Monday, June 15, 2009

Summer


Summer is one of my favorite times of the year, for one I love the warm weather. It might also help that my birthday is in the summerJ, and then there are vacations. Vacations seem to be one of those things that we wait all year for then after the vacation is over we need a few days to recover from the vacation.

I hope everyone is having a great summer. For some of you who went home for the summer we can’t wait to see you again in the fall. Others who came back for the summer we hope you will get involved and have a great couple of months.

Have a great summer and put some sun block on!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Barna's study on Americans belief system


A new nationwide survey of adults’ spiritual beliefs, conducted by The Barna Group, suggests that Americans who consider themselves to be Christian have a diverse set of beliefs – but many of those beliefs are contradictory or, at least, inconsistent.
The survey explored beliefs about spiritual beings, the influence of faith on their life, views of the Bible, and reactions to faiths other than their own.
Views on Spiritual Beings
The Barna survey asked questions about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Satan, and demons.
All 1,871 self-described Christians were asked about their perception of God. In total, three-quarters (78%) said he is the “all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who rules the world today.” The remaining one-quarter chose other descriptions of God – depictions that are not consistent with biblical teaching (e.g., everyone is god, god refers to the realization of human potential, etc.).
For the other survey items a four-point opinion scale was used to measure people’s reactions to statements about each spiritual entity.
Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective. A minority of Christians indicated that they believe Satan is real by disagreeing with the statement: one-quarter (26%) disagreed strongly and about one-tenth (9%) disagreed somewhat. The remaining 8% were not sure what they believe about the existence of Satan.
Although a core teaching of the Christian faith is the divinity and perfection of Jesus Christ, tens of millions of Christians do not accept that teaching. More than one-fifth (22%) strongly agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth, with an additional 17% agreeing somewhat. Holding the opposing view were 9% who disagreed somewhat and 46% who disagreed strongly. Six percent did not have an opinion on this matter.
Much like their perceptions of Satan, most Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force, either. Overall, 38% strongly agreed and 20% agreed somewhat that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.” Just one-third of Christians disagreed that the Holy Spirit is not a living force (9% disagreed somewhat, 25% disagreed strongly) while 9% were not sure.
A majority of Christians believe that a person can be under the influence of spiritual forces, such as demons or evil spirits. Two out of three Christians agreed that such influence is real (39% agreed strongly, 25% agreed somewhat), while just three out of ten rejected the influence of supernatural forces (18% disagreed strongly, 10% disagreed somewhat). The remaining 8% were undecided on this matter.

Influence of Faith
Most self-described Christians contend that their religious faith has significantly impacted their life. Almost six out of ten adults (59%) said their faith had “greatly transformed” their life, while 29% said their faith “has been helpful but has not greatly transformed” their life and 9% stated that their religious faith “has not made much of a difference” in who they are and how they live.
Christians were asked if they believed that a person must either side with God or with the devil – that there is no in-between position. A large majority strongly agreed with the notion (61%) while an additional 15% agreed somewhat. Just one out of ten adults disagreed somewhat (10%) and a similar proportion (11%) disagreed strongly. Surprisingly few adults (3%) did not have an opinion on this matter.
A large majority of Christians also proclaimed that the most important purpose in their life is to “love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul,” a notion drawn directly from the Bible (Mark 12:29-30). In total, three out of four self-described Christians (74%) strongly affirmed that idea, while 15% more agreed somewhat with the statement. Just 4% strongly disagreed and 7% somewhat disagreed with the statement. Three percent said they were not sure.
Thoughts on Other Faiths
Among self-identified Christians, few held a positive opinion of Wicca. Overall, just 5% had a positive opinion while 55% had a negative opinion of Wicca. However, a huge segment (40%) did not know enough about Wicca to have formed an opinion of it, despite it being described to them as “an organized form of witchcraft.”
Survey respondents were asked whether they believed that Mormons are Christians. Mormons themselves claim to be Christian, but most evangelical leaders say that they are not. There was no clear-cut perspective among the self-described Christians: four out of ten felt Mormons were Christian (18% strongly agreed, 21% somewhat agreed), three out of ten disagreed (17% strongly, 12% somewhat), and three out of ten were not sure what to think.
When asked whether it was important to them to have “active, healthy relationships with people who belong to religious faiths that do not accept the central beliefs of your faith,” about two-thirds of the self-professed Christians claimed it was important. Thirty-six percent agreed strongly with the notion, and 29% agreed somewhat, while 11% disagreed strongly and 16% disagreed somewhat. The other 8% did not have an opinion.

