This past weekend I heard an alarming statistic, one that really hit home with me. I heard that 9 out of 10 teenagers in America right now don’t attend church on a regular basis. In this it means that only 1 in 10 teens have an association with a local church and attend that church on a regular basis. The criteria I believe for a regular basis would be at least 3 times a month.
Wow! I’m blown away! 90% of our young people right now are not being fed the Word of God! Flurries of questions come to mind! Where are these young people? If the church isn’t reaching these young people and filling them with the Word what are they being filled with? Why isn’t the church reaching them? What can be done? The questions in my mind go on and on but here is what I see.
First, I see this as a sad commentary on the Church in the United States. For way to many decades the Church in this country has sat on it’s hands and really not doing much outreach and it has also failed horribly in equipping it’s members, the church body, in reaching out to our fellow neighbors and drawing them in. Let me put it this way, when was the last time your church had a teaching on equipping the members of it’s body to witness one on one? If your church is like most you don’t have an answer to this question.
Secondly, it’s pretty simple to answer as to what these kids are being filled with and it’s sure not Jesus! We are now raising the third generation of MTV kids! In addition this generation more then any other generation before are becoming Internet Junkies! These kids are being bombarded from every side now with electronic garbage. Whether it’s TV, Radio, MP3 (Podcasts), Internet, Cellphone & Text Messaging or Video Games, the mainstream, secular garbage being fed to our kids today can be summed up this way. It doesn’t glorify God and a huge part of it is nothing but garbage!
Here’s the big questions: Why isn’t the church reaching them and what can be done? The reason the church isn’t reaching them is that the church remains ambivalent. Who is the church? It’s the people, it’s you and it’s I. When the church decides as a whole to reach the lost not of this world but to the lost right here at home, our neighbor’s our friends, then things will change and they will change fast! For decades and decades the church has relied on evangelists and preachers to do the work that you and I should have been doing all along. Churched have long sponsored evangelists and others to come in to try to reach the lost for us. It’s been easier to cough up a few bucks to pay someone else to do it then to do it ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to cancel these evangelist and rallies and traditionally they work incredibly well. We just need to start reaching out on our own. There’s a couple of methods/teachings out there that I’ve found work amazingly well to reach the lost. The one I’ve been using for quite some time with huge success is Bill Faye’s “Share Jesus Without Fear.” The other is Kirk Cameron’s/Ray Comfort’s “Way of the Master” series. I’ll get the links up here on both of these here on my blog in the next few days.
It’s up to you & it’s up to me to reach the lost and turn this country around. Talk with your pastor about this and ask him if he would be open to a series on equipping his people to reach the lost. I’ve got a pile of resources available for this. If you, your pastor, or anyone else you know would like to know more please contact me. I’m putting a teaching together to take to churches to empower them to reach the lost in their community. As I prepare to set out on this mission God has called me to please keep me & my family in your prayers as I know we’ll need them!
The lost won’t come in on their own, we have to go out and get them. We are the ones to complete the great commission. Jesus told us in Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.”
Be Blessed!!!
BIG SCOTT
Monday, July 24, 2006
A Quick Follow Up...
A quick follow-up to my last blog... I spoke with a good friend of mine, Tuck, who is the head of the Word of Life Bible College here in Wichita about that blog and the yearning to lay hands on the afflicted and pray for a miraculous healing on them. Tuck advised me that if you feel led to pray for someone the best thing you can do is approach that person and ask them if you can pray for them & if they agree, go for it. Tuck told me “Don’t be afraid to be silly for God.”
Tuck went on to explain that sometimes God uses us in great ways when we are doing something we believe to be silly but yet we are doing what God has called us to do. Tuck finished by telling me to follow what the Lord has placed on my heart to do. If it’s God’s will for a person to be healed and we lay hands on that person as per our calling that yes, that person will be healed. I know now that I need to learn to trust my heart more when I know that the Lord is speaking to my heart and giving me instruction.
Be Blessed!!!
BIG SCOTT
Tuck went on to explain that sometimes God uses us in great ways when we are doing something we believe to be silly but yet we are doing what God has called us to do. Tuck finished by telling me to follow what the Lord has placed on my heart to do. If it’s God’s will for a person to be healed and we lay hands on that person as per our calling that yes, that person will be healed. I know now that I need to learn to trust my heart more when I know that the Lord is speaking to my heart and giving me instruction.
Be Blessed!!!
BIG SCOTT
Thursday, July 06, 2006
A Huge Arguement Within Myself
Once again it’s been a bit since I’ve put a new blog up. This summer has been kind of crazy around our house just like it’s been around many of those of you who read this! Unfortunately work has been spotty at best with the weather playing a huge factor in how much I do get to work since I work for a grass farm. In addition I came down with a rather nasty viral infection that almost put me in the hospital.
