The practice of churches using moneyraising schemes to provide resources for their work is a sad chapter in religious history that continues to plague communities of faith with long-term negative influences. Last week, a priest in South America rigged helium balloons in enough numbers to lift himself into the sky and is now unaccounted for several days after the stunt to raise money for ministry needs.
The occasional roof-sitting preacher may rally a church to action, but when it comes to risking life and limb for the dollar, that is going too far. It is time for churches to return to a biblical basis for stewardship that will provide for the needs of churches and their ministers and the ministries to the world that God intended to be accomplished through his people. It was a very simple system: tithes and offerings. Tithes were given… a tenth of one’s increase. It was a first-fruits offering…the first and the best. It was an intentional, purposeful, act of worship in thanksgiving and trust toward God. It was a shared participation that regardless of wealth or poverty, community status or the lack thereof, it was proportionate giving. A tenth is a tenth is a tenth. Interestingly, it is usually the wealthy that endeavor to justify something less than a tenth as their tithe. They just never were good at math when it came to giving. Jesus said it would always be an issue for those with wealth…they would be continuously challenged to comprehend the basis of faith and stewardship. There are a few who have caught on…but they are few and far between. Freewill offerings like that which supplied for the building of the Temple were described as so generous that they had to tell the people to stop bringing any more…there was more than what was needed. When was the last time you heard of such a thing in modern times? .What we need to remember is the fact that everything we have is a gift of God to us and a stewardship of time and opportunity for a season. Every choice we make is an exercise in stewardship…of the earth, of our knowledge, of our experiences, of our resources and energy. We will be stewards…good or bad. We should be challenged to gain a common sense and positive approach to stewardship principles through a study of scripture and to establish a biblically informed practice. Jesus got more than a little upset with those who turned the place of worship, “a house of prayer for all people,” into a marketplace of moneychangers and livestock sellers. We would do well to remember and chart another, more authentically Christian course of action.
We need teachers and visionaries to take up stewardship as a focus. Environmental stewardship poses one of the most significant concerns of our time. Developing more substantive resources of nutritious and safe food supplies, clean water, adequate systems of agricultural distribution remain key world needs. God has given us some good principles for stewardship. We should start exercising them and put a stop to nonsensical schemes that undermine the foundations of sound stewardship practice.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sinking Sand?
The financial headlines suggest more than a meltdown in the housing market, the mortgage banking industry, and in many investment houses. The troubles may be diagnosed as a result of more than inflationary pressure brought on by over speculation in the commodities markets due to an excess of investment capital taken out of the market due to poor returns and questionable values of properties and loan packages built upon sub-prime lending to those without resources to sustain payments as variable interest rates climbed. No, our problems in these times stem from more basic troubles, like dishonesty. Greed might be also added to the list. A failure to invest in the future on the basis of something other than quick profit-taking while riding the ups and downs of the emotionally charged marketplace.
Basic to our problems are things like a lack of informed disclosure. But that is a two-sided problem. Many people don’t really want to know the whole truth about the circumstances they are getting themselves into, especially when it comes to financial decisions. Others relish the moment when they make the big score by suckering someone into a deal that pulls the wool over their eyes and takes them for all they are worth. Our problems lie in a lack of truthfulness, an evil intent, a greedy heart, a failure to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Perhaps it is even the failure to love yourself enough to respect the choices you make and the quality of life you live.
Jesus offered a powerful message about living in what we often refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. It is found in Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew’s gospel. The closing words of that passage convey an easily understood message.
Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!”
Every generation will face those seasons of life’s storms. I wonder if this generation will understand that the strength we will need to establish a future is dependant upon hearing the words of Jesus and acting on them?
Basic to our problems are things like a lack of informed disclosure. But that is a two-sided problem. Many people don’t really want to know the whole truth about the circumstances they are getting themselves into, especially when it comes to financial decisions. Others relish the moment when they make the big score by suckering someone into a deal that pulls the wool over their eyes and takes them for all they are worth. Our problems lie in a lack of truthfulness, an evil intent, a greedy heart, a failure to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Perhaps it is even the failure to love yourself enough to respect the choices you make and the quality of life you live.
