Key Facts from the Huge Pew Religion Study

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The huge Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study was just released. The study was conducted in 2014 and the same study was also conducted in 2007 which allows us to see important trends in religious affiliations and beliefs. The full report can be found here: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ The study groups people into the following categories (in order of affiliation rank): Evangelical (25.4%), unaffiliated (22.8%), Catholic (20.8%), Mainline Protestant (14.7%), and Non-Christian faiths (5.9%). The biggest headline is that the Christian share of the population has fallen from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% of the U.S. population. Most of the losses have come for Catholics and Mainline Protestants. Christianity is still by far the most dominant religion in America and more Christians live in America than any other country in the world. It’s interesting that Evangelicals have only lost 0.9 percentage points since 2007, but this means a gain of about 2 million Continue Reading →

7 Tips To Developing the Discipline of Listening

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One of the most important elements of loving people is listening. For me this is a skill that always has room for improvement, but it is worth the effort and discipline because often it is the one thing that tells someone I care. In other words, it is essential to Christian love and Kingdom community. How we listen is a great indicator of how much we value relationships. Listening is a kind of death to self and a commitment to someone else’s well being. When I talk I love it when I can see someone is really listening and considering what I am saying, so that is the least I can do for others when they speak. True listening may be one of the highest of virtues, but many people are very weak on listening and unfortunately leaders are especially prone to being poor listeners (unless they are introverts). Here Continue Reading →

Part 2 -When We Explain/Consider Our Faith What Is Our Central Theme? Spiritual Marriage

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If loving God is the greatest commandment why do we find the theme of “union” of love in Church history? Isn’t it going beyond scripture to add “union”? The great spiritual writers believed it was biblical because scripture is very clear that our love for God is not unrequited; He returns the love (which He initiated in the first place). Our relationship of love produces a union, since each one is loving the other and receiving love from the other. Mutual love produces union, as Colossians 3:14 states: “Beyond all these things put on love, which is [a]the perfect [grk. teleiotes] bond of unity.” (NASB) Footnote [a]: lit. ”the uniting bond of perfection”. We experience this union in part now but it is “not yet” fulfilled. One day our love will be consummated; but that will only be possible when we are completely transformed so that we can be fit Continue Reading →

Part 1-When We Explain Our Faith What Is Our Central Theme? The Union of Love.

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When we think or talk about our faith do we focus on our union of love with God or do we focus on lesser matters? Do our hearers understand that God is the author of ultimate relationship or do they feel like we are trying to prove the faith? How do we speak to ourselves about what our faith is about? I believe our union of love with God in Christ is the grand unifying theme of biblical theology and spirituality. Every element of the gospel is best understood in the context of His desire to be in a strong and loving relationship with us and His desire for us to live in community with fellow believers. He wants to be our Father, our teacher, our lover, and our friend. Jesus summed this up in Matthew 22:37 by saying that the greatest commandment was to love God with all your Continue Reading →

How Serious Spiritual Theology Will Make Us More Effective In Our Culture

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The church is the community of truth but equally important it is the community of friendship and unusual love. The Church Fathers repeatedly taught believers to pray for the government and be good citizens even though Roman leaders were far more capricious and dangerous than present day Western leaders. The unusual love of believers for each other as well as for their enemies was a light that quickly attracted thousands all over the Empire. The reason the believers acted that way is that they had an informal spiritual theology (i.e., theology of spiritual growth) that taught loving others was even more important than defending doctrine. Defending doctrine or morality before unbelievers has its place but loving them first was more important. Today we can do what the early Church did if our doctrine and practice are integrated. Unbelievers today are still attracted to kindness and generosity. Many world cultures are Continue Reading →