Imagebearer’s Weblog

Happy Father’s Day!

In 1909, Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Spokane Washington, first proposed the idea of a “father’s day”. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise all his children alone on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.

The first Father’s Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington. Mrs. Dodd wanted Father’s Day to be celebrated on the first Sunday in June, her father’s birthday. However, the Spokane council couldn’t get the resolution through the first reading until the third Sunday in June. At about the same time in various towns and cities across American other people were beginning to celebrate a “father’s day.” In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father’s Day. Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day.

The white or red rose is the official flower for Father’s Day. Mrs. Dodd suggested that people wear a white rose to honor a father who was deceased and a red rose for a father who was living.

THANKS, DAD!

Yet when the Father attends worship, there’s a 93% chance that other family members will be present, too.

Dads, think of the clout that you have, not to mention the responsibility!

Our example this morning was the Father in our Scripture and he is a Perfect Father because the Father in this parable is God our Father

“My Daddy just didn’t know how to show love. It was Mom who held the family together. He just went to work every day & when he came home she had a list of sins we’d committed, & he would give us what-for about them.I broke my leg once on a swing set. It was Mom who held me in her arms all the way to the hospital. Dad pulled the car right up to the emergency door & when they asked him to move it because the space was reserved for emergency vehicles, he shouted, “What do you think this is, a tour bus?” Mom carried me in while Dad parked the car. It seems all my life Dad was parking the car someplace, coming in wet & half-frozen.

I remember when Mom told him to teach me how to ride a bicycle. I told him not to let go, but he said it was time. So I fell, & Mom ran to pick me up. But he waved her off. I was so mad that I showed him. I got right back on that bike & rode it by myself. He didn’t even feel embarrassed. He just smiled.

When I went off to college he was just fiddling with the luggage & the boxes. It was Mom who sat down & said that everything would be all right. She did all the writing. He just sent checks & a little note about how great his lawn looked now that I wasn’t playing football on it. . . .

When I got married it was Mom who got choked up & cried, & Dad just blew his nose loudly & left the room.

All my life he kept saying, “What are you doing? What time are you going to be home? Do you have gas in the car? Who’s going to be there? No, you can’t go.” Not Mom, she just loved me. But Daddy, he just didn’t seem to know how to show love – unless, is it possible that he was showing it all along, & I just didn’t recognize it?

He has given us Space and Freedom to be our own selves.

He has forgiven us over & over again.

And He loves us all equally, even though we are very different.

I’m thankful that I have a heavenly Father like that.

Ronnie

June 15, 2008 Posted by imagebearer | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Amazing and Alarming

Total SBC church membership also dipped slightly last year to just under 16.3 million but “primary” or regular worship attendance increased slightly to 6.15 million.

How is it possible to have 16 million plus members and only have an average attendance of 6 million plus? That is alarming to me, and lest you think it is a problem of the Southern Baptist Church, it is not. It is a problem of the entire church.

 The latest figures I could find on the United Methodist Church were from 2004. There were approximately 8 million members and just over 3 million in average attendance on any given Sunday.

 Should we send out the FBI to see if we can locate some of these people? Now I know that there are lots of people that have become disabled and are no longer able to attend church services. I hope that all of our churches are taking needed steps to include those people in the weekly worship services. There are many ways to do that, taking cd’s of the sermons, someone going and teaching Sunday School in the home or nursing facilities, people taking communion to the shut-ins, etc…..

 I keep hearing these statistics of declining memberships and I would submit that membership numbers mean nothing compared to attendance numbers. There is something about these numbers that make me angry and then I am sad because I know there are so many out there who claim the name of Christ and they are living defeated lives.

 It really is their loss. I think it is time we cleaned up the church rolls. If John Wesley were alive he would be taking names off every week.

 Ronnie

Article Date: Jun 11, 2008

http://www.thecronline.com/news_article.php?nid=3736&ndate=11/06/2008

Southern Baptists Worried by Decline in Baptisms

 Baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention have fallen to a 20-year low, a trend that is setting off alarm bells in America’s largest evangelical denomination.

 The number of people baptized in Southern Baptist churches and ceremonies, an important indicator of conversions and denominational growth, fell in 2007 for the third year in a row by 5 percent to 345,941.

 That was the lowest number since 1987, a trend on the minds of many of the 7,000 delegates known as “messengers” attending the SBC’s annual meeting in Indianapolis.

 This year’s theme is called “Fulfilling the Mission” and the logo pointedly depicts a picture of a baptism in progress.

For Southern Baptists, a decline in baptisms is a worry because a major tenet of their faith is to spread it. Many believe the “unchurched” are doomed to an eternity in hell.

 “We should always be concerned when baptisms dip. It’s about salvation. … We are commanded to go and preach the gospel to every person,” said Tommy French, a 77-year-old pastor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

 Several delegates interviewed by Reuters expressed their concern in such terms: fewer baptisms meant fewer saved souls. For Southern Baptists, a public baptism in water is a key rite of the conversion experience.

 The trend of falling baptisms also has broader cultural and political implications as the 16-million member SBC is a big part of the Republican Party’s conservative Christian base.

 Twenty-five percent of U.S. adults now count themselves as “born-again” or evangelical Christians, making the movement one of the fastest growing and most influential in America. A slowdown in its growth could have a ripple effect on politics and other areas of American life.

 Several Southern Baptists interviewed took it as an unhealthy sign of “weakness” or misguided attempts to find accommodation with the broader secular culture that some regard as corrupting and even satanic.

 “We are using corporate-style marketing and worship services. It’s a performance orientation that lacks authenticity,” said J.D. Perry, also from Baton Rouge.

 For SBC evangelist Jim McNiel of St. Louis, the drop in baptism numbers was a sign that the biblical “end times” described in the Book of Revelation were drawing near.

 “I see two factions. You have one for believers but you also have a faction from Satan and there is a strong battle looming,” he said.

 Total SBC church membership also dipped slightly last year to just under 16.3 million but “primary” or regular worship attendance increased slightly to 6.15 million.

Falling baptism numbers have also been attributed to the cultural background of new converts, who include a growing number of Hispanics who are seen as reluctant to take “the dunk” because it is considered a final step that breaks most ties with their past. 

June 15, 2008 Posted by imagebearer | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment