How Do You See It?

Every week I get a podcast from Stanford University that focuses on educating students about "Social Innovation" and developing "Social Entrepreneurs". http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/epse/

The pod casts are very exciting because they offer case studies of people who have decided to "Do good while doing well". In fact, Stanford seems to be ahead of Christian colleges and universities in the respect that they are tirelessly and ceaselessly pursuing charitable goals while operating on sound business principles. I rarely see Christians who are so intentionally and thoughtfully pursuing such a holistic vision. (Let me know if I am wrong!)

However, all is not well in this arena. Some are upset that business entrepreneurs are now getting into charity. Read the story below from "The Journal of Philanthropy". http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/

The debate about so-called philanthrocapitalism has jumped the Atlantic.
In an opinion article in The Guardian newspaper, in London, Tristram Hunt, a history professor, writes that Google.org, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other groups that mix philanthropy and business practices will not solve health inequities and global poverty.

Such donors have “little engagement with the kind of structural injustices — racial, economic, social — or broader environmental, demographic or strategic challenges that require political advocacy. Having made their riches from the existing free-market model, venture philanthropists see little need to confront its problematic aspects,” he writes.

In a letter to the editor, Kurt Hoffman, director of the Shell Foundation, disagrees because “Many of these new actors have been motivated precisely because governments and charities have failed for decades to deliver, particularly in the developing world, where the delivery of aid has an atrocious record. Do we want to continue with the status quo or apply some fresh, inherently efficient and potentially very effective thinking to find new solutions to old problems?” he asks.
What do you think?
— Ian Wilhelm

I think we need a lot of new and fresh models. Many of the new and the old models failed and are failing. However, that is one reason we desperately need business practices that experiment and then evaluate what works. I have a simple philosophy:

"If it works-Do more of it."

"If it does not work-Stop it."

"If it ain't broke-Don't fix it."

Boomers and Builders

It is estimated that over 100 million people over 45 are alive today in the USA. Here is Greater Cincinnati, there are about 860,000 of these folks and they are a low hanging fruit for any church that would like to have them among the parishioners.

Folks over 45 or 50 are thinking differently than we did at 15, 25 or 35. We have hit Mid-Life and either made it into a crazy experience of adolescence or the opposite and starting obsessing about getting old. These issues tend to get us thinking about eternity and meeting our Maker.

It is estimated that some 60 to 70% of this cohort is un-churched, de-churched or church alumni. Despite that fact, many would like to return to church and are waiting to be asked.

Here is the sad fact; nobody is asking them to go to church with them. They want to be invited and they want something that is spiritual and strong and good but no body is saying, "Why not visit with us at church this Sunday?"

People invite me to golf and to lunch but not to church. What's up with that?

A Documentary for Us

I saw a glimpse of an interesting movie the other night. It is a documentary of some older Americans who are singing Rock and Roll. I was amazed at their abilities and energy.

Here is the home page for Young at Heart. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/youngatheart/

Take a look.

Gary Sweeten
www.sweetenlife.com

WATCH Prayer--Talk to one another and to God

Be filled with the Spirit and speak to one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for every reason giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father."

Talking is the one aspect that most of us think about when we hear the word "prayer." However, in my experience, silence and listening are much more important than talking.

Singing, praising and readings are important parts of the Talking process. When we attend to others in the group we sometimes talk but not always. Watching and Spirit led discernment are more important than talking as we develop an understanding of others. However, talking can be an important part of a Dialogue Prayer Group. For example, by asking others what they are experiencing we gather information about what God is doing right then.

Dialogue prayer is two-way communication with God at the center of the group as a Counselor and Guide. When we think that the Lord is speaking to us about a situation, a plan or a person, the best thing to do is to stop and discuss what the group is thinking on that specific topic. For example, if I think that the Lord has a "word" for my friend Maury, I could ask him and the others if they are experiencing something similar. In this way we will get confirmation about God's guidance.We ought never move into a specific plan or program without the sense that the group confirms that they believe that it is God's will.

This is a continuation of the socialization process, which requires a group dialogue about their sense of the Lord's "Still small voice" at that particular time. This discussion or dialogue will keep members from "going off the deep end" with an idea or dream that is not from God. It also teaches younger Christians how to discern more accurately the Lord's voice. It provides a safe place for interpersonal discipline to take place. Talking during Dialogue Prayer is not rude or intrusive it we stay on the same topic.

Talk also involves teaching, sharing, scripture discussion or questions about a topic. We recently experienced a powerful time of God's voice when a member shared insights about the return of Christ. After a few minutes, others told of similar insights and words so the group focused on that as a particular theme. Later, I mentioned that a thought continued in my head and I wanted to know if others could confirm it. The thought was, "Don't look back" and I knew what it meant to me.

