Wow, what a day!
We spent the night at the DoubleTree Resort in Lancaster, PA last night and then after lunch today we headed to the Strasburg Rail Road for some family fun!
Pictures are here.
Some clips from the train ride:
Archives For July 2011
One of my favorite pastor/authors has two books currently on sale in the Amazon Kindle store in E-Book format for just $2.99/ea.
I LOVED Christian Atheist and have just started reading Weird.
Some video highlights from the week: (this was one of my jobs while here for the week)
Video #1:
Video #2:
Video #3:
Video #4:
DIVIDED –
DIVIDED follows young Christian filmmaker Philip Leclerc on a revealing journey as he seeks answers to what has led his generation away from the church. Traveling across the country conducting research and interviewing church kids, youth ministry experts, evangelists, statisticians, social commentators, and pastors, Philip discovers the shockingly sinister roots of modern, age-segregated church programs, and the equally shocking evidence that the pattern in the Bible for training future generations is at odds with modern church practices. He also discovers a growing number of churches that are abandoning age-segregated Sunday school and youth ministry to embrace the discipleship model that God prescribes in His Word.
I am currently watching (listening) to a fantastic documentary, “Divided” that is going to be causing quite a stir in the Church. I’m a bit over halfway through and already knew I needed to post a blog about it and encourage my readers to watch it.
First, the trailer to whet your appetite:
This is especially relevant to my youth ministry and local church ministry friends and family!
The entire film is available to watch for FREE through the month of September – I STRONGLY encourage you to watch this film:
Find out more about the film here – http://dividedthemovie.com or http://www.facebook.com/dividedthemovie
The DVD of this film, Divided is available on Amazon for just $19!
I remember being in grade school and one of my bus drivers picking me up at our house (a church parsonage) and telling me that he was a Christian, but had disassociated himself with the Church. I’m almost positive his reasoning was something about hypocrisy, but I may have been too young to understand such a word. I’m not quite sure why that conversation has stayed with me all of these years, but I have continued to hear of others who have explained away their church involvement (or lack of) due to being ‘disenchanted’ with church due to various reasons.
This morning I read through a terrific article by Pastor Matt Chandler (pastors The Village Church near Dallas, TX) that I think gives some great biblical insight into the subject – and I think you should read it.
Is Church Membership Biblical? by Matt Chandler
One quote to grab your attention –
“When church is just a place you attend without ever joining, like an ecclesiological buffet, you just might consider whether you’re always leaving whenever your heart begins to be exposed by the Spirit, and the real work is beginning to happen.”
The article rightly sets the foundation that church membership IS biblical and that encourages further conversation about what membership requirements look like – encouraging us to look at them through a biblical lens!
What do you think?
