In Sermon Illustrations: "1 Thessalonians 16:1-12"

In 1963…65 Percent Of Americans Said They ...  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 12, 2005

“In 1963…65 percent of Americans said they believed in the absolute truth of all words in the Bible. Within 15 years, by 1978, the proportion of the population holding this belief had declined to 38 percent. The current figure of 32 percent represents a new low in literal belief in the Bible” (PRRC ...read more

Tags: Apologetics The Bible

Six Ways To Learn Everything You Ever Need To ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 13, 2005

Six ways to learn everything you ever need to know about a man before you decide to marry him: 1. Watch him drive in heavy traffic. 2. Play tennis with him. 3. Listen to him talk to his mother when he doesn’t know you’re listening. 4. See how he treats those who serve him (waiters, maids). ...read more

Tags: Men And Women

66% Of Latin American Protestants Attend A ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 5, 2006

· 66% of Latin American protestants attend a Pentecostal church. · Charisma magazine reports its average reader spends more than $570 on Christian products annually and household income averages over $51,000. · It also reports that in the past year: 88% of its readers last year purchased at least ...read more

Tags: Church General

Global Evangelism Movement Reports 25% Of All ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 6, 2006

Global Evangelism Movement reports 25% of all Christians worldwide are charismatic and estimates this number will grow to 38% by 2025. It’s also estimated there are 18 million charismatic Christians in the U.S. Gallup poll reports nearly 62% of Charismatics visited a Christian store in the past 3 ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

Motherhood Carries A Steep Price Tag, Mostly In ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 10, 2006

Motherhood carries a steep price tag, mostly in lost wages and benefits, says Ann Crittenden in The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued. She estimates that the "mommy tax" exceeds $1 million for many college-educated women, not including other ...read more

Tags: Parenting

New Church Research * Hartford Institute For ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 10, 2006

New Church Research * Hartford Institute for Religion Research has just completed the most extensive survey ever conducted on American churches and reveals that · 50% of all congregations have fewer than 100 adults, and 25% have fewer than 50. · Fewer than 10% have more than 1,000 adults. · 52% ...read more

Tags: Church General

Although 4 Of 5 Teens Claim They Are Christian, ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 10, 2006

Although 4 of 5 teens claim they are Christian, only 1 in 4 also claims to be “absolutely committed” to the Christian faith.” That is only about half the percentage found among adults. Although an impressive 70% of all teens are engaged in some church-related effort in a typical week, only about ...read more

Tags: Children

Sending Churches: The Fund For Theological ...  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 18, 2006

Sending Churches: The Fund for Theological Education has underwritten a study of congregations that consistently send people into ministry. In summary, the following are five characteristics of those congregations: · Lay people are in ministry. Through collaboration with their pastors, lay people ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 43:18-21

Tags: What Is Evangelism?, Revival

Mommy Exodus: Participation In The U.s. ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 18, 2006

Mommy Exodus: Participation in the U.S. workforce by married mothers with a child less than 1 year old has declined 6% between ’97 and ‘00. This first ever decline is mostly among 30-year-old, well-educated, white female professionals. The Census Bureau reports 22% of moms with graduate or ...read more

Tags: Parenting

Eharmony.com Founded By Christian Author And ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 18, 2006

eHarmony.com founded by Christian author and marriage counselor psychologist Dr. Neil Clark led the Internet personals category in new subscriptions by grabbing nearly 38% of total U.S. subscription sales generated by the top 12 dating sites, reports comScore. eHarmony’s radio and television ad ...read more

Tags: Marriage General

Consumer Trends: Two Major Trends Of ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 20, 2006

Consumer Trends: Two major trends of paradigm-shifting proportions are changing the face of the entire consumer retail market today. Every consumer business is going to feel the effects. Trend #1: Connecting replaces cocooning as dominant consumer trend. The cocooning and nesting trend that is at ...read more

Tags: Church General

Male Bashing Ads Are Today's Men Incompetent, ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Male Bashing Ads Are today’s men incompetent, bumbling idiots? Judging by portrayals in some advertising, the answer seems to be yes. The “man as a dope” imagery has gathered momentum over the last decade, and critics say that it has spiraled out of control. It is nearly impossible, they say, to ...read more

Tags: Men And Women

Wal-Mart, With Sales Of $285 Billion, Accounts ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Wal-Mart, with sales of $285 billion, accounts for 8% of all U.S. retail sales, excluding autos and gasoline, and is expected to hit 12% by ’10 when sales will hit $500 billion. Al Meyers, Retail Forward VP, says the company “will have a material influence on gross domestic product” by ’10-’11. ...read more

Tags: Money

Online Donations To The Biggest U.s. Charities ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Online Donations to the biggest U.S. charities surged 63% last year from ‘03, finds a new Chronicle of Philanthropy study. The 164 groups surveyed raised a combined $166.2 million online. That is less than 1% of the total raised by most of the charities, but the growth will spur more online ...read more

Tags: Giving General

Americans Are More Worried About Their Job ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 27, 2006

Americans are more worried about their job prospects than at any time since ‘93, raising the risk that consumer spending may slow. In February, 11% of people said jobs were plentiful, while 59% said they were not plentiful and 30% said they were hard to get, the group announced this week, the ...read more

Tags: Workplace

Sharing Our Faith: According To A New Study From ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 3, 2006

Sharing Our Faith: According to a new study from the Barna Research Group, there are nearly 50 million born again adults who shared their faith in Christ with non-believers during the past year. That constitutes 60% of the born again adult population, which itself represents 38% of all adults. The ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

Two Income Trap: Even Though The Modern ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 3, 2006

Two Income Trap: Even though the modern two-earner family brings in 75% more inflation-adjusted income than the one-earner family of a generation ago, it actually has les discretionary income—and far more financial instability. The decline of public education has dramatically raised the price of ...read more

Tags: Parenting

Biblical Worldview Lacking: Only 4% Of Adults ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 3, 2006

Biblical Worldview Lacking: Only 4% of adults have a biblical worldview as the basis of their decision-making according to recent Barna Research findings. Most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and ...read more

Tags: Bible Influence

In 1963...65 Percent Of Americans Said They ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 10, 2006

"In 1963...65 percent of Americans said they believed in the absolute truth of all words in the Bible. Within 15 years, by 1978, the proportion of the population holding this belief had declined to 38 percent. The current figure of 32 percent represents a new low in literal belief in the Bible" ...read more

Tags: Doubt

Armand M. Nicholi, M.d., Professor Of Psychiatry ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 17, 2006

Armand M. Nicholi, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, explains that Sigmund Freud died at the age of 83, a bitter and disillusioned man. Tragically, this Viennese physician, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, had little compassion for the common person. Freud ...read more

Tags: Emotions