Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Study: U.S. Unchurched Population Nears 100 Million

Study: U.S. Unchurched Population Nears 100 Million

Over the past decade, the unchurched population has remained stable at one third of the American population, the latest Barna Group survey showed.

By Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Mar. 20, 2007 Posted: 13:45:51 PM EST

Over the past decade, the unchurched population has remained stable at one third of the American population, the latest Barna Group survey showed.The Barna study found that 33 percent of adults are classified as unchurched – people who have not attended a religious service of any type during the past six months. The statistic has remained relatively the same since 1994 when 36 percent were reported to be unchurched.Still, the unchurched population in numbers is staggering. An estimated 73 million adults are presently unchurched. The number nears 100 million when teens and children are added to the population segment. That also includes an estimated 13 to 15 million born-again adults and children. On its own, the unchurched population of the United States would be the eleventh most-populated nation on earth, the Barna Group noted.Some people groups are notorious church avoiders, the study found. Political liberals were more than twice as likely to be unchurched (47 percent) than political conservatives (19 percent). Single adults were also more likely to avoid religious services (37 percent) than married adults (29 percent).Those least likely to be unchurched are residents in the South (26 percent) while residents in the West (42 percent) and Northeast (39 percent) remain the most church resistant.


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Beloved,

This study is just more convicting evidence showing that we must be on the frontlines proclaiming the very same Gospel that Jesus preached and commands His disciples to preach to the world, the very same Gospel that saved our souls from the power of sin and death.

Hell Is Burning While The American Church Sleeps,

Des


The Great Commission

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~ Matthew 28:16-20, ESV

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ~ 1 Corinthians 9:16, ESV


16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” ~ Romans 1:16-17, ESV

"Once more, he who really has this high estimate of Jesus will think much of him, and as the thoughts are sure to run over at the mouth, he will talk much of him. Do we so? If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself; you will be whispering it into your child's ear; you will be telling it to your husband; you will be earnestly imparting it to your friend; without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent; your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him. Of course I do not mean by that, that those who use the pen are silent: they are not. And those who help others to use the tongue, or spread that which others have written, are doing their part well: but that man who says, "I believe in Jesus," but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another about him, by mouth, or pen, or tract, is an impostor. You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. If thou knowest Christ, thou art as one that has found honey; thou wilt call others to taste of it; thou art like the lepers who found the food which the Syrians had cast away: thou wilt go to Samaria and tell the hungry crowd that thou hast found Jesus, and art anxious that they should find him too. Be wise in your generation, and speak of him in fitting ways and at fitting times, and so in every place proclaim the fact that Jesus is most precious to your soul." ~ A Sermon and a Reminiscence by Charles Spurgeon, From the March 1873 Sword and Trowel

DON'T TELL THEM JESUS LOVES THEM
Words by Steve Camp and Rob Frazier
Music by Steve Camp,
CD: "JUSTICE" (1988)

Oh, the suffering souls
Cryin' out for love in a world that seldom cares
See the hungry hearts
Longing to be filled, with much more than our prayers
And a young girl sells herself on Seventh Avenue
And you hear her cryin' out for help
My God! What will we do?

Chorus


Don't tell them Jesus loves them
Till your ready to love them too!
Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don't tell them Jesus loves them,
Till you're ready to love them too!

All the desperate men

Are we reaching for the souls
That are sinking down in sand?
Oh, cry for the churchWe've lost our passion for the lost
And there are billions left to win
And another 40,000 children starved to death today

Would we risk all we have
To see one of them saved!?!

Chorus

Don't tell them Jesus loves them

Till your ready to love them too!
Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don't tell them Jesus loves them,
Till you're ready to love them too!

Why have we waited so long
Oh to show them Jesus lives
To share salvation's song!
Why have our hearts become so proud

That we fail to see
To love them is to love God

And a young girl sells herself on Seventh Avenue
Hear her crying out for help
What will we do?

Chorus

Don't tell them Jesus loves them

Till your ready to love them too!
Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don't tell them Jesus loves them,
Till you're ready to love them too!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Rick Warren & Purpose-Driven Strife Tonight on ABC's Nightline

Rick Warren and Purpose-Driven Strife - ABC News

Article & 1 Minute Video Preview of Martin Bashir's interview

with Pastor? Rick Warren tonight on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m.

Article Excerpt:

So the debate goes on: Is the purpose-driven method simplifying Christianity in exchange for church growth? The founder of the movement says the conflicts and divisions are inevitable costs.


"You know, I wouldn't intentionally want to cause pain to any person or to anyone," Warren said. "Am I willing to put up with pain so the people [that] Jesus Christ died for can come to know him? Absolutely."

Warren said that if some churches may suffer as a result of applying some of those principles, then "that's the price."

"Every church has to make the decision. … Is it going to live for itself, or is it going to live for the world that Jesus died for?"

When asked if he thinks that some of these splits are actually because Christians themselves are indulgent and refusing to change, Warren said, "Oh, without a doubt." And when asked if he blames them, he replied, "I do blame them."

Beloved,

I will let Bishop Ryle speak on this matter.

And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. ~ Hebrews 11:4c, ESV

Selected Excerpts From J.C. Ryle's book,
"
Warnings To The Churches" Chapter 6, "The Fallibility of Ministers."

"Do not put implicit confidence in any man's opinion, merely because he is a minister.

What are the best of ministers but men--dust, ashes and clay-men with a nature like our own, men exposed to temptations, men liable to weaknesses and failings.

They have often driven the truth into the wilderness,and decreed that to be true,
which was false. The greatest errors have been begun by ministers.

Yes! Peace without truth is a false peace; it is the very peace of the devil.

Unity without the gospel is a worthless unity; it is the very unity of hell.

We ought to contend jealously for the truth and to fear
the loss of truth more that the loss of peace.

We have no right to expect anything but the pure Gospel of Christ, unmixed and unadulterated; the same Gospel that was taught by the Apostles; to do good to the souls of men. I believe that to maintain this pure truth in the Church men should be ready to make any sacrifice, to hazard peace, to risk dissension, and run the chance of division. They should no more tolerate false doctrine than they would tolerate sin. They should withstand any adding to or taking away from the simple message of the Gospel of Christ.

Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.

We should no more tolerate false doctrine than we would tolerate sin.

To regularly hear unscriptural teaching is a serious thing.
It is a continual dropping of slow poison into the mind.

Let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing which is not in the Bible,
nor can be proved by the Bible."

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

God bless,

Des

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Christian Purity In A Fast and Loose Age, Part 2

My Pastor finished his two-part sermon series, concerning sexual purity, "Christian Purity In A Fast and Loose Age" that I strongly recommend that you listen to and share with anyone that our Lord may lead. Christians of every age and sex must be continually reminded that God commands us to live in holiness even though this world bombards us with a myriad of sexual temptations and mocks us for what we believe. Let us by His grace and by the power of His Holy Spirit, "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." ~ Romans 13:14, ESV

Christian Purity In A Fast and Loose Age ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:3 Part 1, 2

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:3, ESV

In Christ,

Des