Barna Report: A New Generation Expresses Itself

I found the latest Barna Report titled “A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity”, very enlightening. Read some of the following excerpts from the report.  (Some important points are highlighted.)

“The study shows that 16- to 29-year-olds exhibit a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did previous generations when they were at the same stage of life. In fact, in just a decade, many of the Barna measures of the Christian image have shifted substantially downward, fueled in part by a growing sense of disengagement and disillusionment among young people.”

“One of the groups hit hardest by the criticism is evangelicals. Such believers have always been viewed with skepticism in the broader culture. However, those negative views are crystallizing and intensifying among young non-Christians. The new study shows that only 3% of 16 – to 29-year-old non-Christians express favorable views of evangelicals. This means that today’s young non-Christians are eight times less likely to experience positive associations toward evangelicals than were non-Christians of the Boomer generation (25%).”

“Young people are very candid. In our interviews, we kept encountering young people – both those inside the church and outside of it – who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity. Their perceptions about Christianity were not always accurate, but what surprised me was not only the severity of their frustration with Christians, but also how frequently young born again Christians expressed some of the very same comments as young non-Christians.”

“But then, as we probed why young people had come to such conclusions, I was surprised how much their perceptions were rooted in specific stories and personal interactions with Christians and in churches. When they labeled Christians as judgmental this was not merely spiritual defensiveness. It was frequently the result of truly ‘unChristian’ experiences. We discovered that the descriptions that young people offered of Christianity were more thoughtful, nuanced, and experiential than expected.”

Read the entire report and ask yourself, as I asked myself, how are we responding to ‘outsiders’. We should always remember Paul’s words to the Colossian church:

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
(Col 4:5-6)

Urgent need from Sonlight Homechurch

Sonlight Homechurch is putting out an SOS of sorts to people of like hearts. We have a couple needs in our church that are bigger than what we can meet and we need your help.

1.) We have a new believer who finds himself divorced with a 5 year old boy. This believer will soon have no place to live (at the end of the month), no car that works, and a job that has not provided consistant income. Up to this point his options have been limited by his situation. He can’t get an apartment because he has no money. He can’t get a different job because his car is so unreliable and he can’t get another car or fix that one because of his job situation. He also can only work certain hours because he has to take his son to kindergarden at 8:00 and pick him up at 3:00. Although his x-wife is somewhat in the picture he is unable to get even an occasional week-end job because she is so unreliable as to when she will actually take him. (This is in the process of being worked out by lawyers but it is a very slow process) He also came to the Lord with allot of other desperate needs that we as a church have filled in very practical ways including finances, food, rides and temporary housing.

We also are closely mentoring him and teaching him practical ways to rebuild his life…including parenting, financial principles and giving regular personal accountability thru his regular times with his mentor. He is actively seeking God and growing steadily.

2.) We also have it all set up for an outreach to the Ukraine Nov 2. The team has been faithful in prayer and preparation. We have to buy the tickets very shortly and each one costs $882.00. We have 4 people going. If you felt that your church would like to participate in this outreach through finances the team would be very grateful…or if you felt led to join us that would be great too. (Let us know if you want more details)

Becky and I realize that there are many needs in your church as well, but we are letting our needs be know and ask you to pray as to whether these are needs you are to be involved in meeting. Of course, we know that the biggest “situation changer” is prayer and ask that you would also do that.

thanks friends,
Although we don’t know you all well, we feel so comfortable laying this before you because our hearts are so alike. Hope to hear from you soon,

ONWARD! Rich and Becky Kraemer, Sonlight Home Church

September 2007 Newsletter

The September 2007 edition of the newsletter has been sent to subscribers. If you are not subscribed and would like to know what is going on in the Phoenix area house churches, use the green box on the right sidebar to subscribe.

We will begin using FeedBlitz to update all subscribers with new posts on this website. Shortly, everyone will get an email advising of the subscription and giving instructions on how to opt-out. I believe that using FeedBlitz, everyone will be notified of any new posts quicker enabling a much faster information flow to all subscribers.

If you would like to be a contributor to this website, please email Larry.

Evangelism in Depth

If you were unable to attend the seminar presented by Ed Waken yesterday, see the site below for a video overview of what you missed:

http://www.eidministry.org/vidPage.htm

Ed, George, Bud, and Joe did a great job of teaching as much of the seminar as possible in only 5 hours.  See the site below for an overview of the lessons in a full seminar:

http://www.eidministry.org/seminar.htm 

If you would like for talk to Ed about presenting this seminar at your house or organic church, please email  edwaken@cox.net .

August Recap

August has come and gone. I apologize for not posting more often. The August newsletter was sent on the 16th. If you didn’t get it, go to the News page and browse the list of newsletter for the August edition.

That weekend, we spent some great time in northern Arizona camping. The temperatures were great and the location was fantastic. We spent some good fellowship with John and Debbie and Brennan and Heather. The fire ban has been lifted and it was so nice sitting around a fire that Saturday night. Unfortunately, that may be our last chance to camp up there before it turns a lot cooler.

John and I got a chance to do some geocaching and did not get lost this time. And we found 5 caches within just a few miles of the campground.

Chad, John, and I are in the early planning stage for another house church gathering. We are looking at several ideas for a location, including Kiwanis Park or Tempe Town Lake.

We are also looking at ideas for some worship music. One such idea is Reigndown, a local band. Check their Myspace page here.