How Churches Should Respond to Seven Major Changes

Podcast Episode #571

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We recently highlights seven changes are facing today. In this episode, we discuss how to combat these changes.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

  • Cultural Christianity is all but gone in America.
  • Multi-service became multi-venue which became multi-site.
  • Work habits are changing. Churches need to consider responding to those changes with alternate worship times.
  • Denominational health reflects the health of member churches.

The seven changes we discuss are:

  1. The Death of Cultural Christianity.
  2. The Multi Movement.
  3. The Shift in Work Habits.
  4. The Decline of Denominations.
  5. The Move to Different Staffing Models.
  6. The Huge Revitalization and Replanting Movement.
  7. The Closure of 8,000 to 10,000 Churches a Year.

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast:


Episode Sponsors

The mission at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission. The school offers more than 40 different degree programs, including the new Master of Arts in Church Revitalization in partnership with Church Answers and the Revitalization Network. This 37-hour degree is designed to help students move established churches from flatlining to flourishing.

Learn about this program and more by visiting sebts.edu. Where are you going? Southeastern will help you get there.


Vanderbloemen has 12 Vanderbloemen…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Thom Rainer.

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Salvation Army’s Strawberry Field’s gates open to the public

From Saturday, visitors will have the chance to walk through the gardens of the Strawberry Field home in Woolton, Liverpool, where Lennon would play as a boy.

The musician used to climb over the wall to gain entry to the Beaconsfield Road home, which he later immortalised in song, but the Salvation Army is now opening the site’s famous red gates to the public as a tourist attraction and youth training centre.

 

Lennon’s sister, Julia Baird, 72, who is also honorary president of the Strawberry Field project, told the PA news agency that the grounds of the home had been a “sanctuary” for the musician as a youngster.

She said: “I suppose as children we all have somewhere that’s a bit ours, a bit special.

“It might be a little hidey-hole under the stairs or it might be up an oak tree but it’s somewhere we take ourselves off and that’s a special place.

“It seems from the song that this was John’s special place.”

The home was made famous by The Beatles song in 1967 and around 60,000 tourists pose for photos outside its distinctive gates every year.

Peter Byrne/PA Wire

 

Replica gates are now in place but the original structures will be on display for visitors in the grounds.

The newly-built centre will include a cafe and exhibition on Lennon’s early life, but will also provide training for 18 to 25-year-olds with mild to moderate learning…

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.

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Two High School Football Players Give Their Clothes to Classmate Bullied for His Wardrobe

Two High School Football Players Give Their Clothes to Classmate Bullied for His Wardrobe



Two football players at a prep school in Tennessee donated clothes to a freshman student who was being bullied for wearing the same clothes over and over.


According to Faithwire, Kristopher Graham and Antwan Garrett, football players at MLK College Preparatory High School in Memphis, noticed that freshman Michael Todd was being bulled.


Graham and Garrett went home to their own closets and found shirts, pants, socks and shoes to give to Todd. They brought the clothes to Todd at school.


“He wasn’t smiling or anything, and I was like ‘I think this is going to make you smile.’ We’re in the same third period and I apologize for laughing at you, and I want to give you something to make it up,” Graham said.


“When I saw people laughing at him, and bullying him, I felt like I needed to do something,” he added.


Todd told CBS News reporters that he’s been bullied all his life— mostly for his clothes. Before Garrett and Graham gave him the clothes, he said he was bullied every day for three weeks after schools started.


“I really don’t have clothes at home. My mom can’t buy clothes for me because I’m growing too fast,” Todd shared before noting that he was “shocked” by the gift from the football players.


“I was very happy, I was shocked completely,” Todd added.


“You guys are the best guys in my entire…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Eight Women Hospitalized in Nine Months from Planned Parenthood Flagship Facility

Eight Women Hospitalized in Nine Months from Planned Parenthood Flagship Facility



In the past eight months, nine women have been wheeled out on gurneys from the Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood abortion facility and sent to a hospital, according to Lifesite News.


