I think those are very good questions. Allow me to suggest that sometimes, as my late father in law once said, we see too many bears along the paths, meaning of course, we tend to perhaps worry about a lot of things that could go wrong. Somewhere we need to follow the Spirit's leading and dependent more on God's providence, that He will smooth the path when we first take a step. You could also "tag team" with another volunteer, so you're not in it alone.
As to the disillusionment, I think the number one remedy is a show of appreciation by those directly affected by your volunteerism. Thank you for the volunteer work that you do, God Bless
Am I correct by inferring that you suggest a new discussion, this time on the "process"? Me thinks this is a smoke screen to enhance a pre determined outcome. The powers that be are really asking, "does God really say......? In His Word. Do you really think that because your child has "come out" that God's clear intentions are not valid? I'm reminded of the scriptures where Jesus stated words "Anyone who love their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37 NIV. Is that not what we're doing here? Because our children seek a path not consistent with scripture, and, because we love them, we want to change the plain meaning of scripture to suit how we feel about our children.
Please stop challenging scripture and concentrate more on our salvation, and end of our earthly life which will come soon enough.
Thanks Sean, for taking the time to reply to my comment. I think you can form you own interpretation re: the percentage notation. As to the " horse out of the barn", I think it's better to try to put the horse back into the barn, lest it come out to trample you.
Greats story, but it does little to help the youth (?) perpetrators. Reluctantly, I'll share a story with your readers. My wife and I were fostering children many years ago. One of our wards came to us at the age of two with an apparent issue of having been sexually abused or traumatized by a boyfriend to his mom. This boy would throw mega tantrums in awkward places, and at one time succeeded in pulling out a clump of hair out of my wife's head. As the boy grew older, 5 or 6, he began to display deviant sexual behaviour. I have to add, that I had given a piece of property to my daughter and her husband and they bore our first grandchild and lived next door. Justin (that was the boy's name, and he has since passed away because of an inherent heart disease at the age of 22) started to expose his genitals to our grand daughter, and, understandably my daughter was upset, and threatened to move away if we did not give up fostering Justin. We were forced into a very difficult decision. My wife and I reasoned that my granddaughter had every thing going for her, and Justin would have nothing. We decided we would continue fostering Justin, and my daughter moved away.
( I should pause here to explain that Justin had been placed in a adoptive home between the ages of 4 - 5, which broke down because of sexual misconduct at that very tender age and had been assessed by two different psychiatrists to be confined to an institution, and we were asked to take him back before the granddaughter incident, which we did)
Justin had incidents with church kids too, and the church folks were aware of Justin's bent. As Justin grew older, we took him many time to a psychiatric doctor and implored the psychiatrist to "fix" him ... to no avail. He began to break into our neighbors places and removed girls underwear etc. So, when he was 15, we, with of course Family and Children Services decided he needed to attend a sexual abuser remedial home, from which he was released at age 16, or 17. His time there was also useless in changing his behaviour. Sporadically we would be in touch with him, and learned he got in touch with his birth father and half sister in the U S where he was asked to babysit his young niece and nephew. Again that was the wrong thing for him to be doing, but, how could they know what he was like? Sadly, the last time I talked with him, he was crying, (he must have been 20, or 21. He said he didn't know where he belonged (he was born to a white woman by a First Nations father) I said to him to get involved with a church, and develop a relationship with a support group. So, what's the point of this story? Well, some children are born with a certain desire for what we call devious behaviour, and there's not much anyone can do about it. The same type of issues present in pedophilia and homosexuality in my humble opinion. What can be done? These kids/adults are stuck with their behaviour, and if they are church members, great, but their behaviour is not confined to churches, they will act the same outside the church.
so, your article presents a problem, but no answer, because there isn't a good answer.
