Friday
May 16, 2008
CHURCH LEADER BRIEFING
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Les & Leslie Parrott, authors of The Parent You Want to Be: Who You Are Matters More Than What You Do
HEADLINES:
+ World Food Crisis Deepening
+ Only 5% of Adults Tithed Last Year, Barna Survey Says
+ Missionaries Struggle as Dollar's Value Declines
+ SBC Baptisms: Lowest Since '87
+ South Korean President Seen as Man of Christian Faith
+ Survey: Journalists Admit Liberal Leanings, Lack of Exposure to Faith
+ Religion Must be Saved from Extremism, Says Blair
+ Court Rules in Favor of Departing Virginia Churches
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World Food Crisis Deepening
(ASSIST 05.06.08) - International relief agency World Vision, one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations, is calling on donor governments to increase resources to fund the World Food Program's $755 million shortfall. It also urges leaders of the world's leading industrialized nations to make the issue a priority at the upcoming G8 conference.
Amid surging food prices, child malnutrition, violent unrest, and the prospect of prolonged food shortages, World Vision has announced a potential 1.5 million drop in the number of people receiving its food assistance. The aid organization cites the soaring cost of food and unmet donor-nation aid commitments for a potential 23% decrease in the number of people it's able to supply with food aid this year.
"Despite our best efforts, more than a million of our beneficiaries are no longer receiving food aid," says Dean Hirsch, president of World Vision International. "At least a third of these are children who urgently need enough healthy food to thrive." (Source: ASSIST News Service, www.assistnews.net)
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Only 5% of Adults Tithed Last Year, Barna Survey Says
(Baptist Press 05.06.08) Only 5% of American adults donated 10% or more of their income to churches and charitable groups last year, according to a study by The Barna Group.
Within the randomly selected group of 1,006 adults surveyed, Christians tended to give more than others. "Among the most generous segments were evangelicals (24% of whom tithed); conservatives (12%); people who had prayed, read the Bible, and attended a church service during the past week (12%); charismatic or Pentecostal Christians (11%); and registered Republicans (10%)," George Barna says.
The segments of society who were highly unlikely to tithe included people under the age of 25, atheists and agnostics, single adults who have never been married, liberals, and adults who make less than $20,000 per year, the research indicates. (Source: Baptist Press, www.sbcbaptistpress.org)
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Missionaries Struggle as Dollar's Value Declines
(RT 05.06.08) - The Charlotte Observer tells the story of American missionary Phil Davis, whose family receives a deposit of American money in his Czech bank account every month. And every month, he sees that deposit shrink. The Davises moved to Prague 3 years ago to start a church. But since then, they've noticed that the money they raised to support their work overseas does not go nearly as far as it once did.
Missionaries serving internationally are particularly at risk as the dollar declines, since many depend on money raised years before they left, when exchange rates were more favorable. It leaves the Davises and fellow missionaries facing questions like: Should they move to a smaller house farther from those they're trying to reach? Where can they save on groceries? Can they raise enough money to stay?
"It's kind of like the frog in the kettle thing," Phil Davis says. "It just creeps up on you."
"(Missionaries) are totally dependent on the Lord to carry them through, and he does, and the work goes on," says Vince Eaton, coordinator of the missions/outreach leadership team at Calvary Church in Charlotte. "It's not going to stop the spread of the gospel, believe me." (Source: Religion Today, www.religiontoday.com)
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SBC Baptisms: Lowest Since '87
(BP 04.24.08) - The number of people baptized in Southern Baptist churches fell for the 3rd straight year in 2007 to the convention's lowest level since 1987.
Although the SBC added 473 new churches and gave more than $1.3 billion to support mission activities around the world, Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, says there's no escaping the fact that Southern Baptists are not reaching as many people for Christ as they once did.
According to LifeWay's Annual Church Profile (ACP), baptisms in 2007 dropped nearly 5.5% to 345,941, compared to 364,826 in 2006.
"This report is truly disheartening," Rainer says. "Total membership showed a slight decline. Baptisms have now declined for three consecutive years and for seven of the last eight years, and are at their lowest level since 1987. Indeed, the total baptisms are among the lowest reported since 1970. We are a denomination that, for the most part, has lost its evangelistic passion." (Source: Baptist Press, www.sbcbaptistpress.org)
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South Korean President Seen as Man of Christian Faith
(BP 04.23.08) - Some say it is a new day in South Korea. After a landslide election in November, Myung-Bak Lee was sworn into office on Feb. 19. In defeating Dong-Young Chung of the liberal United Democratic Party, Lee provided the conservative Grand National Party with its first presidential election win in 10 years.