In the most recent incident, a woman was wheeled out partially covered with a sheet. The ambulance pulled out with lights only and turned on its sirens a block away, according to witnesses.


Another one of the patients was “distraught and in visible pain.” Pro-life activists who station themselves outside of the facility have been recording the hospital visits. Operation Rescue, a national pro-life organization, predicts that the Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood is on track to have at least 24 medical emergencies this year, triple the highest documented in a single year.


“The Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood is a very dangerous place for women and their unborn babies. This abortion facility cranks out botched abortions at a very troubling rate,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “A full investigation into patient care and safety practices should be conducted, but given it is New York, any investigation there is likely to be done with a blindfold when it comes to Planned Parenthood.”


Operation Rescue, a nonprofit committed to recording abortion abuses, has kept track of these incidents in order to publicize the brutality of abortion not only for…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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British Schoolchildren Are Taught There Are 100-Plus Genders in New Video Series

British Schoolchildren Are Taught There Are 100-Plus Genders in New Video Series



A new BBC video resource produced for schools and geared toward British children ages 9-12 teaches that there are more than 100 gender identities and that people who are critical of transgender ideology “just don’t know any better yet.”


The nine-video “Big Talk” series shows children ages 9-12 asking adults about a range of topics, including puberty, sex, different-looking families and gender. 


The English-based Christian Institute was among the first groups to report on the series. 


Asked what the different gender identities are, a teacher in the “Identity” video says, “So we know we’ve got male and female, but there are over 100, if not more, gender identities now.”


She adds, “You’ve got some people who might call themselves genderqueer, who are just like ‘I don’t really want to be anything in particular, I’m just going to be me.’”


An accompanying teacher’s guide includes suggested questions to ask children. Among them:


“What’s the difference between sex and gender?” 


“What are the different gender identities?” 


“What do you think transgender means?” 


“When do people feel like they want to change gender?”


“What does stereotypes mean?”


The teacher’s guide also suggests a “descriptive writing” project for students in which they will imagine what it would feel like…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Democratic Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Says She Supports Abortion Limitations

Democratic Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Says She Supports Abortion Limitations



Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii Congresswoman running for president, said in an online interview Sunday she supports limits on abortion in the third trimester, a dramatic departure from her opponents who advocate unlimited access.


In an hour-plus Rubin Report interview streamed on YouTube Gabbard described herself as having a “libertarian” approach to abortion, adding the government shouldn’t be mandating women’s choices.


“I think that there should be some restrictions though,” she said.


Host Dave Rubin then asked if she had a “cutoff point.”


“I think the third trimester,” she answered.“Unless a woman’s life or severe health consequences is at risk, then there shouldn’t be an abortion in the third trimester.”


Gabbard’s admission comes at a time when other 2020 hopefuls are pushing for unregulated access to abortion.


As Christian Headlinesreported last week, candidate Pete Buttigieg made national news when he claimed on a radio talk show that life begins at a baby’s first breath and that the Bible supports abortion up until the moment of birth.


“There’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath,” Buttigieg told the hosts of Power 105.1 FM’s Breakfast Club show. “And so even that is something that we can interpret differently.”


Also last week, candidate Bernie…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Vows to Annex Parts of the West Bank if He Wins Election

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Vows to Annex Parts of the West Bank if He Wins Election



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex part of the West Bank if he is named victorious in next week’s election.


In a controversial move, Netanyahu said he would enforce Israeli sovereignty over the region if he is successful in forming the next government. “If I receive from you, citizens of Israel, a clear mandate to do so… today I announce my intention to apply with the formation of the next government Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea,” he said, according to the BBC.


Israel’s long-standing leader, who had ruled unanimously for over a decade, went on to note that this area of the West Bank was the “one place where we can apply Israeli sovereignty immediately after the election.”


The Prime Minister, using geographical terms taken from the Bible, declared that this was a “historic opportunity, a one-time opportunity, to extend Israeli sovereignty on our settlements in Judea and Samaria, and also on other important regions for our security, for our heritage, and for our future,” according to TIME magazine.