Views on the Bible
A slight majority of Christians (55%) strongly agree that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches, with another 18% agreeing somewhat. About one out of five either disagree strongly (9%) or somewhat (13%) with this statement, and 5% aren’t sure what to believe.
There is no similar clarity among self-defined Christians regarding how the Bible compares to other holy books. When faced with the statement that “the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths,” the group was evenly split between those who accepted the idea (19% agreed strongly, 22% agreed somewhat) and those who rejected it (28% disagreed strongly, 12% disagreed somewhat), while leaving a sizeable portion (20%) undecided.

Inconsistencies Noted
The study also identified a number of instances in which people’s beliefs seemed inconsistent. Among those were the following:
About half (47%) of the Christians who believed that Satan is merely a symbol of evil nevertheless agreed that a person can be under the influence of spiritual forces such as demons.
About half (49%) of those who agreed that the Holy Spirit is only a symbol but not a living entity also agreed that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches, even though the Bible clearly describes the Holy Spirit as more than a symbolic reference to God’s power or presence.
About one-third (33%) of the self-defined Christians who agree that the Bible, Koran and Book of Mormon all teach the same truths simultaneously contend that the Bible is totally accurate in its principles, even though the three sacred books have very different ideas about truth, salvation, and the nature of God.

How Born Agains Differ
The study examined how one segment of the Christian population – those whose beliefs about salvation categorize them as “born again” – differ from the beliefs of people who describe themselves as Christian but do not base their view of salvation solely on confession of sin and God’s grace received through Jesus Christ. (The Barna Group has labeled the latter group “notional Christians.”) For each of the 13 questions examined in the study, there were statistically significant differences between these two segments of the Christian population. Among the most significant gaps in belief were the following:
Born again adults are at least twice as likely as notionals to strongly agree that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches; that their life has been greatly transformed by their faith; that a person can be under the influence of spiritual forces such as demons; and to hold an unfavorable opinion of Wicca.
Born again adults are more than twice as likely as notionals to strongly disagree that Satan is just a symbol of evil, and that Jesus sinned while He lived on earth.
Born again adults are more than three times as likely as notionals to strongly disagree that the Holy Spirit is merely a symbol of God’s power or presence; that Mormons are Christians; and that the Bible, Koran and Book of Mormon teach the same truths.
Born again adults are one-third more likely than notionals to possess a definition of God as the omniscient, omnipotent creator and ruler of the world; nearly 60% more likely to believe that you either side with God or Satan because there is no in-between position; and slightly more than 50% more likely to say their chief purpose in life is to love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul. The smallest difference between the two segments related to the importance of having active relationships with people who reject the central tenets of the person’s faith. Born again adults were slightly more likely to strongly agree that such relationships were important to them (39% versus 31%).

Americans Are Struggling to Make Sense of Their Faith
George Barna, the author of nearly four dozen books analyzing research concerning America’s faith, suggested that Americans are constantly trying to figure out how to make sense of biblical teachings in light of their daily experiences.
“Most Americans, even those who say they are Christian, have doubts about the intrusion of the supernatural into the natural world. Hollywood has made evil accessible and tame, making Satan and demons less worrisome than the Bible suggests they really are. It’s hard for achievement-driven, self-reliant, independent people to believe that their lives can be impacted by unseen forces. At the same time, through sheer force of repetition, many Americans intellectually accept some ideas – such as the fact that you either side with God or Satan, there’s no in-between – that do not get translated into practice.”
Barna also noted that Christians tend to be open to co-existence with other faiths. “Most people understand that America’s religious life is diverse,” explained the author of a forthcoming book about the nation’s faith segments, The Seven Faith Tribes. “A majority of Christians are generally open to maintaining relationships with people of other faiths, and most are not predisposed to judging people of different faiths, such as Mormons or Wiccans. But that open-mindedness is sometimes due to their limited knowledge about the principles of their own faith and ignorance about other faiths as it is to a purposeful acceptance of other faiths.”

