SOUTH SIDE CHURCH OF CHRIST

NEWSLETTER
April 2013 Volume 47No.4

The Rise of the None's by Tim Harlow

SERVICE TIMES

Sunday Morning:
8:30am-First Service 9:45am-Sunday School 10:45am-Second Service Nursery is available during all services.

The front page of USA Today said, Protestants lose majority status in the US (October 9, 2012). It just happened to catch my eye as I walked past a newsstand. I thought to myself , OK, but what could have taken its place? Catholicism is dyingis this about Mormonism? The article explained that Protestant numbers are down from 53 percent in 2007 to 48 percent today. But these Protestants didnt switch to a new religious brand. They just let go of any faith affiliation or label. According to the Pew Forum, one in five Americans now claims no religious identity. None. That means there are now more nones in the U.S. than any other Protestant denomination. Warren Bird of Leadership Network concludes: More than one out of every three adults (33 percent) in America is unchurched. This means they havent attended a religious service of any type during the past year. This represents some 125 million Americans. That number alone would be the 10th largest country in the world! (leadnet.org, 9 September 2012). One might ask, does that mean the U.S. is now a mission field? But I think the more appropriate question is, WHEN WAS IT NOT? The Easiest Target In Acts 1, Jesus charged the first disciples with the responsibility of first reaching out to people in Jerusalem and then moving outward. This doesnt mean the people in Indonesia are less important than the people in Indiana. It just means the church is missing its easiest target. Its like the shoemakers children having no shoes! These people live next door. We dont have to get on a plane. In most cases, we dont even have to learn a new language. Sometimes for effective ministry, though, one may need to learn a new language, since 13 percent of people who are living in the U.S. are foreign-born. Maybe you heard about the couple from (fill in the blank with the state you want to make fun of) who had nine children and went to the doctor to get fixed? The doc asked, Why now? and they explained they had read somewhere that one in 10 children born in the U.S. today is Mexican. They didnt want to take the chance of having another baby because they didnt speak Spanish. Make no mistake about it. Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world are right here in Jerusalem, too! So if 13 percent of Americans are foreign born, and 33 percent of them are unchurched, and the fastest growing religious group is those who believe in nothing, I feel its safe to say we live in a mission field. For some reason, weve bought into a church culture of sending missionaries and waiting for them to report back to us at home base. If were not extremely careful, we run the risk of simply paying for mission instead of engaging in mission. Clearly, we cant afford to

Sunday Evening:
6:00pm-Evening Service & Electives, Youth Groups

Wednesday Nights:
6:00pm Adult Bible Study 7:15pm Celebration Choir

Small Groups meet throughout the week.

FEBRUARY 2013 AVERAGES

Sunday School AM Wo rship PM Wo rship Ste wardship Mo nthly GF Nee d GF Offering Missions 17% GF Individual Missions Giving

112 261 62

$28,548 $28,760 $4,889 $9,370

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THE RISE OF NONES CONTINUED

do that anymore. Were losing ground. In the old days, many churches had signs as you left the property that said, You are now entering the mission field. Maybe we need to bring those back because its true. At our church, we recently started a ministry to sex workers, thinking this would be great outreach in the Chicago area. When I announced it, we quickly found out we already had five strippers attending our church! Following our very first meeting, one of these young women left the church, went to her strip club, cleaned out her locker, returned to church the next day, and was baptized. Were still reaching out to the ladies at the clubs, but she was already here! We didnt have to go to Samaria for this life-change to happen. We didnt have to go very far at all. Im not one of those guys who likes to spend a lot of time decrying the post-Christian era in which we live. I realize our nation was founded on biblical principles and that our founding fathers were Christians. Im proud of that. But honestly, I think the church has always been more productive as an outsider than an insider. Personally, I like living in a place where Im needed. I like being a missionary 24/7. But I have to constantly think like one. Purposeful Decisions For our family, that resulted in making purposeful decisions like not living in a parsonage, putting our kids into public school (it was a good one), working out at a local health club with nonchurch people, and having small group with our neighbors in a neighborhood where weve now lived for 16 years. The new word for this in church circles is incarnational. Jesus was God with us, and we are called to be God with them. To be honest, Im not living incarnationally in the Jesus definition. Jesus didnt even have a house. Jesus neighbors were total outcasts from society. I cant pat myself on the back. But I already live where I live, and if I want to be even remotely like JesusId better fully move in. Salt does no good in the shaker. Luke 10:2 tells us, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Its great to ask the Lord to send workers. We should keep doing that. But we should also remember that each one of us is to be counted among those workers. So we shouldnt just ask the Lord to send. We should also ask him to help us be. We should be looking around every day and reaching out to the nones in our own backyards. Because if the fields were plentiful then, what are they now?
Taken from Christian Standard

