Tony Morgan: 10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website
Tony has a scathing and yet very accurate bead on how to scare people off before they even get to your doors.
TIME – “Does God Want You to Be Rich?”
The cover story of the September 18, 2006 Time magazine, which was entitled, “Does God Want You To Be Rich?” raises some interesting questions. Here are a few quotes from the article which is an interesting back-and-forth between some rather well known names.
I think God wants us to be prosperous. I think he wants us to be happy…I think he wants us to be a blessing to other people. But I don’t think I’d say God wants us to be rich. – Joel Osteen This idea that God wants everyone to be happy? There is a word for that: baloney. It’s creating a false idol. You don’t measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. – Rick Warren
Here is a sampling of some Time polling numbers… 1. God wants you to be financially prosperous: 61% -yes 26% – no 2. Poverty can be a blessing from God: 45% – yes 49% – no 3. If you give away your money God will bless you with more: 31% – agree 63% – disagree 4. Giving away 10% of your income is the minimum God expects: 39% – agree (47% – Protestant, 18% Catholic) 57% – disagree
Middle East Imperialism
Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Europeans…the list goes on.
Top 10 Reasons Church Plants Fail
Summary from an article written by Jim Griffith and Don Nations:
- Lack of a clear definition of “success”
- Prematurely launching public worship
- Mismatch between the planter and the community
- Someone didn’t accurately assess the planter
- Lack of ongoing training and coaching
- Putting too much stock in one big event or campaign
- Taking on too much overhead too soon [eg: office space]
- The inability or unwillingness to recruit new people
- Inability to prioritize the right activities and investments
- Unwillingness to change the strategy when it doesn’t work
Happy Birthday ESV
The English Standard Version of the Bible (one of my Bibles of choice) turns 5 years old in a few days. Congrats!
Today, the ESV is available in more than one hundred formats, has seen nearly 3 million copies distributed worldwide, and is reaching the world in creative and strategic ways. ESV General Editor J. I. Packer recently stated, “I find myself suspecting very strongly that my work on the translation of the ESV Bible was the most important thing that I have done for the Kingdom, and that the product of our labors is perhaps the biggest milestone in Bible translation in the past fifty years or more.”
The English Standard Version (ESV) Bible is an essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and readability. Believing that every word of the Bible is inspired by God, the translators of the ESV sought to be transparent to the original text so that the reader could see the structure and meaning of the original as clearly as possible. For more information on the ESV Bible, visit www.esv.org.