Jesus offered a powerful message about living in what we often refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. It is found in Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew’s gospel. The closing words of that passage convey an easily understood message.
Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!”
Every generation will face those seasons of life’s storms. I wonder if this generation will understand that the strength we will need to establish a future is dependant upon hearing the words of Jesus and acting on them?
Monday, April 14, 2008
And if they do not believe...
The invitation to God’s grace and forgiveness are transforming experiences. Not every person has the same sequence of subsequent maturity and practice of faith, but all who receive Christ are renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit for the work of ministry and the glory of God. We are called to faith and mission. We are called to hope and service. We are called to take up the cross and follow Christ and in doing so to be invited to take up the towel and the basin. We are called to set aside our prejudices and to recognize in every life the presence of one for whom Christ died, and rose again. We preach Christ…we teach all the things he taught…we take this good news to every nation. It is work yet to be fulfilled, but with God, nothing is impossible.
The strange circumstance for the contemporary church lies in its departure from classic New Testament Christianity in terms of disciplemaking, ministry, education, and evangelization of the nations. Far too many elements of false teaching and the instruction of men (as opposed to the instruction of God) have been given the priority in many settings. Values are derived from the lowest common denominators of cultural mores, not the morality of the Sermon on the Mount. Crowds are drawn to “prosperity” messengers that make their measures of success the same as those espoused by the pagan culture icons. Financial wealth, mansions, extravagant lifestyles of luxury all point to the failure of looking past self-satisfaction and self-indulgence as motivators.
All the while, our religious climate becomes less and less instructive or influential as salt and light to our generation. The primacy of political power makes appeals to the “religious culturalists” not on matters of biblical ethics or justice, but on the basis of religiously promoted powerbrokering that highlights prejudice, divisiveness, and often twisting appeals for single issue viewpoints to create rhetorical theatre and emotional hostility. Conflict creates interest in the effort to promote a high promise, high vote getting outcome without any general intention to follow through on promoting those views after elections. Using religion as a pawn of politics has only left those in the political arena with dirtied hands and those in the religious community temporarily flattered by the public attention.
Many of those who serve in the midst of congregations today find their labors intensified by the almost constant lack of consistency in general patterns of participation and the erratic and often limited responses that give evidence of individuals following Jesus. Entire communities of faith can be ensnared and undermined in their efforts to communicate the gospel by the clearly dysfunctional efforts of a few. John the Baptist apparently felt the same way about some of the scribes and Pharisees who he not so kindly referred to as vipers…suggesting their danger to the spiritual health of the community then being called to repentance and preparation for the Kingdom of God.
Clearing straight paths must again be the key to renewal in the life of the community of faith. The entanglements and crookedness of spirit and character must be relegated to the dust and the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit must be allowed to burn away the impurities of heart and mind and soul that would prevent the church from being the holy body of Christ.
The list of challenges to the integrity of the church’s mission and message are many. The rise of secular agendas; the treatment of ministers as employees to be hired and fired like football coaches; the people pleasing consumerists packaging of churches and their ministries in efforts to gather a crowd only to create a marketing frenzy to replicate the latest fad or fashion; the failure of excellence and the detraction from divine calling in the suggestion that “what everyone wants by consensus of local cultural behavior” is the way to go, versus the instruction of scripture and the desire to glorify God. The abandonment of our first love…Jesus Christ is the greatest and most glaring missing factor in our church practices and community identity. And that begs the old question of …if they don’t act saved, and they don’t talk like they are saved, and they don’t love like they are saved, and they don’t believe like they are saved, are they?
And that could be the problem most haunting the churches of our time…at least those physical structures called the church. Those places are infected or infested with Christians in name, but not in spirit or truth. True worshippers Jesus said would be so in both spirit and truth.
So what if they do not believe?
Can we expect individuals within the church who do not love God to really be able to love their neighbor or themselves?
