Faith & Ethics
You may think that setting boundaries are an essential part of life and may be very good at it in your daily life. However, the boundaries might be a bit harder to manage in a Christian ministry context. Perhaps you are a Youth Minister/Leader, Pastor, Sunday School Teacher. Perhaps you are just Joe Pewsitter Layman. Even if you are not officially in a leadership position, you may be doing ministry. Let’s look at it this way. Joe is sitting in church, has his hymnal out, ready for the service to begin. He looks at the pew in front of him and sees a young mother (Mary) and her child. He has never seen them before. She looks a bit uncomfortable, that is she looks like she’s a first time visitor. Joe greets her and finding out she is goes ahead and gives her guidance so she can fully participate in the service. After the service, Joe makes an effort to make her feel welcome in the church, whether it be just a chat in the nave or a visit to a local coffee shop. Ask Joe if he is in ministry, he’d quickly respond no, he’s just being friendly. Yet, I’d disagree…for Mary he ministered for her needs to be welcomed and accepted into a church. Perhaps the quick greeting, welcoming moment they shared will develop into a relationship where Joe and Mary become friends, cementing Mary’s connection to the church where she can grow.
Continue reading about When is it OK to set boundaries in Christian ministry?
In reading the reading for today from my bible reading plan, I was drawn to Leviticus 19. I’ll admit that I usually skip reading this book, since it seems so foreign to us. That is one of the main reasons that I chose to do a bible reading plan. I am glad that I did.
We know that Exodus and Deuteronomy have the ten commandments, but what I had forgotten – for it has been a long time since I read Leviticus, is what is in chapter 19. Titled in my study bible as “A Call to Holiness”, it reminds me of the way God wants me to live my life. I am reminded of a number of things…
Something that was shared with me by a friend:
He has another video that is pretty good too.
Some statistics that were emailed to me…
Where are all the men?
You’re not just imagining it: Christianity is short on men. Here are the facts:
An interesting article on the role of men in our church. from Touchstone Magazine.
There is one critical factor. It is overwhelming, and it is this: It is the religious practice of the father of the family that, above all, determines the future attendance at or absence fr
om church of the children.
If both father and mother attend regularly, 33 percent of their children will end up as regular churchgoers, and 41 percent will end up attending irregularly. Only a quarter of their children will end up not practicing at all. If the father is irregular and mother regular, only 3 percent of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, while a further 59 percent will become irregulars. Thirty-eight percent will be lost.
I saw a link to a blog about a thurible swinging at http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/11/how-to-swing-a-thurible/ and then found this on YouTube. I like the one on the blog better, but it can’t be linked here so go over there and watch it! Pope Benedict appears to be in that one…
Sometimes I think that it is hard to take Pastor Fisk seriously with his wacky Worldview Everlasting videos…but then I listen to what he has to say. He has a style where you can listen to him, in a non-threatening way, with a tongue-in-cheek method of presenting, a solidly confessional message. I’m amazed at his creativity and eagerly look forward to his next episode. Check him out, follow him, and listen. He truly is a gem in the Lutheran church. He’s Revfiskj on YouTube…. He really does a nice job on addressing sexual sins.
So, there is a lot in the news about Patient Zeta. People say that porn is an industry that doesn’t hurt people and that it is OK to support porn. I travel past a porn shop on my way to my church bible study and there always seem to be cars in there. So it MUST be good right and salutary??? Patient Zeta, who is really Derrick Burts (a.k.a. Derek Chambers in gay porn and Cameron Reid in straight porn) indicates that during his first month in the porn industry he got chlamydia, gonorrhea, and herpes. Hmmm…then he goes on to do gay porn cuz “he always wanted to do it” and he “enjoys gay porn more” (about 3 minutes into a YouTube video from his gay porn director which is not cited as it is not family friendly) Let’s see, less than a month and five gay porn shoots, he finds out that he contracted HIV and was devastated. How could this happen to him when he is working in such a safe industry??? Oh my!
Continue reading about Ohhhh Baby…Thoughts on Patient Zeta – Who is to blame?
Ok, so everyone (well many people) have heard of e-sword. Well, there is a version for Ubuntu/Linux called Xiphos. It is really cool as it has a few Lutheran resources…in addition to the ESV Bible used in our church, users will find Luther’s Galations commentary, The Book of Concord, and The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel. An excellent choice.
Look for it at http://www.xiphos.org/. Oh, they support Windows, Fedora 8-10, Debian and Ubuntu, and SuSE.
