Neighborhood Ministries | Building Community through Christ

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Fifth Sunday of Epiphany-Feb 8

05 Feb

Reaching the Children-Neighborhood children often congregate at the homes of Christians who have children because they feel the love that the parents have for their children and they enjoy the peace that reigns in a Christian home. Often their own parents ignore them or may even verbally or physically abuse them. It provides an excellent opportunity to show them through personal example that someone cares about them. It provides an opportunity to show them that God loves them and cares about them. Christian parents and children can introduce neighborhood children to God’s love and His values for living through Bible stories and video lessons. Children may be interested in a Children’s Bible Club. The church family may teach it or provide space for someone from the church to teach it. There is no problem with needing transportation like in traditional Vacation Bible Schools since the children live in the neighborhood. As the neighborhood children hear the Gospel and see it demonstrated, they may eventually want to attend church and urge their parents to take them.

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Posted in Church ministry, Epiphany

Politics-AB-AJ

30 Jan

To pick a candidate effectively, a voter must know the problems we face, have a good idea on how to fix it and pick a candidate that will do what needs to be done. That requires that they know what the situation is. Voters today are hampered by big media that distorts the news to fit their agenda. When they were debating abortion, the media bombarded us with stories of future starvation as we faced out of control population growth and a food supply that could not keep up in spite of the fact that the birthrate was in a downward spiral and was on the edge of dropping below the level needed to sustain it. In addition, advances in food production were such that farmers faced massive food storage problems in spite of shipping tons overseas to other countries, providing low income families with food stamps so they could get food free, and paying farmers to not till land to cut food production. They were piling it in fields and burning it because they had no room to store it. If you don’t understand the problem you can’t decide on a good solution. You need to go to reliable sources and look at both sides. Planned Parenthood will tell you why they believe you should support abortion and which candidates support it while Right-To-life will tell you why you should oppose it and which candidates oppose it. There are reliable organizations that publish information on other issues and some which publish the candidate’s position on a number of issues as well such as the League of Women Voters. It is important to research the issues and the candidates in order to get representatives that support your views and will carry out your will. I have researched the issues and published study courses which detail the various issues as unbiased as possible to help those seeking to make informed choices, but you need to examine both sides and make up your own mind.

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Posted in Politics, Uncategorized, Voting

Politics-AB-AI

30 Jan

AB-AI Many States are already gearing up for the primary elections. Many people skip the primaries or vote casually without a lot of concern for who wins. They think one is as good as the other. That is generally true for Democrats who are pressured to vote for things the party supports and against what it opposes, because they are supported by big money interests such as Planned Parenthood who dictate how they vote, regardless of the feelings of their constituents. That is not as true for Republicans who rely on party members for support and are more influenced by community values. Yet the primaries dictate who will be on the ballot in November. If you don’t agree with who you elect in the primaries, you don’t get to pick a second choice in November. We are seeing an increasing number of people who say they don’t agree with either candidate in November. It takes work to locate what candidates stand for but it is much better than suffering through the results of legislation pushed through that supports causes you don’t believe in. You won’t agree with everything a politician supports but you should at least agree with their major values, You have an obligation to let him know how you feel on an issue when you disagree with his stand. If he hears from enough constituents, he may change his vote. You can’t go on what they say, you have to look at their record of how they voted in the past. They can say anything they want while campaigning but the bills they vote for tell what they support and that is in the public record. A candidate may say they oppose abortion but if they vote for funding for abortion, you know they support it. If he gets in and doesn’t vote the way you wanted, you have an obligation to vote him out and replace him with someone better. Too many voters don’t pay attention to how their representative votes. They go on reelecting him and he goes on padding his pockets because he knows he can still get reelected. The problems in Minnesota, California, New York and many other States, as well as many major cities didn’t pop up overnight, they have been going on for years. However, residents of those States have continued to reelect the same corrupt politicians because they either aren’t paying attention, don’t care, or the election process in their State is so corrupted that the party in power overrules them.

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Posted in Politics, Voting

Fourth Sunday of Epiphany-Feb 1

30 Jan

– Sharing Christ Most Christians do not talk about church or the Gospel outside of church for fear of offending someone, so most people don’t know whether their neighbors attend church or not. While many Christians assume their neighbors attend a church somewhere, the fact is that most probably do not. If your neighbors attend church, their church may not provide fellowship and support and they may welcome friendship with other Christians, or their church may be too far away for them to participate in many church activities. If they do not attend church, they may be seeking a church but not know anyone who belongs to one providing an opportunity to invite them. Many of their neighbors have not had any contact with a church and do not have any reason to seek one. Those without Christ often live day to day, their only hope is to survive until tomorrow. They will not know that Christ can made a difference in their life until they see that it has made a difference in your life. As you visit your neighbors, you can witness to them about the benefits of attending church and may even get a chance to tell them about Christ.

