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Assembly Lines

11/30/2013

Henry Ford was a genius in his time. He had the ability to maximize efficiency through the use of the assembly line in the production of consumer vehicles. He was able to employ a lot of people and the number of cars that came out of the factory was staggering…unheard of in that day.

His idea was simple. If each person was trained to do one thing that contributed to the whole, then each person could perfect their seemingly mundane skill. If you would have been an autoworker in the early 1900′s you may have had times in which your skill would have seemed meaningless to you. Perhaps you would only install headlights or tighten a bolt, but if you were sick one day, the work would not get done, and production would slow down. Each worker was extremely valuable.

So, let’s say that a particular factory produced 100,000 cars in a year. This would have been impressive in the early days, but what if none of these cars had actually left the factory? The skills of the workers would have been wasted, and the workspace would have been cluttered. The company would need to build bigger warehouses to store all of the cars being produced and eventually the corporation would dissolve due to the fact that the product never left the building.

My point? The Church must do more than just sit in the pews and soak up information. God has given every believer special abilities and the mere act of worship is meant to not only praise God but to infuse passion for His work into His creation.

Religious assemblies should translate into efficient assembly lines.

Get out of the factory and bring the gospel to the world.

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos. For the original post, go to: http://other-words.net/2013/11/22/assembly-lines/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Boring guys: Women love them

11/29/2013

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So not every guy proposes with lip syncing, rolling cameras, and a choreographed entourage.

Yeah — so what if your Dad didn’t?

He just pulled that beat-up Volkswagon Rabbit of his over in front of Murray Reesor’s hundred acre farm right there where Grey Township meets Elma Township, pulled out a little red velvet box, and whispered it in the snowy dark: “Marry me?”
“He didn’t even get down on one knee or anything?”

You boys ask it incredulous, like there’s some kind of manual for this kind of holy.

And I’ve got no qualms in telling you no. No, he didn’t even get down on one knee – it was just a box, a glint of gold in the dark, two hallowed words and a question mark.

“Boring.”

I know. When you’ve watched a few dozen mastermind proposals on youtube, shared them with their rolling credits on Facebook, marvelling at how real romance has an imagination like that.

Can I tell you something, sons?

Romance isn’t measured by how viral your proposal goes. The internet age may try to sell you something different, but don’t ever forget that viral is closely associated with sickness – so don’t ever make being viral your goal.

Your goal is always to make your Christ-focus contagious – to just one person.

It’s more than just imagining some romantic proposal.

It’s a man who imagines washing puked-on sheets at 2:30 am, plunging out a full and plugged toilet for the third time this week, and then scraping out the crud in the bottom screen of the dishwasher — every single night for the next 37 years without any cameras rolling or soundtrack playing -- that’s imagining true romance.

The man who imagines slipping his arm around his wife’s soft, thickening middle age waistline and whispering that he couldn’t love her more…. who imagines the manliness of standing bold and unashamed in the express checkout line with only maxi pads and tampons because someone he loves is having an unexpected Saturday morning emergency.

The man who imagines the coming decades of a fluid life – her leaking milky circles through a dress at Aunt Ruth’s birthday party, her wearing thick diaper-like Depends for soggy weeks after pushing a whole human being out through her inch-wide cervix, her bleeding through sheets and gushing amniotic oceans across the bathroom floor and the unexpected beauty of her crossing her legs everytime she jumps on the trampoline with the kids.

The real romantics imagine greying and sagging and wrinkling as the deepening of something sacred.

Because get this, kids — How a man proposes isn’t what makes him romantic. It’s how a man purposes to lay down his life that makes him romantic.

And a man begins being romantic years before any ring – romance begins with only having eyes for one woman now – so you don’t go giving your eyes away to cheap porn. Your dad will say it sometimes to me, a leaning over – “I am glad that there’s always only been you.” Not some bare, plastic-surgeon-scalpel-enhanced pixels ballooning on a screen, not some tempting flesh clicked on in the dark, not some photo-shopped figment of cultural beauty that’s basically a lie.

The real romantics know that stretchmarks are beauty marks and that different shaped women fit into the different shapes of men souls and that real romance is really sacrifice.

