Sermon Central
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George Barna Notes, "In The 1970's "Seeker ...
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Oct 10, 2006 (message contributor)
1. George Barna notes, “In the 1970’s “seeker churches’ made a strong theoretical argument for the importance of encouraging people to feel no obligation to toe a Bible to church. Their goal was to make visitors feel welcome and comfortable by alleviating the need to locate a Bible, by diminishing the stressful expectation that they will have to use that Bible during the church service, and by softening the negative image that may be associated with a Bible-toting congregation. Two decades later, it is clear that this experiment had a more sinister consequence; people don’t even know where their Bibles are anymore! In many churches, the core membership-not just the visitors for whom the tactic was originally embraced-began to lose its familiarity with the Bible. There has been a trade off; changing the rules to help some has impaired the spiritual health of others. Sadly, the shift away from promoting the personal responsibility to bring along a Bible has sent a signal to many people that the Bible is not important. As the church has abandoned the Bible, knowledge of scriptural content has declined, personal Bible reading has declined, the image of the Bible as sacred literature has declined, and the ability of people to comprehend biblical principles has declined. In fact, when it comes time to discuss what the church ought to be, biblical exhortations do not even enter the discussion” (The Second Coming of the Church, 26, 27).
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A Pastor Tells Of Standing By His Father's ... PRO
Contributed by John Williams Iii on Nov 10, 2002
"A pastor tells of standing by his father’s tombstone and reading the words, "Born 1884 - Died 1970." It suddenly occurred to him how much the little dash between those two dates symbolized". (Herb Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Verbs. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988, p. 124). It is what we ...read more
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A Couple Of Years Ago, Newsweek Magazine Ran An ... PRO
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Jun 6, 2005
A couple of years ago, Newsweek magazine ran an article on “Faith and Healing.” The article began with this unsettling story: “On a quiet Saturday afternoon, Ming He, a fourth-year medical student in Dallas, came across a man dying in the VA Hospital. Suffering from a rare cancer and hooked up ...read more
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The Dictionary Defines ‘accident' As "An ... PRO
Contributed by W F on Sep 21, 2004
The dictionary defines ‘accident’ as “an unforseen event or one without apparent cause.” Any Christian who understands the sovereignty of God will immediately determine from this definition that there is no such thing as an accident. It’s like the cowboy who goes to buy some life insurance. The ...read more
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Patience Makes It Happen PRO
Contributed by John Williams Iii on Nov 10, 2002
PATIENCE MAKES IT HAPPEN "The history books are full of stories of gifted persons whose talents were overlooked by a procession of people until someone believed in them. To name a few ... "Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read". Einstein became ...read more
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Have You Ever Seen A Straight River? Canals Are ... PRO
Contributed by W F on Sep 21, 2004
Have you ever seen a straight river? Canals are straight, but all rivers seem to be crooked. We call it “meandering.” Why are rivers crooked? Because the natural tendency of a river is to take the easiest way around any obstacle. So rivers are always crooked, and they always run downhill. Some ...read more
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