It is no wonder they cannot…
So what if they do not believe?
Can we expect them to act on the basis of acknowledging God as the giver of every gift and the creator of everything? If they do not know Him, if they do not worship Him, if they do not acknowledge Him as Lord, why should we expect them to act in trust toward God? We can’t.
So what if they do not believe?
Can we think they consider it important to guide their children, their grandchildren, and the generation of those that follow them to an understanding of faith…if they have no such faith. Of course not.
So what if they do not believe?
Do we assume that by their presence in our midst and their attachments to the world, that they have the heart and mind and spirit of those who love the Lord their God and would desire to lay their lives before Him in obedience and in a willful desire to follow the Christ who laid down his life for them. Of course we cannot.
So what if they do not believe?
They are still blinded by sin. They are still ensnared and enslaved by it. They are still separated from the light of Christ in their hearts…they are still without the indwelling Spirit of God… it is no wonder they are hostile to the mission of the church. It is no wonder that they abandon the worship of God. It is no wonder they do not have ears to hear. It is no question they they do not understand the power of God at work in the world.
So what if they do not believe?
It is no surprise when they are caught in the pursuit of this world’s successes in the way that this world sees as important and that they are personally unfulfilled and unsatisfied and unattached to the work of ministry that God has called to the church to perform…feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, welcoming the stranger, ministering to the widows and orphaned, teaching and proclaiming the gospel to every nation…such agendas do not have their attention because they are not believing.
So what if they do not believe? Then they need Christ.
So what if they do not believe? Then they need the compassion and the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness of God.
So what if they do not believe? They need the good news that Christ has come with that gift of life in Him…and they are called by God to repent of their sins and to yield their hearts and lives to God. You who do not believe… Lay your burden down….hear the good news…receive forgiveness and new life through faith and trust in Jesus…
And if they believe…they will take up the mission of love…they will receive what God alone gives…and they will no longer be faithless, but believing.
John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. One without the other apparently isn’t sufficient. It takes losing what needs to be let go of in order to fully receive the presence of God. The community called the CHURCH, capital C, the WHOLE UNIVERSAL GATHERED COMMUNITY OF GOD’S GATHERED FAMILY OF BELIEVERS to be sorted out clearly enough by Jesus himself.
I hope you already know Him. I hope you believe in Him. I hope you love Him. I hope you serve Him. I hope you will hear his voice and follow Him. For those who do….there will be life, even it means coming through the fire. And for those who don’t believe, even for those who assume the name, but refuse to claim Him as their Lord and receive Him…who refuse to believe in Him and His word to us all; for them there is only the fire.
The truth is…if all you have your trust in is what you can get your hands on…you will lose everything. But if you will let go of yourself and give yourself to God, he will provide you everything you will ever truly need. That is His promise…
For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Believe in Jesus… be born from above…be alive and blessed forever in His love.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name.. ON Christ the solid rock I stand…all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
The strange circumstance for the contemporary church lies in its departure from classic New Testament Christianity in terms of disciplemaking, ministry, education, and evangelization of the nations. Far too many elements of false teaching and the instruction of men (as opposed to the instruction of God) have been given the priority in many settings. Values are derived from the lowest common denominators of cultural mores, not the morality of the Sermon on the Mount. Crowds are drawn to “prosperity” messengers that make their measures of success the same as those espoused by the pagan culture icons. Financial wealth, mansions, extravagant lifestyles of luxury all point to the failure of looking past self-satisfaction and self-indulgence as motivators.
All the while, our religious climate becomes less and less instructive or influential as salt and light to our generation. The primacy of political power makes appeals to the “religious culturalists” not on matters of biblical ethics or justice, but on the basis of religiously promoted powerbrokering that highlights prejudice, divisiveness, and often twisting appeals for single issue viewpoints to create rhetorical theatre and emotional hostility. Conflict creates interest in the effort to promote a high promise, high vote getting outcome without any general intention to follow through on promoting those views after elections. Using religion as a pawn of politics has only left those in the political arena with dirtied hands and those in the religious community temporarily flattered by the public attention.