I know – you’re thinking, “Boring.”

Can you see it again – how your grandfather stood over your grandmother’s grave and brushed away his heart leaking without a sound down his cheeks?

50 boring years. 50 unfilmed years of milking 70 cows, raising 6 boys and 3 girls, getting ready for sermon every Sunday morning, him helping her with her zipper. 50 boring years of arguing in Dutch and making up in touching in the dark, 50 boring years of planting potatoes and weeding rows on humid July afternoons, 50 boring years of washing the white Corel dishes and turning out the light on the mess – till he finally carried her in and out of the tub and helped her pull up her Depends.

Don’t ever forget it:

The real romantics are the boring ones — they let another heart bore a hole deep into theirs.

Be one of the boring ones. Pray to be one who get 50 boring years of marriage – 50 years to let her heart bore a hole deep into yours.

Let everyone do their talking about 50 shades of grey, but don’t let anyone talk you out of it: committment is pretty much black and white. Because the truth is, real love will always make you suffer. Simply commit: Who am I willing to suffer for?

Who am I willing to take the reeking garbage out for and clean out the gross muck ponding at the bottom of the fridge? Who am I willing to listen to instead of talk at? Who am I willing to hold as they grow older and realer? Who am I willing to die a bit more for every day? Who am I willing to make heart-boring years with? Who am I willing to let bore a hole into my heart?

Get it: Life – and marriage proposals — isn’t not about one up-manship — it’s about one down-manship. It’s about the heart-boring years of sacrifice and going lower and serving. It’s not about how well you perform your proposal. It’s about how well you let Christ perform your life.

Sure, go ahead, have fun, make a ridiculously good memory and we’ll cheer loud: propose creatively — but never forget that what wows a woman and woos her is you how you purpose to live your life.

I’m praying, boys — be Men. Be one of the ‘boring” men – and let your heart be bore into. And know there are women who love that kind of man.

The kind of man whose romance isn’t flashy – because love is gritty.
The kind of man whose romance isn’t about cameras — because it’s about Christ.
The kind of man whose romance doesn’t have to go viral — because it’s going eternal.

No, your dad did not get down on one knee when he proposed – because the romantic men know it’s about living your whole life on your knees.

There are Fridays. And the quiet romantics who will take out the garbage without fanfare. There will be the unimaginative calendar by the fridge, with all it’s scribbled squares of two lives being made one. The toilet seat will be left predictably up. The sink will be resigned to its load of last night’s dishes.

And there is now and the beautiful boring, the way two lives touch and go deeper into time with each other.

The clock ticking passionately into decades.

This post was written by A. Voskamp. You can find the original post here: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/11/the-real-truth-about-boring-men-and-the-women-who-live-with-them-redefining-boring/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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A Thanksgiving Prayer

11/28/2013

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Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you’ve done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for our successes, which satisfy and delight us — but also for the disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ — for the truth of his Word and the example of his life.

We thank you for his dying, through which he overcame death — and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your Kingdom.

Father, may we — at all times and in all places — give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

From the book of Common Prayer.

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Porn = Adultery

11/27/2013

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I know a guy who cheats on his wife. He cheats on her every day. He cheats on her multiple times a day. He’s a husband and a father and a serial adulterer.

I shouldn’t know this fact about him, but it came up in conversation a few days ago. We were talking about the divorce rate; both of us gave our theories as to why the statistics are so high. I mentioned in my diagnosis a few studies that show pornography to be a root cause in over 50 percent of divorces annually.

He laughed. “People don’t get divorced over porn.” He went on to explain that porn isn’t a “big deal” to most people. It’s not “like it’s cheating or something.” He told me that he looks at it multiple times daily. His wife, he insisted, might be a little peeved if she knew the extent of it, but only because women overreact about “that kind of thing.”

What kind of thing? Their husbands spending all day obsessively plunging through the darkest regions of the internet for graphic sexual images of rape, abuse, perversion, exploitation and other forms of filthy depravity previously unknown to mankind?

Yeah. That kind of thing. No reason why any wife should be too upset about that, apparently.

