Six Big Themes of 2010

Barna Research did more than 5,000 interviews in 2010 and found six big themes that were emerging in the church-at-large in 2010.  See if you agree with their findings:

1.  The church is becoming less theologically literate.

2.  Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.

3.  More people are less interested in spiritual principles and more interested in pragmatic solutions.

4.  More Christians are becoming more involved in community action programs

5.  Tolerance is winning in the church

6.  The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible

Here is the twist....

Politics and Religion

Preach if you are going to preach.
Politic is you are going to politic.
But don't confuse the two.


"It started as a comment in local coverage of Republican Robert Bentley’s swearing-in, provoked rebuke in left-leaning commentaries, and has now gone national. Giving his Inaugural address on Martin Luther King Day, Alabama’s new chief executive left some people with the idea that only considers fellow Christians to truly be his ‘brothers’:"
Read more...

Am I wrong here?

Women and the Gospel

In the past couple days I have been thinking about how the gospel affects women.  This has led me to think again about women in church leadership, roles of men and women in marriage and the whole egalitarian vs. complementation discussion.

In the mists of this I made this comparison: At some point in the future this whole debate about women will be like discussion about eschatology (end times):

• Both sides will be able to present their views backed by Scripture, history and opinion, but there will no be consensus. 
• There will always be extremists pro and con.
• For the most part this discussion will become fodder for conversation and not a reason for division within the church. 
• The issue will move (if it has not already) from an "A" list issue to a "B" or "C" list issue, losing its intrigue, ire and staying power at the table of theological conversation.

The question then becomes, is kind of evolution of the debate good for the church or not?