As we focus our efforts in Christian Education on reaching the rising gen
Teachers/Disciplers
The Church’s Challenge – Reaching the Millennials
Attention! Calling all churchleaders! Did you, in good Rip Van Winkle fashion, sleep through your wake-up call? Has the reality of what’s hap
Ho! Ho! What?
By Mike Rasmussen, taken from the December, 1991 issue of The Messenger.
Nick and Nelda (not their real names) resigned from Christmas. It had become, to them, a materialistic rodent race. No more decoration. No more buying or giving presents. What’s more, any presents sent to them will be sent back. Nick and Nelda have the right to dropkick Christmas traditions, God has not commanded us to observe Christmas. But, if we do, how should we observe it?
God likes events that help people to focus on Him. We learn this from the Old Testament. God commanded His people to observe three religious festi
What Americans Consider Important
What’s important to Americans-time or money? Family or friends? Health or career? In a national survey of adults, over 1,000 people were asked what is important in their life. The study, conducted by the Barna Research Group, tested the importance of ten different areas of life. The most important? Family.
Ninety-four percent of all Americans said family is very important to them personally. Another five percent called fami
Getting A Grip On Grace
By Jim Tonkowich. What really drove me crazy,” said one of the high school stu
Biblical Fun: Holy Laughter
By Emmett Cooper. Part of the perceived problem about fun among Christians in general, and the local church in particular, is the tension often felt between “holy” and “laughter.” Holiness and laughter, like sacred and the profane, seem to be in direct opposition to one another. As Christians, does God expect us to laugh in a holy sort of way, or perhaps to become holy in a laughable kind of way? What does the Bible say about loving God and having fun?
The word fun is not specifically mentioned in Scripture. But it is implied throughout. A biblical word, however, that is in the same family of meaning is “enjoy.”
Paul explicitly declares that God has given us all things to enjoy. As defined by Webster, enjoy means to feel good, have a good time, delight in good fun.
Enjoyment is God’s idea. Deep capacities for fun are woven into the very fiber of our being. It’s part of bear