15 Things You Need to Know about Unchurched People Today
Post-modernism has a deeper toe-hold here than in almost anywhere in America, except perhaps the Northwest and New England, where it might be about the same.
Here are characteristics of unchurched people that I’m seeing today.
Documented and Undocumented “Parasites”
Having said all this, for those who are still concerned about undocumented people benefiting from the American system, the best way to keep undocumented people from benefiting inappropriately from the system is to put in place a path to citizenship, while allowing them to remain and work as they pursue legal status. In keeping with the Evangelical Immigration Table’s call for immigration reform, it is in the best interest of all parties that we as a country establish “a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents.”
Of Sheepdogs, Shepherds & Metaphors
Somewhere in the past few months, while whiling away unavailable time on the interwebs, I read about how sheep farmers in the English-speaking world tend to use sheepdogs to control sheep, rather than the middle-eastern method of almost exclusively employing human shepherds.
Although my son does not know all there is to know about Jesus and humanity, he is teaching me a very valuable lesson each time he gives his money to Jesus. He is teaching me that we need to see Jesus in everyone we meet.
It took God employing hardship for me to embrace the inescapable reality that everything I did in ministry was done in allegiance to, and in pursuit of, either the kingdom of self or the kingdom of God.
Football Teams and Church Commitment
But this is the very way that most churches expect to run their youth ministries. To expect that youth be committed to the church with the same level of commitment that would be expected of them on an athletic team would draw the charge of legalism and insensitivity. Our culture has been so carried away by the current of religious individualism that the expectation of commitment to the church has become implausible to most Christians in our culture.
Daily slogging in the power of the Spirit
I am not impressed by young pastors who seem too eager to publish books and speak at big events and get noticed. They are doing the work of the Lord, and that’s good. But what impresses me is my dad’s daily slogging, year after year, in the power of the Spirit, with no big-deal-ness as the payoff.
Man returns to restaurant—over a decade later—to pay off old debt
The boy spoke to the restaurant’s owner and chef, Claus Hjortkjaer. The kind Chef Claus took pity on the young man and gave him $40 from his own pocket. The boy paid his tab and left. Hjortkjaer never saw him again. Until now.
Last week, the mysterious diner returned to Hjortkjaer’s newly reopened restaurant to pay off the debt—with interest. KOAT.com reports that the man walked in, asked to speak to Hjortkjaer, explained who he was and gave the generous chef a $100 bill.