The 10/40 Window

August 12, 2007 in Blog, Uncategorized with 5 Comments

Caution TapeWE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING FOR THIS IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Hello, this is Evan Doyle reporting for the Way We See It Blog. This morning in Kids Church while writing this blog post, I caused our media application to crash. We were watching a DVD, and it stopped. It never got started again, because I was tediously fast forwarding at just 2x the regular speed. The moral of this story: Don’t do other stuff on the computer during Kids Church. It’s a bad plan.
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.

The 10/40 window. We always hear about this area between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator. It is reported to be the part of the world where the fewest people have heard the true Gospel. It is the focus of most missions.

But that’s not the 10/40 window I’m talking about. The one I’m talking about is right here at home. Perhaps right next door. It’s the $10K-$40K a year income bracket. The most, perhaps, unchurched income bracket in the entire United States. How is this, you ask? It’s simply how churches have been and continue to be run.

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Losing the Wonder of the Cross

July 30, 2007 in Blog, Uncategorized with 3 Comments

Each year, our youth group goes to Fort Bluff Camp in Dayton, Tennesee (http://www.fbc-naca.org). They always have amazing preaching, but this week through a long series of events, Daniel Hollenbeck, soccer coach at Trinity Baptist College who happened to be at the camp that week, ended up preaching one morning. He preached a sermon entitled “The Familiarity of the Cross”.

The entire point of the sermon hit me hard: We (Christians) have become so familiar with the cross that it no longer holds any of the power and awe that it did the first time we experienced it. It doesn’t affect us, we can just move right past us. Even films like The Passion of the Christ, which was so graphic and moving, affects us for a day or two then we move on with life. We have allowed “The Old Rugged Cross” to become just that- Old and Rugged in our hearts. It’s just another thing to us.
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Why do we do things the way we do?

July 21, 2007 in Blog, Uncategorized with 3 Comments

The other night I was doing my daily quiet time and I came across the following verses in 1 Corinthians 11.  Read them first, then my questions.

1 Cor.  11:4-5, 14-15 (ESV):
“Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head–it is the same as if her head were shaven…Does not nature teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?  For her hair is given to her for a covering.”

I read this and it bothered me.  Why do we say that we have to obey the principles of one verse, yet ignore the principle of the next?  Why must men remove their hats in church, yet women aren’t required to wear them?  Why do we accept long hair on guys as “fashion”, yet we gasp at a woman with short hair?  I threw this question at my mom the other day, typically my source of great spiritual knowledge, and her response was something like, “Uh, um, well, uh…”  So she suggested throwing it at the blog community.  Why do we do this?  What reasoning is there behind it?

Here’s a couple of verses that I think are relevant:
Gal. 6:12-16 (ESV) [Paul is talking about those who are legalistic about circumcision]:
“It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.  But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

James 2:8-11 (ESV) [The sin of partiality, as described by James]:
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Think different.

July 2, 2007 in Blog, Uncategorized with 4 Comments

Lately I’ve been reading the book Purple Cow by Seth Godin (buy the book on Amazon.com).  Ryan Frank is letting me borrow it now that he’s done reading it.  In case you missed his book review on it earlier, it’s all about being remarkable.

Several years back, Apple (maker of the iPhone!  Evan is accepting donations to purchase his own.  ;)) ran an ad campaign called Think Different. The ad follows:

The ad is all about just being crazy enough to change things.  Now, normally, reading a business marketing book followed by a heavy dose of Bible reading may not be considered normal, but that’s what I did last night.  I was reading 1 Corinthians 3:18-23 for my nightly devotions.  Here’s what that passage says (ESV):

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Children’s Ministry-Children=?

June 13, 2007 in Blog, Uncategorized with 5 Comments

The non-children Children’s Ministry volunteer. You know the type. They volunteer for VBS, Kids Church, Sunday School, Camp, almost everything. Then they stand in the back of the room, talk with other volunteers, and the kids are left alone. No relationships are formed with kids, just with other adults.

I feel like this is one of the greatest atrocities in modern children’s ministry. These people feel an obligation to volunteer, a sort of “duty”, and so they do. And that is honorable. But their downfall is in that they ignore the very people they volunteered to help! Could you imagine if those people volunteered to serve lunch at a homeless shelter, then stood in the back of the room while the people remained hungry? It would never happen! But for some reason people think that kids are “too low for them” and “not worthy of their presence”. These kids are a lot like those homeless people. They are hungry for the word of God, and we’re standing in the back of the room chatting, while they starve to death.

OK, so here is my brave statement of the day: You are better off not volunteering at all, than volunteering then not working. That does two things:

  1. It says to the kids: “I don’t care about you, I’m here for the adults.”
  2. The event director doesn’t have enough help. When they say they need 25 volunteers, they mean working volunteers, not 10 workers and 15 “hang-outers”.

I know no one likes to “fire” volunteers per say, but sometimes it is necessary. If a volunteer can’t get the idea that Children’s Ministry, uh, um, involves real live children, maybe they should be working elsewhere in the church. As leaders, we need to set an example for the other leaders, not join in! Don’t do it just because it’s “cool”. Peer pressure is as much pushed on adults as kids and teens. So make sure that you set an example, then enforce the idea, rather than simply letting it slide.

So what do you think?

Update 10:32 AM-6/14/07: Hey, this is Evan here.  A commenter named Laura made a good point in the comments about the volunteers who do things like snacks and sets.  I responded to her here. I would encourage you to check it out. Thanks!

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