Involving members in ministry-part-B Today, many churches have few active ministries and involve a minimum of members in ministry. Current leaders have occupied the same positions since anyone can remember and probably will as long as they are able. This results in the church getting in a rut and refusing to do anything new. The church needs to expand the churches ministry to involve more members. An affective way to draw new ideas into the decision process is to return to the Biblical principle of the Sabbatical. The Bible set aside the Sabbath (seventh day) as a day of rest and established the Sabbatical (seventh year) as a time of rest where the Jews were to rely totally on God’s provision. Establishing the Biblical doctrine of Sabbatical where workers serve for six years and then take off a year on a rotating basis allows new Christians to gain experience and allows workers to step back and look for other areas that might interest them. It also enables the church to introduce new members into the decision making process (See “To Preserve The Light” in Rebuilding The Kingdom” copyright 2012) In addition, Christian para-church organizations often need volunteers and provide training for them providing excellent opportunities for those seeking to get experience in ministering to others. Some even have paid positions where members can become involved in full-time ministry
Voting-I-D-B
Democrats are condemning Republicans for cleaning up their voter rolls by removing people who have not voted for several years, claiming they are denying these people the right to vote. In some States, they are even suing the State for cleaning their rolls, even though they are required to do so by federal law. The numbers have often been in the thousands of names and more. While removing people from the rolls may sound cruel, it ignores the facts. Many of those people have died or moved out of State and are no longer eligible to vote. The State has continually tried to contact the remaining ones and received no response indicating that either they are not interested in voting or are no longer living at the registered address and are not eligible to vote until they file a change of address. Anyone removed who decides they do want to vote has only to register again and they will be eligible to vote, so no one is being denied a chance to vote. Every name on the roll that hasn’t voted for years is an easy target for corrupt politicians. All they need to do is look up a name of someone who hasn’t voted and send someone to the polls claiming to be that person. Democrats usually don’t require the person to provide identification so it is easy for someone to do it. While Democrats claim that that it is rare for someone to vote illegally, it is known that around four million illegal immigrants were registered to vote in California alone, in the last Presidential election and about one million voted. Over five thousand jurors were removed from the rolls in Virginia because they were not legal citizens, and jurors are selected from voter rolls. It is estimated that over a thousand of them voted. In New Hampshire, where voters can register at the polls using out of State licenses for identification if they sign a statement they just moved into the State, over four thousand people voted, using out of State ID’s, claiming to have moved into the State, however over a thousand had not got a State license or register a car for license plates in the following year indicating that either they were driving on a license that was no longer valid or they had not really moved into the State. Federal law requires States clean their rolls regularly to reduce the opportunity for fraud. Democrats are also fighting the attempts of some States to require those registering to vote provide proof of citizenship. Since some States allow illegal immigrants to get ID’s and even drivers licenses, it is important to show proof of citizenship since an ID or drivers license is no longer a proof of citizenship.
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Seventh Sunday of Kingdomtide-Oct 13
Involving members in ministry part A Children learn by doing and new Christians learn the same way. Unfortunately, few churches today have training programs where new Christians can work alongside more mature Christians. Many church leaders have occupied the same positions since anyone can remember. The church needs to provide hands on training for newer Christians under experienced workers. By involving new Christians in ministry in the congregation and in Christian ministries, new Christians learn how to serve Christ and the Church. They learn how to minister as they minister to others. As new Christians minister to others, they not only learn to identify those who have needs and how to minister to them, they also develop a love and concern for them. However, few churches today involve many of their members in ministry. They wait until an opening occurs and try to pressure someone to take the position, even though that person may have no prior experience and may not have the gifts for it or the concern for it. As a result, many Churches today do little to train new Christians in ministry or reach people for Christ. Involving more members in ministry will allow the church to train more people for ministry and reach more people for Christ by providing hands on training for newer Christians under experienced workers. It also enables the church to train them for when the present leadership can no longer serve.
M-F Relations-D
The liberal politicians continue to revoke the protections which Women’s liberation won to protect women in the workforce from dangerous occupations and chemicals. Women fought hard for those protections because many of those women were wives and mothers. In addition, they are continuing to push women in the Armed Services into combat positions. Many of those women have to leave their children behind when they are deployed and risk leaving those children motherless if they are killed. Liberal politicians have no concern about what women in combat means to their families because liberals would rather women did not get married or have children. In addition, women suffer a great deal from harassment from the men who are under stress in combat situations and from the problems associated with women in the primitive conditions faced in combat. In addition, women face a greater danger in combat against men who are bigger and stronger than they are, but the politicians give no thought to that. They want to wipe out any distinction between the sexes. Some have even been pushing to extend the draft to cover women. While women may volunteer for military service, they should not be forced through the draft. They often hold up Israel as an example of how women can serve in the military but they forget that Israel is a country under siege by the nations around it. They need every able man and woman to help defend the country. They don’t have a choice. In addition, there is no front line. The whole country is in danger so women can not be protected behind the front lines. . They say they care about women but they do not show it by their disregard for women’s safety.
