What Would Your Church Do?

A Longview, TX pastor wanted to find out if his messages were actually having an effect on the lives of his congregation, so he set up a little test.

Wanting to put his church members in the direct line of a person in need, he disguised himself as a stranger smelling strongly of alcohol and wandered around the church campus on a Sunday morning. His latest sermon series was called "Kingdom People" and he wanted to see if his words had made it out from behind the pulpit and into the lives of the people.

What happened? Some tried to ignore the man, but many went right up to him, offering food, shelter, prayer, and even an invitation to the church service. Sounds like this is one church that 'gets it.'

What would your church do?

Perceptions

This story has already been reported and blogged about elsewhere but I wanted to share it anyway...

It comes out of the hype surrounding race for the White House. Unfortunately this may be another example of Christians adding to the perception problems facing the Church today. A former pastor and weatherman (?) who now works for James Dobson's organization Focus on the Family, is praying for rain. This in itself wouldn't raise many eyebrows. It's his motivation that is causing a stir. He is praying specifically for rain on the evening that Barack Obama is planning to speak at the Democratic National Convention. His political agenda does not line up with Sen Obama's, so he's encouraging people to pray that God would send torrential downpours 2 minutes before Obama takes the stage.



Is this why we have prayer? And whatever happened to loving and praying for our enemies? My hope is that non-followers of Jesus don't confuse this man's message with the message of Christ. My hope is also that we'd be living lives worthy of the calling we've received so that those close to us would see more accurately what "Christlikeness" looks like in our world today.

Thoughts?

Good News For Christian Football Fans I Suppose

If you happen to be in a church leadership position and have lamented not being (legally) allowed to show the Big Game to your church, youth group, etc, lament no longer. The NFL has reversed its previous decision and is now allowing religious organizations to show the game, no matter what size screen they are showing it on. The previous ruling dictated that a church could not show the game on any screen larger than 55 inches.

So there you go...start your pre-planning for next year and your pre-pre planning for 2012 when the game is in Indy (hopefully)!