Creative Ways to Bless the World

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-three students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt. Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would not pray during the commencements ----- not by choice but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it.

The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one! ; asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine.......until the final speech received a standing ovation. A solitary student walked to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, all 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED!

The speaker looked at the audience and said," GOD BLESS YOU, each and every one of you!"

And he walked off stage, the audience exploded into applause.

The graduating class found a unique way to invoke God's blessing on their future. How will you do the same with the future of those around you?

Roas Parks-A Majority of One

In the life of a politically weak minority lady we see how each of us can have a tremendous effect on the world. It is not necessary to be rich, well connected, liked or brilliant to make a difference. It does take courage.

I have taken some stands in life and some of them cost me plenty. At the time I suffered a bit and wondered if it would not have been better if I simply "Went along to get along". Now that the pain is over I am glad I stood against the stream for I had a clean conscience.

Rosa Parks took a big chance when she said, "No!" to a white guy who represented so much more than a person. He represented a system, a force, a way of living that was not to be challenged. Thankfully, she had the courage to sit and allow the white guy to stand.

As a boy I heard preachers and teacher tell and retell the heroic stories of David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions' den and others who stood strong against evil and promoted good and God. Rosa Parks no doubt heard the same stories and she did better than I and millions of other Christians have ever done; she sat in the face of the lions and started a revolution.

Brothers and Sisters, what is God calling you to do to fight against the world, the flesh and the Devil?

Staying Alive in Ministry

According to some researchers ministers are "forced out" at the rate of six every day. Many for little reason other than a fight over the loudness of the organ, whether the pastor visits the sick enough or for his "poor sermons". It is always about control of the church.

People who are "called into the ministry are woefully naive about the difficulty of dealing with church conflict. Since I now spend a lot of time pastoring pastors and para-church leaders I get to see the results of such innocence.

The pastor loses his/her livlihood, reputation family stability and emotional strength. Depression, anxiety and family conflict often accompany the church fights. I wish seminaries and schools that taught leaders how to avoid such devastation but few are doing the job.

This is my main task today but, unfortunately, most leaders fail to ask for help until the crisis has gone so far that the church is in a mess too big to repair. Many failures can be prevented by wise interventions.

In the next years I will teach more seminars for youth leaders, pastors, pastoral care ministers and para church leaders as well as elders who want to foster healthy Christian organizations. I am calling them, Staying Alive in the Battle.

Tune in for more information as I develop a plan for Pastoring the Pastors

Parents: Accentuate the Positive

Have you ever found a paper or speech you had written many years ago and read it to discover you did not agree with very much of it today? As a teacher, educator and preacher I have a long paper trail. Unlike Harriet Miers I have written, spoken and discussed almost every imaginable topic. Oh well, there goes my chance to be on the Supreme Court.

I just finished reading a paper by Dr. Martin Seligman on the old gloom and doom approach to counseling and compared it to a much more effective style that looks for a person's strengths as well as his weaknesses. Man, have I changed my tune. Back in the Seventies I changed my doctoral emphasis after hearing two psychologists say things that really shook me up. They were insisting on a couple of things that caused me to completely derail the old ways of counseling and adopt a new and better way.

The first psychologist was O. H. Mowrer who said, "The early Christian church was the most powerful healing growth community that the world has ever known. I have researched many small groups and healing movements but none compare to the church." He added, "It is too bad that the church is selling its soul for a mess of psychological pottage."

As a Christian I was stunned and thought about my future. Then Dr. Carl Rogers spoke up "From now on the key to effective counseling will not be professional psychologists but trained lay persons. They are as effective as professionals and much less expensive."

I put two and two together and returned home from that conference with a decision to dedicate my life to making churches once again the most powerful healing growth communities in the world. Since then I have used the statements by these men as launching pads to equip Spirit filled men and women to take the love, truth and power of God to all people.

For far too long parents have listened to counselors with a gloom and doom philosophy. Mom and Dad, become detectives of the good and great in your kids. Stop obsessing over the negatives of a dirty room, long telephone calls and sloppy clothes and reinforce their strong qualities.

