What Are We Going To Do With Old Missionaries?
What would God’s people do if our ancient missionaries’ talents were pooled? What could we learn? What would we attempt? Where would we go? How much faith would there be in that room?
What has gone wrong? At the heart of the mess is a simple phenomenon: the churches seem to have lost a love for and confidence in the Word of God. They still carry Bibles and declare the authority of the Scriptures. They still have sermons based on Bible verses and still have Bible study classes. But not much of the Bible is actually read in their services.
God Doesn’t Build His House By Violence
If we will allow the Holy Spirit to draw us away from our misguided allegiance to nationalism, violence, and war, we can labor with the true Son of David to build a temple from which flows a healing river expanding the borders of peace. But to do this we have to believe in Jesus as the Son of David who builds the house of the Lord without violence.
Admonition: An Unpopular Love Language
Admonition, or any kind of tough love, is a Christian responsibility and an often neglected evidence of the Spirit’s work within us. Perhaps for fear of coming across as judgmental, “holier than thou,” or insensitive, or perhaps out of fear of burning a bridge or just plain fear of man, we can neglect warning one another.
The One Thing the Conversation About Young Adults Leaving the Church Brings Out…
There is one thing missing in all of this…what will they tell you if you actually ask them why they left? Do we even care enough to ask or do we just talk over and around them? Are we connected enough with them to feel like we have space to ask that question? There are many reasons people leave the church and our gut level, first reaction will say more about our own personal leanings than it will be an all-inclusive glimpse into why young people are leaving the church. That is called transference and it is good that we are aware of that tendency.
Better Powerpoint: What We REALLY Remember From PowerPoint Presentations
Study Results
- Participants remembered an average of 4 slides from a 20-slide, standalone, text-only PowerPoint presentation.
- Neutral visuals help, but they don’t change the rule of 4. There was a statistically significant difference between the recall of content in text-only slides versus slides that contained text and neutral visuals. However, the recall rate did not exceed 4 slides in any of the 26 PowerPoint deck manipulations included in the study.
- Participants tended to remember the same content, not slides at random, as was predicted. This means that it may be possible to control what people remember by using a certain set of criteria.
- For standing out, 5 is an important number. Applying the isolation effect every nth slide (3rd, 4th, or 5th) did not impact the overall recall of an entire deck.However, when a change was made every 5th position (i.e., slides 5, 10, 15, and 20), those slides tended to be remembered better than any other randomly selected slides from that deck. The reverse was true for slides changed in every 3rd and 4th position.
Texas Bans Shooting Immigrants From Helicopters
Officials in Texas announced on Thursday that State Troopers would no longer be allowed to open fire on suspects from helicopters after the recent killing of two immigrants.
The ‘Line’ For Legal Immigration Is Already About 4 Million People Long
It’s why almost everyone pushing an immigration overhaul says any new law has to ease the current backlog of legal green card applicants before putting the estimated 11 million undocumented in line behind them.
Homeless Man’s Honest Deed Rewarded with $16K Donation, and Counting
A homeless man in Kansas City, Mo., made national headlines more than a week ago when he returned a valuable platinum and diamond engagement ring accidentally dropped into his cup of change by a woman offering some extra cash. Now, hundreds of donors have contributed more than $16,000 to a page on GiveForward.com to help Billy Ray Harris get his life back on track. The man’s rewards don’t stop with financial help — the media story helped him connect with a brother in Lubbock, Texas, he hasn’t seen in nearly 30 years.