Cheri Corder — Christianity at Church
Loving thy neighbor is one thing ... but what about loving the saints? Hmmm.
"The problem is," the woman in my office said, "We have a soloist that we wish would stop singing! Nobody has the nerve or the heart to tell him he's a terrible singer. We know it would break his heart, and he'd probably leave the church over it, so we try to bear with it, but I don't think we can stand it much longer. What should we do?" Well... what should they do? When Jesus implores us to "love one another," what does that look like? Is it more important to "love" and bear with this one saint's "joyful noise" or to "love" the rest of the saints by quieting his voice? Join the dialog this month on the GLEANER blog at gleaneronline.org.
Mike Jones — Practical Ideas for Faith in Action
Recently I came across two items that shocked me. The first, was a story in USA Today stating that our church is the fastest-growing Christian denomination in North America. The second, was a statement attributed to Pastor Lee Venden that 70 percent of Adventists in churches where he's conducted revival meetings admit to having little to no daily devotional life. Wow! How does one synthesize these two disparate pieces of information? I mean, how much more growth might our church have achieved if 50 percent of our members had a devotional life? Or perhaps numerical growth isn't all that important. Spiritual growth, becoming more like Jesus, is what matters most, wouldn't you agree? Join the discussion this month on the GLEANER blog at gleaneronline.org.