Palestinian leaders have responded with frustration, noting that Netanyahu’s intentions completely decimate any potential peace deal and are a violation of international law. “Israel’s unprecedented culture of impunity, enabled by international inaction, is the…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Kirk Cameron Creates TV New Series Featuring Faith-Based Conversations with Celebrity Friends

Kirk Cameron Creates TV New Series Featuring Faith-Based Conversations with Celebrity Friends



Actor and outspoken Christian Kirk Cameron is launching a new TV series on the TBN network called One on One.


Set to be the “Growing Pains” star’s own take on “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” Cameron said that he hopes the unique format will help his guests feel relaxed and able to talk openly about their faith.


“I loved how Jerry Seinfeld would take some of these guests out of the studio and they would go get some coffee in his show, and Kevin Hart would do the same thing with his show, and James Corden has lots of fun taking his guests out. So I thought, I’m going to try a one on one competition with everybody,” the actor explained, according to the Christian Post.


Indeed, while Kirk hopes to touch on some heavier subjects during the conversations, he also wants to keep it light-hearted for viewers. In an age of division, social media disagreement and bitter public feuds, Cameron is determined to stand out from the negative noise.


“We can turn on the news or read our news feed through social media, and just everybody’s fighting about something, whether it’s the Democrats fighting with the Republicans, or it’s the Democrats fighting against each other,” he explained. “We can talk all about racism, and we can talk all about gender identity and there’s so much of that, all the time that I wanted to make a show that was…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Thousands of Swedes Are Implanting Microchips into Their Hands – Is it a Sign of the Antichrist?

Thousands of Swedes Are Implanting Microchips into Their Hands – Is it a Sign of the Antichrist?



A growing movement of Swedes are implanting microchips into their hands to replace credit cards and cash.


“Tech will move into the body,” the microchip pioneer Jowan Osterlund said to the New York Post, “I am sure of that.”


More than 4,000 citizens have opted to insert the chip, which is about the size of a grain of rice. The chip can also help monitor health and replace keycards for access into offices and buildings.


The progressive country hopes the chips catch on and thereby eliminate the need for cash. Microchip owners can simply swipe their hands to pay in stores.


Osterlund, who also owns Biohax International, has claimed that the technology is completely safe for users. But many are more concerned about privacy.


“The problem is, who owns this data?” Ben Libberton, a Swedish scientist, said. “Do I get a letter from my insurance company saying premiums are going up before I know I’m ill? If I use the chip to buy lunch, go to the gym and go to work, will someone have all of this info about me? Is this stored and is it safe?


“People have shown they’re happy to give up privacy for convenience,” he continued. “The chip is very convenient, so could we accept our data being shared very widely before we know the risks?”


For some pastors and End Time theologians, the microchip is a concerning sign of the…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Christian MP facing deselection over abortion vote

Reports suggest Dr Lisa Cameron is the only Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) MP who has not been approved to stand in the next general election, expected later this year.

The MP says activists in the party who disagreed with her decision to vote against lifting Northern Ireland’s abortion ban are behind the decision.

 

According to The Times, SNP members have been asked to vote on whether they want sitting MPs to stand again or whether an internal selection should take place.

Dr Cameron has been subject to much abuse online following her vote in July.

She said she went against her party as a matter of conscience based around her faith and her experience of two late term miscarriages.

The vote was a free vote, meaning she wouldn’t be disciplined for going against her party.

Pro-life group Right to Life UK has been speaking out for the MP.

Spokesperson Catherine Robinson said: “It is disgraceful that this MP should face deselection and receive such abuse for voting to protect unborn babies and in favour of not imposing abortion, which is a devolved matter, on Northern Ireland.

“If she is deselected from the SNP, it would show the intolerance of pro-life views and those who respect and wish to defend the right to life of all human beings, born or unborn, within the party.”

Premier has contacted Dr Cameron for comment.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a…

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