Robert Webber passed on…

You may have read about this; Robert Webber passed away on Friday. I first became aware of Dr. Webber through his book, The Younger Evangelicals. Since then I have read every book he has written. His “ancient-future” series was tremendous and has been very influential in my thinking.

I’ll miss your writings, Bob. Christianity lost a great man.

To my dear wife Brenna…

Today, 11 years ago at Lakeview Baptist Church in New Orleans, as the afternoon sun was just beginning to fade, my bride-to-be became my wife. We had our reception at the New Orleans Yacht Club overlooking the lake, with the sun setting…it was a beautiful day. We left the next morning for Margarita Island, a small island off the coast of Venezuela. It was a beautiful trip.

She is both my wife and best friend; the love of my life. She is also my partner in ministry!

Thank you Brenna for the greatest 11 years of my life, and I look forward to a lifetime spent with you.

Could You Survive on ONE Square of Toilet Paper Per Visit?

From the Washington Post:

Singer Sheryl Crow and environmentalist Laurie David have been traveling across America on a two-week Stop Global Warming College Tour, which winds up today at George Washington University. Crow and David (co-producer of the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and wife of “Curb Your Enthusiasm’s” Larry David) have been touting their cause and chronicling their travels in a rather idiosyncratic blog. Here, on Earth Day, are a few excerpts:

Crow (4/19, Springfield, Tenn.): I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming. Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. One of my favorites is in the area of forest conservation which we heavily rely on for oxygen. I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don’t want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required. (emphasis mine)

Crow (4/19): I also like the idea of not using paper napkins, which happen to be made from virgin wood and represent the height of wastefulness. I have designed a clothing line that has what’s called a “dining sleeve.” The sleeve is detachable and can be replaced with another “dining sleeve,” after usage. The design will offer the “diner” the convenience of wiping his mouth on his sleeve rather than throwing out yet another barely used paper product. I think this idea could also translate quite well to those suffering with an annoying head cold.

Empty Pews

This was the front page story in our largest Delaware Newspaper. This is a very interesting read.

Empty pews
80 percent of Americans profess belief in God, but church attendance is declining
By GARY SOULSMAN, The News Journal
Posted Sunday, April 22, 2007

On Sunday morning the empty pews and gray heads in Delaware’s mainline churches are making some pastors a little anxious.

They want to fill the pews but don’t know how, said the Rev. Greg Brown of Milton, a clergy coach who works with pastors.

Mainline denominations — such as Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Episcopalians — have declined in Delaware by 2 percent to 3 percent from 1990 to 2000, the latest statistics available.

And they are struggling to attract younger volunteers like Jessica Wilson of Wilmington, who wants her children to have Christian values.

Wilson is a junior warden at Trinity Episcopal Church, helping with the care of the parish. She also teaches Sunday school and wishes more people would find value in worship and activism.

Achieving that is not easy for Protestants or Catholics.

In a poll released early this year, the Barna Research Group said one out of three adults in the United States has not attended a worship service in six months.

It’s a statistic that makes those who value religion worry that the habit of worship is declining, even more so than in the early ’90s when one out of five adults did not attend services.

“I have enormous sympathy for people trying to hold together mainline denominations,” said Jane Donovan, a church historian and lecturer at West Virginia University. “The forces people are struggling with have been cooking for 100 years. There is no easy solution.”

Even before the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial when Biblical literalism faced Darwin’s theory of evolution, mainline churches held people with differing views — those who believed in the literal truth of scripture versus those who viewed the text more critically.

“Through the years, lots of people of differing perspectives have grown tired of division on topics, such as homosexuality and abortion,” Donovan said. “You find people leaving churches — or not drawn to them — because they don’t want to be part of something where this is always being raised.”

And yet 80 percent of Americans routinely say in the polls they believe in God.

Another “reason this doesn’t translate into more people in the pews is that there’s incredible competition for people’s time,” said the Rev. Roy Tripp of St. Albans Episcopal Church.

The challenge is to convey to those who don’t attend church and transient residents, who are often new to communities, that there is meaning in gathering with strangers for worship, said Steven Davis, senior warden at St. Albans.

“People are often busy running errands and doing things with their kids,” Davis said. “It also seems that we’ve gotten so comfortable at our computers, it’s a lost art of finding community in meeting face to face.

“To come to church, you step outside your comfort zone and make yourself vulnerable as you reach out to God and others.”

Question of survival

Yet if people lose the habit of finding meaning in worship, will all of the state’s churches survive?

This is a question mainline denominations have been asking for about 40 years as they’ve seen their memberships decline, said the Rev. Mark Pruett-Barnett, chaplain at Wesley College.

In fact, most of the more than 300,000 U.S. congregations are not growing.

“I know people who say they love Jesus but can’t take the institutional church,” said the Rev. Al Taylor, pastor of Chester-Bethel United Methodist Church in Brandywine Hundred. “They say we’ve made it too structured, with too many rules.”

Sometimes they are people such as Francine Covelli of Greenville. She believes in God and the importance of focusing on kindness and gratitude every day.