This has been good news for many of South Korea's Christian leaders since Lee also is a member of the 70,000-member Somang Presbyterian Church in Seoul. One of the president's chief advocates is Billy Kim, president of South Korea's Far East Broadcasting Company and pastor of Suwon Central Baptist Church from 1960-2004. Kim, a former Baptist World Alliance president regarded as one of the world's most influential Christian leaders, first earned international attention when he served as an interpreter for the 1973 Billy Graham crusade.
Kim and Lee's friendship dates back many years. Kim, who attended Lee's inauguration, described Lee as a man of strong faith and a faithful member of Somang Presbyterian Church. Lee has served as an elder -- and has helped direct traffic to ease parking congestion before and after the Seoul mega-church's services.
Continuing his close relationship with Lee, Kim met with Lee on March 29 in the Blue House, the residence of South Korea's president. Kim spent more than an hour and a half with the president and his wife Kim Yoon. They prayed together and discussed both the tensions with North Korea and the upcoming summit meeting with President Bush, which was held April 18-19 in Washington.
Kim said he believes Lee's faith will have a positive impact on the challenges he faces in his new office, one of the greatest of which is the tenuous relationship with North Korea. Lee's initial stance is that more reciprocity is needed from North Korea in exchange for the concessions and aid provided by South Korea. Lee's position has escalated tensions between the two countries during the initial phase of his tenure, but Kim said the president is taking it calmly. Kim encouraged Lee and his wife to have a time of prayer with President Bush and Laura Bush at their summit.
Kim said he also believes that Lee's election is good news for South Korean mission efforts.
South Korea is second only to the United States as a missionary-sending country. Former President Rho Mu Hyun reportedly faced intense local and international pressure as a result of the six-week Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan last summer, in which 23 aid workers were taken hostage by the Taliban. Two of the Koreans, both men, were killed by the Taliban.
While the focus of mission efforts may shift toward more local initiatives in the short term, Kim said he believes the commitment of church leaders to missions and evangelism will only continue to escalate, and local church leaders will be able to count on the support of a president who understands the importance of taking the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. (Source: Baptist Press, www.sbcbaptistpress.org)
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Survey: Journalists Admit Liberal Leanings, Lack of Exposure to Faith
(BP 04.11.09) - Just 6% of national journalists describe themselves as conservative, compared with 36% of the overall population, according to an annual survey released in March by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
The State of the Media report says 2% of the journalists and news executives surveyed consider themselves very conservative, while 53% of national journalists describe themselves as moderate, 24% as liberal, and 8% as very liberal.
Overall, only 8% of journalists at national media outlets say they attend church or synagogue weekly.
Almost 2/3 of the journalists in the survey admit that their political leanings impact their reporting as the line between reporting and commentary is blurred. (Source: Baptist Press, www.sbcbaptistpress.org)
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Religion Must be Saved from Extremism, Says Blair
(CP 04.09.08) - Former British Prime Minster Tony Blair, in his first major speech on religion, said religion must be rescued from extremism and irrelevance. What's more, Blair suggested, it needs to be seen as a force for good at a time of global turmoil.
"For religion to be a force for good, it must be rescued not simply from extremism, faith as a means of exclusion; but also from irrelevance, an interesting part of our history but not of our future," said Blair.
Blair converted to Catholicism in 2007. His lecture was the first in a series to examine faith and life in Britain. (Source: The Christian Post, www.christianpost.com)
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Court Rules in Favor of Departing Virginia Churches
(RT 04.07.08) - According to a release from the Institute on Religion and Democracy, on April 3, Judge Randy Bellows of the Fairfax County Circuit Court ruled in favor of the Virginia churches that have departed the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
Bellows ruled that a religious division had occurred, and that the Virginia Statute on Religious Division, Va. Code 57-9(A), is applicable to this case.
The Episcopal Church and the diocese are expected to challenge the court's decision.
A majority of members in the 11 Anglican churches voted to sever their ties to the Episcopal Church and the diocese following disputes over the redefinition and reinterpretation of Scripture.
IRD Director of Anglican Action Ralph Webb commented, "Judge Bellows' decision commendably recognizes facts that the Episcopal Church refuses to accept. The majority of many congregations across the country and the majority of one entire diocese have voted to leave the Episcopal Church. And it's ironic and tragic when a secular judge takes the Episcopal Church's membership in the Anglican Communion more seriously than the denomination itself." (Source: Religion Today, www.religiontoday.com)
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The Zondervan ChurchSource Church Leader Briefing (edited by Jonathan Petersen, jonathan.petersen@zondervan.com, Senior Director of Corporate & Internet Communications, Zondervan) is comprised of selected and edited news bulletins from a variety of reporting sources attributed to each story. Zondervan is a member of the Online News Association.