Government Agency Determines What Church Can Afford – There was a promise that mandatory closed captioning of television programs would be waived by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) if it would place an economic burden on independent producers. Despite issuing hundreds of such waivers, a local church was refused. "This month’s ruling was against one of those re-applying for a waiver: Curtis Baptist Church, which produces a weekly Sunday morning program on a TV station in Augusta, GA. While the church claimed the extra $26,000 per year for closed captioning would up its production costs by 61 percent and could threaten the continuation of this ministry of more than 30 years, the FCC rejected that argument. Notably, the FCC looked past the specific budget for the program, and instead at the church’s total balance sheet."
Understanding the People You Want to Show Up – "If you’re waiting for unchurched people to show up because their life is falling apart, you might wait a long time. Sure, there are always people in crisis who seek God out. But many are quite content with their lives without God. And some are quite happy and successful. If you only know how to speak into discontent and crisis, you will miss most of your neighbors." (Italics added) Additionally, North Point affiliate pastor Carey Nieuwhof states, "Old school ‘revival’ meant there was something to revive. Now that we are on the 2nd to 5th generation of unchurched people, revival is less helpful to say the least. You can’t call them back to something they never knew." 15 Things to know about those you want to reach.
The Two Sins of Multi Site Video Venue (MSVV) Churches – In the wake of what some consider the key Evangelical news story of 2014: "Multi-Site Video Venue (MSVV) is prone to decontextualization. When one franchises either a teacher or a church model based on one location and transfers it en toto to another location, one has in essence disregarded the local context, its culture and instead assumes that who we are and what we say as a church applies to you with no dialogue or presence needed. It asks people to come to me on our terms. We have what you need. It is a profound act of colonialism."
When the Big Christmas Pageant is Past Tense – "For over 20 years, I was an integral part of designing our Christmas services at Willow Creek, and some of what I remember still makes me break out in a sweat! I remember the panic of no time to shop for gifts, of wrapping presents late at night on Christmas Eve, of disappointing some friends or family members when I just was not available for certain holiday gatherings … I am somewhat surprised to admit that there are some aspects of the entire experience I do miss. So maybe it will encourage you to know what they are—a quick list because none of you has time to read much of anything right now!"
Facebook Loved This Diversion – "Two professing atheist authors recently held a contest in which they asked followers to 'rethink the Ten Commandments' and come up with 'an alternative secular version … for the modern age.'" The top ten submissions included the maxim, "There is no one right way to live;" and an exhortation to "Leave the world a better place than you found it." No word if the atheist big ten will spark a movie with a Charlton Heston lookalike.
Do People Need Reminding to Attend Church? – For years I attended a small group in Toronto, Canada that met on the 18th floor of a high-rise apartment. Despite the fact I never missed, and despite the fact that seating in the small one-bedroom unit was at a premium for the thirty people who showed up, two nights before I would get a phone call from the small group leader reminding me that small group was approaching. So in my opinion, in a world with email, the concept of churches making contact on Saturday in reference to Sunday morning is a no-brainer. So I'm not surprised that, "57% of the churches that sent emails saw a week-over-week increase in attendance. The average attendance increase in those churches was 13%." Check out four samples of the emails sent.
Verses We Remember – Because the Bible has verse numbers, and because computers can store search stats, and basically, because we can, YouVersion has another annual list showing that when it comes to favorite verses, the U.S., Nigeria and Brazil have something in common, and that's Philippians 4:5. But it was Romans 12:2 that received the greatest combined number of social media sharing and bookmarking. There's more at the YouVersion annual report, but if you're thinking that John 3:16 should be at the top of the list, then you are in agreement with the year-end statistical report at BibleGateway.com (containing a couple of impressive graphs, one resembling a Periodic Table of sorts.)
It's Like Herding Cats – I clicked through to read "Are House Cats Smarter Than Humans" not realizing it was a religion-themed website. "[G]etting two humans, ten, a thousand, or considerably more, to do the same thing at the same time is remarkably easy, and it’s successfully accomplished on a daily basis: Just put a TV in every home. Or set up a religious meeting in a football stadium. Or announce that some electronic device is on “sale” during a limited time period—say, between 4 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving—and get out of the way when the doors open." And then, there's where the writer took the subject next.
Quick Take – In a recent Wall Street Journal infographic, clergy rank in the second highest category for obesity. Christmas dinner; just sayin'.
Christmas Time Travel – Okay, the song itself isn't very Christmas-y, but what's more Christmas Eve than time traveling back a century to listen to the latest Christian music release 100 years ago; CCM in the year 1914. (And Jon Rivers was hosting 20 The Countdown Magazine even back then!)
Paul Wilkinson will be back with more on Friday. Christian news stories never take a vacation.
