So, you may have heard about MySpace.  Or Facebook.  Or Bebo.  Or Friendster.  Or Spaces.  Or Blogger.  And on, and on, and on the list could go.  All of these sites fall under the title “social networking”.

We’re interested in seeing who among you uses these services.  So let’s take a little poll (if you use more than one, let us know in the comments):

Many within the church today have chosen to totally shun social networking all together because it is “unsafe”.  While that is a real possiblity (see this recent story), the truth is that culture is adopting these sites and bringing a new level of openness to the world.  And while we as the church are sitting back, the world is moving on and the kids in our ministries don’t know how to use these sites safely.

(more…)

The church that I attend and at which Ryan is a pastor had the Children of the World Choir in for this morning’s service. They are known as the musical ambassadors for World Help. Made up of children from all around the world singing songs of praise, they are nothing short of amazing. The choir also helps to raise awareness for AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

While I was listening to them and their program, I noticed three main things:
(more…)

Luke 10:40 (ESV): “But Martha was distracted with much serving…”

This week in the devotional book that our youth group uses there was a devotional about being too busy. The author (Nathan Barker) said:
“Being [distracted] doesn’t mean you’re doing bad things or doing things for the wrong reason. It just simply means that you are not doing what you should be doing, because you’re distracted with something else…Once you’ve become [distracted], it is only a matter of time before you become burnt out. Burn out doesn’t happen because we’re busy, it happens because we are busy without the power of God on us. We have no power because we have no prayer. We have no boldness because we have no Bible. Remember, no amount of work for the Lord can replace your walk with the Lord.”

Those few statements spoke a world to me. I don’t get exhausted with ministry because I am busy, it is because I am doing the things that are not in God’s will. Wow.  To think that if we simply stopped doing things that were not in God’s will, our lives would be so much easier.  If only it were easy to do that.

When we become too focused on “doing Christianity” rather than “living Christianity”, that’s when the downfall comes.

(more…)