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I Am a Church Member
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I am a church member.
I will seek to be a source of unity in the church. I know there are no perfect pastors, staff, or other church members. But neither am I. I will not be a source of gossip or dissension. One of the greatest contributions I can make is to do all I can in God’s power to help keep the church in unity for the sake of the gospel.
I am a church member.
I will not let my church be about my preferences and desires. That is self-serving. I am in this church to serve others and to serve Christ. My Savior went to a cross for me. I can deal with any inconveniences and matters that are just not my preference or style.
I am a church member.
I will pray for my pastor every day. His work is never-ending. His days are filled with constant demands for his time; with the need to prepare sermons; with those who are rejoicing in births; with those who are traveling through the valley of the shadow of death; with critics; with the hurts and hopes of others; and with the need to be a husband and a father. My pastor cannot serve our church in his own power. I will pray for God’s strength for him and his family every day.
I am a church member.
I like the metaphor of membership. It’s not membership as in a civic organization or a country club. It’s the kind of membership given to us in 1 Corinthians 12: “Now you are the body of Christ and individual members of it” (I Corinthians 12:27). Because I am a member of the body of Christ, I must be a functioning member, whether I am an “eye,” an “ear,” or a “hand.” As a functioning member, I will give. I will serve. I will minister. I will evangelize. I will study. I will seek to be a blessing to others. I will remember that “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26).
I am a church member.
I will lead my family to be good members of this church as well. We will pray together for our church. We will worship together in our church. We will serve together in our church. And we will ask Christ to help us fall deeper in love with this church, because He gave His life for her.
I am a church member.
This membership is a gift. When I received the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, I became a part of the body of Christ. I soon thereafter identified with a local body and was baptized. And now I am humbled and honored to serve and to love others in our church. I pray that I will never take my membership for granted, but see it as a gift and an opportunity to serve others, and to be a part of something so much greater than any one person or member.
I am a church member.
And I thank God that I am.
By Thom S. Rainer ( http://www.thomrainer.com/2012/01/i-am-a-church-member.php )
The distorting of the human sex ratio
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http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/distorting-human-sex-ratio
The distorting of the human sex ratio
The gradual distortion of the human sex ratio by sex-selective abortion. A new essay by the demographer Nicholas Eberstadt concludes that “the practice has become so ruthlessly routine in many contemporary societies that it has impacted their very population structures.” He finds “ample room for cautious pessimism” in the fact that this phenomenon is still very much on the increase.
For obscure reasons, the human sex ratio is always slightly male-biased, but in the natural state it rarely goes above 105 male births per 100 female ones, except in small samples. In China’s last mini-census in 2005, the ratio was Read More→
Today Jim Elliot Was Killed (1956)
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Pete Fleming, Palm Beach
Today in 1956, five missionaries to the Auca indians in Ecuador were killed. Their deaths brought a sudden end to the project they called “Operation Auca,” but the tragedy became a defining moment in the history of evangelical missions. Hundreds of young people were inspired to take up missionary work, thousands were moved to deeper commitment to Christ, and millions of dollars in resources were mobilized. And the work with the Aucas went on, too.
In the headline, I name only Jim Elliot, the most famous of the group. While the other four men on the team (Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian) were all important to the work and have all received commemoration and attention (they all have Wikipedia pages, if that’s a good index of status in 2009), Elliot has somehow stood out from the group. Why? It may be that Elliot had that certain something as part of his personality, a charisma or magnetism or star power. But I think there’s another reason: Read More→
They’d heard of Kobe, but not of Christ
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By Caroline Anderson ( http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/field-blog/theyd-heard-of-kobe-but-not-of-christ )
“Have any of you heard of Jesus?” Christian Bell* asked the group of children who formed a tight circle around him.
Confused looks were his only answer.
“Have you ever heard of Jesus, He’s God’s Son,” Bell rephrased his question.
The name didn’t ring a bell.
Bell had traveled all day, crossing a river on a raft and walking the rest of the way to reach this remote village in East Asia. Read More→
Chinese county imposes liquor ban on civil servants
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Sometimes people from the West will take an over-simplified, black-and-white, stereotypical view China’s leaders, both local and national. The reality is, it’s complicated and it wold be very foolish to just try and paint ALL Chinese leaders with one brush. Just like in any government, there are good leaders and bad, honest and corrupt, skilled and inept.