Listen guys, I know this is an uncomfortable conversation. But it’s time we man up and get real about pornography. First things first: if you’re married and you look at porn, you are cheating. Period. From a Christian perspective, this can’t be debated. Christ laid it out very clearly: if you lust after another woman, you have committed adultery. When we look at porn we are choosing to succumb to that lust; we are indulging it, fertilizing it, giving it respite in our minds. We are diving into it headfirst and soaking in it like a sponge. We are lessening ourselves, betraying our wives and participating in the violent exploitation of women (and girls). Or minds and our bodies belong to the Lord and to our wives; pornography, therefore, intrudes on their domain. If we look at porn, we are adulterers. We are adulterers in all the worst ways.

We don’t even need to refer to Scripture to figure out the simple equation that porn equals adultery.

Why wouldn’t it?

Because you aren’t physically in contact with another woman?

So what? That’s merely a matter of semantics and circumstance. The absence of physical touch doesn’t automatically free you of the scarlet letter — if it did, ‘sexting’ with other women would be fair game, I suppose. How would you feel if you looked through your wife’s phone and found racy, sexually graphic text messages she’d sent to a man at her office? Would you be alright with it as long as she could prove she never had any physical contact with him? Or is that totally different because she knows the guy, whereas porn is anonymous and impersonal? See, we find ourselves constructing many arbitrary lines of distiniction when we are deteremined to rationalize behavior we instinctively know to be immoral and wrong.

But, OK, what if she didn’t know the guy? What if she was engaging in “fantasies” with men she never met? Imagine that, in your cyber travels, you stumbled upon a porn site featuring pictures and videos of a particularly alluring young female: your wife. How would that sit with you? Your wife selling digital sex all over the internet — how would you like that? It might cause a bit of a marital dispute, wouldn’t you say?

If you wouldn’t want your wife being a porn provider, you ought to understand why she wouldn’t want you to be a porn consumer. If you wouldn’t want her to invite and encourage other men to violate her in their minds, you ought to understand why she wouldn’t want you to accept the invitation to violate other women in your mind.

I don’t mean to concentrate only on married men. Porn is poison for everyone, married or not. And I’m not here to castigate you if you’ve stumbled. We live in a society that preys upon a man’s weaknesses, shoving sex into his face at hyper speed every day, all day, all of the time. This isn’t an excuse; just an attempt to put things into context. I won’t yell at a guy who fights a porn addiction anymore than I’d yell at a guy who fights a crack addiction. But at least the crack addict likely won’t encounter very many people (besides his dealer) who will tell him that it’s actually healthy to smoke crack. If he ventures outside of the abandoned shack where he scores his dope, he probably won’t find any respectable people who will say, “hey, crack isn’t a big deal — it’s totally natural to smoke crack, man!” In that way, the crack smoker has a leg up on the porn addict. The porn addict, by contrast, has to fight both the compulsion itself and the myriad of creeps who will try to convince him that it’s all just a bit of innocent fun.

That’s a lie, of course. It’s not innocent. It’s not fun.

I could cite for you the mounds of psychiatric research proving the detrimental effects of pornography on the brain. But you can do that research yourself.

I could tell you about sex slavery, human trafficking, drug abuse, and child molestation, and I could explain how the porn industry wouldn’t exist without these necessary ingredients. But these are conclusions you can draw on your own, if ever you take even a moment to think about it.

I could remind you that these women you find on your porn sites might not be women at all — they could be children — and there’s no way for you to know for sure. I could then point out that any avid porn customer has most likely at some point been a child porn customer, whether he knew it or not. But this is, indeed, an obvious and inescapable reality.

I could tell you that many children view graphic porn for the first time before the age of 12. I could tell you that we haven’t even begun to reap the atrocious fruits that will come from an entire generation raised on the heinous perversions of internet pornography. But it’s probably too late for these warnings.

