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Your Two Cents |
We want to know what you think — so, each week, we will open a new topic or discussion thread in our
Parsonage
message boards where you can express your opinions. This week's topic:
Give us your two cents on this question right now by visiting our Parsonage message boards. |
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Can You Help Us? |
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Featured Resource
of the Month |
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Pastoral Restoration:
The Path to Recovery
The headlines each week contain the news that another pastor or Christian leader
has experienced a moral failure. What does a church do? What steps should those
now responsible for the needed healing follow?
We want to help those congregation leaders who feel overwhelmed
with a situation that brings pain to everyone. Pastoral
Restoration: The Path to Recovery is a booklet written to those leaders
who must now care for the fallen minister, the shamed family and the
devastated church.
This new booklet joins three other titles in our Pastor's
Advocate Series, which assists congregations in better understanding
and caring for their pastoral families. For more information, click on
an image in this box.
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Pastor's Weekly Briefing
Staff |
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Julie Locke
Editor
Jan Bird, Roger Charman, Teresa Marshall
Staff Writers
Dan Davidson
Editorial Director
H.B. London
Vice President
Pastoral Ministries
James D. Daly
President
Focus on the Family
James C. Dobson
Chairman
Focus on the Family |
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Join Us for an
Online Conversation
Plan to be a part of the first ever Pastoral Family Forums live event — Thursday, August 21, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 PM MDT
The live forum event will feature H.B. London, Wade Brown and John Barner — all members of our Pastoral Ministries team. The online conversation will begin with issues raised in the special Focus on the Family radio broadcast that day, "Understanding the Challenges of the Pastorate."
How Do You Do It?
To participate, simply join the forum today by clicking here and entering the requested information to obtain a user name, then be signed in on Thursday afternoon, Aug. 21, by logging into the Pastoral Family Forums (i.e., message boards) and selecting the "Live Forum Event" discussion thread under the "Pastoral Family Forum Special Event" category. (We will also have a direct link available on the home page of the Parsonage web site.) Then you can submit your own questions or just follow along as others dialogue with the panel.
FINISH THE RACE WITH ENTHUSIASM
It is amazing that every four years, when the Olympic Games roll around, I become fascinated by all the various sports that I have not been engaged with since the last games were played. Things like double trap shooting, judo, fencing, canoe/kayak and even badminton. I mean, there are a myriad of events that never make the headlines unless it happens to be in the country that takes the gold medal. Winners may never be heard from again, but the gold medal counts for their country, just like Michael Phelps' gold medals count for the United States.
The glamour sports get the attention. I am sure you and I have been glued to the television as Phelps and other major stars go for unprecedented "gold." The USAToday reports Phelps is becoming a folk hero. Yet to come — basketball, volleyball, track and field, gymnastics' individual finals, soccer, tennis and boxing. The headlines across the world will blaze the results. Heroes will be born. To the victor goes the spoils.
The opening ceremony was unbelievable. The major nations marched in to cheers from their countrymen, but did you notice some of the smaller nations who paraded on the same stage with just a few competitors? They seemed ecstatic just to be there — just to compete. One of them will come in last in the marathon. Another will finish out of the medal count in weightlifting, but still, they bring their best game and give it all they have. They are and forever will be — Olympians!
A great lesson for folks like you and me: "To run" as the writer to Hebrews expressed, "with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb. 12:1); or as James expressed, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life" (James 1:12). Paul exclaimed in his farewell address, "If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me" (Acts 20:24); and again, the Apostle Paul admonishes Timothy, "If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules" (2 Tim. 2:5).
When God called you, He did so with the full expectation that you would be a winner, not a whiner; that you would finish the race with joy, not drop out along the way. Paul looked back on his life and ministry saying, "I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7). And now, I am eligible for the prize ... the crown.
So are you, my colleague, but you must fight the good fight — finish the race — and no matter what, keep the faith! You may never receive a gold medal, but for those who remain faithful, the Righteous Judge will award you something much better — His approval — His recognition — His blessing. So be prepared ... the finish line lies before you! Go for it! And do it with enthusiasm.
Be blessed and be a blessing.
—HBL
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Featured on The Heart of a Pastor podcast:
This week ...
"A Calling for Full-Time Ministry"
Next week ...
"The Citizen Pastor" |
"Minister" in Top Ten of Jobs with High Prestige
Results of the annual Harris Poll that measures the public's perceptions of 23 different professions and occupations indicates that the profession of clergy ranks in the top 10 most prestigious occupations.
