You are here
Spiritually Speaking: Reaching those who live alone
For the last half-century in the American life, there has been a great focus on the family in church ministry. There have been regular attempts to make sure that church ministry responded to the needs of the family. Both parents and children have been a major target of church leaders’ concern because they form the building block of society ... the family. Children’s ministry programs, youth ministries, and a wide variety of services offered to parents and families have been urged on religious professionals to be sure that this very important societal unit be encouraged and helped to thrive.
Well, welcome to the 21st century! According to a recent Time magazine piece, exposing “10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life” (March 12, 2012), the latest census data indicates that a full 28 percent of households are headed by individuals. That figure is up from a mere 9 percent in 1950. These people live alone; they do not have roommates. They are matched by an equal percentage of households occupied by couples without children. In other words, 58 percent of the households in the country are occupied by individuals or individual childless couples. The nuclear family, in this regard, is in the minority.
The article identifies some unsettling attitudes expressed by the author who did significant research interviews with hundreds of respondents: Today, most people presented with the options of finding roommates or living with family choose to go solo. Wouldn’t you? After all, living alone serves a purpose: it helps us pursue sacred modern values — individual freedom, personal control and self-realization — that carry us from adolescence to our final days. Living alone allows us to do what we want, when we want, on our own terms. It liberates us from the constraints of a domestic partner’s needs and demands and permits us to focus on ourselves. Today, in our age of digital media and ever-expanding social networks, living alone can offer ever greater benefits: the time and space for restorative solitude.
As we look at the above statistics and the attitudes expressed by this author, we should take care to respond with spiritual sensitivity:
1. Recognize the changing demographics of our communities. We need not jump to the conclusion that those aggregate statistics quoted above necessary are true in your own community. They may be different. Yet, we should get a grasp on who is in our neighborhood and adjust response to it. There may well be a shift necessarily to reach out to your neighbors, perhaps blurring the focus on the family to connect with the living alone population. Sensitivity to people where they are in life is necessary if we are to participate in their forward maturity. Both for those who are leaders in the faith community as well as the general population, knowledge of who is living where we are will make us more effective in promoting personal and spiritual growth in those around us.
2. There are real needs of people who live alone that give an opportunity for ministry. According to the American Sociological Review, by 2004 the number of people in the nation who said they had no one with whom they discussed important matters had tripled over the previous 15 years to nearly 25 percent of the population. If this is true, those who are alone may welcome the relationships that spiritually sensitive people in the community can offer. This is an important opportunity for the strategic reach of churches but also opens a door so concerned and loving neighbors in the community can be a helpful sounding board for those who need direction and encouragement in life and are not getting it because of their living alone status.
3. The narcissistic, self-consumed attitudes that apparently run deep today need to be addressed in the lives of Christians and non-Christians alike. Christian teaching emphasizes that the presence of God in our lives lifts us from being concerned only about our own needs and redirects our attention to the needs of others. Paul’s teaching in Philippians is a classic reminder of the mind of Christ which intentionally is not self-centered. In both formal preaching and teaching as well as informal interpersonal conversation, a spiritual service can be offered to sound this call for sacrifice that could well mean living in community with family and friends in a way that helps to meet others’ needs.
May God give us creative ways to approach the adult population around us that will meet them where they are and lead them to personality maturity, along with a spirit of sacrifice necessary for meaningful community.
Who's online
There are currently 3 users online.
- rebeccalorenzos
- Luiberry
- elvinbrightdyvclcmgu
Active forum topics
- Small Business Financial loan Programs- Does The Fresh Obama Monthly bill Help?
- How to Refinance Sallie Mae Education loans
- Cash advance loan no teletrack-Get reduce unwanted monetary mess
- Signature bank Loans Online - Funds Help Upon your Signature
- Doorstep Loans British - Financial loans at the Home of UK People
MCMA appreciates your
tax-deductable donations!
Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer
Comments
HpbPZnoCOKJDvIR
sex shop shopsex Services and putrdcos, Contrary to common belief, online sex shops are not pornographic anyway as numerous would assume. There are lots of online sex shops all around the web causing all of them offer some unique putrdcos that can go quite a distance in transforming the sex lives of many adults.Bekinky.co.uk is among the many online sex shops with a few unique range of putrdcos and services. This perhaps should bring us towards the most significant question that many people would ask as concerns online sex shops. What should one consider when searching for online sex shops simply to ensure that they do not wind up dealing with the incorrect online sex shop shopsex while there are lots of other online sex shops that would have provided better services?In reality that you cannot tell straight away as soon you click onto a hyperlink and also you end up at one of the many online sex shops. It must therefore take some consideration before you actually choose which is the best online sex shop. Some important tips about how to identify the very best online sex shop vibrators range from the following:First and fore most, the buyer must be in a position to define properly what it is that they want to get make up the online sex shop. After detailing their email list of requirements you would like met through the online sex shop. Things that you need to bother to discover form the online sex shop vibrators before you invest in making any invest in them include their delivery service and also the after sale service that they will offer if the need arise.Other detail that could go unnoticed by many very first time clients from any online stores including the online sex shops may be the delivery time period. Although if not completely online sex shops will explain that they have a delivery service, they might not come out clean concerning the exact time period that they will take to get your purchase for your door step. It is quite frustrating to order one thing form a web-based sex shop dildos and then wait for it for close to per month or even more. This always happens when you merely click and add a product to the basket without bothering to enquire on the exact time.Such complications can however be overcome by attempting to be careful in selecting an online sex shop. Some important advice is to try to make inquiries as to the distance between the online sex shops' location and your residence as this will in all probability affect the delivery time line otherwise the cost as well. Getting an online sex shop dildos that's nearer to your residence should help you get your purchased item sooner when compared with one that's miles away.Sex Shop Buy online Vs other uk more Sex Shops.I don't know about you but, my first experience in a brick and mortar sex shop was not the most pleasant. So instead we decided to find out if seeing a sex shopbuy online will be more our style. Something we noticed, were the prices. The toys in the sex shops online were incredibly lower. Despite considering the shipping costs the final purchase price is a lot lower than the road shops. Some of these adult toy sex shop online even had free shipping if you purchase for more than a certain predetermined quantity of dollars.
XmSwuFNZHZm
cg1vVR yqskgpvtzoxt
rNjKAQxrnyfkcxmh
Yo, good looikn out! Gonna make it work now.
vWPTIAmLHubpwJH
The start up gear can run about 100 dollars, but they are ruslabee as long as you take care of your equipment, so it's pretty much a one time cost. It usually takes about 3.5 to 5 hours from set up to clean up to brew a batch of beer. Beer is brewed in usually 5 or 10 gallon batches. The ingredients for a 5 gal batch can cost anywhere from 20 to 50 dollars depending on what ingredients you are using. As long as you pay attention to key steps like Sanitation and Fermentation, the beer you make at home can be every bit as good, or even better than the stuff you buy at the store. (not talking about bud/miller/coors swill, I mean real craft beer). If you really like Fat Tire, but you want just a little bit more hop aroma, you can tweak your recipes to come up with exactly what YOU are looking for in a beer! Custom beer for the individual palate! It's science and it's delicious.Any other questions about homebrewing, feel free to email me.
QNqeLCzvBqFIcapsFUp
Esse site é maravilhoooso, fiquei de cara .. eu tava procuramd gossip e no site que eu costumo baixar ainda tava o sem legenda, dai fui no google e achei esse site aqi .. o design dele me chamou atençao, é tao pratico, fácil e organizado .. eu nao conheçia e gostei muito já salvei nos meus favoritos.. frequentarei sempre para baixar gossip, house e vampire diaries (: Parabens !
car insurance qoutes cheap prices on cialis
EpiHTMmoiuypa
Esse site é maravilhoooso, fiquei de cara .. eu tava procuramd gossip e no site que eu costumo baixar ainda tava o sem legenda, dai fui no google e achei esse site aqi .. o design dele me chamou atençao, é tao pratico, fácil e organizado .. eu nao conheçia e gostei muito já salvei nos meus favoritos.. frequentarei sempre para baixar gossip, house e vampire diaries (: Parabens !
state auto insurance accredited online degrees