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Showing posts from August, 2011

Satisfaction with How Things are Going by Americans

While I'm not 80 or even 90% sure how this affects every area of presenting the gospel and outreach yet, though I would love to read more, this steep decline in perception is very very relevant to church planting. The # now stands at 11% which has only happened a few times, and in recent history in late 2008. New results show: Click here for Gallup poll. It's worth thinking about practically. The top leaders of the downshift as expected in the current climate are 1. economy. 2. jobs. 3. federal deficit .

Army Suicides Rise

Just a quick blog post on something that stood out related to ministers. It is too sad, but those defending the country from threats abroad face much stress. Being away from family, being shot at, having a restricted language barrier in foreign counties, and much more. Apparently there is a high point in July 2011 among Army suicides. The link is here . For chaplains, this means readiness and preparedness to assist other Army professionals to reach out to soldiers. It means seeing the tough combat perspective from God's encouragements in the Word. This will require wisdom and seeking deliberate application to lead them to serve God through the struggles. It is a tough ministry, but one well worth it.

Low Morale Politically - US citizens prerevolutionary

An article appeared here from a major polling site . The article details a recent poll showing that 46% of US citizens polled think that Congress is corrupt. Another interesting fact is that only 6% of those polled ( a # that keeps coming up in different polls, so it likely very accurate ) approve of the job Congress is doing. Only 17% of US citizens think the government is operating with the consent of the governed. Is it any wonder then that only 29% of those polled thought members of Congress were not corrupt. The citizens are realizing that: not only are many or most Congressmen and women no better than their constituents in civility, morality, and virtue in general, but in fact they're worse. Sex scandals. Cheating on taxes. Lying under oath. We almost expect federal politicians to just tell you what people want to hear in order to get elected. Then nothing seems to be accomplished that everyone wants. If you were dating or courting someone like that as a potential spouse, yo

USA Credit Rating

I t turns out that S&P decided to lower our credit rating as a nation to AA+ from AAA. The article link shows that S&P made a mistake on the exact amount of debt, however, even so the burden of the debt in the long-term seems significant. Moody's and Fitch did not give the same low rating, yet that could change. It is reported that if those agencies agree with the S&P downgrade, then the cost of borrowing for the country and for mortgages and individuals (incl. corporations) would rise. This would slow business apart from other major factors. Interestingly, the weakness of the Eurozone created a situation where US debt was still in demand, as a safe haven asset. For the time being there appears to be a situation where we have a reputation of being better than the rest of the options for safe haven. Still, it cannot be passed by that if S&P is correct that debt would consume 88% equivalent of GDP by 2021, that we have major systemic problems ahead. Consider: mill

Weather and Church Growth

It is interesting to think about, but weather does play into church growth. In honor of the 109, 109, and 108 for Tues-Wed-Thurs in Dallas, Texas I'm using a couple minutes of my lunch break to just share some thoughts about this. It might be tempting to believe that in Canada and far Northern parts of the USA excluding the Northwest, evangelism in some forms outside of friendships is limited by cold weather. If there is ice covered by snow covered by ice then some more snow, and it remains below freezing, then you might not want to go 'door to door.' As obvious as this sounds, it might explain the trouble trying to reach people in colder climates in North America over 150-200 years. Not only might the French Quebequios be cold to evangelicals, but over time it could be a worse and worse reaction, since there aren't mediating influences. They can just hang onto traditions without much challenge. The internet changes some of this, as does global connectivity, but a perso