Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Verse of the week

Job 36: 5-12

God is mighty, but does not despise men;
he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.

6 He does not keep the wicked alive
but gives the afflicted their rights.

7 He does not take his eyes off the righteous;
he enthrones them with kings
and exalts them forever.

8 But if men are bound in chains,
held fast by cords of affliction,

9 he tells them what they have done—
that they have sinned arrogantly.

10 He makes them listen to correction
and commands them to repent of their evil.

11 If they obey and serve him,
they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment.

12 But if they do not listen,
they will perish by the sword [a]
and die without knowledge.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

A case for door to door evangelism?

Jehovah's witnesses claim that they need to knock on 740 doors for each convert. I am not sure if they have exagerated this to make their evangelism see more effective, but if this is accurate then it is a lot lot better "odds" then I would have guessed. I know what is true from talking to Jaydubs is that many more people are open to door to door evangelism then we may like to think. So should we all put on our shirts and ties and get door knocking?? LOL

Monday, November 07, 2005

Where have all the deacons gone?

The number of men involved in churches in NZ has said to have dropped over the past 30 years. I wonder if in part this is due to the reducing of the roles similar to that of a deacon?
A lot of the worship songs in church use particularly honeymoonish type lyrics. Personally I quite like the modern songs as a way of worship, but many men don't enjoy that as their primary way of worship.

A lot of men get their sense of worth out of being able to be of pracitcal use. Maybe its just the churches I have been to but you don't seem to see as much the guy who sits in the foyer making sure everything is ok. Or the man who is on car security during the night services. It used to be the deacons job to collect up the offering, but now I see it done by many different people each week. What does it matter who collects up the offering? If that was part of a role that was giving someone importance and enabling someone to worship God in their local church then it does matter.

Also on a side issue I am interested in what people think. Do you think contemporary church services cater more for male or female preferences? I know that even asking such a question may seem like a large generalisation but obviously men and woman are different so who is more catered to?