Tuesday, March 17, 2009

American Idle

If you know Becca or me, you know we love watching some TV shows. I'm sure at some point we'll get into the spiritual depth of The Office, but I just wanted to pass along a link to a pretty interesting blog from beliefnet.com that focuses on American Idol.

Did you know that almost half of the Top 11 serve or have served at their local church as a lead worshiper? That even more of the Top 36 did as well? Check out that blog and scroll around for her posts on the subjects of Christians and Idol.

FYI, tonight is Songs from the Grand Ole Opry. Country, bluegrass, Southern Gospel. Randy Travis is the mentor, and he is releasing his Greatest Hits from his gospel recordings. I probably shouldn't use my MINISTRY blog to drink Hatorade, but I am definitely hoping that certain Twilight wannabes make quick exits.

First Post!

Welcome to the i268 blog site! Hopefully, we'll begin to engage in discussions about all kinds of topics, including Biblical issues, culture and the day-to-day.

I had a great discussion with a friend about giving to the church. 330 families or individuals have pledged to give towards the Greater Things campaign. This is a tremendous number--but there's hundreds more families who haven't pledged. There are hundreds of families who don't give a full tithe, and a surprising number of families who haven't given in the last year. I'm not talking about visitors, either.

There may be some good reasons why a full tithe isn't given, or due to not making an income, why there's no first fruits to return to God. So let's leave them out of this discussion.

1. Does a professing Christian NEED to be a member of a local church body?
2. Does a professing Christian, who receives income, NEED to give a tenth of that income to that local body?
3. How integral to the spiritual growth of a Christian is giving?