Many of those who serve in the midst of congregations today find their labors intensified by the almost constant lack of consistency in general patterns of participation and the erratic and often limited responses that give evidence of individuals following Jesus. Entire communities of faith can be ensnared and undermined in their efforts to communicate the gospel by the clearly dysfunctional efforts of a few. John the Baptist apparently felt the same way about some of the scribes and Pharisees who he not so kindly referred to as vipers…suggesting their danger to the spiritual health of the community then being called to repentance and preparation for the Kingdom of God.
Clearing straight paths must again be the key to renewal in the life of the community of faith. The entanglements and crookedness of spirit and character must be relegated to the dust and the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit must be allowed to burn away the impurities of heart and mind and soul that would prevent the church from being the holy body of Christ.
The list of challenges to the integrity of the church’s mission and message are many. The rise of secular agendas; the treatment of ministers as employees to be hired and fired like football coaches; the people pleasing consumerists packaging of churches and their ministries in efforts to gather a crowd only to create a marketing frenzy to replicate the latest fad or fashion; the failure of excellence and the detraction from divine calling in the suggestion that “what everyone wants by consensus of local cultural behavior” is the way to go, versus the instruction of scripture and the desire to glorify God. The abandonment of our first love…Jesus Christ is the greatest and most glaring missing factor in our church practices and community identity. And that begs the old question of …if they don’t act saved, and they don’t talk like they are saved, and they don’t love like they are saved, and they don’t believe like they are saved, are they?
And that could be the problem most haunting the churches of our time…at least those physical structures called the church. Those places are infected or infested with Christians in name, but not in spirit or truth. True worshippers Jesus said would be so in both spirit and truth.
So what if they do not believe?
Can we expect individuals within the church who do not love God to really be able to love their neighbor or themselves?
It is no wonder they cannot…
So what if they do not believe?
Can we expect them to act on the basis of acknowledging God as the giver of every gift and the creator of everything? If they do not know Him, if they do not worship Him, if they do not acknowledge Him as Lord, why should we expect them to act in trust toward God? We can’t.
So what if they do not believe?
Can we think they consider it important to guide their children, their grandchildren, and the generation of those that follow them to an understanding of faith…if they have no such faith. Of course not.
So what if they do not believe?
Do we assume that by their presence in our midst and their attachments to the world, that they have the heart and mind and spirit of those who love the Lord their God and would desire to lay their lives before Him in obedience and in a willful desire to follow the Christ who laid down his life for them. Of course we cannot.
So what if they do not believe?
They are still blinded by sin. They are still ensnared and enslaved by it. They are still separated from the light of Christ in their hearts…they are still without the indwelling Spirit of God… it is no wonder they are hostile to the mission of the church. It is no wonder that they abandon the worship of God. It is no wonder they do not have ears to hear. It is no question they they do not understand the power of God at work in the world.
So what if they do not believe?
It is no surprise when they are caught in the pursuit of this world’s successes in the way that this world sees as important and that they are personally unfulfilled and unsatisfied and unattached to the work of ministry that God has called to the church to perform…feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, visiting the imprisoned, welcoming the stranger, ministering to the widows and orphaned, teaching and proclaiming the gospel to every nation…such agendas do not have their attention because they are not believing.
So what if they do not believe? Then they need Christ.
So what if they do not believe? Then they need the compassion and the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness of God.
So what if they do not believe? They need the good news that Christ has come with that gift of life in Him…and they are called by God to repent of their sins and to yield their hearts and lives to God. You who do not believe… Lay your burden down….hear the good news…receive forgiveness and new life through faith and trust in Jesus…
And if they believe…they will take up the mission of love…they will receive what God alone gives…and they will no longer be faithless, but believing.