Ministry to Children and Youth is Vital

Every congregation needs a strong program for reaching the members' kids. Most Christians come to faith before age 21 so children's evangelism is critically important. Secondly, most new members do NOT come from outside but from inside the church.

A. Approximately 17 million people become church members each year through conversion.
1. About 7 million leave the church annually. (We must slow the exodus out the backdoor)
2. This is a net of 10 million new believers added annually

B. Some 53 million children are born into Christian families each year, three times the number won to Christ from outside the church.
1. About 21 million church members die annually.
2. This is a net gain of 32 million people if the children are converted.
3. When added to the 10 million new members it is a grand total of 42 million people added each year to the global church.

C. A rate of 115,000 people coming into the church each day, 365 days per year.
1. 27,400 people each day are new converts
2. 87,700 are babies born each day to believers

II. Thoughts and considerations

A. We must preach the gospel to our children as well as to outsiders
B. Most people who come to Christ do so as children or youth.
C. Most converts hear the gospel and respond to it through family and or friends.
D. Christianity is growing more rapidly than any other faith.
E. Christianity is growing faster than the population.
F. Helping members minister to their family and friends is critical to Christian growth.

Keep young families engaged in church and evangelize the kids

Births and Age

Nearly 1.5 million babies, a record, were born to unmarried women in the United States last year.

But teens accounted for just 24 percent of unwed births, down from 50 percent in 1970.

The increases in unmarried births have been among women in their 20s, especially those 25 to 29. Many are living with partners but still count as unmarried mothers if they haven’t formally married.

The 20s are the prime childbearing years, regardless of whether the mother is married or not. Among teens, more than 80 percent of mothers were unmarried.

There were 1,470,152 babies born to single women in 2004, 35.7 percent of all births up from 1,415,995 a year earlier.

The birth rate for women aged 35 to 39 increased 4 percent from 2003 to 2004. It was up 3 percent for women aged 40 to 44 and 9 percent for those 45 to 49.

Research Is Fun

The more I read about the positive affects of religious activities the more excited I become about attending church myself and recruiting others to do the same. These data show why Jesus called our faith, ABUNDANT LIFE and He was not kidding.

There are an abundant number of reasons why knowing God and living in community with His family bring joy, health, peace and great family life in addition to eternal life. Just today I read an AP report about the number of women having babies out of wedlock. We know from reading economic information that the quickest way to enter life-long poverty is to be a single parent.

One of the main reasons why scripture calls us to marriage and a loving family is to insure a stable economic and emotional life. Despite the hard work so many single moms put into child rearing the loss of one parent is almost impossible to overcome.

Research from a few years ago says that the people most at risk for mental and emotional breakdowns are single, whirte mothers with no religious affiliation. Not only are these ladies destitute they are also stressed so much they experience serious mental breakdowns.

Rearing our kids in Christ-centered homes cannot guarantee that they will always make good moral decisions or that they will stay chaste until marriage. People from every background make some decisions in the "heat of the moment" and regret it for many years.

However, rearing kids in church is a powerful vaccine against sexual promiscuity, pregnancy out of wedlock and getting involved in drugs. By going to church you are providing an umbrella to protect yourself and your kids against the sewage spewing from the media and society. It will not protect them from every spot but it can make the difference between a life of poverty and single parenting and an abundant life.

How to Prevent Depression

A brief and inexpensive cognitive-behavioral prevention program was given to university students at risk for depression. "At risk" was defined as being in the most pessimistic quarter of explanatory style about Adverse Events in the youth's life. 231 students were randomized into either an 8-week prevention workshop that met in groups of 10, once per week for 2 hours, or into an assessment-only control group.

The training group was taught how to renew their minds with a simple formula. ABCD

A = Activating Event
B = Belief System
C = Consequential Feelings
D = Decisive Behavior

Most Pessimistic young people explain Adverse Events (A) with a Belief System of thinking that a fatal flaw in them is responsible for the problem and it can never change. The class taught them to Renew their Belief System with facts and to challenget the old Pessimistic ways of thinking.

Subjects were followed for 3 years and we report the preventive effects of the workshop on depression and anxiety.

