Monthly Archives: June 2010

cni-not-for-sale-photo

Not For Sale-Sex Trafficking in Atlanta

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Would you sell your daughter for sex? I am assuming if you are reading this blog, probably not…but, there are many in the city of Atlanta who would  and do.Craigslist, Backpage, and others like them are site’s routinely used to buy sex from children… young girls under the age of 18, and it has to stop! Men can go on these sites and shop for girls as though they were shopping for a new set of golf clubs…I use golf clubs as an analogy because statistically in Atlanta the largest concentration of men seeking to pay for sex from children are those in the North Metro area of Atlanta(A Future. Not A Past, 2010), outside of the perimeter, where the greater majority of this cities wealth resides.

Statistically:

North Metro OTP-42%

ITP-26%

South Metro OTP-23%

Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Area-10%

7200 men knowingly pay for sex with adolescent females each month in Georgia

(A Future. Not A Past, 2010)

It seems the wealthy, moral suburbanite’s are the primary purveyors of this heinous crime….Atlanta stand up and get involved. Go to http://www.streetgrace.org/ and get involved somewhere.

Church, stand up! Our God is a God of justice, and if you don’t believe that, then you don’t know Him. Fighting this is an implication of the gospel, and the mission of God to make right the brokenness of this world in Jesus. This has to end…

Fewer Young Adults Attend Church

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A majority of young adults, age 18 to 29, don’t pray, don’t worship and don’t read the Bible according to LifeWay Christian Resources:

65% identify themselves as Christian, while 14% say they are atheist or agnostic, 14% list no religious preference, and 8% claim other religions.
65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.
65% rarely or never attend worship services.
67% don’t read the Bible or sacred texts.
72% say they’re “really more spiritual than religious.”
Many are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven: Half say yes — half say no.

“We have dumbed down what it means to be part of the church so much that it means almost nothing, even to people who already say they are part of the church,” says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources.

The recently released survey was based on telephone interviews in August 2009 with 1,200 18-to-29-year-olds. The study forms the basis for the upcoming book, The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation, by Dr. Thom Rainer and Jess Rainer. (Source: http://www.lifeway.com/article/170233/)

Movements vs. Organizations

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A few month’s ago this was posted on Atlanta’s 11 Alive news site:
ATLANTA (AP) — Civil rights icon Andrew Young says he has little use for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization he once worked in alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Young says that then, the SCLC was a movement and Dr. King resisted the idea of selling memberships. Infighting and allegations of financial mismanagement are threatening to undermine the social justice group co-founded by King in 1957.

The group is headed to court on Wednesday. Young says the fight is over an organization — not a movement — and that he is not interested in organizations but would be glad to support a movement.

“Not interested in an organization,” says Andrew Young…neither am I. In fact, most people are not interested in organizations…but movements are a different story. When Dr. King founded SCLC it was a movement. A band of brothers and sisters fighting against a common enemy, injustice, and standing for a common cause, the rights, justice, and equality of all men…as promised in our constitution. But what happened? How did this great movement deteriorate into an organization better known for mishandling money, scandal and in-fighting than they are for what they once stood for?

This happens when the vision of the visionary dies with him, or begins to be altered so severely that it can no longer be distinguished from the rhetoric that replaces it. Soon the vision that catalyzed the movement is relegated to writing on the walls, in pamphlets, or on websites, while the trajectory of the movement changes, momentum slows, and an organization then becomes immanent.

I am desperate for Renovation Church to be a movement in the city of Atlanta. One catalyzed by a clear vision, and carried by committed people. It is so easy to lose sight and become an organization instead of a movement, just look at Christianity itself! Though Christianity is now, at least by most accounts, considered an organization…it didn’t start that way.