Tag: grace

The missing message in today’s church

William Graham Tullian Tchividjian writes:

America’s churches came back into the media limelight a few weeks ago after a well-publicized Pew study showed a meteoric rise of Americans claiming no religious affiliation, shooting up from seven percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2010. The percentage more than doubled for those under the age of 30, reaching almost 35 percent. The group is now being referred to as “the religious nones.”

He points to a great article by Rachel Held Evans that what millennials really want from church is a change in substance.

He continues:

As someone who loves the church, I am saddened by the perception of Christianity as a vehicle of moral control and good behavior, rather than a haven for the discouraged and dying. It is high time for the church to remind our broken and burned out world that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a one-way declaration that because Jesus was strong for you, you’re free to be weak; because Jesus won for you, you’re free to lose; because Jesus succeeded for you, you’re free to fail.

Grace and rest and absolution – with no new strings or anxieties attached–now that would be a change in substance.

How freeing would that be for you to receive today?

And do you agree – is this message missing from today’s churches?

Debt collector thrives with a simple strategy: kindness

LOVE THIS!

From CBS News:

Nurse Lori Factor from Tecumseh, Okla., could be any one of the 35 million Americans who owe money to a collection agency.
The only difference is that Lori loves her debt collector.

The story goes on to explain how Bill Bartmann’s debt collection agency, CFS-2 actually works to help it’s clients get out of debt vs. constantly brow beating them.

Bill says he does not hire debt collectors. Instead, he hires people with customer care experience. And rewards them — not for how much money they bring in — but for how many free services they provide.

The goal is to get debtors back on their feet — be it through government assistance, housing, even helping build resumes.

Bill says his company will even fill out the application and schedule the interview for their clients.

“Because if I can get you out of debt, you will have more money to pay me later,” said Bill.

According to the CFS-2 website, Bartmann has found himself in the shoes of many of his clients.

Bill and Kathy Bartmann, the founders of the company, were deeply in debt due to the failure of an oil-related business after the price of oil plummeted in the 1980s.

Because they personally had been hounded by predatory debt collectors, Bill and Kathy vowed they would find a better way.

Believing they could make a difference, Bill and Kathy started a small agency. True to their promise, Bill and Kathy never treated customers the same way they had been mis-treated. They treated customers with dignity and respect, and quickly discovered that most of those customers wanted to find a way to pay back their debts if only someone would work with them instead of hounding.

In the years since 1986, Bill, Kathy, and their team have successfully used debt discounting to help more than 4.5 million American families get rid of the debt that so often tears a family apart.

And according to Bartmann, his agency is collecting on 200% more debt than his competitors.

Surprise, surprise!

Maybe grace and love do win after all…

‘Grace defies reason and logic’

You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics; in physical laws every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff…

If only we could be a bit more like Jesus, the world would be transformed. When I look at the Cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my s— and everybody else’s. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that’s the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it. – Bono

Read more | HT

A change of heart (part 3)

Church in Jerusalem
Church in Jerusalem | Photo by Stewart Cutler

Read part 1 and part 2

Years have now passed and the men who once sat gathered around the shade tree have grown old.

While they were once young, vibrant and full of life, the years have had their toil on them and they start to see the twilight of their lives.

Several of them have written accounts of their time with the teacher.

The tax collector did and was certain to include the story of that day under the shade tree.

The fisherman has spent the last 40 years or so travelling and building communities around the teachings of their teacher. He’s had very little time to write.

None of the men had any clue as to what the future would hold when they first followed the teacher. They had no clue that within three short years he would be captured by the religious authorities, be accused of heresy and sentenced to execution by the Roman authorities.

They were certain he was ready to lead them to a revolution to overtake their oppressors.
Continue reading A change of heart (part 3)