John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. One without the other apparently isn’t sufficient. It takes losing what needs to be let go of in order to fully receive the presence of God. The community called the CHURCH, capital C, the WHOLE UNIVERSAL GATHERED COMMUNITY OF GOD’S GATHERED FAMILY OF BELIEVERS to be sorted out clearly enough by Jesus himself.
I hope you already know Him. I hope you believe in Him. I hope you love Him. I hope you serve Him. I hope you will hear his voice and follow Him. For those who do….there will be life, even it means coming through the fire. And for those who don’t believe, even for those who assume the name, but refuse to claim Him as their Lord and receive Him…who refuse to believe in Him and His word to us all; for them there is only the fire.
The truth is…if all you have your trust in is what you can get your hands on…you will lose everything. But if you will let go of yourself and give yourself to God, he will provide you everything you will ever truly need. That is His promise…
For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Believe in Jesus… be born from above…be alive and blessed forever in His love.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name.. ON Christ the solid rock I stand…all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is that branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty, art, and taste and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. For a long time, I didn’t know such a focus of philosophy even existed, though I knew in my own mind it was an almost constant consideration. In some ways, I feel that attentiveness to beauty always goes beyond what most people observe as physical attractiveness and more to the role of aesthetic influence and power. Far beyond the human compulsion to attend to the visual issues of pleasantness, it has always been my sense that just as important, or more so, is the capacity of purpose to be fulfilled.
Human life that fails to discover the character of divine intention within the experience of living seems to share an element of brokenness and dissonance. The factors of human sin constantly undermine the divine intention of fellowship with God.
As the Christian Gospel so clearly spells out in the coming of the Messiah, by the Savior of the world, we find hope and a future bound in the relationship that we may know in Him. Aesthetically, we discover healing and wholeness and meaning and purpose in the context of this divinely initiated redemption. It is beautiful in every aspect. It is joyful in every discovery of divine intention.
Tragic disparity exists in the lives of those who do not experience the divinely inspired…God-breathed-into life. They are caught in repeated experiences of human failings and the unfulfilling tragedy of misdirected worship in idolatries of every sort.
The life apart from receiving God’s grace is futilely bound to a morbid existence without direction and vision.
Aesthetics is in some measure the longing of the human soul for divine order and presence. Likewise in the awareness of the Holy Spirit, there is the continuing recognition of human separation from God and the urgency of human appeal for repentance, change, refocus, redirection, and clearly faith directed to God. Only in such a time and place can there be a transformative experience of human aesthetic comprehension. Separation from God is understood and appeal to God’s invitation to faith is plausible and possible. In the aesthetic brokenness we discover our need and in the divine manifestation of grace we find our vision of hope.
The aesthetic of faith is then a unified expression of God’s working. Willing disciples of Christ are followers…these are those who are responsive to the teachings and instruction of Jesus. The realities of change brought about by this relationship of faith yield compelling recognitions of new approaches to life in every expression.
Human life that fails to discover the character of divine intention within the experience of living seems to share an element of brokenness and dissonance. The factors of human sin constantly undermine the divine intention of fellowship with God.
As the Christian Gospel so clearly spells out in the coming of the Messiah, by the Savior of the world, we find hope and a future bound in the relationship that we may know in Him. Aesthetically, we discover healing and wholeness and meaning and purpose in the context of this divinely initiated redemption. It is beautiful in every aspect. It is joyful in every discovery of divine intention.
Tragic disparity exists in the lives of those who do not experience the divinely inspired…God-breathed-into life. They are caught in repeated experiences of human failings and the unfulfilling tragedy of misdirected worship in idolatries of every sort.
The life apart from receiving God’s grace is futilely bound to a morbid existence without direction and vision.
Aesthetics is in some measure the longing of the human soul for divine order and presence. Likewise in the awareness of the Holy Spirit, there is the continuing recognition of human separation from God and the urgency of human appeal for repentance, change, refocus, redirection, and clearly faith directed to God. Only in such a time and place can there be a transformative experience of human aesthetic comprehension. Separation from God is understood and appeal to God’s invitation to faith is plausible and possible. In the aesthetic brokenness we discover our need and in the divine manifestation of grace we find our vision of hope.