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Posted in Church ministry, Epiphany, holidays

Third Sunday of Epiphany-Jan 25

22 Jan

Luke 10:29-37 Get To Know Your Neighbors-One of the greatest problems to spreading the Gospel in America is the lack of contact between Christians and non-Christians. Even in settled neighborhoods where people own their homes, there is often little contact beyond polite waves over the fence and unfortunately, Christians are caught up in it as well. The best way to start is have members visit their neighbors to get to know them. Visiting one a week is not taxing but in five weeks will enable them to get to know the five families around them. We need to make deliberate efforts to spend time with our neighbors and get to know them. Visit them and take them cookies or a cake or invite them over for a backyard Bar B Q to allow time to get to know them. Do they go to church, if so where? Do they have family nearby to help in times of need? Are there needs the church family can help with? We will not know unless we get to know them. Others may have needs and not know who to turn to. Establishing contact enables you to help them find solutions to their needs. Many may not have needs when you visit, but as you maintain contact with the neighbors through periodic visits, the neighbors may experience situations they cannot handle and may turn to you for help. Since many families are isolated today and have no family nearby, a sickness, loss of job, or even death may require more resources than they can muster and provide an opportunity for the church to show Christ’s love. As Christ points out, our neighbors include more than just those who live around us. They are people we interact with every day at school, at work, and as we shop. We often see them but rarely take the time to get to know them.

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Posted in Church ministry, Epiphany, evangelism, Faith in practice, holidays

Second Sunday of Epiphany-Jan 18

15 Jan

Modeling Christ When we read the Gospels, we often see the teachings and miss what Jesus does. If we read them closely, we will notice that He met needs as He went along. He healed the blind man, the crippled man, and the leper. He also fed the people. He did it primarily because He cared about them, but He also did it because He knew those needs distracted those people from hearing what He had to say. Until He broke down the barrier, they could not concentrate on what He was saying. By meeting the need, He not only broke down the barrier, He also built a bridge to that person. Those people passed many people as they traveled but those people were only nameless faces, soon forgotten. Jesus was someone they would not soon forget. He wasn’t a nameless face, He was the one that healed them or fed them. He was the one who cared when no one else did. We have become accustomed to the government providing all those services, but we forget that Christians met those needs first and only later did the government become involved. Now we have all but given up our ministry to the government and people worship the government instead of God. The prevailing feeling among many Christians today, as well as non-Christians is “The government is my shepherd, I shall not want, It maketh me lie down in a nice house, and It provideth me with good food.” Christ modeled the way we should live. Unfortunately, all we like sheep have gone astray.

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Posted in Church ministry, Epiphany, Faith in practice, holidays

Violence-Social strife-2-AK

15 Jan

The violence in Minneapolis reminds me of the George Floyd incident six years ago in Minneapolis. The media used that incident to whip up hatred towards the police. They pretend that their violent protests will result in pressure on the police to use more restraint. In fact, it results in the police backing off of such situations for fear of being prosecuted for doing their job. However, it will probably cause more police brutality, not less, as police will feel more threatened and will be more likely to use force. Black organizations claim Blacks are being targeted by police. Since the media tries to take advantage of such incidents when they happen, it is evident that it is a rare occurrence or we would be hearing of far more such incidents. Far more Whites die at the hands of both White and Black police officers. While there are rogue police officers and they should be punished, the vast majority are just trying to do their job and are often confronted with violent people who cannot be stopped any other way. Many are on drugs and are out of control. In addition, we do not know what preceded the killing of the man in Minneapolis. The man could have been a violent criminal that had just killed someone and was threatening to kill the police. We can’t judge an incident from a short clip by someone who may have edited the film in order to incite a riot. The officers should be tried by the courts based on the evidence and if they are guilty, they should be punished, but they should not be tried by public opinion based on what the media presents, because we know how biased they are. In the 1960’s, Martin Luther King showed that Blacks and Whites working together can reduce prejudice, hatred, and violence while the riots showed that violence increases the hatred and violence on both sides.

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Posted in Politics, Social Strife

Violence-Social strife-2-AJ

15 Jan

We are seeing increased violence over the death of a woman in Minnesota. It makes no sense. While the people in Minneapolis should protest peacefully if there is a pattern of injustice, a lot of hatred is being whipped up by out of State promoters who don’t care one bit about her. It is evident that a lot of the protests around the country are being fueled by those seeking to take advantage of the situation for their own political purpose since the protests are well organized and well funded. They are inciting riots and creating hatred against President Trump, who is the lawfully elected President in order to undermine the rule of law. As I look back over my posts, I see a number of incidents in Minnesota, particularly Minneapolis which indicates a pattern of civil unrest, particularly of defending those who are breaking the law against law enforcement. ICE agents are responsible for removing illegal immigrants from the country and They are there because the city and State officials are obstructing justice by refusing to turn illegal immigrants over to federal officials when they are arrested for crimes. City and State governments are openly violating federal law by harboring criminals from out of the country and have used the media to incite violence against federal agents by portraying them as being there illegally. That indicates that they view the law is a tool to achieve goals and not to obtain justice. They are abusing the trust of the American people for political purposes to discredit Republicans so they can win elections. Liberal politicians did it in President Trump’s first term to cover up the crimes of Hillary Clinton and President Obama and are doing it now to cover up their crimes in Minnesota. They don’t like it because President Trump is trying to restore the law to punishing criminals instead of as a tool to win elections.

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Posted in Politics, violence and social strife

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