It seems that silly me didn’t wear tights like you’re suppose too underneath my shin guards and pants when I was umpiring and my shin guards rubbed me raw in a couple of places, the through those raw spots my legs got infected. I tried to fight that off for a couple of weeks on my own to no avail and then in the time of a couple of days the infection took off and spread from my arms all the way down to my feet.
This knocked me out of umpiring for a couple of weeks and introduced me quite nicely to our new family physician and a whole ton of antibiotics! The good news is now that I’ve almost got it beat. A bunch of prayer and some good work by my doctors and I’m back up & going!
Changing subjects here something has really been nagging at me quite bad. I was at Wal-Mart a week or so ago and as I was walking back out to my car I passed a man getting out of his pickup and into a wheelchair. Something inside of me almost screamed out to do as the Apostle Peter did in Acts 3. Something inside of me wanted me to stretch my hand out and quote Acts 3:6 "I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!"
This set off a huge argument within myself. On one side was my fleshly, mortal man saying “Are you crazy? You’re not Peter! You’re not Benny Hinn! If you do this and fail both you and God will look like a total idiot!” Then on the other side of me was my Spirit Man, the Spiritual Warrior saying “Why would God only give the gift of healing to Benny Hinn? If God tells you to lay hands on someone to be healed, do it! God will heal them! Where’s your faith? Just think of all of the glory it would bring God if you walked up to a perfect stranger, someone that is crippled, laid hands on them and they were healed in the name of Jesus! Exercise you faith Man!!!”
What did I do? I did what any earthly person would do, I kept walking. In a way I’m angry with myself that I did keep walking but on the other hand my fleshly side was quite relieved that I didn’t try to prove myself to be a certified mental case! The one thing that keeps nagging at me here though is that I know that God gives every Spiritual Gift out to different people this very day. Is God trying to pour out on me a new Spiritual Gift? This is not the first time that this has happened, this is twice now.
The first time that I was called to do this was in a restaurant when a single mom’s little daughter who was about 5 was tossing her cookies in a trash can. I know that I blew that one. I could have simply touched her and she would have been healed. I have absolutely no doubt about it. I said if I was ever given that opportunity again I wouldn’t blow it. The question is, was I just given that opportunity again and did I blow it?
I know that I’ll be getting some feedback on this one and I do look forward to it. I’m looking forward to hearing more from the Lord on this one!
Be Blessed!!!
BIG SCOTT
It seems that silly me didn’t wear tights like you’re suppose too underneath my shin guards and pants when I was umpiring and my shin guards rubbed me raw in a couple of places, the through those raw spots my legs got infected. I tried to fight that off for a couple of weeks on my own to no avail and then in the time of a couple of days the infection took off and spread from my arms all the way down to my feet.
This knocked me out of umpiring for a couple of weeks and introduced me quite nicely to our new family physician and a whole ton of antibiotics! The good news is now that I’ve almost got it beat. A bunch of prayer and some good work by my doctors and I’m back up & going!
Changing subjects here something has really been nagging at me quite bad. I was at Wal-Mart a week or so ago and as I was walking back out to my car I passed a man getting out of his pickup and into a wheelchair. Something inside of me almost screamed out to do as the Apostle Peter did in Acts 3. Something inside of me wanted me to stretch my hand out and quote Acts 3:6 "I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!"
This set off a huge argument within myself. On one side was my fleshly, mortal man saying “Are you crazy? You’re not Peter! You’re not Benny Hinn! If you do this and fail both you and God will look like a total idiot!” Then on the other side of me was my Spirit Man, the Spiritual Warrior saying “Why would God only give the gift of healing to Benny Hinn? If God tells you to lay hands on someone to be healed, do it! God will heal them! Where’s your faith? Just think of all of the glory it would bring God if you walked up to a perfect stranger, someone that is crippled, laid hands on them and they were healed in the name of Jesus! Exercise you faith Man!!!”
What did I do? I did what any earthly person would do, I kept walking. In a way I’m angry with myself that I did keep walking but on the other hand my fleshly side was quite relieved that I didn’t try to prove myself to be a certified mental case! The one thing that keeps nagging at me here though is that I know that God gives every Spiritual Gift out to different people this very day. Is God trying to pour out on me a new Spiritual Gift? This is not the first time that this has happened, this is twice now.
The first time that I was called to do this was in a restaurant when a single mom’s little daughter who was about 5 was tossing her cookies in a trash can. I know that I blew that one. I could have simply touched her and she would have been healed. I have absolutely no doubt about it. I said if I was ever given that opportunity again I wouldn’t blow it. The question is, was I just given that opportunity again and did I blow it?
I know that I’ll be getting some feedback on this one and I do look forward to it. I’m looking forward to hearing more from the Lord on this one!
Be Blessed!!!
BIG SCOTT
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