Christian Church Search

Occasionally you find a Restoration Movement in the News… at least on google. Here is one from Missouri.

Missouri Valley’s Church of Christ is celebrating its 125th anniversary, Sunday, May 4. Anyone interested is invited to attend any part of the events scheduled for that Sunday.
Here is the schedule:

10 to 11:20 a.m. - 1883 style worship service and children’s rally.

12 Noon to 1:30 - fellowship; browse the history display and commemorative quilt; take old time family photo (in period pieces the church will provide) and have it emailed for free; “moon bounces” for the kids and face painting.

1:30 to 3 p.m. - modern worship service (with the church praise band) and children’s “mad scientist” event.

3 to 3:30 p.m. - ice cream social.

Those wishing to dress in clothing from the 1880s may join many of the church members in doing so.

The Church of Christ began in 1883 with a group of 47 charter members who met in the Boyer Valley school house. The first minister, James Conron, was secured to begin the pastorate of this new Christian Church.

As a part of the restoration movement of the 1800s, the Church of Christ was a part of the original community church movement which sought to unite all believers on the Bible only and not on the creeds and doctrines of men.

The church grew quickly, spending brief stints in the Frazier schoolhouse, the fire hall and the Baptist Church, until the original church building was erected on the corner of Fourth and East Superior streets in 1888.

If you find another Christian Church/ Church of Christ in the news… send us a link and we may post it!

This may make those working in the ministry a little better. Often they take the brunt for not working a real job. Certainly the ministry has its advantages but don’t equate that to being the idea situation… at least not always. Read on.

I’m sure we’ve got at least a few readers out there who are in the corporate world and thinking of dabbling in the realm of churches. If you’re thinking of leaving a job with a profit-making company to one with a nonprofit, there are some issues you need to concern yourself with.

The New York Times writes in a question and answer article “Your True Calling Could Suit a Nonprofit”:

Q. What are the biggest misconceptions about switching from the corporate world to the nonprofit world?A. Many people are surprised to find the hours longer and stress greater than in the corporate world. Brian Olson, who left the private sector for a nonprofit in 2006, found the decision-making process to be unfocused.

“No matter how good a volunteer board is, it’s not the same as a corporate board, because everyone has a different agenda,” said Mr. Olson, who returned to the private sector a year later to be vice president for public affairs at Video Professor Inc., a company in Lakewood, Colo., that sells self-tutorial programs. “There was a purity to corporate life I missed,” he said.

The details are very sketch and for good reason as the case is pending. With so many people attending it really doesn’t surprise me that this came up. As usual the article appears to make the church out to be the at fault but if you read the article the man leaves a lot of questions that he doesn’t answer. I don’t expect this to go far.

 A Louisville man has filed a lawsuit against Southeast Christian Church, the Louisville Metro Police Department and an off-duty officer who was working security for the church last year, claiming the officer used excessive force while removing the man from church property.

It is the second lawsuit in the past six months filed against Southeast alleging assault by off-duty officers working security for the church.

In August, a Louisville couple filed a lawsuit against Southeast and two corrections officers who direct traffic for the church, claiming the officers “assaulted and battered” the pair during a stop after a church service. That case is pending in federal court.

The latest lawsuit, filed by Martin Buckminster, claims he had an appointment to see a marriage counselor at Southeast on Feb. 12, 2007, when an off-duty Louisville Metro Police officer was alerted and asked him to leave the church and “never set foot” on the property again.

Buckminster, who filed the lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court, claims the officer grabbed him and led him to the parking lot. When Buckminster asked to see the officer’s identification, the officer cursed him and slammed Buckminster against a patrol car, striking him with his knee, according to the suit.

The lawsuit claims the Louisville Metro Police Department did not properly train the officer.

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.