First, the workshop group had significantly fewer episodes of generalized anxiety disorder than the control group and showed a trend toward fewer major depressive episodes.

The workshop group had significantly fewer moderate depressive episodes but no fewer severe depressive episodes.

Second, the workshop group had significantly fewer depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms than the control group, as measured by self-report but not by clinicians' ratings.

Third, the workshop group had significantly greater improvements in explanatory style, hopelessness, and dysfunctional attitudes than the control group and these were significant mediators of depressive symptom prevention in the workshop group.

The Truth Shall Set us Free.

Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Survey Finds Large Gap Between Psychologists and Clergy

Despite their popularity with patients, psychologists largely ignore clergy as a valuable resource to clients. While psychologists routinely collaborate with professionals in medicine and nursing, one key group of professionals is consistently overlooked: the clergy.

A recent research review found that a scant .02% of the studies in leading psychology journals considered clergy in their data. To better understand the role of clergy in relation to the practice of psychology, a group of researchers from the University of Hawaii and the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR) surveyed eight leading psychology journals from 1991 to 1994. Each article was reviewed to see if it contained statistics that examined "the role or use of religious professionals."

The reviewers found that of the over 2,400 studies examined, only four assessed the role of the clergy in mental health. This lack of attention to the role of the clergy in mental health is even more alarming when one considers how often clergy members deal with mental health issues.

Recent surveys have found that:

•four out of ten Americans seek assistance from clergy members in times of personal distress

•clergy are more likely than psychologists and psychiatrists combined to have a person with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.) mental health diagnosis come to them for assistance

NIHR president and study co-author David B. Larson, M.D. summarizes, "Research has repeatedly established the importance of religion in mental health. It is imperative that those of us in the mental health community begin working more closely with the clergy."

Reference: Weaver, A.J., et al. "What Do Psychologists Know about Working with the Clergy? An Analysis of Eight APA Journals: 1991-1994." Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 1997; 28(5): 471-474

Find a therapist who will work with you church and minister!

How to Treat Depression

Anxiety and Depression are the two most common mental and emotional problems faced by Americans and especially American youth. It is, therefore, important, to know how to treat the people who suffer so greatly from them.

In the treatment of depression, recent research shows that drugs are in and therapy is out. Comparing data from two large national surveys, researchers found the following trends:

Three times as many Americans sought outpatient treatment in 1997 as in 1987.

Antidepressant use doubled during the decade among patients seeking treatment.

Some 74% used drugs to treat their depression in 1997, compared to 37% in 1987. (This is exactly twice as many using drugs.)

Among those seeking treatment, the proportion receiving psychotherapy declined from 71% to 60% during the 10-year period.

And the average number of visits to a talk therapist declined from 12.6 in 1987 to 8.7 in 1997.

What could account for such a shift from talk therapy to drug therapy? Especially when we know for sure that talk therapy is as effective as drugs, is less expensive in the long run, and has fewer problems than drug treatment?

About 80% of the time, drugs alone are not enough. Talk therapy has much greater outcomes in the long term. This is especially true when the talk therapist helps the client find supportive resources at home, at church and in the community.

Significant and Cutting Edge Churches

Cornerstone United Methodist Church
(513) 874-09107600
Princeton Glendale RdHamilton, OH 45011
www.cornerstonechurch.org

Great contemporary music, exciting biblical but practical teachings, interesting snd insightful kids programs, small groups and plenty of ministry.

Horizon Community Church

Services at Country Day School, Given and Shawnee Run roads, Indian Hill.
Church offices: 7800 Laurel Ave., Madeira, Suite 400
Sunday services: 9:15 and 10:30 a.m.
(513) 272-5800; e-mail: office@horizoncc.com

Creative services with high quality music and great teaching as well as interesting kids meetings with a lot of support for parents.

Depression

Religion appears to reduce the incidence of depression among those with medical problems. For instance, University of Michigan Professor of Sociology David Williams conducted a randomized survey of 720 adults suffering from leg and hip injuries in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1990.

Those who attended religious services regularly were less depressed and less distressed by life events than those who did not. This finding held across age, race, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, and religious affiliation.