So what is left? Perhaps nothing, really. Pornography is evil, empty, deadening, dirty — this is something we all know. That’s why, unless you are either psychotic or utterly despicable, you wouldn’t want your daughter to get into the porn business. That’s why most people hide their porn habits. That’s why it still isn’t considered acceptable to browse “adult” websites at your desk at work or at a table in Starbucks (although people still do, in both scenarios). That’s why you only find porn shops and strip clubs in the slummy, rundown parts of town. No matter how hedonistic and “open minded” we become, we still recognize porn as something that ought to be stowed away in the dank, dark corners of our lives. This is Natural Law, and we can’t escape it. We have an innate understanding of right and wrong, whether we want it or not.

Married men: I think we should be spending our free time with our families, or reading interesting books so that we can sharpen our minds, or building things, or exercising, or doing anything else that will make us better men. Porn will not make you a better man. It will make you smaller. It will make you a liar. It will kill that instinct inside you that calls you to protect and honor women. It will turn you into something you never wanted to be. It will turn you into a sneaky, shameful pervert. It will turn you into an adulterer.

Real men don’t look at pornography.

This post was written by Matt Walsh. To find his original post with comments, go here: http://themattwalshblog.com/2013/11/25/married-men-your-porn-habit-is-an-adultery-habit/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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The counselor who came to stay

11/26/2013

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Our life is a story. A rather long and complicated story that has unfolded over time. There are many scenes, large and small, and many "firsts." Your first step; your first word; your first day of school. There was your first best friend; your first recital; your first date; your first love; your first kiss; your first heartbreak. If you stop and think of it, your heart has lived through quite a story thus far. And over the course of that story your heart has learned many things. Some of what you learned is true; much of it is not. Not when it comes to the core questions about your heart and the heart of God. Is your heart good? Does your heart really matter? What has life taught you about that? Imagine for a moment that God is walking softly beside you. You sense his presence, feel his warm breath. He says, "Tell me your sorrows." What would you say in reply?

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16-17). Come again? How would you feel if your spouse or a friend said to you, "I think you need some counseling, and so I've arranged for it. You start tomorrow; it'll probably take years"? I've got five bucks that says you'd get more than a little defensive. The combination of our pride--I don't need any therapy, thank you very much--and the fact that it's become a profession--Freud and Prozac and all that—has kept most of us from realizing that, in fact, we do need counseling. All of us. Jesus sends us his Spirit as Counselor; that ought to make it clear. In fact, we apparently need quite a lot of counsel—the Spirit isn't just stopping in to give us a tune-up; not even an annual checkup. He has come to stay.

This post was taken from the book, Waking the Dead by John Eldredge

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BE A MAN.

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Is God waiting to punish you?

11/25/2013

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I know a Christian follower of Christ who tends to think that God is waiting around every corner, lurks behind every rock, in order to catch her making a mistake so that He can punish her. This poor woman thinks that the Lord actually does punish us according to our sins, even though Scripture teaches us the contrary: "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities." (Ps. 103:10 NRSV) That alone is great news! But the Psalmist continues: "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him" (Ps. 103:11). If one can fathom the depth of space between the heavens from the soil of the earth, God's love for His children is deeper still. That, too, is great news! But the Psalmist continues further: "as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us." (Ps. 103:12 NRSV) Considering that the east never meets the west, then our sins shall never again meet us in Christ.

I believe that we have barely scratched the surface of understanding and appreciating the love of God for us in Christ, or the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf, or the blessings bestowed upon us in and through Christ. God is not eager to punish us for our sins; God is eager to forgive us our sins. The Psalmist continues still further: "As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust." (Ps. 103:13-14 NRSV) Too often we forget that God is for us: and if "God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom. 8:31) In other words, if God the Almighty Creator of the universe -- holy and just in nature -- is for us, then who of any greater value is against us, and why would that even matter? There is no one greater than God. So if He is for us, then no matter who is against, we shall prevail.

I fear that too many of us believers and followers of Christ still operate within the framework of works instead of grace. We have no inherent power to save ourselves; no inherent power to warrant forgiveness; no inherent power to perform the necessary means of atonement; no inherent power to live sinlessly; no inherent resurrection power; no inherent power to obtain the love and grace and mercy of God -- we are powerless. "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." (Rom. 5:6) We need to acknowledge and to own our powerlessness.

