Children’s activities My wife and I have lived in Trailer parks (now called Mobile Home parks) throughout our marriage. Previously, trailers were usually small and easily moved and many residents moved frequently. People rarely bother to get to know their neighbors because they would move soon although more trailers are becoming bigger and harder to move. There is rarely anything for the kids to do. Many parents let their children roam the neighborhood without any supervision and they often get into trouble trying to create their own activities. The same goes for large apartment complexes where there are a lot of families. Parents and managers of mobile home parks and apartment complexes are often happy to see someone organize supervised activities for children to keep them out of trouble. Managers may be reluctant if an outside group wants to start it but are more willing if it is headed by a family in the park. Other managers may just be glad someone wants to start it. Many mobile home parks and apartment complexes now have community rooms for activities but they are seldom used because there is no one to organize activities. Such activities draw kids and provide contacts with their parents that open the door to developing a relationship with the parents. People in general are becoming more isolated from those around them, even in neighborhoods o permanent houses. Many neighborhoods have become more dangerous and parents don’t want their kids running the neighborhood without supervision and keep them cooped up in the house. As a result, many people in permanent housing neighborhoods are becoming as isolated as mobile home parks and apartment complexes and need children’s activities as well. Such activities should be out of concern for the lost, not just to keep the kids out of trouble. When I first went to work with the Salvation Army, I saw a lot of clients from a low-income housing project. I knew from experience that there was little for the children to do and little contact between mothers and so I organized an after-school program for the kids during the summer. I enlisted a church nearby to run it and enlisted a woman from the church to assist me in visiting the mothers to organize a mother’s club. The after-school program attracted a lot of kids who eventually started attending the church’s Wednesday night children’s program. Unfortunately, the church did not support the work to reach the mothers in the complex. It also dropped the after-school program once they got a good number of kids from the project attending their Wednesday night program. Unfortunately, while having active children’s programs make churches look good, the programs are expensive and not very effective if they don’t work to reach the parents as well. It has often been difficult getting churches to support the trailer park ministries. Many churches don’t do outside ministries because they don’t want “THOSE” kind of people (the unchurched) in their church and unchurched kids are often unruly since they weren’t raised by Christian parents.
Posts Tagged ‘Faith in practice’
Tenth Sunday of Pentecost -Jul 21
Reaching the Lost in your neighborhood-Pentecost is a good time to renew your resolve to reach those who have never heard the Gospel. While many Christians still think of the United States as a Christian nation, since the 1960’s, many children have grown up with no contact with the church. Many families don’t attend church and usually won’t send their children to Sunday School but will allow them to attend neighborhood activities. Many members have no idea that many of their neighbors have no church connection. The best place to start is where they are. Now is a good time to begin planning ways to reach those in your neighborhood who have never heard the Gospel. While many Christians feel that unbelievers are generally resistant to the Gospel, most have never heard the Gospel and see no reason to attend church, but would if they had a reason to. Possibilities for getting to know your neighbors include visiting neighbors to get to know them, starting a neighborhood children’s Bible club, having a backyard BBQ for the neighbors, and many more. You won’t know who doesn’t go to church until you meet them. While some may attend church somewhere, the chances are that the majority have no church connection, let alone actually attending.
Fifth Sunday of Pentecost-June 16
Reaching the Lost-Many churches say they want to reach those outside the church but do little to bring them in. Most churches feel that if people want to come, they will come without any prompting. Fifty years ago that was reasonable because most people had church in their background and if they drifted away after high school, they often came back when they had children so the children could have the advantage of a church upbringing but most people today have no church in their background for several generations and have no idea what church is and what it has to offer so they see no need to go. Some churches may make big displays through Madison Av-type evangelistic programs, but they draw very few beyond their own membership because people today are bombarded with Madison Ave advertising and have learned to tune it out. Many churches make no attempt to engage those who come from outside the church for curiosity or entertainment and those who come often don’t feel welcome and don’t stay. The church will not be able to reach the unchurched unless they go where they are and minister to their needs. The mission field is no longer just overseas but is now all around us and every member must be a missionary to those they meet during the week.
