1) PERCENTAGE OF AMERICAN CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS (2001) - STATISTICS
Percentage of U.S. adult population which attend each denomination (2001)
22% Catholic
17% Baptist
6% Methodist
5% Lutheran
4% Adventist
4% Christian
4% non-denominational or independent
3% Presbyterian
3% Assembly of God
3% Episcopal
2% Pentecostal/Foursquare
1% Protestant
1% Church of Christ
1% Evangelical (Free or Covenant)
1% African Methodist Episcopal
1% Church of God
1% Reformed
15% do not identify themselves as Christians

SOURCE: Barna Research Group

Comment: I'm Lutheran. What denomination do you belong to?

2) THEOLOGY EVIDENT FROM SERMON THEMES
Steubenville-area pastors have selected the following sermon topics for Sunday worship services:

Grace Lutheran Church, “How Firm a Foundation.”

Richmond United Presbyterian Church, “If We Believe.”

Brilliant First United Presbyterian Church, “Journey of Discovery.”

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, “ A Steadfast Prayer.”

Church of the Cross United Methodist, East Springfield, “Being All Things to All People.”

First United Presbyterian Church, Mingo Junction, “The Power of Persistence.”

First Westminster Presbyterian Church, “All Prayers Are Answered.”

Starkdale Presbyterian Church, “Persistent Faith.”

Zion United Church of Christ, “Making the Right Choices, part 2.”

SOURCE: "Pastors choose sermon topics for Sunday worship services"
October 16, 2004. Herald Star – Local News

Comment: What do these themes say to you?

NEW TOPIC... AGAIN

1) ARE WE [WISCONSIN SYNOD LUTHERANS] EVANGELICAL OR FUNDAMENTALISTS? - ARTICLE / ASSESSMENT
Evangelicals are different from fundamentalists. Fundamentalists assert five fundamentals: inerrancy of the Scripture, the virgin birth, the vicarious atonement, the physical resurrection of Jesus, and the authenticity of Christ’s miracles. Evangelicals agree that the inerrancy of Scripture is important and that God is triune. The difference seems to be in their activism—a desire to make society more godly.

…So are we “evangelical?” After all we do hold rather conservative views, and our churches are labeled “Ev.” or “evangelical.”... We could even agree with the five teachings of fundamentalists.

…Evangelical describes an approach and attitude that is centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. That definition of the word has almost disappeared today. One does not hear an emphasis on the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus very often in the media’s description of evangelicals. One might wonder if evangelicals have forgotten it too. We could ask if they have turned more toward conservative activism than proclaiming the forgiveness of sins through Jesus and victory over death by his resurrection.

We are evangelical in that sense—centered on Jesus Christ and his message of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

SOURCE: Braun, John A. Evangelical? p 34
April 2007. Forward in Christ – Editorial, Vol. 91, No. 4

Comment: An assessment I would agree with (being WELS, myself).

2) FIVE FAMILIES OF MIDDLE EAST CHURCHES - INFORMATION
The churches of the Middle East can be grouped into 5 families representing about 15 million Christians (approximately 9 million residing in the Middle East). The largest is the family of Oriental Orthodox Churches — the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, the Armenian Apostolic Church living in various Arab countries in addition to the Armenians of the Republic of Armenia; and the Syrian Orthodox Church. Each is fully self-governing, though they are in communion with one another.

The second family of churches is the Byzantine Orthodox Churches. They are often referred to as Eastern or Greek Orthodox. They constitute three sell-governing churches, linked by doctrine, liturgy and canon law with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul (formerly Byzantium or Constantinople), and belong, therefore, to that wider family of Orthodox churches in Russia, eastern Europe and elsewhere.

The third family comprises the Catholic churches of the Middle East. These churches all accept the supreme ecclesiastical authority of the Pope and the doctrine of the Catholic Church. But only a small percentage of them are Roman, or Latin-Catholic. Most of them can be grouped together as the Eastern-rite Catholic Churches — the word “rite” denoting their forms of liturgy and canon law which differ from the western Latin rite of the Roman Catholics. The largest of these churches is the Maronite Church in Lebanon.

The fourth family is in terms of independent history, one of the oldest and most self-contained in the Middle Eastern churches: the Assyrian Church of the East. Sometimes identified by its historical tradition as the Church of the “East Syrians” or the Church of Persia. It exists in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The fifth family comprises the Anglican, Lutheran and Protestant Churches, like the Eastern-rite Catholic Churches (possibly excepting the Maronite Church), these churches came into being as a result of western missionary activity in the Middle East. Whereas the Eastern-rite Catholic Churches mostly go back several centuries, this family of churches dates in the Middle East from as recently as the 19th century.