The late Henri Nouwen, encouraging himself in his journal, writes: "Your willingness to let go of your desire to control your life reveals a certain trust. The more you relinquish your stubborn need to maintain power, the more you will get in touch with the One who has the power to heal and guide you. And the more you get in touch with that divine power, the easier it will be to confess to yourself and to others your basic powerlessness." Did not the apostle Paul confess the same exact idea?

To the Roman Christians the apostle confessed our weakness and ineptitude at saving ourselves (Rom. 5:6); and to the Corinthian Christians he expounded upon the concept of weakness: "So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." (2 Cor. 12:9) People make many boasts, but usually they are of the nature of strength and ability. Paul, however, boasted of his powerlessness.

Again, Nouwen writes, "One way you keep holding on to an imaginary power is by expecting something from outside gratifications or future events."

I just read that sentence today, and I had to read and re-read it again a few more times. I sensed a profound truth in it, concerning myself, but I couldn't fully grasp the connection. Then I understood that the "outside gratifications or future events" were themselves "an imaginary power" that were hindering me emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.

Nouwen continues:
"As long as you run from where you are and distract yourself, you cannot fully let yourself be healed. A seed flourishes by staying in the ground in which it is sown. When you keep digging the seed up to check whether it is growing, it will never bear fruit. Think about yourself as a little seed planted in rich soil. All you have to do is stay there and trust that the soil contains everything you need to grow. This growth takes place even when you do not feel it. Be quiet, acknowledge your powerlessness, and have faith that one day you will know how much you have received."

I never had the power to force God to love me, to forgive me, to grow me. If I looked to others for personal or spiritual affirmation -- "outside gratifications" -- or some future event, such as a career, or a church office, or some other achievement in order to gain a sense of worth or approval, then all I have truly accomplished is a failed attempt at catching the wind. Either God redemptively loves me within His own self -- some attribute that derives from His nature -- or I remain powerless and hopeless for all eternity. No, God is not waiting to punish me or to punish you, brother and sister. Christ Jesus has already taken our punishment -- bearing upon Himself the wrath of God on our behalf on the cross of Calvary. If only I could convince that poor woman of these truths.

This post was written by William Birch. You can find the original post here: http://classicalarminian.blogspot.com/2013/11/is-god-waiting-to-punish-you-believer.html

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Sunday Meditation

11/24/2013

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Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

We may experience abandonment from a spouse who turns away from us to their addiction of choice. We may experience feeling like we have been rejected by friends. We may struggle with memories of parents who were not compassionate with us.

Or memories of parents who 'forgot' us in one way or another.

And so we say to God: "You will abandon and reject and forget me like all the others!"

Sometimes these experiences are so familiar that we expect them from anyone we want to be close to, including God. It is a terrible fear to live with. It creates deep distress.

God responds to our distress with words of reassurance. We are not always able to take in reassurance that is offered to us. But there are times when it can feel like a drink of cool water to our parched throats.

God says "I am not like all the rest. I will not forget you. Even if your parents forgot you, or your spouse turns away, or your friends leave, I will not forget you. I have tattooed you on the palms of my hand".

I will not forget you.

It may not be easy for us to comprehend, but it is very clear. God says; "I will not forget you."

I need reassurance, Lord.
I want to believe
that you will remember.
But I have been forgotten before.
I know you are not like that.
I know it in my head.
But my heart forgets so easily.
Reassure me, today, Lord
of your unfailing love.

Amen

Copyright Dale and Juanita Ryan
National Association for Christian Recovery

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Another Hollywood Christian

11/23/2013

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Actor Sean Astin has had a long-standing career in Hollywood. From starring as Mikey in “The Goonies” to his role as Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, he has entertained and inspired audiences for decades. In a new interview with Beliefnet’s John W. Kennedy, Astin recently discussed his career, his faith and a Christian movie he recently filmed called “Mom’s Night Out.”

It may come as a surprise to some that Astin, who has said in the past that he doesn’t wear his faith on his sleeve, is religious. But a close look at his career and his public comments corroborate this very fact. In his discussion with Kennedy, Astin described his faith journey in detail and didn’t hesitate to call himself a faithful Christian.