Of the 1,010 U.S. adults who were interviewed in July of this year, 40 percent said that the role of Priest/Minister/Clergy had "very great prestige." The top ten occupations ranked by perception of very high prestige were:
- Firefighter: 57%
- Scientist: 56%
- Doctor: 53%
- Nurse: 52%
- Teacher: 52%
- Military Officer: 46%
- Police Officer: 46%
- Farmer: 41%
- Minister/Clergy: 40%
- Engineer: 40%
Of the 23 professions that were ranked, Banker, Stockbroker and Real Estate Agent took the bottom three spots, with only six percent of respondents saying that Real Estate Agent was an occupation with "very great prestige." It's also interesting to note that, according to the Harris Poll in 1977, the occupation of Clergy was seen as having "very great prestige" by 41 percent of those who were questioned. That number rose to 46 percent in 1998 and dropped to 32 percent in 2004.
For the complete report, visit http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/ and search under the listing of the 2008 polls.
First Adoption Survey to Include Men
Results from the first ever adoption survey that included men — issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — have been released. Although the government has periodically surveyed women about adoption since the early 1970s, this is the "very first national data we've had on men's lifetime adoption experiences," said the author, Jo Jones, a statistician with the CDC's national Center for Health Statistics. The report is based on interviews with about 12,000 men and women from March 2002 through February 2003.
The results from the report contradict beliefs about the most common adoption scenarios. "The perception is it's a childless white couple that adopt from overseas, but that's not what I found," said Jones. Adoption is rare, the survey found. Among women aged 18 to 44, only about one percent had adopted children. About 2.3 percent of men that age had ever adopted.
The findings also revealed:
- Minority women are currently seeking to adopt children more often than white women.
- Women who have never married adopt children much more often than single men do. But overall, men adopt children at more than twice the rate women do, due largely to men marrying women with children from a previous relationship. Overall, nearly 1.3 million men had adopted a child, compared with an estimated 613,000 women.
- Among singles, an estimated 100,000 women and 73,000 men had adopted.
- Situations in which young pregnant women decide to put their children up for adoption are becoming increasingly rare. Before 1973, nearly nine percent of births to never-married women were given up for adoption. By 2002, that statistic had dropped to about one percent.
- The number of children adopted from other countries increased from about 7,000 in 1990 to more than 19,000 in 2001. That means about 16 percent of the 120,000 annual adoptions in the United States in that latest year were of children from other nations.
About 50,000 children are adopted through foster care annually in the United States. It's hard to predict if that number will go up, experts said. [The Associated Press].
An R-Rated Childhood
About 12.5 percent of America's 22 million children between the ages of 10 and 14 have seen movies rated R for extreme violence, according to a paper published in the August 2008 issue of Pediatrics. In 2003, Dartmouth Medical School researchers asked 6,522 children whether they'd seen 40 of the most recent graphically violent films, such as Blade, Training Day, Hollow Man and Bride of Chucky. Scary Movie was the film 10- to 14-year-olds were most likely to have seen, with about 48 percent having watched it. (Researchers didn't ask whether they had seen the movies in theaters, on video, cable TV or the Internet.) The study found that boys, minorities, those from lower-income families and those with lower academic performance were more likely to have seen ultraviolent R-rated fare. About one in three respondents reported that their parents let them watch R-rated movies. But even among those whose parents prohibited R-rated movie viewing, 22.6 percent had seen at least one of the movies on the list. Researchers also found that kids who had TVs in their bedrooms were more likely to have seen these R-rated titles.
Two of the Dartmouth study's authors, Keilah Worth and James Sargent, sounded the alarm with regard to their findings. "We know so much about the harmful effects of exposure to violent media content, but how much exposure children actually get has been largely ignored," Worth said. Sargent added, "No expert in child development would advocate for subjecting children as young as 10 to this level of violence, yet the study shows that such exposure is commonplace in this country." Why? According to Sargent, "The American movie industry rates itself. So how and why some movies get an R rating, while others don't, isn't always rational. Because it's like the fox watching the chicken coop, and the industry is not going to do anything that limits it from getting as wide an audience as possible." On that basis, both researchers called for an overhaul of the ratings system. "In Britain, no adolescent would be admitted to these movies unless they were 18. The R rating in this country is clearly not preventing our young people from seeing them," Worth noted. Sargent reiterated the need for ratings reform. "We should rethink the current movie rating system, which has been in place for 40 years and was designed when kids could only see movies in theaters," he said. "Violent media has become easier and easier to access for children. So, for the movie industry, the message is that the 1960s ratings system needs to be updated and made more explicit and relevant to the ways movies are being distributed and seen today."
