In some ways, our religion can keep us from truly obeying Christ, because it offers us ways to practice faith without really taking it seriously. We all know it’s possible for our relationship to God to consist of not much more than filling a church pew a time or two a week.
And because it’s “religious,” it gives people a false sense of security. “Of course I’m religious,” they say. “I’m a church member, and I go to church all the time.”
But that’s a far cry from discipleship.
Before You Plan That International Mission Trip …
When you consider the cost of an international trip, it just doesn’t make sense to have the primary focus on work, given that we can spend a fairly small amount of money and put local people to work. (I think the groups that just want to work should find a U.S. location for their trip.) When the trip also includes a major emphasis on learning and on relationship building, I believe a lot of good can come out of international mission experiences for the groups and for the people they work with in the country—if they go with an open heart.
In Evil and the Justice of God, N. T. Wright names three issues that characterize what he calls “The New Problem of Evil.”
1. We ignore evil except when it hits us in the face.
2. We are surprised by evil when it does.
3. As a result, we react in immature and dangerous ways.
How do you see these three things playing out in our culture?
Damsel, Arise: A Westboro Scion Leaves Her Church
But in the back row of the tin-ceilinged, wood-floored hall, there’s a visitor. It is Megan Phelps-Roper’s first time not only at Old First but also at any church not called Westboro Baptist. Yes, that Westboro Baptist, the Topeka, Kansas, congregation that has become famous (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) for its strident views on sin (and the abundance of it in modern America), salvation (and the prospective lack of it), and sexuality (we’re bad, in far more colorful terms).
The effective preacher must also work to clarify meaning, make ideas stick, and call the listener to action. To this end, Illustrations are the preacher’s friend. Want proof? Read the Gospels again and note how Jesus taught. A compelling illustration sheds light on the message and helps the congregation see what you are saying.
The Pew Research surveys also find that second-generation Hispanics and Asian Americans place more importance than does the general public on hard work and career success. They are more inclined to call themselves liberal and less likely to identify as Republicans. And for the most part they are more likely to say their standard of living is higher than that of their parents at the same stage of life. In all of these measures, the second generation resembles the immigrant generation more closely than the general public.
Why Do The Poor Complain So Little?
One increasingly common finding is that human beings seem to have a limited mental “bandwidth” — think of it as your attention span when it comes to economic decisions — and that poverty can occupy most of it. When your preoccupation today — and yesterday and tomorrow — is getting enough food for your family to eat, you can be excused for not worrying too much about forming a civic movement to reform public education, health or the fiscal budget. Yes, you know that it is important, and would love to do something about it, but you just can’t focus on it right now.
German dumpster divers get connected to wage war on food waste
It is not poverty that inspires a growing number of young Germans like 21-year-old student Benjamin Schmitt to forage for food in the garbage, but anger at loss and waste which the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates at one-third of all food produced worldwide, every year, valued at about $1 trillion.