He detailed his fascinating faith journey — one that encapsulated experiences with Buddhism, Judaism, Catholicism, agnosticism and Protestantism (they all touched him in some way). Today, Astin is a Lutheran, having been officially baptized along with his wife at a church in Indiana. But growing up, his stepfather, actor John Astin, was a Buddhist and his birth father was Jewish.

Beyond that, his mother, actress Patty Duke, is a Catholic — at least nominally. When Kennedy asked about this dynamic, the entertainer was candid:

“Well, it depends on when you ask her and who you ask. I think today she would probably consider herself a Catholic. She’s had a really kind of tortured relationship [with the Church]. I [remember] when my sister died. There’s this group of nuns that lived in a convent nearby. She insisted that they be there. So, you know, when you talk about self identifying versus how people practice versus the culture versus all these kinds of things I think my mom is a feels very comfortable with her Catholicism.”

In a previous interview with Sherry Huang (also published on Beliefnet), Astin was asked about his favorite prayer. He cited a Democratic National Committee member named Ron Dugger, who had once set up a meeting between the actor and then-Sen. John Kerry at a time during which Astin was politically active.

“There’s a guy named Rob Dugger who was a very senior member of the Democratic National Committee. [A]fter I’d met with John Kerry, [Rob had] arranged a meeting and this [was] at the height of my trying to grapple with what I was able to accomplish–and not–on a political level,”Astin told Huang. “We just had this conversation, and I asked him that question. [H]e said every morning he wakes up and he says a prayer, ‘Allow me to be an instrument of Your will.’”

Astin said the prayer really resonated with him and that he has uttered it “a few thousand times” since first hearing it.

It seems the actor has put his money where his mouth is, too. While he generally doesn’t shout his faith from mountaintops, Astin actively participates in projects, both in the faith and Hollywood realms, that tout positive, Christian values.

Consider the fact that he provided the voice of Matthew in the “Truth and Life Dramatized Audio New Testament” a few years back. Catholic Online described the project as “a dramatic and powerful audio recording of the Bible that brings the Word to life using the Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) text.”

“For people who care about the Bible as revealed truth, this is a gateway to make it accessible to them and I’m proud to be associated with that,” he told the outlet of the project.

Astin also shared a personal story in the 2011 interview, showcasing the importance that the Bible — and this particular project — have in his own life:

“The other day I was with my daughter and she has a middle school chapel service. When she got out, I was asking her questions about the passages they were looking at. At first she couldn’t remember so I downloaded a Bible program onto my iPhone and we were scrolling through it, just riding in the car!

“If you pass muster and people make it to a second CD, you know it’s really important to them. When anyone is listening, you are purveying revealed truth to people and it carries a real responsibility. You have to decide whether you want to do that whether you want participate in that.

“I don’t actually walk around wearing my faith on my sleeve or anything but I went to Catholic school for three years. You get to certain passages about the Last Supper or the Crucifixion and I’ve heard them a lot in church and they were spoken by a priest.

“And now the words that were being uttered by a priest to a congregation are coming through my eyes and sound! These massive ideas are being poured out and it gives you goose bumps sometimes. You’re portraying revealed truth!”

All this considered, his new movie, too, is faith-based in nature. “Mom’s Night Out” is described as “an endearing, true-to-life family comedy.” It centers upon a few mothers who want to go out for an evening of fun. With their husbands left to care for the kids, chaos and comedy unfold.

The film, set to be released in 2014, is produced by Andrew and Jon Erwin, the filmmaking brothers who also brought forth the successful pro-life movie “October Baby.” For more about Astin, be sure to visit his official website.

For the original post, go to: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/07/hollywood-actor-opens-up-about-his-christian-faith/

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Top 5 reasons a church ends up in court

11/22/2013

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A review of 12,000 court rulings from 2012 reveals the most-common reasons that American churches were taken to court last year.

Legal expert Richard Hammar compiled the rulings and analyzed which types are rising and falling for Church Law and Tax, CT's sister publication. His top five categories:

5) Zoning (5.4% of cases)

Most involve RLUIPA, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. CT regularly reports on RLUIPA, including how the law's property and prisoner protections have diverged since 2000 and how the struggling economy has recently affected churches' battles to build.