Immediately a group member said, "The hair is standing on the back of my neck. I got the Scripture Luke 17: 32 but I didn't know what to do with it. You read it Gary, I think it must be for you.

"I opened up the Bible and read "Do not be like Lot's wife." Well, the hair on my neck also stood on end! No biblical character is better known for looking back than Lot's wife. She is the most common metaphor for disobeying God and not trusting His deliverance when she turned around and longed for Gomorrah. She turned to salt as a result.

I took that as confirmation. Then, another member said, "I kept thinking, 'Where do you want to go today?' and I think that means to look ahead."

This is an example of Welcoming, Attending and Talking.

Stages of Growth

Do you believe that adults can be a widely varying places in their spiritual, mental and relational development? Or, do you think all adult Christians ought to receive the exact same spiritual food?

Hebrews 5:11 Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your hearing. 12 For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you need someone to teach you over again the first principles of God's Word. You need milk, not solid food. 13 For everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness, for he is a mere infant!

•14 But solid food is for full-grown Believers for those whose senses and mental faculties have been trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law.

After reading these passages it is relevant to ask:"What did the author of hebrews think about adult development?"

A Friend and Mentor Meets Jesus

'A mighty warrior for Jesus'
BY REBECCA GOODMAN RGOODMAN@ENQUIRER.COM

MOUNT WASHINGTON - In 1994, the Rev. F. Murray Hastings quit the priesthood to form a new church because he felt the Episcopal denomination was no longer true to its calling. At the time, he was rector of the Church of the Advent in Walnut Hills. Most of the congregation followed him and became members of the nondenominational Fellowship of Jesus Christ. Rev. Hastings served as pastor until 2005.

"He was a mighty warrior for Jesus," said his wife, Alixe.

Rev. Hastings died Monday at Mercy Anderson Hospital of undetermined causes. The Mount Washington resident was 78.

"He always stood for truth, justice and equality for all," said his daughter Joyce Pasley, of College Hill. "He spoke out on many occasions in defense of these principles."

He was a local leader in the ecumenical movement, according to Gary Sweeten of Symmes Township. "He's been one of the most influential ministers in Cincinnati in the area of taking the church out of the four walls of the church and into people's lives," he said.

Back in the 1960s, Rev. Hastings invited African-American pastors and their congregations to the Church of the Advent, which was an upper-middle class, mostly white church.

"He was very much a change agent," Sweeten said. "Anything that went on in Cincinnati from the point of the ecumenical movement, Murray was on the forefront. From Billy Graham's work here to every large movement, he was on the steering committee. He was one of the wise people and networkers that brought people together."

Rev. Hastings was rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Bond Hill from 1955 until 1960, when he went to Church of the Advent.

After leaving the Episcopal ministry, he created a ministry at Fellowship of Jesus Christ that was a blend of evangelical preaching; charismatic prayer that included speaking in tongues; and social outreach for the mentally ill, hungry, homeless and pregnant teenagers. He championed holistic health, healing and pastoral care, Sweeten said.

"He made everyone around him feel important and loved," said his daughter.
His wife said, "He was a man before his time - a leader for racial reconciliation. He was resolutely firm in his faith."

The Boston native was a graduate of Phillips Academy and Trinity College. He was ordained at St. Matthew's Church in 1955 after receiving a master's of divinity from Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass.

He enjoyed sailing, golf and classical music.

Other survivors include daughters, Cinny Roy of Sycamore Township, Kit Campbell of Broadview Heights, Ohio, and Jennifer Williamson of West Chester Township; and 10 grandchildren.

The funeral was 11 a.m. Friday at Norman Chapel at Spring Grove Cemetery.
Memorials: CityCure, 1947 Auburn Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45219 or Eve Center, P.O. Box 36483, Cincinnati, OH 45236.--

>http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080425/NEWS0104/804250411/1060&template=printpicart-->

Day of Prayer Coming

My dear friend Donna Thomas, who is using her "extra innings" of longevity and God's wisdom to write, teach and bless thousands, has a word from the Lord for us.

May is such a wonderful month. It is special that it starts with the National Day of Prayer. Hearing all this “stuff” on TV as to who should be our next president, I feel the urgency for all Christians to call on our Lord to help us get a leader that will be on his knees for guidance and wisdom.

The Proclamation written by Abraham Lincoln for the first National Day of Prayer in 1863 is as timely today as it was 145 years ago:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
Lincoln, you see, knew of God’s promise to King Solomon in II Chronicles 7:14-16 that. “ … If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

What a blessing that the Lord gives us his promise if we will humble ourselves and pray. Then he gives us hope, expectancy, and the ability to look forward. I have my plans but my comfort is in knowing that the Lord has his plans for me as his child and they are better than mine.

Thanks Donna.