Weekend Ramblings . . .

At the end of another busy week, I thought I'd just walk through a series of random thoughts and observations . . .

• Regarding the IMB stuff, at the end of the day, my position remains, "Can't we all just get along?" to quote the great 20th Century philospher, Rodney King. I have my position and others have their own, but I still maintain that I would be more than happy to work with or under cessationists, as long as our focus was on Jesus. These issues that are dividing us remain tertiary doctrines and there should still be room for different interpretation. Now, no more on this until San Antonio next month.
• Divorce rates have dropped to their lowest level since 1970. While that appears to be good news on the surface, it is most likely attributable to couples living together before marriage and waiting longer to get married. People are trying to make sure that they can really make it before they get married. According to God, living together before marriage is not the answer either. We should only be sleeping with our spouses and not going from person to person until we "find the right one." While I am glad that less people are getting a divorce, I don't think that the overall situation is any healthier as we damage our souls engaging in immorality again and again.
• I've just about decided that if Fred Thompson runs for president, he has my support. I am completely underwhelmed with the field yet again, but since Thompson can speak in complete sentences, has a commanding presence about him and seems competent, and shares the same values I share, he seems like he won't be an embarrassment. Plus, he did a great job on Law and Order, right? The last time we had an actor in the White House things turned out pretty well, so why not again?
• Family Time Trumps Church Involvement: This study from Leadership Journal came out last year, but with summer approaching, I thought it interesting. According to recent inquiries of pastors, the number one thing hindering local church ministry is the "family trump card." Families are begging out of church involvement because their kids are involved in tons of activities or because they are constantly tired. My opinion: Since family time has been held up as the most important thing for the lives of Christians by ministries like Focus on the Family and others, a situation has been created where families are sacrificing to have their kids at ball practice, ballet, and other activities all week long (not that FOTF teaches that), but are struggling with discernment regarding how they spend their time. I don't think that families should be at the church every day either, but I do think that we could use a lot more discernment regarding what we spend our time doing instead of running all over the world with our hair on fire and calling it "family time." More on this another time . . .
• A little girl with cancer that we know named Kennis Nix, who I wrote about a while back, has experienced an incredible miracle. She was in such a desperate situation that the doctors had basically said there was nothing more that they could do. Many people prayed for her to God for a miracle, including our family and church. They brought her in last week for scans, and to the complete shock of the doctors, they were clear! The MRI conducted this week was clear as well! They only found 5% of the previous cancer cells in her spinal column, which they feel they have a much stronger possibilty of treating. Praise God! I'll write more on this later, as God did an incredible thing in my life through praying for Kennis.
• Only 111 more days until college football season starts! In the meantime, our church is having a father-son outing on Saturday to a Montgomery Bears game. They are a minor league Arena Football Leage team. They are 3-7, but at least it is football, of a sort, right?
• And finally, Sunday is Mother's Day. I am married to the best mother in the world, my wife Erika. She does an awesome job raising our children and we are so blessed to have her in our lives. I also want to say how much I love my own mother and how thankful that I am for how she loved me and my sister and took care of us so well. I love you, Mom!

Comments

[David Cecil]

It is sad, to me, that Church time and Family time are mutually exclusive. Church is now just another activity, competing with ballet, soccer, scouts, etc. Good insight into the repercussions of the message coming out of agencies like Focus on the Family; I don't think this result was intended by them.

As for Fred Thompson, do you think a Republican candidate can win on the heels of the public mood concerning President Bush? I cannot help but wonder if a good Republican candidate would be wasted this go-around, and should instead wait four years to challenge a Democrat incumbent. My thoughts are on Bob Dole's campaign in 1996, which seemed like a waste to me. Of course, if the popular mood is happy with a Democrat incumbent in 4 years' time, then that would be a waste too. I just can't help but think how the elections are not just about the best person for the job, but timing as well. Kind of like the Dallas Mavericks losing to an eighth-seeded team because that team became hot at the end of the season, and Dallas was not quite as hot. Uh oh, I seem to be rambling...

[Paul]

You know, I've seen a whole lot (I mean a whole lot of cohabitation - even among professing Christians - in my 13 years of ministry. Sadly, studies also show that couples who cohabitate before marriage are at a much greater risk of marital failure. I had a pretty lengthy conversation with a young lady not too long ago and she couldn't believe my wife and I didn't live together before we got married and wondered how we could get married without a "trial run." She was very surprised to find out that we would have been at a greater risk of divorce had we taken that view of marriage. I figure I'm preaching to the choir here, but I'm not too naive to think that there might be someone who reads here who views cohabitation as a real option and I just want to reinforce that even secular studies indicate it is a big mistake.

Regarding family time and church involvement, somehow I wish we (or at least I) could effectively communicate a view of church as so much more than another "activity," but as a way of living together. I think the popular notion of church works hard against that and the church has probably done its fair share of fostering those notions. I'll look forward to reading more of your thoughts on that in the future.

[Lee]

I hope that the San Antonio convention expresses itself clearly on the issue of doctrine and cooperation, and recognizes the diversity that exists within the SBC. It is a diversity that I believe can coexist in the same convention, and even in the same church, if we are united in the Spirit, under the authority of the scripture.

[Kevin Bussey]

Alan,

Blessings to you. I read some of your debate but I'm staying out of it and I feel your pain.

[Joe Kennedy]

Better the Bears than the Biscuits. What kind of name is that, anyway?

[Kyle]

I skimmed.
However, it occurs to me that if the drop in the divorce rate is due to people moving in together, then the problem is in clarity of terms. Biblically speaking, "moving in together" is called marriage (see Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis). If these marriages were counted, I suspect the divorce rate would hardly be listed as "dropping."