Good article .......I guess. When I was in my twenties, I was motivated to donate 10% of my income to the church and other charities. I will tell you that I have never looked back on that choice, in fact I have been blessed beyond my expectations. I am now in my seventies, and am still doing the same. The problem I'm seeing though, is when you are a member of the CRC, you are also expected to send your children it a Christian school which breaks into the 10%, especially by young start up families. This places a heavy burden on your families and throw giving to church out of whack, plus, in the earlier days, the mothers needed to go to work to help pay for the financial burden placed upon them, thus in essence, handing over the burden of raising children to someone else, which in my view is totally counter productive in terms of raising your children. When the church starts asking donation of more than 10%, I think they are out of line. Find ways to cut costs instead of hounding young families to pay up.
So, if 10 out of 100 attend the second service, we cancel it? When we initiate a church plant, would the church planter not rejoice when 10 people attend? Please help me understand the reasoning. What was gained by cancelling the second service?
Great commentary by the synodical delegates. I still have a problem with failure to recognize the issue of the shift workers. Why do we tenaciously decide we must address handicapped people, yet ignore the shift workers? What about inclusiveness? I make two observations when I attend the second service (which I admit I don’t always do). 1) attendees are fewer, but they are there because they want to be there. 2) nearly without fail, I and my wife feel really blessed having attended the second service and an opportunity to worship our God a second time.
Thanks to all who responded with their insightful comments. They did not however address those who cannot attend a morning service. To push the issue a little further, just think of how we are conditioned by our church to be inclusive, you know, accommodation of handicapped people, scent free areas etc., (all good stuff) yet the shift workers are ignored, they’re on their own. How does that make any sense to those responsible for the administration of our church?
Posted in: Share Your 3-Word Prayer for the Human Sexuality Conversation
All of Scripture
Posted in: Share Your 3-Word Prayer for the Human Sexuality Conversation
Sola Scriptura - selah
Posted in: Share Your 3-Word Prayer for the Human Sexuality Conversation
Sola Scriptura - Amen
Posted in: Volunteer Burnout
I think those are very good questions. Allow me to suggest that sometimes, as my late father in law once said, we see too many bears along the paths, meaning of course, we tend to perhaps worry about a lot of things that could go wrong. Somewhere we need to follow the Spirit's leading and dependent more on God's providence, that He will smooth the path when we first take a step. You could also "tag team" with another volunteer, so you're not in it alone.
As to the disillusionment, I think the number one remedy is a show of appreciation by those directly affected by your volunteerism.
Thank you for the volunteer work that you do, God Bless
Posted in: Just Decide Already! Can’t We Just Vote and Move On?
Am I correct by inferring that you suggest a new discussion, this time on the "process"? Me thinks this is a smoke screen to enhance a pre determined outcome. The powers that be are really asking, "does God really say......? In His Word. Do you really think that because your child has "come out" that God's clear intentions are not valid?
I'm reminded of the scriptures where Jesus stated words "Anyone who love their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37 NIV. Is that not what we're doing here? Because our children seek a path not consistent with scripture, and, because we love them, we want to change the plain meaning of scripture to suit how we feel about our children.
Please stop challenging scripture and concentrate more on our salvation, and end of our earthly life which will come soon enough.
Posted in: Human Sexuality Report: Ready to Rumble?
Why can't the"10%" not take a cue from the "90%" and quit pushing this potentially divisive subject?
Posted in: Human Sexuality Report: Ready to Rumble?
Thanks Sean, for taking the time to reply to my comment. I think you can form you own interpretation re: the percentage notation. As to the " horse out of the barn", I think it's better to try to put the horse back into the barn, lest it come out to trample you.