WHY GET INVOLVED IN MINISTRY AT ALL? We feel one of the best ways to grow in our relationship with God, along with worship, Bible study, and relationships with other God-followers, is to get involved in serving Him. In the Bible, James tells us: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:22-25) James understood one big thing about Christians. We love to talk, but we don't necessarily like to get up and out and get it done. It's one thing to proclaim Jesus on Sunday morning. It's quite another to get wrapped up in the lives of others on any given day, for no other reason than to bring a smile to God's face.

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COMING UP! General Board Meeting on April 3 at 7:00pm. Womens Fellowship Meetings on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:00pm at the church. The ladies are also having a yard sale to raise money for projects for 2013. It will be held in the church parking lot on June 1, with a rain date of June 8. Please contact Patty Vance, Cathy Deakyne, or Becky Crouch if you have any questions. South Side Sewing Circle Tuesdays, 6:308:30pm. The first project is to be a quilt of Valor to honor a man or woman who has served our county in combat. Dont know how to sew? Come & learn! If you have any questions contact Peggy Blackburn at 333-0314. Red Cross Blood Drive on March 18 @ 2-8pm, help give the gift of life with your donation. Mother/Daughter Banquet is on May 11 so mark your calendars! We will post more details soon. Butler Springs is asking for our church to donate 100% fruit juice in cans or bottles for the 2013 camp season. Please have your donations here by May 17.

VBS 2013 Enter the epic adventure that empowers kids to stand strong. Here, Gods victorious power isnt a fairy taleit changes kids forever. VBS Planning Meeting Its time to get ready for summer! VBS is the week of June 3-7 @ 6:00pm, there is a planning meeting scheduled for April 7 @4pm. Anyone interested in volunteering to be a guide, do games, decorate, music, crafts, snacks, or anything else, please be here.it takes a lot of people to put this together.
ICHOOSE Youth Weekend, May 4 & 5, the theme is Run the Race from Hebrews 12:1. iChoose starts on Saturday this year, and we are having a 5k race to raise money for The Well at Sunnyside and other missions. That Saturday evening we will have a leadership prayer dinner for our youth leaders and helpers. KIDS/TEEN NEWS! On Sunday, May 5th we will be joined at 8:30 service by Rocky Christiansen from Central Christian College of the Bible and their worship band. At the 10:45 service we will be joined by One Worship, the Celebration Choir and Jason Hoffer of Springhill Camps. Sunday Night, May 5th will be the iChoose Rally at the Historic Middle School Auditorium at 6:00pm with a Youth Drama Team, One Worship, the Celebration Choir, and Jason Hoffer. All churches in our area are invited to attend, we will be joined by many visitors from our Bible Schools and other places as well.

SOUTH SIDE CHURCH OF CHRIST

921 S Fayette St Washington CH, OH 43160

Phone: 740-335-3107 Fax: 740-335-3199 E-mail: ministry@southsidewch.com

Web site: www.southsidewch.com

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T HOUGHT S FROM CLARENCE APRIL 2013

Spring is approaching and the weather is changing, the season is beginning to change, and just like the weather changes so do things in our lives. Change is hard for everyone one from the youngest to the oldest it never feels good. The one thing I have learned in this life is this, if you fail to change you become irrelevant. Virtually we become useless to those that are around you. Our families, our friends and our communities need us to embrace change. I work with young people and I realize that things are always changing in their lives, sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad but nevertheless it happens. Think about the auto industry, or businesses or even our culture, it has all changed from year to year and we as a society have had to change with it. In the same way, the church is changing, it has changed and it will continue to. Churches that refuse to change submit to dying, order the casket call the preacher, a funeral will happen sooner or later, but the church that submits to Jesus and is open to change is open to LIVE. Its as simple as that. If we are sick and our health is fading because of poor diet or unhealthy choices we change what we eat in order to get better, but if we continue to assume we know what's best for our own bodies, more that our doctors then eventually it will take its toll on us and we will die. We should never compromise the Message of the cross, but the method in which we present the gospel will continually change in order to reach out to those around us. Ask yourself if your willing to submit to change, not only in our churches but in our lives its a matter of life and death!

Clarence