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REFLECTIONS by Jake King Welcome to the
family, Kimberlea We
rejoice that Kimberlea G. was baptized Sunday morning. This means that she was saved (Mark 16:16; 1
Peter 3:21); all of her sins were forgiven (Acts 2:38); yes, her sins were
washed away (Acts 22:16); she clothed herself with Christ (Galatians 3:27);
yes, she entered into Christ and His death (Romans 6:3); and she was added to
the body (1 Corinthians 12:13), which is the church (Ephesians 1:22-23). Welcome to the family, Kimberlea. Thank you,
Bill J. Thanks,
again, Bill J., for the years you’ve spent serving this congregation as an
elder. We will miss you being one of our
shepherds, but we know we will continue to see you serve the congregation in
other ways. As Paul said, “We give
thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and
steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3
ESV). [And it’s great to know that
Bill’s knee replacement surgery went well yesterday.] Blessed with 16
additions this year!
On
Monday, Bill Johnson told me that we’ve had 16 additions to our congregation so
far this year (2009). They are:
[Baptisms:] (1) Matthew R.; (2) Melissa B.; (3) Zachary M.; (4)
Krystyn H.; (5) Sydney Past Members
Last
night I went to the Gospel Meeting at In Search of the
Lord’s Way
In case you didn’t know, there is a good program called,
“In Search of the Lord’s Way,” that airs Sundays
on channel 7.1 at 7:30am, on Dishnetwork channel 259 at 6:30am, and DirecTv
channel 364 at 6:30am. The program also
has a website, which is www.searchtv.org. Recently, John Freeman gave me “Search”’s
newsletter, which has the following article written by one of its speakers: “Some Encouraging
News” from Phil Sanders
Some say churches of Christ are graying and dying, but are
these claims true? While some
congregations have a majority of members that are retired, many more are filled
with children and young adults. Churches of Christ actually have a
larger percentage of young adults than the national average. In fact, we rank #3 among religious groups
having the most adults aged 18-29. According
to the Pew Forum’s naitonwide survey last year, twenty percent of the American
populaiton falls between the ages of 18 to 29.
This survey says churches of Christ have 22 percent in that category
(“U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” www.pewforum.org,
82-83). Statistician
Flavil Yeakley, Jr. has studied trends in churches of Christ for decades. He confidently says these things about
churches of Christ: (1) We are the twelfth largest religious group in America;
(2) we are the sixth fastest growing church in America; (3) we are fourth in
the nation in the total number of congregations; (4) we are fifth in the nation
in number of countries in which there is a congregation; (5) we are first in
the nation in distribution of congregations; and (6) we are first in the nation
in weekly attendance of adherants. In
fact, 76 percent of our adherents attends regularly, which is much higher than
most mainline religious groups. According
to a survey by Barna some years ago, churches of Christ were also first in the
percentage of members who contributed to support the church. Let’s
not be discouraged. We are not pitiful
and not dying. |