pb'sbabbles

“It may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.” - JRR Tokein

From Barna Discipleship Study Jesus Christ remains a central figure and perennial person of interest in the American religious landscape. But who do people say that he is? The vast majority says he was a real, historical person (92%)—but beyond the fact of his human existence, there is less agreement. Fewer than half of Millennials believe Jesus was God (48%), compared to 55 percent of Gen-Xers, 58 percent of Boomers and nearly two-thirds of Elders (62%). Young adults among the youngest generation are also less likely than older Americans to say they have made a personal commitment to Christ. Just 46 percent say they have made such a commitment, compared with six in 10 Gen-Xers (59%), 65 percent of Boomers and seven out of 10 Elders (71%).

‘Tis the season to claim persecution… Our yearly Christian obsession with the supposed “War on Christmas” began early this season, with the viral video of the Starbucks red cup rant by self-proclaimed car seat prophet Joshua Feuerstein and the ensuing social media sideshow that followed . This certainly won’t be the last of such claims, and though a mystifying multitude of the faithful rushed to amen Feuerstein’s rather meritless accusations, one of the most refreshing developments was the number of good-hearted people who refused to be fooled and drafted into a phantom battle. They know that there isn’t a war on Christmas waged by non-Christians, as much as there is a war on Christ  by  Christians—and it’s been that way for a long time now. To those who’ve been paying attention for the past few decades, American Christianity has become more politicized and commercialized than Jesus would ever have desired. It’s been married off to the re...

Dr. Everett Piper, President Oklahoma Wesleyan University This past week, I actually had a student come forward after a university chapel service and complain because he felt “victimized” by a sermon on the topic of 1 Corinthians 13. It appears that this young scholar felt offended because a homily on love made him feel bad for not showing love. In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable. I’m not making this up. Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them “feel bad” about themselves, is a “hater,” a “bigot,” an “oppressor,” and a “victimizer.” I have a message for this young man and all others who care to listen. That feeling of discomfort you have after listening to a sermon is called a conscience. An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty...

A few years ago, the late communitarian Robert Bellah and his colleagues identified how radical individualism has taken a toll on our communal well-being. In  Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life , they wrote about the religion of “Sheilaism.” They were referring to a woman by that name who put in a little bit of religion here and philosophy there to create her own religion, unique in its specifics to her and no one else. Habits  was long on description of problems and short on prescription of solutions. Yet toward the end of the book, Bellah wrote about a small Episcopal church in the San Francisco area. With wistful words, he described how this little group of people committed to Jesus Christ met together regularly to worship, to sing hymns, to pray, to hear sermons, to celebrate Communion. From there, they went out into the surrounding community in the name of Jesus Christ, feeding the hungry, ministering to youth, helping abused women, a...

When the future is uncertain, it’s easy to believe the worst about it instead of expecting the best.  But to believe the very worst about the future is to believe the very worst about God, because it means we don’t believe He can take us somewhere better than where we’ve already been.  God has been good in the past, and He will continue to be good in the future.

From Your Church is Big Enough, a blog post by Karl Vaters: ...But, while I was stressing over numbers, Christ was creating a vibrant community of loving people at our church. We’ve raised up and sent out missionaries, helped plant a church, trained ministry interns, worked to bring Christ’s healing restoration to families and marriages, fed the hungry, taught the scriptures, baptized new believers, seen people saved and healed by God’s grace, and more. For years, I didn't really believe that mattered because it didn’t add butts in the seats. But it did count to Jesus. And it counted to the people whose lives were changed. As I’ve allowed Jesus to give me an attitude adjustment, now it counts to me, too. In fact, one-at-a-time life transformation has become the only factor that counts to me now. Jesus calls every church and every church leader for a purpose. And he equips us with everything we need to accomplish that purpose. Jesus calls every church and every churc...