The aesthetic of faith is then a unified expression of God’s working. Willing disciples of Christ are followers…these are those who are responsive to the teachings and instruction of Jesus. The realities of change brought about by this relationship of faith yield compelling recognitions of new approaches to life in every expression.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The New Terror: Ignorance
You have noticed it. The person working the counter at the fast food chain can’t make accurate change. The parent asked to sign their child’s homework and review it with them can’t seem to handle that simple task. The truck driver asking for directions to a place written on a piece of paper, but that he could not find because he could not read it.
To make matters worse, we find those who have been identified as graduates of colleges and universities struggling to use correct grammar in written or verbal communication. Even teachers and teacher’s aides sometimes lack skills in correct usage of language. Employers are reporting difficulty in finding capably trainable employees because of the lack of basic reading, writing, and math skills.
In the U.S., there is a growing awareness that we have fallen behind in the education and preparation of those of the coming generation who will be responsible for the economic success or failure of our nation. One third of Ivy League schools admissions are now filled by foreign students, because they score consistently in the highest brackets academically. When vast numbers of U.S. students show deficiencies in academic capacity in general, we have to look at the underlying issues and evaluate accurately where the weaknesses lie.
Recently, North Carolina changed the way it calculated dropouts to reflect a more accurate counting of those who left school between 9th and 12th grade only to find the statewide high school graduation rate drop from a previously calculated 95% to 68%. If you dropped out over the summer, you weren’t counted previously.
U.S. Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, announced on Monday that there would be a new national standard for tracking student dropout measurements. This came following a report presented by a non-profit group led by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, that noted the critical need for change to remedy current school dropout rates nationally. They reported 1.2 million teens annually drop out of U.S. high schools. Nearly a third of U.S. students will not graduate with a high school diploma. In some areas of the country there is a 70% dropout rate.
Economics has often been touted as the basis for poor achievement. Poor students are reported to have poor grades, poor success, etc. The lack of literacy however has little to do with poverty. Some third world countries are now competing with the U.S. in literacy counts.
The apparent issues more prominent in the educational endeavors for U.S. students have long been noted by the litany of many very capable educators who point to the distinctive breakdown in family life as the essential and critical missing link in the education of many children.
Dropping out is not an option when cooperating parents set a higher standard for their children and demand it of them with loving discipline and clear expectations. Not all children will be at the top of the class, but every child with parents that care can be in class. Students that seem unmotivated often are surrounded by those who model a lack of motivation for improvement. Parents who were dropouts often create a second and third and even fourth generation of low expectation. While not everyone may have had the opportunity of education, no one should hold to the attitude that education is unimportant for future generations. Even the least educated parent should aspire for their children a good education and should be supportive of every effort of their children to achieve such. To do so requires parents who love their children and who encourage their children. Such encouragement is found in the simple basics of daily attention, asking questions, talking with those helping with your child’s learning and development, accepting the guidance of those who have a sincere interest in helping your child to grow in their knowledge and skills. No person is beyond using their abilities to help others in some way. We do have a crisis on our hands as a nation. It begins with the basics of home and family and shared living and responsibility and love and care and forgiveness and encouragement and help and guidance and instruction and community and living by the compelling words of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. Ignorance is deadly -- it kills the innocent; it destroys hope; it inhibits opportunity; it paralyzes with fear; it creates pain; it undermines improvement; it disregards truth; it overloads the already overburdened; it is a cancer that will undermine a culture of freedom and responsible living with the necessity of mass management of illiterate masses, primarily via prisons and communities of persisting poverty bankrolled by those who remain able to function in an increasingly incapacitated environment.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Where there is no hope for tomorrow, people fail to consider the reasons for today’s effort. In the grace and mercy of God, we see the love of the One who desires to redeem and save and give life. In Him we discover our worth and value. In Him we gain a vision for our future that includes being disciples of righteousness, truth, and wisdom – all most clearly defined in him.