M-F Relations-C
Few people realize that the women’s liberation movement began as a movement of women in the church. Though Southern white churches generally supported slavery, many churches in the North strongly condemned it. The women heard about the poor treatment of slaves in the South through churches in the South that did not agree with slavery. The women had learned to raise money and organize through the church mission societies that raised funds to support missionaries and used that knowledge and the church communication networks to spread information about slavery. Though some preachers opposed slavery and preached against it, much of the work and the fund raising was done by the women’s societies in the church. Through their efforts, they learned that they needed the right to vote in order to pressure Congress to oppose slavery. The women’s liberation movement soon spread beyond slavery and the right to vote. Women soon took up the cause of temperance and other issues threatening women, families, and society, including getting greater protections for women in industry. Though the issues quickly spread beyond the church, the women of the church were instrumental in getting greater protections and opportunities for women and families. The modern feminist movement has become self-centered, seeking their own agenda, with no thought to its effect on other women. The liberal push has centered on getting free from the burden of having children. They have demonized motherhood and sought to abolish it, in spite of the fact that many women still desire having kids and a family. Liberal promoters have portrayed motherhood as a threat to women because they say it prevents them from getting and holding prestigious jobs, yet many women have still risen to highly prestigious jobs while raising a family. Many modern feminists look down on women who choose to stay home and raise their kids and portray motherhood as a degrading occupation, in spite of the fact that the family is instrumental in raising children. Many also portray marriage as enslavement of women and feel a woman should not limit herself to one man. Their efforts have done much to break down the institution of marriage and deprive women of the benefits of marriage. Liberal promoters have promoted abortion as a way of enabling women to have sex freely without having to worry about having children. In their zeal to get rid of unwanted children, they have taken no thought about the women and girls who have faced unwanted pregnancies as a result of their promotion of free sex or the physical and emotional suffering they have endured due to their abortions. They have also not taken any thought to the millions of babies that have been aborted. The liberal churches have been caught up in the liberal philosophies and many support abortion. However many Bible-centered churches continue to fight to protect women and girls from exploitation by those who profit from abortion (see the section on “Where Are The Children” in “The Servant’s Heart”-Lulu Press).
Politics-AB-AD
Democrats are continuing to claim that China is trying to influence our elections and trying to get us to believe that Donald Trump is behind it. The media continues to rehash that argument. It is a replay of the old argument in 2016 that Trump was working with the Russians to subvert the election. It is the old story of “if you say something often enough and long enough, people will begin to believe it”. Those who follow politics, which unfortunately is not a lot of people these days, know that it doesn’t make sense. Russia would not try to get Trump elected in 2016 because Hillary Clinton was feeding them benefits. As Secretary of State she arranged for the sale of a large amount of American uranium to Russia for their nuclear program. We don’t know what else she was doing because she used her private unsecure server instead of a secure government computer which the Russians and Chinese could have easily hacked and then had all the computers and phones destroyed when she left office to prevent an investigation. It was later discovered that she was behind the fake Russian accusations to discredit Trump in order to help her win the election. Biden is supporting the Ukraine against Russia only because the Bidens have more financial interest in the Ukraine than in Russia. Now they are warning that Trump is working with the Chinese to win the 2024 election. Yet Biden, Clinton, and other top Democrats are pushing socialism in the United States and have large financial holdings in Chinese companies and have pushed trade benefits for China for their own benefit. Tik Tok is owned by China and monitored by it and many American phones are made in China enabling them to monitor them. In addition, China pours a great deal of money into American universities and have propaganda organizations on many American university campuses pushing socialism. Why would Republicans want to support China? Democrats are the ones who would benefit the most from Chinese interference and China would not want to promote a Republican president that would undermine their influence in America.
Politics-C-A-N
While the Biden administration took a long time before they acknowledged the massive devastation of hurricane Helene, they finally got around to surveying the damage, however they continue to drag their feet on providing help. FEMA claims it is out of money due to helping illegal immigrants and when Musk set up a satellite link to help victims of the hurricane who were without cell phone use due to the cell towers being destroyed, the FCC canceled the program leaving many people still stranded without food, water, or electricity and no way to call for help. It seems like they do not want to help and are frustrating attempts by others who are trying to help. That is a bad way to treat people, especially coming up to an election.
Sixth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Oct 6
Encourage involvement-Many church positions are filled by a few central members. They often ignore the vast majority of members who are often little more than spectators. Many members don’t really feel a part of the church’s mission and don’t support it wholeheartedly. As a result, they are easily distracted by activities that may take them away from church. Involving more members in a church in the church’s ministry will increase the morale of the members and decrease the number of members who drift away from the church. By being actively involved in the church’s ministry, they feel a part of the church’s work and are more willing to support it financially and with their attendance and less likely to drift away from the church. It will also supply the workers needed to carry on the church’s ministry. Few churches make a real effort to enlist members in the churches program. They usually wait until an opening occurs and then try to twist the arm of one of their central members to take it on in addition to the other work they do and few approach members at large. Those recruited often have no interest and no experience in what they do. If the church does try to recruit help, it is normally between Easter and Pentecost when they recruit volunteers to help with summer activities but should be a year-long program to enlist members in active ministry. Many churches have a nomination committee selected at random but have little knowledge in recruiting personnel. They usually meet a few weeks before the annual meeting to nominate candidates to be elected to church positions but it should be a permanent committee of people with knowledge and experience in personnel recruitment that meets regularly with various members to inform them about opportunities for service in the church and community and helping them discover their talents. They should also help them find places in the church and community to serve. This allows the church to find people with an interest in what they do and allows time to train them before the workers take over the position.