Most American Christian churches are small — less than 100 members. Only a few churches are mega-churches. So how can little churches survive given the financial meltdown of last few years? Carl Trueman advocates that small churches call clergy who can serve part time and also have paid employment in another occupation.
Conservative writers include Carl Trueman, a Christian theologian who writes astutely about the American political scene. Go to www.reformation21.org/blog for more information.
Below, Trueman writes about “biovocational ministry” as the wave of the future for small churches.
Trueman asks, if there are a 100 poor family can they only have a poorly paid full time pastor? Truman plans to match actions with words and — if called in February, 2012 — to take a part time position as a pastor. You can find Carl Truman’s writings at www.reformation.21.org See link below. written by DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
worst cheapskate politicians?
Romney raked in about $42 million in 2010 and 2011. His effective tax rate was just below 14 percent, lower than that for many American taxpayers. Romney paid $6.2 million to the taxman and donated a staggering $7 million to charity, including $4.1 million to the Mormon church.
In fact, in those two years, Romney paid 16 percent of his income to charity, compared to, er, 2.6 percent by Newt Gingrich.
And what about President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the run-up to their 2008 campaign?
USA Today broke it down here. In 2007, the Obamas gave more than $240,000 to charity, about 5.7 percent of their income. The Bidens gave an average of $369 to charity a year for the decade before he moved to the Naval Observatory – about 0.3 percent of their income. Back in 1997, then veep Al Gore and his then wife Tipper gave $353.
Since becoming veep, Biden hasn’t become much more generous. In 2010, Biden gave $5,350, about 1.4 percent of income. That same year, Romney gave some $3 million. The national average is about three percent.
Parents can use simple techniques to help children with ADHD and/ or Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to be happier and achieve goals using cognitive-behavioral maethods, small rewards and practise, practise, practise the STEPS to each goal. DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
How parents can help ADHD & Autistic children be happier & achieve goals
Some simple techniques can assist children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/ or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)to be happier and achieve appropriate goals. These techniques are easy for parents and teachers to implement.
Of course a child is not a car but think of the following analogy:
Every car to get to a destination needs a driver. Parents can assist children to get into the driver’s seat and drive their ‘car’ to appropriate ‘destinations’.
Here’s how to assist children who have difficulties with focus, attention, concentration, ‘executive functioning’ or ‘working memory’ difficulties. Executive functioning and working memory are words used by school psychologists. What the parent sees is a child who can’t seem to figure out what comes first and appear disorganized.
What to do: Get a pad of 8 by 12 inch lined paper.
On one per sheet of paper —
1) Write at the top, a Goal that parents/teachers want the child to achieve.
2) Write out all the Steps required to accomplish the Goal.
3) Order the steps from first to last using KISS (Keep It Simple, Simple)
4) Figure out an appropriate Reward for child accomplishing the steps.
Set it up so child can get partial reward for partial completion.
5) Decide the number of Days child needs to complete the Goal.
6) Draw up a Graph with Days across Top of Page and Goals listed on left.
Here’s an example of a Behavior Plan for a child who shows symptoms of both ADHD and ASD:
Gina is 8 years old and was exposed in utero to illegal drugs and alcohol. Her biological mother lost parental rights and Gina has been in foster care since age two. Since age four, Gina has received County Mental Health therapy and medication to assist with focus, attention and concentration. The therapy provided by County Mental Health focuses only on helping Gina to label emotions and better express her emotions appropriately.
Gina’s foster mother and her teacher agree that Gina’s adaptive functioning abilities are considerably below what they expect for her age. Her foster mother wants Gina to 1) wash her face & brush her teeth; 2) make her bed; 3) put toys in basket in her room; 4) set the table with utensils and plates before dinner.
Goals:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Wash face & clean teeth
Make bed
Put toys in basket
Set table with utensils & plates
Spiritual/ religious beliefs need to be integral to a successful Behavioral Plan.
For example, Gina’s foster mother goes to church and rests on Sunday. Therefore the behavior plan is for six days a week and no work on Sunday, their day of rest. Six days a week time four goals = 24 Goals for Gina to achieve. For each Goal achieved she earns one (1) dime. During the week she puts stickers on the sheet and gets her motivators (dimes) which she puts into a plastic, clear jar. That way she can see exactly what she has earned towards a new toy on the weekend. Her foster mother believes Gina can find age appropriate toys for around $2.50 to $3.00 a toy.
What makes a Behavioral Plan successful?
The answer is simple: practice and more practice so the Steps are as simple as possible and the child gets rewarded for partial and then complete finishing the Goal.
For example, Gina when we started could not make her bed said her foster mom. Well, the cover was too big and too heavy for a thin, small 8 year old to move around. Thus, by simplifying and making a bed simply tossing a light duvet (down comforter) on a twin bed and putting the pillow in place — then making a bed by an 8 year old is simple and possible.
A second example:
Gina has never set the table for dinner. Part of the reason is that the plates are too high for her to reach and they are china easily breakable. Also, the utensils are not easy to get to. This is easily solved by moving plastic plates and smaller folks and spoons to one drawer that the child can reach. The point is to set it up so the child can successfully achieve the Goals.
