*************
Thom Rainer makes some excellent observations on the value of a church having more than one teaching pastor. I have been fortunate to be part of a couple of churches that had more than one teaching pastor and I can affirm everything Rainer writes in this article.
*************
For baseball fans, a rare color photo of Ty Cobb. Spring training starts next week. We don't have too much longer to wait.
*************
Teddy Roosevelt's ten rules for reading. These are some interesting guidelines to follow when selecting books to read.
*************
Gimmie Shelter explores the world of young women who are getting pregnant, end up on welfare, and those who seek to minister to them. It seems like unusual subject matter for a major Hollywood film. (Hat tip: Re: News)
*************
Is religion losing ground to sports?
While teams and fans are building powerful, cohesive communities — think Red Sox Nation or the legions of University of Alabama faithful who greet one another with “Roll Tide” — churches are losing followers. According to a 2012 survey by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and Duke University, 20 percent of Americans “claimed they had no religious preference,” compared with an unaffiliated population of 8 percent in 1990. Roughly two out of three Americans, a 2012 Pew report noted, are under the impression that religion is losing influence in the country.
Sports are on the opposite trajectory. Fifty years ago, just three in 10 Americans considered themselves sports fans. By 2012, that proportion exceeded six in 10. Tens of millions of U.S. viewers tuned in to regular-season National Football League games last fall, with the most popular match-ups attracting upwards of 30 million viewers. Nearly 3 million people watched the National Basketball Association’s Christmas Day games. And for devotees of these and other sports, lifelong loyalty to a certain city and team is de rigueur. “Once you choose a team,” sports commentator Bill Simmons says, “you’re stuck with that team for the rest of your life."
Simmons was half-kidding, but sports are clearly attracting strong adherents as religion is shedding them. This raises the question: Are Americans shifting their spiritual allegiances away from praying places and toward playing places?**************
A free online study on learning leadership from film.
No comments:
Post a Comment