The changes are not only quantitative, they are also qualitative. The very nature and dynamic of Christian ministry are being fundamentally altered due to the new possibilities for relationship, connectivity, and information delivery that the Internet has brought about. The very heart of how we minister is being changed forever in at least ten significant areas.
Read more"American churches have millions of people on their rolls who do not feel connected today because churches, as a whole, have failed to effectively connect with them as the times dictate." Hutchins further likened church's languid pace of contemporary communication to a continuance to use quill pens after the advent of the printing press. "To not be proactive in wireless communications today is to not be communicating", says Hutchins.
Read moreThis new church plant, called The Table, has been meeting since September 2009 in The Church of Our Lord, the oldest church in Victoria on its original foundations. They draw on the historical roots of Anglican tradition, reflected in their ancient surroundings.
Read moreThe number of people who are becoming acquainted with these books for the first time and even developing an appreciation for them is not keeping pace with the number of the two book's admirers who have died.
Most people have never heard of the traditional Prayer Book and the traditional Hymnal, much less held a copy in their hand and turned over its soiled and timeworn pages. It is the wrong draw. It may have worked in 1979. It is not going to work in 2010.
Read moreThis dramatic change was summed up at a small gathering of academics and missions professionals at Fuller Theological Seminary in late May. "At (1910) Edinburgh, people thought they were going to take over the world," said C. Douglas McConnell, dean of Fuller's School of Intercultural Studies in his opening remarks. "And now many of our students wonder if they should even try."
Read morePortable computers and satellites get the credit for speeding things up by about 125 years.
Previously, a Wycliffe missionary family or team would spend decades learning and transcribing one language in a remote corner of the Earth.
Wycliffe's missionaries had the credo, "one team, one language, one lifetime," Edwards said.
At that pace, the target date had been 2150, Edwards said.
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Wycliffe Bible Translators - Heroes and Saints
Read more"Let me just be honest with you as somebody who loves you. If you passively just want to sit around in the next 10 years and just waste your life on things that won't last, you probably want to find another church because you're not going to really feel comfortable here. Because if you're in this church, I'm coming after you to be mobilized," said the renowned southern California pastor.
Read moreAnd yet there are hundreds of millions of Christians who are faithful believers in the Trinitarian faith of the Creeds, and in Jesus Christ as the Divine/Human Savior of the world. They may not call their daily prayers "quiet time" or talk sentimentally about God often or even expect him to be speaking to them every day. They may focus more on objective, external assurances of grace and less on subjective, experiential ones.
Read moreI am certainly not opposed to, in fact I am a strong supporter of engaging 'cold contact' with the wonderful gospel claims of Jesus, but not when we neglect our warmer contacts.
Read moreThat's only a part of the globalization of local church life. International visitors speak at churches all the time, email campaigns urge action to distribute malaria nets or assure decent wages for coffee pickers, bake sales raise funds for Haiti. Habitat for Humanity speaks of the "theology of the hammer," where groups working together live the spirit of "doing unto others."
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