Overall point: Parents can set simple ‘destinations’ for their child to drive their ‘car’ towards and by keeping the steps simple and practising the steps again and again their child can achieve those destinations to goals that parents set.
Very important: the hugs and ‘You did great!’ and ‘Keep trying!’ are as important and at times more important than any reward system. Parents – whether biological parents or foster parents – are the fire to ignite important, life long change in children.
Send comments to DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
Are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services boring?
Many people show up for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services. But what do they get?
In my view, this sermon [see below] delivered by an Episcopalian priest in Aptos, CA could easily put to sleep all children present, teenagers and most adults including myself.
Yes, we as the congregation are there to participate fully in the litergy. How about the clergy delivering a sermon we can remember and or help us to live as Christians? Where is the quality control on sermon standards?
What say you?
Here are his words:
_______________
“The church year begins with “Advent†– a season that makes a blessing of our ambiguous situation, sometimes joy and sometimes anguish, being stretched between incredible promise and having to wait for fulfillment. I don’t know about you, but I resist waiting.
“We live between the immeasurable gift of God’s presence in this world as a human being with all that means for our potential as individuals and as the human race, the maturity and fulfillment that is promised – between all that and the disappointments of the daily grind.
“There is anguish in “between-ness.†We have evidence every day that our society, and all human society, falls far short. The more we desire goodness the more we feel the shortfall. We feel for those who are hurt or disadvantaged whenever someone acts out of fear and greed and thoughtless disregard.
“There is another discomfort in between-ness. We see the world fall so far short of the glory we’ve been shown, and we know that we so often contribute to the shortfall, by our actions or by what we leave undone, by our willfulness or by our lack of vision.
“And yet, it is only between-ness because there is glory. . .
” We have received in Christ a vision of what a restored humanity could be, and we have felt, in ourselves, what forgiveness and promise mean. We’ve been moved to courage we didn’t have before we knew forgiveness was real. We’ve engaged with life, with people, with needs that we wouldn’t have dared to because of the love of Christ that has come to live through us in this world. Hope gets restored here and there. We have intimations of glory that we might have been too cynical to entertain, until Christ became real to us in prayer or in community, in the Scriptures or in Holy Communion, however the Spirit makes that first entry into your life or my life.We are between. Between promise and fulfillment. Embarrassed, yes, but not without hope; and Advent is the season where we cherish that hope and nourish it. The season when we encourage prayer about the fulfillment – the glory – that God intends to bring about for all of creation. We encourage hope, in the form of an attitude of expectancy. “Watch†“Keep awake†“Prepare†are Advent words. We consciously, prayerfully cultivate a space in our lives, a wondering where God will make the next opportunity for us to act in love. We have to be awake enough to notice when we are being loved. Awake enough to notice when God is asking us to do some service, some kindness, some act of hope.
” God sometimes asks great things of us, never doubt that; but most of these moments in which we are needed to serve, to restore community, to restore hope in someone, most of them are a dime a dozen. I use that phrase deliberately, not to say they are unimportant, but to say that they are common. What is common matters. Hope in little actions matters. God doesn’t only call us to great and dramatic things, but in all kinds of little moments. It is when they become a way of life that we are becoming mature. It is when it becomes routine for us to be awake to others that we are awake to the Holy Spirit.
“When hope has been built into our lives, when a strengthening word, a ready hand, an understanding heart, a responsible act, a bit of generosity, a word that invites the cynical heart to trust – when these become routine – Advent is taking root. May God use this season and its disciplines so that Christ can be born in us, and among us, ever more deeply.”
_______________ from the Aptos Psychologist: <strong> Well, did the above wake you up? Assist you to beter uderstand the Birth of Christ which brings new life to you and yours?
When you go out tomorrow to get the newspaper on the driveway give blessings to God for the joy of breath, that you can walk and that you can love neighbor and family.
NOT the devil made me do it...
Norway is suffering from an unprecedented wave of rapes that are largely being perpetrated by Muslim immigrants against local women.
After a police report in Oslo said that Muslims were raping Norwegian women out of a religious conviction that this was the proper thing to do, a stormy public debate erupted. And “the government ministers, most of them avowed anti-Semites, claimed that the report and its publication serve Israel and its policy of occupation.”
Norway’s justice minister defended the police report but also said that “Israel must be glad to hear about it.”…
_______________ A justice system so wacky that the ACLU branch office closed and went to Vatican City.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s archaeology institute downplays theories that the ancient Mayas predicted some sort of apocalypse would occur in 2012, but on Thursday it acknowledged that a second reference to the date exists on a carved fragment found at a southern Mexico ruin site.
__________
When the election returns come in, then we’ll know if the Mayans were right. If we last that long.
Bishop Makaya speaks on All Saints Day in Aptos, CA
The Bishop is from Africa. He is an Episcoplaian Bishop. His formal title is, Rt. Rev. Sadock Makaya, Bishop of Western Tanganyika. He is here in California for a week.
When Bishop Makaya spoke it was dificult for persons sitting behind him to understand him. He used complex, compound sentences and his articulation of English was not easy to understand.
