By: Harry Fritzenschaft on May 8, 2020
https://prezi.com/p/edit/6hzsjjd-g6tt/
By: Mario Hood on May 8, 2020
link for viewing if embedded not working: https://prezi.com/view/Trc4Q74EA7h3cjLYOKwr/
By: Dylan Branson on April 14, 2020
In David Kinnaman’s books Unchristian and You Lost Me, he details the saga of why young adults leave the church. While Unchristian is focused primarily the way those outside of the church see Christianity (i.e., Christians are hypocritical, they care only about people getting saved, their sexual ethic is too prudish/antihomosexual, Christians are sheltered, judgmental,…
By: Darcy Hansen on April 14, 2020
Three years of groundbreaking research by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons through The Barna Group,[1]provided insight into how sixteen to twenty-nine-year olds, who consider themselves “outsiders” of the Christian faith, perceive Christianity. Their study results are consolidated in Unchristian: What a new Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…and Why It Matters. Their findings are grim and…
By: Joe Castillo on April 13, 2020
The question of why youth leaving the Church has long circulated in the minds of youth leaders. In addition to the weakness of our denomination, the Free Methodist with the leadership of women. We have a challenge that lacks young leadership. Why do young people leave the Church? The study was published by St. Mary’s…
By: Joe Castillo on April 13, 2020
To develop strong and effective leadership in these challenging times, it is essential to recover the issue of the negative image that the world has of Christians. Possibly 90 percent of the world’s population believes that there is a Supreme Being who created all things and rules the universe. Even atheists or primitive people in…
By: Jenn Burnett on April 11, 2020
One of the persistent comments I’ve read and heard in the midst of this pandemic is ‘nobody saw this coming’. At this point I always have to decide whether opinionated Jenn shows up or pastoral Jenn. Why? Because the fact is that some people did see this coming. Bill Gates in 2015[1]; epidemiologist Larry Brilliant…
By: Chris Pollock on April 10, 2020
I used to like to think of Jesus as a hippy. Jesus, a long-haired perfectly tanned and toned white guy who spoke with a surfer’s accent and walked with the swagger of John Lennon. He loved the outdoors like Dick Proenneke, the oceans like Jacques Cousteau and animals like St. Francis. He may have laughed…
By: Digby Wilkinson on April 5, 2020
“When a man speaks in the forest, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?” Apparently, the answer is most certainly, yes. We held a vote on the subject at home, and the result was resounding. Consequently, I take comfort in Kathryn Schultz book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin…
By: Jer Swigart on April 1, 2020
In a phone call with a faith leader this morning, we discussed the “Jobian” feel of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflecting together on the life of Job, we wondered about suffering and how this might be the first moment in modern history where suffering is the simultaneously shared experience of the entire world. We discussed the…
By: Chris Pollock on April 1, 2020
Te timatanga o te matauranga ko te wahangu, te wahanga tuarua ko te whakarongo. The first stage of learning is silence, the second stage is listening. [1] Culture is meaningful. I have observed a culture of leadership, specifically of the Christian ilk, that seems to be quite fearful at its root. Hierarchy and a striving…
By: Greg Reich on April 1, 2020
I learned as a parent that things are more often caught than taught. As a child, when I asked my Dad “why?”, his response was usually “because I said so!” Though this was never a satisfactory answer I did understand it was his way of saying he was the boss. Every parent learns there is…
By: Shawn Cramer on March 31, 2020
There is something almost magical about the ages of 18 to 24. So many of life’s biggest decisions are made during that time. How people are impacted during that season will affect them for the rest of their lives. I’ve given my adult life thus far to this age group, and I love the potential…
By: Darcy Hansen on March 31, 2020
Life is like a clock It has an exterior seen by people And an interior filled with gears. The clock has a function. How well it functions depends on the gears contained within and how well they work together. Faith is one of those gears. So is God and Jesus and Spirit and…
By: Dylan Branson on March 30, 2020
The issue of morality is one that each of us wrestles with throughout our lives. Where does morality come from? Why was it wrong for Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit? Why was it considered evil for Cain to murder Abel? Why is it wrong to steal the Hershey’s bar from the gas…
By: Joe Castillo on March 30, 2020
It’s very interesting how politics are still something young people show little interest in. In his last chapter 5, Smith eludes this vital topic of “Civic and political disengagement”. It is nothing new to know that the percentage of young people who are involved in decisions regarding government policies is very small. Few have been the times…
By: Steve Wingate on March 27, 2020
OH NO! A Ramone’s song just came back to me! “I don’t wanna grow up…”[1] A brief note about our social science authors from their bio’s: Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame.…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on March 25, 2020
My heart is broken this week as I come face-to-face with so much grief and disillusionment. Working as a Hospice Chaplain and Bereavement Director has been an overwhelming adventure during these trying times. Patients are dying, but people cannot come together to grieve. This crisis has flipped the world upside down with regards to helping…
By: John Muhanji on March 24, 2020
During the late 19th century and early 20th century, there was a scramble for Africa colonization by the different European countries. The British, French, Italians, Portuguese, Germans, and Spanish took over various parts of Africa and exploited them well. They came established the development they had founded in their countries, which they knew would not…
By: Digby Wilkinson on March 23, 2020
Francis Fukuyama is one of my favourite writers in the world of Identity and socio-economic thinking; which, of course, means other people can’t stand his thinking at all. One Irish writer refers to him and an “intellectual Piñata”.[1] Fukuyama became prominent at the end of the 1980s because he displayed a degree of prescience regarding…
