The Pointe

Nine-year-old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School. “Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.” “Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?” his mother asked. “Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!”

There are times you can spruce things up and then there are times when you just need to tell it like it is! 
Ya know?

“Communication experts say that the average woman speaks over 25,000 words a day while the average man speaks only a little over 10,000. What does this mean in marital terms? . . . On average a wife will say she needs to spend 45 minutes to an hour each day in meaningful conversation with her husband. What does her husband sitting next to her say is enough time for meaningful conversation? Fifteen to twenty minutes–once or twice a week! “
 
Guys, the work we put into our marriages takes a lot of time.  The reason men feel like it’s hard work is because we don’t feel like we have that kind of time.  As soon as conversation breaks out, we feel as if there is something else we should be doing.  To your lady, there is nothing else more important.  

We just need to know the differences, we don’t have to understand them all.  What do YOU think?       

Rolf Jenson in his book, The Dream Society, chronicles a rapid movement from the Information Age to the Dream Society, where effective leaders will become—not just knowledge workers—but story-finders and storytellers. He demonstrates, through case studies, how it’s not the best product or service or cause that captures the imagination and catapults an organization forward, but the best story.

As Dallas Willard puts it, “we live in a God-bathed world,” and God’s story can be found all around us in  the hearts of people, where stories begin as dreams. The heart is the conversation room of the Holy Spirit, the place where God plants dreams and visions, and calls us to a purposeful destiny.

Why do you exist?  Study what you are passionate about and what you dream about becoming. 

USAToday provides a story in today’s paper and on-line here. It is also on the their front page on the internet and is the most commented upon story.

The USAToday article focused on the views of the unchurched in a few key areas. The story is attracting a slew of comments in their feedback section.

The good folks at our LifeWay communications office have just released our story on the research here.

Our focus is more on the opportunities for people to share their faith:

Open to friends

Despite their negative opinions about the institutional church, most unchurched people are open to discussing spiritual matters with a friend. The research showed that:

–78 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to talk about their Christian beliefs. The number rose to 89 percent among adults 18-29 years of age.

–Only 28 percent of adults 30 years and older said they think Christians they know talk to them too much about their beliefs.

–78 percent of adults 30 years and older said they would enjoy an honest conversation with a friend about religious and spiritual beliefs, even if they disagreed with the friend.

“Even though the unchurched have a confused view of God and a negative view of the church, they are overwhelmingly open to someone sharing about their Christian faith,” Stetzer said. “We think religion is a topic that is off-limits in polite conversation, but unchurched people say they would enjoy conversations about spiritual matters.”

From Scott McConnell:

“Eighty-nine percent of these unchurched people say they have close friends who are Christians,” he said. “We don’t have to search for the unchurched folks around us; we actually know them. It’s really a matter of starting conversations about spiritual matters with the unchurched people we know.

And one final thought from the article:

Stetzer explained, “There will always be the stumbling block of the cross. Yet our study shows that many are tripping over the church before they hear the message of the cross.”

We also have some interesting data contrasting the views between the younger and older unchurched. You can download the findings here.

This difference between age groups will also be the focus of my Catalyst Monthly column coming out soon.

Finally, we have more data that we have not released that will be shared in a new book called The Younger Unchurched and Churches that Reach Them. The book will be based on this and other research done at NAMB’s Center for Missional Research and LifeWay Research and will be co-authored by Richie Stanley, research director from the North American Mission Board, and Ed Stetzer.

What is success?  There has been much debate on the subject of success.  Is it a mindset?  How much does ego play a part in any given persons definition?  Does it have more to do with what society says or does one’s upbringing determine success in a person’s mind?  The Random House College Dictionary states success as, “1.The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.  2.The attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.”  I am going to espresso my thoughts on the subject and break it down by age. 

Success:

At age 4 success is … not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is … having friends.
At age 16 success is … having a drivers license.
At age 20 success is … having a girlfriend that thinks you are really good looking.
At age 35 success is … having money.
At age 50 success is … having money.
At age 60 success is … having a girlfriend that thinks you are really good looking.
At age 70 success is … having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is … having friends.
At age 80 success is … not peeing in your pants.

What is success to you?