Archive for the ‘Spiritual’ Category
Preachers Too Timid When Preaching on Giving, Says Report
LONDON – Churches risk losing out on large amounts of donations because pastors and church leaders are too timid when it comes to preaching about financial needs and the importance of giving, according to a new report out this week.
The report, “Why Christians Give,” was compiled by McConkey Johnston International U.K. and based on the responses of 2,000 Evangelical Alliance members surveyed last fall.
It found that tithing was not being actively taught in local churches and that in two out of 10 congregations, there was a lack of teaching about stewardship.
“Although some church leaders are emphasizing proportional giving in reality we do not know whether they are saying to their congregations ‘give what you can afford’ or challenging their members to give sacrificially,” it states.
The report concludes that churchgoers are being given an “array of mixed messages” from the pulpit about the need to give and that even charities are guilty of handing the task of raising funds to inadequately resourced or inexperienced fundraisers or volunteers.
The report’s author, Redina Kolaneci, called on church leaders to see fundraising as part of their calling and improve the quality of their preaching on giving.
Sex offender wants permission to attend church
A New Hampshire sex offender on probation is asking the state’s highest court to allow him to go to church with a chaperone.
The case of Jonathan Perfetto marks the first time the New Hampshire Supreme Court is being asked to rule whether a probation condition that effectively bars church attendance violates constitutional rights to religious freedom.
Perfetto, 35, of Manchester, was convicted in 2002 of possessing child pornography. A condition of his probation is that he have no contact with children age 16 and under.
A lower court denied Perfetto’s request to attend Jehovah’s Witnesses services with a church elder acting as chaperone.
The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union and Perfetto maintain the chaperone would eliminate any risk to children, and stressed that Perfetto was not convicted of assaulting a child. The state counters that public safety trumps Perfetto’s religious rights.
Church declines PETA offer to rebuild Jesus statue with vegan message
MONROE — Officials at Solid Rock Church, where a 62-foot statue of Jesus burned down because of a lightning strike, have declined an offer from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to rebuild it with a vegan message.
PETA representatives suggested via a faxed letter to the church that, in exchange for a grant, Jesus would be built with a lamb in his arms and a message inscribed on the statue: “Blessed Are the Merciful. Go Vegan.”
PETA sent the letter to the church’s pastors, the Revs. Lawrence and Darlene Bishop. It said the money would be donated in part by a devoutly Christian PETA supporter, officials said. The letter states the following:
As you can guess, the church said no.
Insurance to cover rebuilding of ‘Touchdown Jesus’
MONROE, Ohio — National attention in the wake of the lightning strike that destroyed a giant statue of Jesus has brought Solid Rock Church a flood of donations to rebuild a deluxe version of the icon along Interstate 75.
As it turns out, the “King of Kings” sculpture — also known as Touchdown Jesus, for its upright arms — was insured for $500,000, about twice what it cost the church to erect it in 2004, because the artist, Brad Coriell of Nashville, Tenn., donated some of his time, said co-pastor Darlene Bishop.
Bishop said she hopes a new statue will be up by year’s end.
Christian Missionaries Arrested at Arab Festival
Four Christian missionaries trying to convert Muslims were arrested and jailed Friday for disorderly conduct at an Arab festival in Dearborn, police said.
“We did make four arrests for disorderly conduct,” Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad said Saturday. “They did cause a stir.”
Nabeel Qureshi of Virginia and David Wood of New York, both with a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics, were arrested with two others after they were said to be causing disruptive behavior, police said.
More preachers need a ‘day job,’ too
Ray Gilder has some advice for Baptist preachers who are just starting out.
Prepare to get a day job.
“Make sure you have a marketable skill,” said Gilder, bivocational ministries specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Gilder was in Orlando this past week to meet with bivocational ministers, preachers with day jobs, at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. They are truck drivers and government workers, contractors and teachers, who also feel called to preach. They often minister in out-of-the-way places, far from the spotlight.
But while Baptist megachurch pastors get the spotlight, says Gilder, bivocational ministers keep the convention running. Without them, many small churches would close, says Gilder, national coordinator for the Southern Baptist’s Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network.
And they are a growing group.