Bishop Makaya’s message was clear: Today we celebrate All Saints Day. We remember the Christian saints that came before us. And we pray that the saints of today will lead lives that inspire others when they too pass on.
Some want to divide. The [Episcopalian] church needs to stay unified, said the Bishop from Africa.
And after the Bishop finished, the congregation renewed their commitment as Christians by saying the Nicene Creed which ends with:
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
As I looked around at the congregation, I looked for unfamiliar faces. There were a few. However, there were no children, only one teenager and many people in the congregation appear to be in their 70’s and older. [The service was the 11 am service which tends to draw older members of the congregation.]
The church in Western Tanganyika adds new members weekly said the Bishop.
In two weeks the Episcopalian church in Aptos [St. John’s Episcopal Church] will say “god speed” to their organist of 24 years.
Music Director, Bill Visscher, moves on to All Saints Episcopal Church in San Francisco. If you like great organ music, after Nov. 27 you can hear Bill Visscher perform there. Go to the web site for All Saints at allsaintssf.org located at 1350 Waller Street, San Francisco 415 621-1862 All Saints, San Francisco
The congregation of St. John’s will miss Bill Visscher dearly.
And now we say god speed to Bishop Makaya for a safe trip back to Western Tanganyika. And we send our love to his wife Edith and their five children.
What question would you ask of Bishop Makaya from Western Tanganyika?
Race card played to explain opposition to raising debt ceiling
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Friday strongly suggested that members of Congress are making it difficult for President Obama to raise the debt ceiling because of his race.
“I do not understand what I think is the maligning and maliciousness [toward] this president,†said Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Why is he different? And in my community, that is the question that we raise. In the minority community that is question that is being raised.
“I hope someone will say that what it appears to be is not in fact accurate,” said Lee. “But historically it seems to be nothing more.”
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Eric Holder wants honest talk about race. Well how about this, “In my community Obama doesn’t like Cantor because of his religion.”
Delta discriminates against Jews and will not transport Jews to Saudia Arabia.
Delta says no Jews can fly to Saudia Arabia
Delta will add Saudi Arabian Airlines to its SkyTeam Alliance of partnering companies and would require Delta to ban Jews and holders of Israeli passports from boarding flights to Saudi Arabia.
Kathy M. Johnston, Delta’s coordinator of Customer Care, explained that Delta does not discriminate nor condone discrimination against any protected class of passenger in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, or gender.
However, she stated , Delta must comply with all applicable laws in every country it serves. That means that if the Saudi government denies Jews from entering its country and Delta brings them there on its flight they can be fined.
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Delta is now Juden Frei. Are Kosher meals out too?
This epitomizes Christian faith and actions and God intervening …
“A drunk man in an Oldsmobile
They said had run the light
That caused the six-car pileup
On 109 that night.
When broken bodies lay about
And blood was everywhere,
The sirens screamed out eulogies,
For death was in the air.
A mother, trapped inside her car,
Was heard above the noise;
Her plaintive plea near split the air:
Oh, God, please spare my boys!”
She fought to loose her pinned hands;
She struggled to get free,
But mangled metal held her fast
In grim captivity.
Her frightened eyes then focused
On where the back seat once had been,
But all she saw was broken glass and
Two children’s seats crushed in.
Her twins were nowhere to be seen;
She did not hear them cry,
And then she prayed they’d been thrown free,
Oh, God, don’t let them die!”
Then firemen came and cut her loose,
But when they searched the back,
They found therein no little boys,
But the seat belts were intact.
They thought the woman had gone madAnd was travelling alone,
But when they turned to question her,
They discovered she was gone.
Policemen saw her running wild
And screaming above the noise
In beseeching supplication,
Please help me find my boys!
They’re four years old and wear blue shirts;
Their jeans are blue to match.”
One cop spoke up, “They’re in my car,
And they don’t have a scratch.
They said their daddy put them there
And gave them each a cone,
Then told them both to wait for Mom
To come and take them home.
I’ve searched the area high and low,
But I can’t find their dad.
He must have fled the scene,
I guess, and that is very bad.”
The mother hugged the twins and said,
While wiping at a tear,
He could not flee the scene, you see,
For he’s been dead a year.”
The cop just looked confused and asked,
Now, how can that be true?”
The boys said, “Mommy, Daddy came
And left a kiss for you.”
He told us not to worry
And that you would be all right,
And then he put us in this car with
The pretty, flashing light.
We wanted him to stay with us,
Because we miss him so,
But Mommy, he just hugged us tight
And said he had to go.
He said someday we’d understand
And told us not to fuss,
And he said to tell you, Mommy,
He’s watching over us.”
The mother knew without a doubt.
That what they spoke was true,
For she recalled their dad’s last words,
I will watch over you.”
The firemen’s notes could not explain
The twisted, mangled car,
And how the three of them escaped
Without a single scar. But on the cop’s report was scribed,
In print so very fine,
An angel walked the beat tonight
on Hwy. 109
I lived a story quite akin to the above. What is yours? DrCamcronJackson@gmail