SOURCE: Efthimiou, Rev. Dr. Miltiades B.
"The Christian Religion(s) of the Middle East"
October, 2004. The Hellenic News of America

NEW TOPIC! (Sort of)

NAVEL DISCRIMINATION AT CHURCH - NEWS CLIP
“God knew what your navel looked like even before you were born, so there is no need to expose it in church,” commands a sign at the entrance to the church in Cinisello Balsamo.

Guards at major churches in Italy routinely keep out people wearing skimpy attire.

SOURCE: No more navel gazing in church, priest says
June 5, 2006. Reuters – Oddly Enough

Comment: The body is a beautiful work of God. But since we all have a sinful nature, God expects us to be modest about that body. We don't go to church to attract people's attention to our bodies nor to distract the weaker in faith from their worship. If there were no sin, we could go to church naked as comfortably as Adam and Eve conversed with God in their 'creation suits' in the Garden prior to the Fall. I know that during catechism class, some pastors will instruct the girls of the class to dress appropriately for communion, especially if their church has the practice of kneeling to receive the elements. Communion is not an appropriate place for exhibiting the extent of one's cleavage.

Of course, people can be over-dressed for church, too - coming to show off their most beautiful dress or most expensive suit.

As far as having guards... that sounds a bit too far. I would understand expressing disapproval, but not preventing them from worshiping, unless an individual is persistently disregarding the other parishioners and seeking to disturb the worship of others.

LEFTOVER FOR: Church / Attending

GOD COSTS TOO MUCH TIME - QUOTE
Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.

SOURCE: Gates, Bill

Comment: Need I comment? Apparently Bill feels no need to thank God for his success - it's a waste of time. As much as I grumble about Microsoft when Word or Windows doesn't act the way it should, I should remember patience and pray for Bill, because if he doesn't have time for God in this short span of life, he's really going to hate to hear that God has no time for him - for eternity. Though he already gave Bill 33 of his most precious years - ending at the cross.

ALMOST TO THE END OF THIS CATEGORY...

1) WORLD VALUES SURVEY - NEWS (from 2005)
In Sweden’s World Values Survey of 2000, only 18 per cent of Americans said they “never” or “practically never” attend worship, compared with these percentages for Europeans: France (60), Britain (55), Netherlands (48), Belgium (46), Sweden (46), Denmark (43), Norway (42), Spain (33) and West Germany (30).

SOURCE: Ostling, Richard N. "Pessimistic Pope Benedict sees Europe
as unique in its drift from God"
August 27, 2005. canoe network – cnews – world

Comment: Luther was right when he talked about God's grace moving about like a raincloud. Once we no take it for granted, God moves it on to another place, where it will be appreciated. It now seems to be moving to the countries of the Southern hemisphere.

2) WRONG REASONS FOR WORSHIP
A person may be “glad” to go to the church for the wrong reason, like the Pharisee who kept the Sabbath faithfully and contributed generously - and still went home unjustified. Or worshipers who are “glad,” but bring leftover sacrifices shamed by the widow’s mite, or are carried away by the music and sing “Lord, Lord,” but their hearts are far from the God in whose presence they stand.

SOURCE: Vajda, Jaroslav. (LCMS Hymnwriter)

Comment: So even if a lot of American still attend church compared to Europe, it doesn't mean they are going for the right reason. I have to admit that Jaroslav's quote hit home. It's easy for everyone to be a Pharisee. God help us! Thanks be to God, that he sent us a Savior!

1) WHAT'S MISSING? - CUTE SHORTIE
This is a CH_ _ CH. What is missing?” ---------> (U R)

SOURCE: Mass email

2) WHAT YOU DON'T SEE - CUTE STORY
When we go out of town overnight, we have a pet-sitter who watches all of the various critters Elly Mae April has accumulated. One night the cat, Beans, escaped outside and climbed about 30 feet into a tree.

Our sitter couldn’t lure the idiot cat down, so she called the fire department.

“Ma’am,” the dispatched told her, “we don’t do that any more. The cat will come down when it gets hungry enough.”

“How do you know that?” the sitter asked.

“Have you ever seen a cat skeleton in a tree?”

Comment: Too bad cats have more sense than humans. When souls are hungry, many don’t have the sense to be fed by God.