Until we value one another with the eyes of Christ, we will remain as those who relate to one another as commodities to be bartered, sold, or ignored on the basis of our own selfish intentions. God help us to discover again our hope in him that will allow us to regain a vision for redemptive change. It is a time for all of us to be students…and a time for all who will, in love, to be teachers.
To make matters worse, we find those who have been identified as graduates of colleges and universities struggling to use correct grammar in written or verbal communication. Even teachers and teacher’s aides sometimes lack skills in correct usage of language. Employers are reporting difficulty in finding capably trainable employees because of the lack of basic reading, writing, and math skills.
In the U.S., there is a growing awareness that we have fallen behind in the education and preparation of those of the coming generation who will be responsible for the economic success or failure of our nation. One third of Ivy League schools admissions are now filled by foreign students, because they score consistently in the highest brackets academically. When vast numbers of U.S. students show deficiencies in academic capacity in general, we have to look at the underlying issues and evaluate accurately where the weaknesses lie.
Recently, North Carolina changed the way it calculated dropouts to reflect a more accurate counting of those who left school between 9th and 12th grade only to find the statewide high school graduation rate drop from a previously calculated 95% to 68%. If you dropped out over the summer, you weren’t counted previously.
U.S. Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, announced on Monday that there would be a new national standard for tracking student dropout measurements. This came following a report presented by a non-profit group led by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, that noted the critical need for change to remedy current school dropout rates nationally. They reported 1.2 million teens annually drop out of U.S. high schools. Nearly a third of U.S. students will not graduate with a high school diploma. In some areas of the country there is a 70% dropout rate.
Economics has often been touted as the basis for poor achievement. Poor students are reported to have poor grades, poor success, etc. The lack of literacy however has little to do with poverty. Some third world countries are now competing with the U.S. in literacy counts.
The apparent issues more prominent in the educational endeavors for U.S. students have long been noted by the litany of many very capable educators who point to the distinctive breakdown in family life as the essential and critical missing link in the education of many children.
Dropping out is not an option when cooperating parents set a higher standard for their children and demand it of them with loving discipline and clear expectations. Not all children will be at the top of the class, but every child with parents that care can be in class. Students that seem unmotivated often are surrounded by those who model a lack of motivation for improvement. Parents who were dropouts often create a second and third and even fourth generation of low expectation. While not everyone may have had the opportunity of education, no one should hold to the attitude that education is unimportant for future generations. Even the least educated parent should aspire for their children a good education and should be supportive of every effort of their children to achieve such. To do so requires parents who love their children and who encourage their children. Such encouragement is found in the simple basics of daily attention, asking questions, talking with those helping with your child’s learning and development, accepting the guidance of those who have a sincere interest in helping your child to grow in their knowledge and skills. No person is beyond using their abilities to help others in some way. We do have a crisis on our hands as a nation. It begins with the basics of home and family and shared living and responsibility and love and care and forgiveness and encouragement and help and guidance and instruction and community and living by the compelling words of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. Ignorance is deadly -- it kills the innocent; it destroys hope; it inhibits opportunity; it paralyzes with fear; it creates pain; it undermines improvement; it disregards truth; it overloads the already overburdened; it is a cancer that will undermine a culture of freedom and responsible living with the necessity of mass management of illiterate masses, primarily via prisons and communities of persisting poverty bankrolled by those who remain able to function in an increasingly incapacitated environment.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Where there is no hope for tomorrow, people fail to consider the reasons for today’s effort. In the grace and mercy of God, we see the love of the One who desires to redeem and save and give life. In Him we discover our worth and value. In Him we gain a vision for our future that includes being disciples of righteousness, truth, and wisdom – all most clearly defined in him.
Until we value one another with the eyes of Christ, we will remain as those who relate to one another as commodities to be bartered, sold, or ignored on the basis of our own selfish intentions. God help us to discover again our hope in him that will allow us to regain a vision for redemptive change. It is a time for all of us to be students…and a time for all who will, in love, to be teachers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)