Third Sunday of Pentecost-June 2
Recognizing visitors–Many pastors and church boards tell me that few people visit the church. Yet when I ask about a person or family that I saw visiting, they often didn’t notice. I often visit churches and often leave wondering if I was even noticed. Though the churches are often not close to where I live, they have no way of knowing that. I could be someone who just moved into the area and am looking for a church. Many churches have no way to recognize visitors. The ushers can carry visitor cards and pass them out to those visiting or the church can have pew cards in the pews for visitors to fill out. Ushers are the front line when it comes to visitors. They are usually the first to meet them and are familiar with many who attend church. If they see someone wandering around looking for the sanctuary or the rest rooms, it is a good bet that person isn’t a regular attender. Even though visitors are more easily recognized in Sunday School than in the sanctuary, few Sunday School teachers record visitor information in their classes. As a result, many visitors go unrecognized. In addition, the church can have many activities like Vacation Bible School, potlucks, and visiting singers that attract visitors who have no church home. It takes courage to visit a large group of strangers and if the group does not recognize them and greet them, they rarely come back. Ushers and church leaders need to actively seek to identify visitors during every activity. One declining church I took over as pastor rented their Sunday School rooms to a government poverty program to help pay upkeep on the church. They wanted me to find another source of income so they could get rid of the program. The program drew about fifty people from the local community every week. It took me a while to convince the church to stop trying to chase the people out and begin inviting them in.
Freedom of Religion-C-B
Liberals have launched a broad attack on pro-life and other conservative organizations designed to silence them under the false narrative that they are stirring up rioting while liberal organizations are being given free reign in stirring up rioting and attacking conservatives. While the justice department moved against Christians for praying in front of abortion clinics and a number of them have already been sentenced to up to eleven years in prison, they have yet to investigate the vandalism and torching of churches and pro-life pregnancy centers. The one they were finally forced to prosecute only received eight years in prison for torching pro-life centers. Apparently they consider prayer warriors far more of a threat than arsonists. President Biden has been using government agencies to harass and threaten Christian organizations in order to silence them. I have received messages from a number of organizations that have had their Twitter and Facebook accounts cut off with no warning or reason given. In addition, many financial institutions are cutting off the fund-raising accounts for these organizations in order to strangle them financially. This is a widespread and well-organized attempt to silence anyone who opposes the liberal socialist agenda. Gab seems to be flooded with people fleeing the main sites, seeking safer media. I don’t know who else is safe as I use mainly Facebook and Linked-in. I occasionally use Gab, though you can’t build up a following without paying a subscription. I use Facebook because most the people I know use it and it has a wide audience, though I don’t know how much longer I can continue to use it. I have a fairly small following so they haven’t bothered me much but they shut down my site from time to time for a couple days at a time if I become too active in reposting posts from large sites they don’t like, so I have to be careful what I post on it. They don’t have the staff to closely scrutinize all posts but closely watch large conservative sites. That may change as they are calling for volunteers to monitor posts and report sites that threaten their agenda.
Freedom of Religion-C-A
In 2009, President Obama enacted legislation which literally opened the door to liberal hate speech while denying Christians a forum to express their views. Since then, numerous Christians in the United States have been jailed or heavily fined for refusing to participate in activities they find offensive. We finally got a glimpse of how much the justice department was paying the media to censor conservative groups who used their sites when Twitter was bought out. Liberals have also launched high profile attacks on Christians. For example, a Colorado and an Oregon baker have been heavily fined for refusing to bake Gay oriented cakes and a Kentucky Clerk was jailed briefly because she refused to issue marriage licenses to Gay couples. The “First Amendment Defense Act” was enacted in Mississippi after numerous challenges in court by homosexual lobbyists. It declares that (A) Marriage is only between a man and a woman, (B) Gender is determined by birth, and (C) Sex should only occur within marriage. This allows businesses and government workers to refuse to perform services which they find offensive without fear of heavy fines or jail time and allows businesses and schools to maintain biological bathrooms. Unfortunately laws are only as good as those who enforce them and liberal politicians and judges have shown their contempt for law by openly ignoring laws they don’t agree with. We need to support politicians and judges who uphold the Constitution and the rule of law.
Freedom of Religion-B-X
The response has been typical of those who call for tolerance. When they oppose something, they spread lies, make threats, and try to intimidate others to get their way, like unruly children. They say that tolerating religious freedom will give people the right to discriminate and open the way for widespread discrimination against them. It doesn’t matter to them that they are discriminating against others by promoting their beliefs while preventing others from practicing theirs. Liberty is a two-way street. If Gays can practice what they believe, others should be able to do the same. While Gays single out Christians, opposition to the Gay lifestyle is widespread among all organized religions, including Muslims, Hindu, and Buddhists, as well as a lot of atheists. President Biden is pushing Congress to pass a law that would strip away any protection for those who support the traditional family and open the door for Gays to force their lifestyle on others.