Love INC (In the Name of Christ)…

Jim and I met Nancy Parks from Love INC’s Littleton, Colorado office to hear more about how their ministry is helping other local ministries more effectively meet the needs of the community.  Love INC serves as a clearinghouse.  They take folks who have expressed a need and puts them through an interview process.  This process ensures they are matched up with the ministry that can best serve their needs, and it also helps identify other unexpressed needs that local ministries can meet.  A benefit of this system is that it also helps to weed out the “professional” who tries to manipulate the kindness of others by working multiple organizations for the same expressed need.  Due to the collaborative nature of Love INC’s work, I see them as a great reference point when Groundwire is opening up new marketsand as a powerful resource for some of the contacts Groundwire makes through our chat line.     

A couple of recent chats…

The Groundwire coaching line has been busy recently.  The chats seem to come in waves–certain topics seem to rise in importance in groups, and then make way for the next topic of the week.  A recent topic has been sexual issues–abuse and same-gender attraction.  These issues are deeply personal and private–they are clear indications of the power of the anonymity factor of the internet working to our benefit.  Far from reinforcing stereotypes of a church who “hates” folks struggling with these issues, we reach out in Christ’s love and offer the good news that God loves them unconditionally–even in the midst of sin where they feel farthest from Him.  There are several good resources for folks who are looking for healing from sexual brokenness.  One of my favorites is Living Waters, an organization out of California started by Andy Comiskey.  I’ve had several friends go through their program, and the grace and love they’ve experienced has been transformational.  Exodus International is an umbrella organization that is also very good in helping folks deal with these issues.   

Vatican announces Muslims outnumber Catholics worldwide

Interesting article:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday. 

read the rest of the article here…

Overwhelming Negative Perceptions of Christians among youth

Barna’s stats on perceptions of Christians among the next generation are downright troubling….  Among 16-39 year olds, just 16% indicated they have a good impression of Christianity.  When the same question was asked about evangelicals, only 3% had a good impression.  That’s down 8x over the Boomer generations perception of evangelicals (25%). 

My thoughts on these stats–we (the Church) are losing the youth….. 

The church I attend (New Life–http://www.newlifechurch.org/) has a very strong and committed youth ministry.  It’s tempting to look at my own church and draw the opposite conclusion.  But my church only represents hundreds of young people–there are thousands left unreached in Colorado Springs, millions around the US, and billions around the world.

Some of the specifics aren’t all that shocking:  87% of youth said that Christianity is judgemental, 85% said hypocritical, 78% said old fashioned, and 75% said they felt the church was too involved in politics.  The top two most frequent unprompted comments about Christianity:  “Christianity is changed from what it used to be” and “Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus”.  The top favorable perception of Christianity with a score of 82% is that it teaches the same basic ideas as other religions. 

Reading stats like these reinforces the notion that the old ways of reaching youth aren’t working as well any more.  It’s time to move beyond the church’s walls and reach out into the world. 

Secular radio waves and the internet have proven effective for Groundwire because those are two of the primary media sources for youth.  We’re able to reach out to kids in the midst of their everyday lives.  That’s the challenge–how do we enter their world and present the gospel so that they have a chance to begin a relationship with Christ….  They can’t make a choice for Christ if they never hear….