In 2007, the Federal Trade Commission released a report that showed about 40 percent of 13- to 16-year-olds were able to purchase tickets for R-rated movies. By comparison, nearly 80 percent successfully purchased DVDs of similar films. [taken directly from pluggedinonline.com]
• Calif. Legislature Considers an Official Day Commemorating Homosexuality
In passing the bill AB 2567 last week, the California Legislature now is ordering school children to celebrate "gay" lifestyle choices. AB 2567 designates May 22 as "Harvey Milk Day." This bill will require all public schools to "conduct suitable commemorative exercises" in commemoration of the anti-religious, homosexualist agenda of the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.
"This bad bill will teach impressionable schoolchildren the anti-religious, homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda of Harvey Milk," warned Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families. "If signed into law, AB 2567 will mean an official day commemorating homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality in California government schools. ... This will harm children as young as kindergarten." [worldnetdaily.com, onenewsnow.com]
• Presbyterians Comfortable With a Woman in Leadership
The latest Presbyterian Panel survey revealed that most Presbyterians have been part of a congregation that was led by a woman in some capacity. Though most (approx. 63%) have no preference when it comes to a man or a woman in a leadership role, only one percent actually prefers a woman in the pulpit while 37 percent prefer a man as a pastor. At least 87 percent of members, elders (lay leaders) and ministers of Presbyterian churches across the country indicated they have "no opinion" on whether they prefer a man or a woman for most congregational roles, such as a deacon, an elder or a committee chair. [christianpost.com]
• Family Values Cinema
Patty Leonard started Family Values Cinema — a California-based DVD-of-the-month club — when she became disheartened by the growing number of films with inappropriate violence and sex being targeted towards families. Leonard created subscription-based FVC, using a unique, triple-filter review process for its selections: First movies from all over the world must meet the highest standards of quality and moral concepts; movies are then reviewed by the National Board of Mothers — a select group of concerned moms across the country that grades films based on their entertainment value and wholesome family content; then, if a film gets a Double A+ rating, it is submitted to the non-profit Dove Foundation for its "Family Approved" seal. FVC selections are not typically available through national retailers or video rental stores and, additionally, each selection comes with a Family Discussion Guide. [christiannewswire.com]
• Federal Judge Rejects ACLU's Demands
U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen O'Malley rejected a demand from the American Civil Liberties Union that she censor a document posted in an Ohio courtroom titled "Philosophies of Law in Conflict" because the Ten Commandments are included. The ACLU had accused Judge James DeWeese of putting up the comparative display in violation of O'Malley's 2002 injunction against the Ten Commandments under the caption "Rule of Law" and that DeWeese was in "public defiance" of the court order and was "undermining the administration of justice." O'Malley said the ACLU's attempt to censor the philosophies of law was "misplaced" and she found no validity to their argument. [worldnetdaily.com]
• Marriage and One's Health
Married people have historically reported better health than their never-married peers. But a new study, published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, suggests the gap is narrowing, particularly for men. One reason for the trend, according to the study, is that today's society might offer never-married men "greater access to social resources and support" that were, in the past, primarily found in a spouse.
However, things are not improving for all singles. The self-rated health of the widowed, divorced and separated worsened over time relative to the married. Widows and widowers had the most dramatic declines. In 1972, the widowed were about as likely to report good health as the married, but in 2003, they were seven percent less likely to report good health than were their married counterparts. [cbsnews.com]
• Networks Sue for the Right to Use Profanity
The four major television networks have sued the Federal Communications Commission for the right to air profanity at any time of day. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the networks last year; the FCC has appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in November.
• California Marriage Ballot Summary Statement an Issue
Originally, California's marriage-protection amendment simply defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Now, however, the initiative's title and summary statement — which is distributed to all voters — also states that the amendment will "eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry." Marriage advocates have decided not to further challenge the biased wording, but let the voters be the ultimate judges on Election Day.
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Back to School for California Home-Schoolers (3/14/08):
A February ruling in Los Angeles that stated parents needed a teaching credential to home school their children was reversed last Friday. The 2nd District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles acknowledged that prohibiting home schooling would intrude on parents' constitutional right to direct their children's education and that any limit on that right would be presumed unconstitutional. Governor Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) said, "I hope the ruling settles this matter for parents and home-schooled children once and for all in California, but assures them that we, as elected officials, will continue to defend parents' rights." [OneNewsNow.com, Family Research Council, Christianpost.com]
Labor Day Holiday Back on Tyson's Calendar (8/8/08):
Last week's announcement by Tyson Food officials at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant, stating that Labor Day would be replaced for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, brought many employee complaints. As a result, a new agreement with the union will allow the controversial Muslim holiday to workers — this year only — as a paid day off. But, in the future, Muslim workers will have to give up their personal holiday — usually their birthday — to have that day off. [OneNewsNow.com, WorldNetDaily]
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