I’m not an apologist for the Chinese government, but I do recognize that there are some leaders who really are trying to do the right thing. The article sited below is an example of civil leaders making an unpopular decision to try and improve the integrity of the local government.
Please be in prayer for the leadership of Yueyang, that those who lead will do so with integrity and courage. Pray that leaders who, maybe secretly, follow Jesus would become bold and savvy communicators of the Gospel message to their fellow leaders! Read More→
Why Cities?
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In 1800, only about five percent of people lived in cities. A century later this had risen to about fifteen percent. By 1975, the percentage of urban dwellers in our world had risen to forty-one percent. Estimates are that by 2050 almost 80% of the world will live in urban areas. In Asia the present growth rate will produce by the year 2000 at least fourteen cities with a population of over ten million – three of these exist already in India, namely Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, and Calcutta. There will be thirty-two cities with over five million citizens and more than a hundred with over a million inhabitants. In India, cities like Madras, Hyderabad, and Bangalore already have climbed over five million in population, and they are numerous more cities over or near a million in population. It is true that India is primarily a rural society; however, the cities are growing and will continue to grow. There needs to be a concerted effort and a strategy on the part of the church to penetrate these spiritual strongholds of Satan.
We live in an urban world. However, only about nine percent of evangelical Christians live in the cities of a million or more inhabitants. Read More→
Beautiful Things
Posted by: | CommentsAs you think about and pray for the people of Yueyang, please also consider how you might make a tangible impact on the lostness in this place.
The Heart of God — Are We There Yet?
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“The command has been to “go,” but we have stayed — in body, gifts, prayer and influence.”
- Robert Savage
“Are We There Yet?”
Posted by: | CommentsToday, we can identify the people groups that remain untouched by the Gospel. For the first time, it is conceivable that all people groups can be reached in the coming years with a Gospel presence. According to IMB’s 2009 statistical data* there were 506,019 baptisms, 204,192 churches. Church membership overseas was at 10.7 million, and there were 24,650 new churches.
Yes, there is still a long way to go, but progress is being made every day.
Now is the time to also take a fresh look at the challenges ahead and be ready to finish the task. With 45,560 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, there is much work to be done.
- 4,743 people groups are not engaged at all with the Gospel
- 6,426 unreached people groups (those with less than 2 percent of people who profess to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ)
- 1.7 billion with little or no access to the Gospel
- 1.5 billion Muslims – 22 percent of the world’s population
- 950 million Hindus in the world
- Christian witness among China cities less than 1 percent
- 3 percent evangelical believers among Ethiopia’s 82 million people
- 355 million in South America do not know Christ
- Less than 1 percent Christian among more than 270 million living in the Central Asia region
- 650,000 Lezghi in the Causcasus Mountains fear evil spirits
- 97 percent of all Palestinians are Muslim
- 89 percent of North African and Middle Eastern people groups are unreached
- 311 people groups in India have no known evangelical believers
- Only 1,600 believers among 1.6 million Muong of Northern Vietnam
Chinese fear aging process: Survey
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(China Daily)People in China are among the most fearful of getting old, a new global survey suggests. According to Bupa, a British healthcare organization, which asked 12,262 people in 12 countries about their attitudes toward aging, 28 percent of the Chinese polled said they feel depressed when they think about getting old. About 30 percent of Chinese respondents said they worry about who will look after them in later years, while 91 percent agreed the government of the world’s most populous nation should improve care for the elderly. About one third of Chinese respondents – more than double the global average – said they have put money aside for retirement, while 46 percent have taken out insurance, the poll showed.
As China moves into the next couple of decades, it is entering uncharted territory. It is safe to say that the traditional system from China’s past of children caring for their elderly parents is rapidly eroding. Many feel the government is not prepared, nor adequately concerned, about the gravity of this social shift.
Please pray for Yueyang’s older citizens. Ask that men and women who are followers of Christ will step-up and help meet the needs of this recently neglected part of Chinese society. Pray that expressions of self-less and Christlike love will help draw men and women of all ages to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ!