“What did you see, hear, or experience this week that makes you feel we have successfully fulfilled our mission?”
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Video: Tears of Hope
A follow up video, with the wife of Zac Smith:
Should pastors use social media to directly communicate with their churches?
“I don’t use it for my own pastoral connectivity here at Immanuel Church, primarily. It’s mostly for reaching out to others, far and wide. What I love about pastoral ministry is the eye-to-eye, intense interactions with actual people. Virtual relationships don’t exist. But electronics can broadcast gospel concepts, which is worth a lot.
I suppose one benefit for me as a pastor here in Nashville is that the media help me guide and flavor the conversation at Immanuel. In every church, there is a 24/7 conversation going on – phone calls, tweets, emails, chance meetings at the grocery store, and so forth. What are we talking about? It is easy for the devil to change the subject with his wretched negativity. So the more chances I and others in the church have to keep the conversation lifted up in a positive, Jesus-focused way, the better.”
A response to: “Why are we spending so much on a church building?”
A pastor (not at my church) was approached by a couple who were concerned about the cost of a church building project, over $3 million. To be sure, this isn’t an insignficant amount of money, and concerns about spending money on church buildings aren’t uncommon.
How would you respond to this concern?
Here’s how this pastor responded.
He gently explained that the couple’s house is probably worth around $1 million dollars (Sydney isn’t a cheap place to live!). 4 people live in that house, and most of them are at work or at school for the majority of the week.
He then explained that the church is in daily use by over 500 people every week of the year, and the desire is for this number to continue to grow.
$1 million for 4 people. $3+ million for 500 people (and growing).
This doesn’t mean the ministry benefits don’t need to be carefully articulated – they do. However, comparing the amount of use, and the costs of each facility, it becomes clear that the redevelopment cost (especially in Sydney) is not as out of proportion as it may first appear.
For heaven’s sake, say what the Bible says
This is ridiculous – it took an atheist to clarify what the Bible says about who goes to heaven.
In the Sydney Morning Herald over the weekend, Mike Carlton, an atheist, rightly contradicts Cardinal George Pell:
Tony Jones: … is it possible for an atheist to go to heaven?
George Pell: Well, it’s not my business…
Jones: You’re the only authority we have here.
Pell: I would say certainly.
Jones: Yeah?
Pell: Certainly!
Thus, with one small word but one grand gesture, Gorgeous George swept away the brilliant edifice of 2000 years not just of Catholic teaching, but of Christianity itself. You don’t have to believe in God to make it past St Peter and in through the pearly gates. Still less do you need the encrusted paraphernalia of organised religion, the bells and smells and so on. You just have to be good.
I’m not sure he’s right, though. Reluctant as I am to quote scripture to a prince of the church, this would seem to fly in the face of John 14.6: ”Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”
Christened a Catholic, educated an Anglican, I was always taught this meant that only faith in Christ got you to heaven. Heathens of any sort need not apply.
As an atheist now, this doesn’t worry me. But it is cheering to think that if I am wrong and there is a Christian God, she’ll judge me on my merits and not whether I went to church.
Wherever I end up, I hope I don’t get stuck near Richard Dawkins. Brilliant chap, but painfully devoid of a sense of humour.
See the full debate between Dawkins and Pell here.