Posted in: Why Accountability Is So Important in Our Churches
Greats story, but it does little to help the youth (?) perpetrators. Reluctantly, I'll share a story with your readers. My wife and I were fostering children many years ago. One of our wards came to us at the age of two with an apparent issue of having been sexually abused or traumatized by a boyfriend to his mom. This boy would throw mega tantrums in awkward places, and at one time succeeded in pulling out a clump of hair out of my wife's head. As the boy grew older, 5 or 6, he began to display deviant sexual behaviour. I have to add, that I had given a piece of property to my daughter and her husband and they bore our first grandchild and lived next door. Justin (that was the boy's name, and he has since passed away because of an inherent heart disease at the age of 22) started to expose his genitals to our grand daughter, and, understandably my daughter was upset, and threatened to move away if we did not give up fostering Justin. We were forced into a very difficult decision. My wife and I reasoned that my granddaughter had every thing going for her, and Justin would have nothing. We decided we would continue fostering Justin, and my daughter moved away.
( I should pause here to explain that Justin had been placed in a adoptive home between the ages of 4 - 5, which broke down because of sexual misconduct at that very tender age and had been assessed by two different psychiatrists to be confined to an institution, and we were asked to take him back before the granddaughter incident, which we did)
Justin had incidents with church kids too, and the church folks were aware of Justin's bent. As Justin grew older, we took him many time to a psychiatric doctor and implored the psychiatrist to "fix" him ... to no avail. He began to break into our neighbors places and removed girls underwear etc. So, when he was 15, we, with of course Family and Children Services decided he needed to attend a sexual abuser remedial home, from which he was released at age 16, or 17. His time there was also useless in changing his behaviour. Sporadically we would be in touch with him, and learned he got in touch with his birth father and half sister in the U S where he was asked to babysit his young niece and nephew. Again that was the wrong thing for him to be doing, but, how could they know what he was like? Sadly, the last time I talked with him, he was crying, (he must have been 20, or 21. He said he didn't know where he belonged (he was born to a white woman by a First Nations father) I said to him to get involved with a church, and develop a relationship with a support group.
So, what's the point of this story? Well, some children are born with a certain desire for what we call devious behaviour, and there's not much anyone can do about it. The same type of issues present in pedophilia and homosexuality in my humble opinion. What can be done? These kids/adults are stuck with their behaviour, and if they are church members, great, but their behaviour is not confined to churches, they will act the same outside the church.
so, your article presents a problem, but no answer, because there isn't a good answer.
Posted in: Before You Say Anything Else About Giving, Say This
Good article .......I guess. When I was in my twenties, I was motivated to donate 10% of my income to the church and other charities. I will tell you that I have never looked back on that choice, in fact I have been blessed beyond my expectations. I am now in my seventies, and am still doing the same. The problem I'm seeing though, is when you are a member of the CRC, you are also expected to send your children it a Christian school which breaks into the 10%, especially by young start up families. This places a heavy burden on your families and throw giving to church out of whack, plus, in the earlier days, the mothers needed to go to work to help pay for the financial burden placed upon them, thus in essence, handing over the burden of raising children to someone else, which in my view is totally counter productive in terms of raising your children.
When the church starts asking donation of more than 10%, I think they are out of line. Find ways to cut costs instead of hounding young families to pay up.
Posted in: Way More Than Twice
So, if 10 out of 100 attend the second service, we cancel it? When we initiate a church plant, would the church planter not rejoice when 10 people attend? Please help me understand the reasoning. What was gained by cancelling the second service?
Posted in: Way More Than Twice
Great commentary by the synodical delegates. I still have a problem with failure to recognize the issue of the shift workers. Why do we tenaciously decide we must address handicapped people, yet ignore the shift workers? What about inclusiveness? I make two observations when I attend the second service (which I admit I don’t always do). 1) attendees are fewer, but they are there because they want to be there. 2) nearly without fail, I and my wife feel really blessed having attended the second service and an opportunity to worship our God a second time.
Too late to make changes?, I think not.
Posted in: CRCNA Decision to De-emphasize Second Sunday Worship Service
Thanks to all who responded with their insightful comments. They did not however address those who cannot attend a morning service. To push the issue a little further, just think of how we are conditioned by our church to be inclusive, you know, accommodation of handicapped people, scent free areas etc., (all good stuff) yet the shift workers are ignored, they’re on their own. How does that make any sense to those responsible for the administration of our church?