About three-quarters of Southern Baptists churches draw fewer than 100 people on Sunday morning. That means they often can’t afford to pay a preacher a full-time salary. So about half of Southern Baptist churches nationwide, and two-thirds in Tennessee, rely on bivocational ministers.
Louisiana lawmakers propose prayer to stop oil disaster
While cleanup crews and technical teams continue efforts to stop crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana lawmakers are proposing a different approach: prayer.
State senators designated Sunday as a day for citizens to ask for God’s help dealing with the oil disaster.
“Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail,” state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week’s unanimous vote for the day of prayer. “It is clearly time for a miracle for us.”
The resolution names Sunday as a statewide day of prayer in Louisiana and calls on people of all religions throughout the Gulf Coast “to pray for an end to this environmental emergency, sparing us all from the destruction of both culture and livelihood.”
Church Softball team with gay coach can’t play
Jana Jacobson told The Commercial Appeal officials at Bellevue Baptist Church told her she had a “deviant” lifestyle and her team would not be allowed to compete.
Jacobson said her team is made up of straight and gay players. They were looking for more games to play when they discovered the Cordova church had a league.
Southern Baptists’ budget vote shapes new evangelism approach
ORLANDO, Fla. — A decade ago, Southern Baptists fought over the belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven and the inerrancy of the Bible.
Today, they’re divided over budgets and baptisms.
As the older hard-line conservatives fade into the background, a new group of leaders is jostling over the priorities of the country’s largest Protestant denomination. These new leaders are less concerned about conservative politics and more concerned about saving souls.
“Status quo is not the way to go,” said the Rev. Matthew Surber, the new pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville. “To pretend like everything is fine and we just need to try harder is not going to work.”
At a gathering of 11,000 Southern Baptists on Tuesday at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., Baptists overwhelmingly approved a plan that will channel funds away from established Baptist programs and use them to fund new churches and more missionaries. It’s called the Great Commission Resurgence. The national meeting concludes today.
Bleed Into One – the story of Christian rock
This movie has been in the works for several years and is expected to be out later this year and includes about five minutes of U2.
Here’s an article, and here’s a preview.
Jesus Statue Burns to Ground
MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.
The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said.
The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way his arms were raised, as though reaching out to catch a football. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.
Theology school integrates studies of different faiths
CLAREMONT, California (AP) — The venerable Claremont School of Theology, which has taught Methodist ministers and theologians for more than a century, will try an unorthodox approach this fall: cross-training the nation’s future Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders in classrooms scattered around Southern California as they work toward their respective degrees.
The experimental approach launched last week is intended to create U.S. religious leaders who not only preach tolerance in an era of religious strife, but who have lived it themselves by rubbing shoulders with those in other Abrahamic faiths.
The idea already faces resistance from more conservative elements in some religious communities; its architects say that only underscores the need for such an approach.
Cell-phone tower disguised as cross planned for Florida church yard
T-Mobile and a Longwood-area church are hoping to erect a 130-foot cross that will double as a cell-phone tower. But they’ve had bad reception from neighbors, who are protesting the idea.
The proposed “monocross” tower, which goes before the Seminole County board of adjustment late this month, would improve cellular-phone coverage, according to the wireless-services provider. But residents say it would mar the landscape, and they worry about its safety.
“The intrusion by T-Mobile’s monster tower is going to be detrimental to our property values,” said Doug Damerst, president of the Sleepy Hollow First Addition Homeowners Association, who said he would pass the tower daily if it is installed.
The tower would dwarf Rolling Hills Moravian Church below it, but the Rev. Willie Israel said the cross “is a symbol of who we are as a Christian community.”
To some Christian fundamentalists, the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico heralds the apocalypse
A growing conversation among Christian fundamentalists asks the question that may have been inevitable: is the oil spill in the gulf a sign of the coming apocalypse?.
Now blogs on the Christian fringe are abuzz with possibility that the oil spill is the realization of Revelation 8:8–11. “The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed … A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter.” According to Revelation, in other words, something terrible happens to the world’s water, a punishment to those of insufficient faith. The foul water, according to the New Oxford Annotated Bible, mirrors one of the plagues God called upon Egypt on behalf of his people Israel.
Though maybe it’s Revelation 16:3: “The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.”
