Monday, April 14, 2008

Prosperity Gospel - Where is your Influence?

Person:

Jesus feed the Hungry, why does the Church do the same?




Thought:


Food is universal, everyone on planet earth has to eat, yet people are dying and there is a lot of food wasted. All this talk about prosperity in the church and how God is going to bless you and yet the world is dying of Hunger.

Here are some sobering facts:


  • Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds.
  • 35.5 million people—including 12.6 million children—live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents more than one in ten households in the United States (10.9 percent). 1
  • 350 billion pounds (160 billion kg) of edible food is available for human consumption in the United States.
  • Food Waste 100 billion pounds (45 billion kg) -- including fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products -- are lost to waste by retailers, restaurants, and consumers.

By contrast, the amount of food required to meet the needs of the hungry is only four billion pounds

Idea:
  • At a personal level:
    1. how much of your personal budget is spent on food
    2. how much of your personal budget is spent on Starbucks
    3. Do something
  • At Community level:
    • Don't just send Money go feed the Homeless
    • Don't just pray go feed the homeless
    • Don't just talk or blog feed the homeless

Monday, April 7, 2008

The Lost art of Discipleship -The Church Finding Community

Person: Jesus was a Politician and not a religious leader.


Thoughts:


G12 is successful when the society is a communal. That is the culture and people have so many things in common in their normal daily routines, Same factory located in one area, Same work time shift,Same mode of transport ion etc. That is why it is so successful in developing countries like Columbia, Kenya , Mexico. It becomes difficult, to apply all the practices of G12 in a more diverse and always mobile society as SO CAL.

However by finding COMMON interests, we can be able to thrive and grow and make the church become part of the community as an organic element- a movement from the grassroots - A SOCIAL MEDIA - "THE OBAMA EFFECT"


Idea:

  • Obama has attracted a large crowd of people who were not in the political mainstream
  • The campaign is built from the bottom up, not the top down- grassroots
  • Focus on core issues of health care, employment, education and Social Security