She practices meditation, yoga and prayer in private. And though grateful for what she’s learned from Christianity, she does not attend Sunday worship.

Nevertheless, there are pockets of vitality in church life. New outreach in United Methodist congregations, the state’s second-largest faith, has brought younger singles and families into congregations in Marshallton, Middletown, Brandywine Hundred and Newark.

In Rehoboth Beach, Epworth United Methodist is planning a new Del. 1 sanctuary to handle its growth.

“The success of megachurches — such as Willow Creek in suburban Chicago and Saddleback in Lake Forest, Calif. — has given local leaders insight on how to reach people with new styles of worship and outreach,” said Pruett-Barnett.

The Catholic church also has expanded, after becoming the dominant faith in the mid-Atlantic due to waves of immigrants to the United States from Ireland, Italy, Poland and now today’s Spanish-speaking nations.

“It’s a tribute to people’s faith that they come here, despite incredible hardships, to work for the betterment of their families,” said Brother Chris Posch, head of the Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Wilmington.

Growing in suburbia

As a result, he says, the faith remains the state’s largest denomination. It’s grown by more than 35,000 people from 1990 to 2000, especially in areas with lots of new suburban homes.

There, pastors such as the Rev. Tom Flowers of St. Polycarp in Smyrna, have witnessed a steady influx of newcomers, many of them retirees from other states where taxes are higher.

In the greater Smyrna area, he says, there are lots of retirees and young parents in the parish — an average of 75 families registering each year.

Yet he would like to see more people in the pews, though 44 percent of parishioners attending Mass is a higher rate than the average of 23 percent for a typical parish.

At St. Polycarp, some families, such as Don and Amy Maloney of Townsend, are weekly attendees. Amy Maloney said it has strengthened her 18-year marriage.

“Church is our foundation,” she said. “We truly believe that we wouldn’t have anything without it.”

Yet changes in society have affected the way people relate to parishes.

Flowers, who grew up in Cleveland Heights, a suburb of Wilmington, 50 years ago and attended St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, says changes have come as each new wave of immigrants settled in Wilmington.

On their arrival, immigrants typically want to live and worship together, he says. That’s why St. Hedwig’s was founded as the Polish parish and St. Anthony’s was started for Italians.

“There was a time in Delaware when all people had was church and maybe a social club in the neighborhood,” said Flowers. “There is so much more today to grab people’s attention, so many activities — everything from Sunday soccer to stock car races.”

As Wilmington immigrants have assimilated they have moved to suburban communities, feeling less identity with a parish than an earlier generation, Flowers said. And as people have been more successful they’ve tended to be less focused on the spiritual.

“So you don’t see them in church every Sunday,” he said. “Then something like 9/11 happens and people are back for a time.

“When the crisis passes, people are once again less inclined to come to Mass.

“We have to help people rediscover the meaning of their faith — to remind people that keeping the Sabbath means more than going to Christiana Mall.”

DELAWARE’S DENOMINATION BREAKDOWN

Catholics are the largest denomination in Delaware, followed by United Methodists. That’s according to a survey of religious groups by the Glenmary Research Center in Nashville.

In the 2000 survey, the most recent compilation, 149 denominations reported their numbers for Delaware and other states.

Most major religious groups took part, but the results are not perfect. There are always questions about how accurately each group counts adherents – meaning members, children and participants.

Another limiting factor is that many independent churches were not surveyed. Still other groups were sent queries but did not submit data.

Major groups not taking part include the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baptist Bible Fellowship, Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Hindus, who opened a temple in the Hockessin area in 2001, also were missed. In 2000, there were at least 3,000 Hindus in the state, says Patibanda Sarma, president of the Hindu Temple Association.

1990: Congregations/Adherents
Catholic: 45/116,341
United Methodist: 169/61,091
Presbyterian: 37/15,401
Jewish: 4/9,500
Episcopal: 38/13,307
Evangelical Lutheran: 11/6,780
Southern Baptist: 13/5,772
American Baptist: 10/4,217
Presbyterian America: 8/2,539
Church of God (Cleveland): 13/2,053
Assembly of God: 12/2,457
Muslim: n/a
Wesleyan: 17/2,703
Latter Day Saints: 8/2,786
Seventh-day Adventist: 12/2,044

2000: Congregations/Adherents (% change)
Catholic: 46/151,740 (30.4%)
United Methodist: 162/59,471 (-2.7%)
Presbyterian: 37/14,880 (-3.4%)
Jewish: 7/13,500 (42.1%)
Episcopal: 35/12,993 (-2.4%)
Evangelical Lutheran: 14/6,631 (-2.2%)
Southern Baptist: 19/6,310 (9.3%)
American Baptist: 14/5,477 (29.9%)
Presbyterian America: 11/3,937 (55.1%)
Church of God (Cleveland): 20/3,934 (91.6%)
Assembly of God: 13/3,808 (55.0%)
Muslim: 3/3,691 (n/a)
Wesleyan: 17/2,928 (8.3%)
Latter Day Saints: 7/2,760 (-0.9%)
Seventh-day Adventist: 15/2,492 (21.9%)

Great Quote!

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light”–John Keith Falconer

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