Religious affiliation alone did not have these effects, but religious behavior did.Younger people also tend to experience fewer of the anxieties of growing up if they are religious. For instance, both male and female Texas high-schoolers found that religious beliefs gave meaning to their lives and reduced the incidence of depression among them.

Feel better-Go to church

With God all things are Possible

If you doubt that just read on a bit more and see what God is doing in the lives of millions of people.

The research findings are amazing. Read on and thank God.

If we had a drug or medical treatment such as surgery that had such positive outcomes it would be patented, branded and sold for thousands of dollars.

The stent that Dr. Kereiakes placed in my chest a few years ago was a wonderful invention and the manufacturers charge a lot for it to cover the cost of research and development. Faith, hope and love come freely from the hand of God and it is every bit as important as that stent.

I am so thankful that God chose to add me to His forever family and gives me long life and prosperity.

Alcohol and Illegal Drug Abuse

According to Jerald G. Bachman of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, "Factors we found to be most important in predicting use of marijuana and other drugs during the late 1970's remained most important during the early 1980's. Drug use is below average among those with strong religious commitments."104 The more powerfully addictive the drug being considered, the more powerful is the impact of church attendance in preventing its use.105

In results almost identical to those for alcoholics, researchers at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, a section of the National Institutes of Health and the nation's premier drug abuse research facility, found in their interviews of narcotic addicts that "the addict had neither current religious preference nor a history of attending religious services.... In addition... the addicts' fathers were much less involved in regular or frequent religious practices, than were a parallel group of control fathers.... Religiously, the mother was far more involved than her husband, the difference in regular religious participation between the addict's parents being twice that for the control's parents.... Religiously, the addicts were significantly less involved in reading the Bible, and praying." They also had far more frequent loss of interest in religion during adolescence.

Louis A. Cancellaro of the Department of Psychiatry at the Veterans Administration in Johnson City, Tennessee, writes that, Like their fathers, addicts are less religiously involved than their normal peers, and during adolescence, less frequently make decisions either to become more interested in religion or to commit themselves to a religious philosophy to live by.

Moms and Dads need to attend church together

Self-esteem

The absence of self-esteem weakens the personality and puts the person at greater risk for crime, addictions, and other social maladies. In all religious denominations, psychological weaknesses decrease as religious orthodoxy increases.

Among college students, for instance, the practice of religion was shown in 1969 to have a positive effect on mental health; students involved with campus ministries were much healthier and made much less use of mental health services.

Significantly, self-esteem is linked to a person's image of God. Those with high self-esteem think of God primarily as loving, while those with low self-esteem think of God primarily as punitive. Carl Jung, one of the most influential pioneers of modern psychology and psychotherapy, said: Among all my patients in the second half of my life... there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their followers and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook.

Other evidence exists that people with a religious commitment, whether young or old, who become emotionally or psychologically distressed are much more likely to seek help.

Joy comes from faith in God. Want to be depressed. Reject God.

Depression

Religion appears to reduce the incidence of depression among those with medical problems. For instance, University of Michigan Professor of Sociology David Williams conducted a randomized survey of 720 adults suffering from leg and hip injuries in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1990. Those who attended religious services regularly were less depressed and less distressed by life events than those who did not. This finding held across age, race, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, and religious affiliation. Religious affiliation alone did not have these effects, but religious behavior did.

Younger people also tend to experience fewer of the anxieties of growing up if they are religious. For instance, both male and female Texas high-schoolers found that religious beliefs gave meaning to their lives and reduced the incidence of depression among them.


Feel better-
Go to church

Government and Religion
By Patrick F. Fagan
William H.G. FitzGerald Senior Fellow in Family and Cultural Issues

When policymakers consider America's grave social problems, including violent crime and rising illegitimacy, substance abuse, and welfare dependency, they should heed the findings in the professional literature of the social sciences on the positive consequences that flow from the practice of religion. For example, there is ample evidence that:

· The strength of the family unit is intertwined with the practice of religion. Churchgoers are more likely to be married, less likely to be divorced or single, and more likely to manifest high levels of satisfaction in marriage.