Monday, April 13, 2009

Who's Talking




LEADERSHIP IS 90% VISION AND 100% EXECUTION
“I think getting up in the morning is more exciting when you’re nervous. If you’re not nervous, you’re dead… .It’s time to change your life or your work the moment you stop having butterflies in your stomach.” – Warren Bennis
It takes guts to start something… when entering a STARTUP ministry strong leadership is the only key to survival. Leadership at it’s core is vision. If it is too big- and don’t deliver- you may loose credibility to your team and tribe. If it is too small- you will create a frustrated team, and loose the ability to unleash people into what they are designed to do.
If certainty and stability breed complacency and mediocrity, then change and challenge is necessary to breed leadership. Leaders bring about change they initiate, they innovate, they make things happen, they disturb the status quo! Why? Because leaders bring about change and what leaders want to change must get talked about..!
“If the marketplace isn’t talking about you, there’s a reason. If people aren’t discussing your products, your services, your cause, your movement or your career, there’s a reason. The reason is that you’re boring.” – Seth Godin, You’re boring
The vision and actions taken by leaders should generate the kind of emotional engagement that provokes conversation. Leaders are responsible for shaping and organisations conversation and the quality of an organisation’s conversation is the leadership’s responsibility. The quality of the conversation can be directly correlated with the quality of the organisation’s leadership. Using conversation deliberately means that we need to think carefully about how we will craft conversation and how we can use it purposefully.
“A leader’s job is to engineer epiphanies one conversation at a time.” - Susan Scott
Consider the following:
If you’re not waking up nervous, then you’re not getting talked about!
If you’re not disturbing the status quo, then you’re not getting talked about!
Is your purpose, cause and vision getting talked about? If not…. you don’t matter!




A friend of mine posted this on his blog and I thought it was so good all of you needed to read it. Thanks Ryan

Monday, April 6, 2009

The end of Christian America?


There was an intersting article in Newsweek about Christianity in America. I definitely have my opinions on the article but I would love to hear yours. http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583

Monday, March 30, 2009

Does Satan Exist?


Check out this link http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaceOff/ Nightline had a debate on does Satan exist. It really turns into a debate on your world view and is the Bible true, Interesting stuff.

Monday, March 23, 2009

spring


Spring is here and that can only mean 2 things, 1 REAL starts in a few weeks and 2 it is Tornado season. If the sirens go off and you don't see me for a few weeks don't worry I am hiding in my basement.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Dog Tired

This morning I was feeling a little tired and I saw this picture and it made me laugh so I decided to share it with all of you. There are always seasons in our life that or more busy then others and if you’re like me when I get real busy I just bare down that much harder and just try to keep on grinding. Now there are times in our life when we just have to grind to get the job done, but we need to make sure we always keep everything in perspective. It is far too easy to put God off and say tomorrow I will pray or tomorrow I will read my Bible. Tomorrow I will make that phone call to a loved one and let them know I was thinking about them. When our lives get busy our vision of what truly is most important gets skewed.

Don’t forget what is truly important even in the busy times, because lets just be honest life will always be busy so make sure to keep your priorities in order. If you don’t then you will wake up one day having accomplished all your goals but have lost what is truly important.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Why the name REAL?

  • About 4% of teenagers 13-18 actually have a relationship with God in America today.
  • Over 70% of teenagers that actually attend church drop out by the ages between 18-22
  • 52% of USA claims a protestant church that’s 157 million people only 28% or 85 million actually attend that church
  • We are following the trends of Western Europe. Less then 5% of the population in most European Countries actually steps foot in a church except for funerals.
  • 1990-2004 The USA population rose by more then 18% in the same time church attendance declined by 3%.
  • Percentage of loss for age categories in the church
    16-17 -15%
    17-18 -24%
    18-19 -29%

    The reason why we have chosen the name REAL is because people are looking for something different, something authentic, some REAL. As you can see from the stats above young adults have rejected church and at the same time rejected God. Young adults are looking for something that impacts there every day life, something they can’t live without. We believe that God is essential to your life and so is the church. You disagree? Well we are excited to help you discover that for yourself.

Monday, March 16, 2009

I just met with a young adult who is looking to connect with other people just like him. It seems like as you get older it is easier to get more disconnected and lose that all important community. I was excited that I was able to share with him about REAL and he was excited about the opportunity to come and get involved. REAL is going to be a place where you can connect with God and other people just like you, I can’t wait for it to start.

REAL

We are a community for Young Adults to come be REAL and meet and learn about a REAL God whole loves and knows the REAL you. You don’t have to dress a certain way, talk a certain way, or have everything together. You just have to come and let down your guard and be ready to have a experience where you will learn, love, connect, and be encouraged.