable by 89% of adults); being active in a house church (75%); watching a religious television program (69%); listening to a religious radio broadcast (68%); attending a special ministry event, such as a concert or community service activity (68%); and participating in a marketplace ministry (54%).

Don’t assume. That has always been a standard phrase in society. Perhaps it might fall under the heading of be innocent yet shrewd as serpents.  What those around you think may not be what you think. Perhaps a good reason more people need to talk and communicate about more than football scores over the weekend.

[Barna.org] One of the most dangerous assumptions a pastor can make is that church members clearly grasp the truth about the supernatural realities that shape our lives.

For instance, most everyone in America says there’s a God. But what do they believe about that God? A majority of Americans claim to have made a personal commitment to Jesus. Yet what is the character of that Christ? Most adults can vaguely outline their belief that God is triune, but don’t ask them to vouch for the reality of the Holy Spirit, much less the existence of the devil, the great adversary.

The easiest concept for people to grasp is God as creator - our Father. In our surveys most adults embrace an orthodox view of a supreme Creator who is perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful, and sovereign.

When it comes to Jesus, most adults believe that a person has to consciously accept Christ as Savior in order to go to heaven. However, only one-third of Americans firmly embrace the idea that Jesus of Nazareth did not sin during his time on earth. What’s more, many born-again Christians maintain doubt as to the sinless life of Christ. That is, even among individuals who personally believe they’re being saved by faith in Jesus, people are skeptical that Jesus was “tempted in all things, yet was without sin.”

Similarly, only one-third of Americans - and half of born-again Christians - believe in the reality of the Holy Spirit. And if people’s belief in the Trinity is fuzzy, consider that only one-quarter of Americans today, including just 38 percent of born-again Christians, realize they have a real enemy. The sobering news is that these trends are worsening - people’s limited understanding of key biblical principles is eroding.

There are always a variety of ways people use their skills or open doors to share their faith. Here is one that made it into the news.

[Tennessean.com: Picture and content] He can’t turn water into wine or walk on water, but put a pool stick in his hand and Eric “The Preacher” Yow can work wonders.

Yow can make a cue ball leap over obstacles and jump through a miniature basketball hoop, or zigzag around a billiard table as if under remote control.

He says it’s all part of using his talents for God.

“If God has blessed you with five talents, he wants you to use all of them,” said Yow.

Yow, 25, a pulpit minister at Chapel Hill Church of Christ in White Bluff, is ranked No. 10 in the world of artistic pool players.

The Dickson County preacher also practices law in Clarksville.

Even though he has only been playing for eight years, Yow has already been named a world champion in jump shots and masse, a trick shot specialty.

Yow took his “Trick Shot Madness” exhibition to the Hendersonville Church of Christ on Wednesday night.

During a 15-minute mini-sermon he told students: “You were not created on an assembly line … we were formed in the image of God for a purpose.”

Then he stripped off his suit coat to reveal the cranberry colored vest of a pool shark and got to work.

While performing trick shots behind his back and standing on one foot, he mixed in Bible verses and stories about how God was working in his life.

Yow says that pool can be “a mechanism for bringing people to Jesus.”

“When I go to a pool hall and do a trick shot — all of a sudden, I’ve got their attention,” Yow told the students on Wednesday night. “And you know what I do then? I preach Jesus to them. That’s really cool.”

Looking for a decent resource for information on the Restoration Movement? You can start here to find the Wiki on the Restoration Movement.

[Excerpt] The Restoration Movement (also known historically as the “Stone-Campbell Movement”) is a Christian reform movement traced to the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States during the Second Great Awakening. Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell were leading figures of four independent movements with like principles who merged together into two religious movements of significant size. These churches have a total population of about 4,000,000 in the United States. Restorationism sought to renew the whole Christian church, on the pattern set forth in the New Testament, without regard to the creeds developed over time in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or Protestantism, which allegedly kept Christianity divided. Churches are now found throughout the globe, claiming to “concentrate on the essential aspects of the Christian faith, allowing for a diversity of understanding with non-essentials.” Essentially, there are those who are not under the beliefs and doctrines of Alexander Campbell. These are members that believe in Jesus Christ the Son as the savior and authority of the church. Among key practices are the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper on the first day of each week and a commitment to believer’s baptism by immersion in water.