· Church attendance is the most important predictor of marital stability and happiness.

· The regular practice of religion helps poor persons move out of poverty. Regular church attendance, for example, is particularly instrumental in helping young people to escape the poverty of inner-city life.

· Religious belief and practice contribute substantially to the formation of personal moral criteria and sound moral judgment.

· Regular religious practice generally inoculates individuals against a host of social problems, including suicide, drug abuse, out-of-wedlock births, crime, and divorce.

· The regular practice of religion also encourages such beneficial effects on mental health as less depression (a modern epidemic), more self-esteem, and greater family and marital happiness.

· In repairing damage caused by alcoholism, drug addiction, and marital breakdown, religious belief and practice are a major source of strength and recovery.

· Regular practice of religion is good for personal physical health: It increases longevity, improves one's chances of recovery from illness, and lessens the incidence of many killer diseases.


Church is good for all of us. Try it and live long and prosper!

Abstract from Optimism and Fundamentalism
Marvin Seligman, Ph D

Note from Gary: What Dr. Seligman calls "Fundamentalism" we would call "Evangelical" or "Bible Believing" churches. Seligman is a non-practicing agnostic psychologist who is past president of the American Psycholgy Assoc. I suggest you get his books: Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness. They are wonderful primers for teachers, preachers and parents.

Explanatory style from nine religious groups, representing fundamentalist, moderate, and liberal viewpoints, was investigated by questionnaire and by blind content analysis of their sermons and liturgy.

Fundamentalist individuals were significantly more optimistic by questionnaire than those from moderate religions, who were in turn more optimistic than liberals. The liturgy and sermons showed the parallel pattern of optimism.

Regression analyses suggested that the greater optimism of fundamentalist individuals may be entirely accounted for by the greater hope and daily influence fundamentalism engenders, along with the greater optimism of the religious services they hear.

Parenting Power: Vaccinate Your Kids Against the Virus of Sin

For the next few posts I am going to put up stuff about the ways parents can better rear healthy kids. I am doing a lot of work among local churches teaching about the challenge of rearing kids, especially teens. The importance of the Parents attending church regularly and also them getting into support groups cannot be overestimated.


In 1973 the Surgeon General summarized the major learning from the study of WWII veterans: Perhaps the most significant contribution of WWII military psychiatry was recognition of the sustaining influence of the small combat group or particular members therof, variously termed "group identification," "group cohesiveness," "the buddy system," and "leadership." This was also operative in non-combat situations.

Repeated observations indicated that the absence or inadequacy of such sustaining influences or their disruption during combat was mainly responsible for breakdowns during battle. These group or relationship phenomena explained marked differences in the psychiatric casualty rates of various units who were exposed to a similar intensity of battle stress.

(Medical Department, U.S. Army, Neuropsychiatry in WWII, Vol. 2: Overseas Theatres (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973), p. 995.


Parents are in a difficult struggle with social pressures and sinful influences in media, schools and some peers. It is more important for the parents to get strength than anything else. How can they stay healthy themselves? Get Christian support.

NIMH psychiatrist David Larson, M.D. did an overview of research on religion and health and found, at least 80% of the time, religious commitment is associated with mental health benefits.

So, take your kids to church and stay for the fellowship and small groups. Pray, eat, celebrate and work with other believers and ask for their wisdom. It is guaranteed to help you and your kids.

Forgiveness and Power Thinking

A man was stranded on the proverbial deserted Pacific Island for years.
Finally one day a boat comes sailing into view, and the man frantically
waves and draws the skipper's attention. The boat comes near the island and
the sailor gets out and greets the stranded man.

After a while the sailor asks, "What are those three huts you have here?"
"Well, that's my house there."
"What's that next hut?" asks the sailor.
"I built that hut to be my church."
"What about the other hut?"
"Oh, that's where I used to go to church."


The jealous bring down the curse they fear upon their own heads.
Dorothy Dix

The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.
William Penn

If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.
Charley Reese

We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until... we have stopped saying "It got lost," and say `I lost it. Sidney J. Harris

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
Erica Jong

What poison is to food, self-pity is to life.
Oliver C. Williams