But when you have come to talk about grief and walking through the pain of loss, it is not exactly a happy meeting. There were some in the room who have had less than a year on their walk with grief, for others it has been many years. Being the guest speaker in a church you’ve never been with before and talking about such a personal subject, you just never know how you’ll be received. They were wonderful listeners. But the word on my mind as I drove home was ‘common’.
Relationships are the new religion for many
In 2009, LifeWay asked 1,200 people ages 18-29, to name those things that were “really important” to them in life. Over 60% mentioned family, 25% mentioned friends, but only 13% mentioned spirituality or religion.
Unlike earlier generations, “Millennials prioritize relationships, especially family, over religion,” explains Jess Rainer, who co-authored a book drawn from the survey, The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation.
On the other hand, there is an eternity’s worth of difference between experiencing a rough day at the office to losing a father, a life’s mate, a son, a co-worker and trusted leader. What right do we have to compare a small sprinkle to a tsunami? Our selfishness very quickly devolves from the absurd to the obscene.
6 Conversational Evangelism Tips from the Master Himself
The message about Jesus is good news, and like all good news, it is most naturally and effectively shared in interpersonal conversations. As with any such communication, it involves sharing, asking questions of the other person, and listening to their thoughts and perspectives.
The Problem with Metrics, Part II
The problem with counting heads is that it hardly gets at missional progress. For instance, what if a new church plant gathers a thousand people BUT nine hundred and ninety-five of them are transfers from other churches? Yes, this may be nuanced, and perhaps hundreds of people in the area were going to drop out of many of the local churches anyway? But in general, it is likely the least effective metric we might apply. Simply counting heads is hardly the most responsible metric for assessing missionary progress.
‘Strong’ Catholic Identity at a Four-Decade Low in U.S.
The percentage of U.S. Catholics who consider themselves “strong” members of the Roman Catholic Church has never been lower than it was in 2012, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the General Social Survey (GSS). About a quarter (27%) of American Catholics called themselves “strong” Catholics last year, down more than 15 points since the mid-1980s and among the lowest levels seen in the 38 years since strength of religious identity was first measured in the GSS, a long-running national survey carried out by the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.
Ten Tips for Memorizing Bible Verses
To find out the best ways to memorize Scripture, we turned to a truly huge and committed resource—Bible Gateway users! We asked Bible Gateway fans to share their Bible verse memorization tips. We’ve combed through the hundreds of responses and picked out our favorite Bible memory tips.
Sheriff’s deputy wrestles alligator away from middle school
A Florida sheriff’s deputy took matters into her own hands last week when a seven-foot alligator was spotted trying to break through the fence of a local middle school.
Jessica McGregor, a 29-year-old Lake County sheriff’s deputy and mother of two, responded to the call, fashioned a noose from a 30-foot rope and “lassoed the would-be intruder,” the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Spurs notebook: Ginobili says he nearly slept through draft
On the night back in 1999 the Spurs made him the 57th pick in the NBA draft, Manu Ginobili was preparing for a game in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon, in a place so remote, it was accessible only by boat or airplane.
He didn’t even realize it was draft night.
“I had checked all the mock drafts, and none of them had me going anywhere,” Ginobili recalled. “So I forgot all about it.”