Cable TV

February 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

Today Lacey and I finally decided to get cable TV - at least I think that’s what we’ve decided. Currently, the one channel we pick up well is Cornerstone - a Christian channel. It is such an awful channel. Although there are a handful of decent programs, most are nowhere close to reflecting Biblical truth. Lacey saw a woman prophesying to someone on one show - the prophesying woman told this man that he was like the Indiana Jones of the spiritual world. She then compared another woman to a character in a Jodie Foster movie. Apparently the more movies you see the better able you are to prophesy.

Anyway, we decided the Christian channel is harmful to our faith. We don’t want our daughter growing up on that stuff.

OK, maybe that’s not the real reason - but we did decide to get cable. And no thorough scientific study which suggests that television raises the risk of bad eyesight, obesity, premature puberty and autism (among other things) is going to stop us.

Posted by Aaron | Filed Under Blog, Church and Culture, Family 

Bobblehead Parents

February 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I’m experimenting - going through some old files trying to figure out how to post video. Alex sent me this one - brings back some great family memories of Nashville.

Posted by Aaron | Filed Under Family, Humor 

Theological Worldview?

February 12, 2007 | 2 Comments

After taking the theological worldview quiz I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I’m 82% Reformed Evangelical. I guess that’s pretty good since I am a Reformed Evangelical pastor. Some of the quiz questions aren’t the best. The quiz is both interesting and unhelpful all at once. A good waste of time if nothing else.


You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God’s Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die.

Reformed Evangelical
 
82%
Neo orthodox
 
71%
Fundamentalist
 
68%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
 
68%
Emergent/Postmodern
 
43%
Roman Catholic
 
36%
Classical Liberal
 
29%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
 
18%
Modern Liberal
 
7%

Posted by Aaron | Filed Under Blog, Theology 

Statistically Indistinguishable Christians

February 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment

As usual, one of Barna’s latest surveys indicates that born again Christians are not much different in their behavior than the rest of Americans. That is in almost every area but music piracy. Only 2% of Christians pirate music. At least we’ve got that going for us.

The Role of Faith

Faith commitments sometimes play a role in what people do - but less often than might be assumed. In comparing the lifestyle choices of born again Christians to the national norms, there were more areas of similarity than distinction. (Note that in Barna surveys, the born again segment is not based upon whether a person uses that label, but based upon their profession of faith in Christ and confession of personal sin.) Born again Christians are more likely to volunteer for their church; however, they are no more likely than average to help the poor and homeless. Born again Christians were also among the least likely groups to recycle.

In evaluating 15 moral behaviors, born again Christians are statistically indistinguishable from non-born again adults on most of the behaviors studied. They are less likely to view sexually explicit movies and magazines, to use profanity in public, and to buy a lottery ticket. However, even in these cases, the gap between born agains and the norm is not wide - roughly one-third of the non-born again audience say they had engaged in the three activities compared to one-quarter of born again Christians.

The fourth area of difference is the lower rate of music piracy among born again Christians (2% versus 9% among non-born agains).

Posted by Aaron | Filed Under Blog, Church and Culture