The church in America has become like a bear fed by tourists, Ed Stetzer said, because of so-called seekers willing to return to church to recapture their childhood religious memories.
"What happens when you feed the bear is eventually it can't fend for itself. I think the people of the church have to learn to fend for themselves by going out and proclaiming the gospel, not counting on a really cool church to preach the gospel for them." - Ed Stetzer
Church
Planned Parenthood
With government grants and reimbursements funding nearly half its budget, Planned Parenthood (PP) logged a record number of abortions in 2011. The organization’s latest annual report, released January 4, revealed the unwelcome figures: 333,964 – Abortions PP performed in 201111% – Proportion of clients PP says received abortions that year915 – Abortions per day, or
Christianity and Religion
One in five American adults (20%) say they do not identify with any religion, up from 15 percent five years ago. But of those 45 million people, 68 percent say they believe in God; 37 percent say they are “spiritual” but not “religions”; and 21 percent say they pray every day.The Pew Forum on Religion
Rewiring Your Preaching
How the Brain Processes Sermons – Richard H. Cox. Praxis. “Psychologist and pastor Richard Cox shows that better understanding of the brain can help preachers be more effective. Intentional preaching can actually produce new neural pathways that change how the brain thinks and how its owner acts. Cox explains how our brains understand and process
Christian Confidence
An Introduction to Defending the Faith – Chris Sinkinson. IVP Books. “This is not a book about church growth, but it is a book written with the conviction that Christians should be confident in their faith. . . . In this book I want to reflect on the history of Christian witness and what we
The Personalness of Revival
Written by: Bill Elliff And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. (Deuteronomy 28:1) The entire book of Deuteronomy is one long, final sermon
Sermons on Target (Part 1)
by E. M. Bounds “Not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;” (Ephesians 6:6) Men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new
"The world is sliding backwards." - Hillary Clinton (U.S. Secretary of State, releasing the 2011 International Religious Freedom Report, which notes that blasphemy, apostasy, and defamation laws are increasingly being used by governments against religious minorities.)
World
"Apparently, weak research that comes to the 'right' conclusions is more acceptable than stronger studies that offer heretical results." - Christian Smith (prominent sociologist of religion, defending fellow sociologist Mark Regnerus against heated criticism and an investigation of Regnerus's research on children whose parents had same-sex relationships)
Research
"The most under-covered story these days is the sustained assault by Islamist terrorists on Christians." - Jeffrey Goldberg
Islam
Godless Chaplain
According to WORLD Magazine, “Stanford has appointed an atheist “chaplain” to serve its non-believing students. Stanford’s independent Humanist community technically employs John Figdor, but he is an officially recognized chaplain under Stanford’s Office of Religious Life. . . . Figdor originally entered Harvard Divinity School with the aim of becoming a religion journalist, but along
Al-Jazeera in America
“Arab news outlet Al-Jazeera has purchased liberal cable television channel Current TV, giving it access to almost 40 million American households. The New York-based channel, known as Al-Jazeera America, will be staffed by journalists in 10 to 15 bureaus focusing on U. S. news, say its Qatari-based owners. Time Warner Cable Inc., the nation’s second=largest