MinistryPlace.Net » Culture

Cheesy Christian Bumper Sticker

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:56:18 +0000

Wow. Did not see this one waiting to just slam me when I left a great supper at Pizza Hut…

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What are You Aiming For?

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:17:34 +0000

There is a local “drininking estabishment” that has done an excellent job of defining its target market. The place is so paked with motorcycles on saturday and sunday, that they have to arrange for parking with the other local businesses around them to have enough.

We rarely hear about that in chuches in small town America, so why is it happening here? Here’s a tip : it’s not just the booze that this place is selling, it’s the fellowship or lifestyle image they’re promoting.

What is the lifestyle image your church is promoting? Is it the Joy of the Lord or the “frozen chosen”?

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Pop Music and Porn Culture » Bill Muehlenberg’s CultureWatch

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:38:45 +0000

I ran across this this the other day. It is a challenging read that gives some insight to where we are…

What do you think?

Pop Music and Porn Culture » Bill Muehlenberg’s CultureWatch.

We Shouldn’t Have To Deal With This…

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:03:22 +0000

Kara Powell at Fuller Youth Institute blogged a couple days ago about some “touched up” pictures at Ann Taylor’s website. Doctoring photos like this to push a perceived body image to young ladies is awful. It’s an understandable thing to do simple Photo-Shopping such as red-eye removal, changing lighting imperfections, but to completely alter the shape of a person’s body is just deceitful.

The Church Community Question:

What are things we can we do as Church Community to instill worth into our young (and not as young) ladies to help them see themselves as God sees them, instead of comparing them to Photo-Shopped images?

greedHarmony

admin — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:59:00 +0000

The Skit Guys nailed this one.
This is where we are as a society.

YouTube – greedHarmony.

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Text Messaging ….

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:09:11 +0000

In case you have been asleep for the last decade, text-messaging is a pretty big deal. Mashable has put together an Infographic that shows just HOW big it is worldwide. On a Youth-Ministry related note, the stats on Teen girls come out to just over 3000 texts per month on average. Wow.

What’s your take?

Source:

The Rise of Text Messaging [INFOGRAPHIC].

Top 10 sites to debunk Internet hoaxes

admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Every so often we get the dreaded “chain forward” at the Church office. Here is a great resource to pass on to others as a preemptive measure to reduce the amount of hoax spam that you receive.

Enjoy…

Top 10 sites to debunk Internet hoaxes | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com.

Unexpected Reliability…

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:26:03 +0000

Unexpected Stability…

We live in a culture that has all but forgotten the term “reliability”. We make multiple commitments for the same time period, or we over-commit and under-perform. No area in our life is safe. Sports, Church, Clubs, School, fill in the blank – it all just runs together.We let people (and God) down because we are trying to do too much.

Let me share a little known piece of the infrastructure in our church that lives locked away in a maintenance room. The picture above is our Server. It serves as second level firewall, then it scans and filters web traffic (in and out). That’s it. No more no less. But it is an important job. This job was given to the above PC after it served a full life (about 5 years) as an office PC. It is committed to the single purpose of protecting our network, inside and out. It has specialized software that allows it to do its job. When it is working correctly, you rarely even know it exists. In fact, other than a power outage last week, it ran for a period of a little over two months without even a reboot (not bad, even for a server).

Let’s apply the above to our lives. There are a lot of things we have the ability to do, there are a lot of things we might have the desire to do, but we need to face the fact that we are chosen by The Master for a purpose that fulfills His will. We must seek and serve that purpose that God has given us. We must consistently and effectively carry out His will for the long hall, to the benefit of all others in the Body of Christ. Slow down, take stock of what The Master has for you, and the rest doesn’t really matter in the scope of eternity.

What are you doing that needs to be shut down, to move God into the center of your life?….

Churchgoers, strippers protest one another….

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:38:31 +0000

I saw this story a couple days ago when it first broke, and have been chewing on all the implications based on the news story below. There is a lot we can learn from this unfortunate situation. I mainly have a lot of unanswered questions that can hopefully lead to some wise and spirit-led dialogue.

1. Why does protesting seem to be the first line of action we take when we disagree with something?

The church has been protesting the strip club for four years non-stop. The owner definitely gets the message they are not welcome. Does he get the message that Christ loves him and can forgive him, no matter what he has done? Has the church seen spiritual fruit from their protesting efforts?

2. Is this damaging to the church’s other ministry efforts in the community?

No one wants to be associated with “that church”. You know which one it is in your community. When someone says ” I go to _________,” and your response is “ohhhhh…” Ongoing grudges against “evil” can sometimes break down to rearranging deck chairs on the titanic before we even realize it.

3. Are we treating them to the grace and mercy that God has given to us?

We often focus on the actions of those we stand against that we forget that they are also made in the image of God and are deserving of the same Grace and Mercy that God extends to each one of us. We cannot call unbelievers trash (and worse) one minute, then turn around and tell them Jesus loves them the next. It will not work. the walls will go up, and you will have lost an opportunity to show God’s love and THEN tell them about His plan for their life. Life is too short for this kind of shenanigans. We must be about the Father’s business.

If you are interested, below is a link to the original story:

Churchgoers, strippers protest one another in Coshocton County | The Columbus Dispatch.

UPDATE:
People of the Second Chance has an update that involves JC’s Girls, Some Resolution, 2 Ladies Accepting Christ, Working together to end this, and Hugs…

What’s your Take?

Irony Strikes at Walmart

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:29:18 +0000

Give me a good caption, words fail me…

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Introducing…

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:34:34 +0000

My pastor told me about this video. So I went and checked it out. I finished the video with one question:

Why don’t we do this in our Church Services today?

Here is Steve Harvey, working the crowd, telling them of all the great things Jesus has done in the Bible, and the crowd is getting more and more lively and worked up.

Pastors, we should have the same job…We are to tell of the great things He has done. We are not to forget the price he paid. We are to give the respect, honor, and glory He is due.

Our Church culture is afraid. We are afraid to get excited about Jesus. We might be branded with some goofy label. Get over it. Look at what He has done. Look at what He is doing. Get excited, Get on board. Hang on for the ride.

Where are we going?

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:59:26 +0000

We are a broken people. If you question the truth of the previous statement, volunteer in a ministry at your church for a little while. You’ll come around.

We recently had a situation where there was allegedly a “no contact restraining order” between a 3rd grade girl and a 4th grade girl at Vacation Bible School (I couldn’t make this up…) my first reaction was one of shock, then we placed one of the two girls in another classroom just to be on the safe side (though the parent that brought it up never produced the papers…).

We have done a grand job of messing up all in this world that God has designed for good. We have devalued life such that it’s seen as disposable. My hometown was rocked last week after a missing teenager was found murdered floating in a nearby creek. It is a gruesome act that we will probably never know the why and how, but as a result four families are changed forever. My prayer is that the suspects, if convicted are reached by God in a powerful and life-changing way that they see that God forgives even their most heinous transgressions. I also pray the people in that town find a way to forgive and use this horrible tragedy to birth a commitment to raise the children and youth of the community to know that they are valued highly both by the town folk and by God.