My Fourth Blog

This is my article this month for the church newsletter:

A recent article in the USA Today started out like this: “Most young adults today don't pray, don't worship and don't read the Bible, a major survey by a Christian research firm shows. If the trends continue, the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships.”

This group surveyed 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds. Some of the results are as follows:
· 65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either
· 65% rarely or never attend worship services
· 67% don't read the Bible
· Only 50% think that Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven

Among the 50% who do know that Jesus is the only way to Heaven:
· 68% did not mention faith, religion or spirituality when asked what was "really important in life."
· 50% do not attend church at least weekly
· 36% rarely or never read the Bible

And maybe the most disturbing stat of all: Only 15% of all 18- to 29-year-olds appear to be “deeply committed” Christians in study, prayer, worship, and action.

A 2007 study showed that 7 out of 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30, both evangelical and mainline, who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23. And 34% of those had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30.

If these numbers don’t scare you then go back and read them again!! And do you think that the numbers behind the Millennial generation are going to improve???

One thing I see in these numbers however is opportunity. If a hundred young people stood before us and we could say that if they all died that 75 to 85 of them would end up in hell then we have much work to do church. We get mad at one another over having to stand during the singing of a song, or because the music might be too upbeat or fast, or because the way we’ve always done it is being discussed and potentially tweaked a little. I say instead of getting mad at each other, let’s get mad at Satan. He has captured an entire generation and has his sights set on many many more.

I’ll tell you one thing our church needs more than anything else, and that is more lost people. For some reason we’ve starting expecting the lost to get right outside the doors of the church and then welcome them in. That’s not right.

We are family. And one of the greatest days of my life happened in January of 2009 when my family grew by one. My favorite services are when one of our students gets baptized. The opportunity is ours to grow our family. The directive has been given to us by Jesus Himself in the Great Commission. So the question is, what will we do with this man called Jesus?

Until Next Time,
Keith

Source: Lifeway Christian Resources

My Third Blog

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So I just typed that from memory. I don't know if it is right or not but that is...let's see...65 places I think. You see my calculus teacher back at West-Oak during my senior year of 1995 had a pi poster on his wall and for some reason I memorized it to 75 places during the course of the year. During lecture time perhaps.

And if the above is indeed correct, then by my logic I still can recite it to 65 out of those original 75 that I remembered, which means that I am only 14% dumber than when I graduated high school 15 years ago!! So that is roughly 1% dumber each year which means that I have until 2095 until I am completely brain dead!!!!

I'm excited :)

My Second Blog

Sometimes I wake up at like 3 AM and my mind is just going on a lesson I wanna teach, a sermon I wanna preach, an article I wanna write, or just some kind of randomness that God is putting on my brain or in my heart. I don't know why God wants to wake me up then but it's a cool kinda cruel when He does :)

Some random randomness:
*I think people who wear jeans and flip flops to church are dressed more like Jesus than those in a three piece suit
*What do you do when someone comes out of the bathroom and you know they didn't wash their hands and then reach out to shake yours? Cause that happened to me today :( Why didn't I pick my nose or scratch something and then extend my hand back?? Hindsight is so 20/20.
*People are so scared of change...what scares me is everything staying the same
*I hate that alcohol has become such an accepted norm for so many Christians. I have never seen than stuff do anything but destroy.
*I got a netflix disc today that let's you watch movies and TV on the Wii!! But my Wii is broke so I gotta send it to the repair shop. Who knew there was such a place :) Or that I could watch actual TV shows through my Wii on my TV!!
*What I just wrote makes me think we might just have a little too much technology today.
*I need to figure out how to put my Edward Jones picture on my blog!! I need to be seen not just heard.

There used to be a lunch lady at West-Oak and she was kinda lazy so I'd keep a 5 dollar bill in my wallet and every so often I'd go and just purchase a chocolate milk which cost a quarter and she wouldn't wanna make change so she always gave it to me for free. Maybe she was just nice, but I really think it was lazy.

My First Blog

I always wanted to create and write a blog but who has time these days? But I keep getting peer pressured into it. So here goes, the only problem is what to write about? My head is so full of so many serious thoughts, especially these last few days, but I honestly don't feel like being serious.

Blogger.com makes me think of that old game Frogger! Cause it rhymes you know :) Loved that game!! I remember playing it on my Atari 2600 when I was a little tyke. Also Pitfall was an awesome game. Going from screen to screen jumping on crocodiles and over sandpits and swinging from ropes and you had to do it all in 20 minutes and only had three lives to get it done in. I only conquered it one time in my life, and that is still a very fond memory for me and proud achievement.

I remember when I got my Atari 2600, because the Atari 7800 was coming out. And then when I finally got my Atari 7800 the first Nintendo was coming out. And then when I got my first Nintendo the Super Nintendo was coming out. Why was I always one step behind everyone else when I was a child??

Man I can type really fast!!

One quick story talking about Nintendo. Me and my buddies Porkchop and Lambchop and Jake were over at Jake's house playing his new 64 bit Nintendo one day while we were in High School. And before you ask, yes I was just getting my Super Nintendo. Anyway we were almost at a new level on a Mario game when Jake gets a call from his grandma needing some help and needing Jake's dad. Jake was like "ok I'll get him for you later I'm a little busy right now" and that was the end of their call. Later that night when we finally came out of his room to go play some Risk I think, Jake's mom came to where we were playing and said "Jake your dad had to take your grandma to the hospital, she is having some heart problems." We all looked at each other like WHOA!!!!!!!!! And that was the day that Nintendo almost killed my buddy Jake's grandma.

And thus ends my first blog...I just hope my Commodore 64 is still working for my second one.