4) Property disputes (6.8% of cases)

Such cases have seemed unending, thanks to mainline fragmentation. CT has reported how experts debate whether recent rulings are setting precedents for breakaway churches.

3) Insurance coverage disputes (7.3% of cases)

Recent examples: An insurance company sued an Oregon church over its treatment of sex offenders, while an Indiana church went bankrupt trying to finance building upgrades by taking out insurance policies on elderly members.

2) Nonsexual personal injuries (7.6% of cases)

Recent examples: Parents in Kentucky sued a church after their son was killed because a youth pastor let him drive, and a teen's injuries on a skiing trip led to a multi-million-dollar judgment against a Florida church, prompting churches to reevaluate risk policies.

1) Sexual abuse of minors (13.6% of cases)

CT unfortunately regularly covers such cases, which Hammar says have topped his list for seven of the past eight years.

Hammar explains which categories have changed the most and offers resources at Church Law and Tax.

This post was written by K Tracy of Christianity Today. You can find the original post here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/november/top-five-reasons-your-church-could-land-in-court.html

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Why people leave a church

11/21/2013

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Numbers of gifted persons and organizations have studied the phenomenon of the church “back door,” the metaphorical way we describe people leaving the church. And there will always be the anticipated themes of relocation or personal crises. We should recognize those issues, though we can respond to the latter more than the former.

But all the research studies of which I am aware, including my own, return to one major theme to explain the exodus of church members: a sense of some need not being filled. In other words, these members have ideas of what a local congregation should provide for them, and they leave because those provisions have not been met.

Certainly we recognize there are many legitimate claims by church members of unfulfilled expectations. It can undoubtedly be the fault of the local congregation and its leaders.

But many times, probably more than we would like to believe, a church member leaves a local body because he or she has a sense of entitlement. I would therefore suggest that the main reason people leave a church is because they have an entitlement mentality rather than a servant mentality.

Look at some of the direct quotes from exit interviews of people who left local congregations:

“The worship leader refused to listen to me about the songs and music I wanted.”
“The pastor did not feed me.”
“No one from my church visited me.”
“I was not about to support the building program they wanted.”
“I was out two weeks and no one called me.”
“They moved the times of the worship services and it messed up my schedule.”
“I told my pastor to go visit my cousin and he never did.”

Please hear me clearly. Church members should expect some level of ministry and concern. But, for a myriad of reasons beyond the scope of this one blogpost, we have turned church membership into country club membership. You pay your dues and you are entitled to certain benefits.

The biblical basis of church membership is clear in Scripture. The Apostle Paul even uses the “member” metaphor to describe what every believer should be like in a local congregation. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Paul describes church members not by what they should receive in a local church, but by the ministry they should give.

The solution to closing the back door, at least a major part of the solution, is therefore to move members from an entitlement mentality to a servant mentality. Of course, it is easy for me to write about it, but it is a greater challenge to effect it.

May I then offer a few steps of a more practical nature to help close the back door by changing the membership mentality? Here are five:

Inform church members. Though I do not have precise numbers, I would conjecture that more than one-half of church members do not have a biblical understanding about church membership. Providing that information in a new members’ class can move an entire congregation toward a servant mentality.
Raise the bar of expectations. We have dumbed down church membership in many congregations to where it has little meaning. Clarify expectations of members. Again, doing so in the context of a new members’ class is a great way to begin.
Mentor members. Take two or three members and begin to mentor them to become biblical church members. After a season, ask them to mentor two or three as well. Let the process grow exponentially.
Train members. Almost 100 percent of pastors agree that their role is to train and equip members. But almost three-fourths of these pastors have no plans on how they will train them (see Ephesians 4:11-13). I will address this issue more fully on my blog next Wednesday.
Encourage people to be in small groups. Those in Sunday school classes and small groups are more likely to be informed and functioning church members. In others words, there is a much greater likelihood of a member with a servant mentality to be in a small group than not.

What are you doing in your church to close the back door? What are you doing to move members from an entitlement mentality to a servant mentality?

Thom S Rainer wrote this post. You can find his original post at: http://thomrainer.com/2013/01/21/the-main-reason-people-leave-a-church/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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