Quote:
Originally Posted by pelathais
Several years ago the Barna group (I think it was Barna) put out a study showing that statistically "the church" (Evangelical Christianity) was no different than the world. The divorce rates and teen pregnancy rates, everything charted out to be pretty much the same.
At that time I went through and compiled stats for the church I served. To my shock and hurt, we were in fact way ahead of "the world." Some of the stats were subjective. For example if a couple backslides and then divorces are they part of the church? To evaluate our ministry I counted every couple that had been members of the church over a period of 10 years. If they "backslid" I still counted them because they were still a part of us. We influenced their lives. Did we make a difference?
It's pretty sad. But if one goal of the church was to save families we failed miserably. In fact, there were cases where we were part of the problem. And before people pile on with a bunch of anti-UPC or anti-Apostolic posts here; the same criticism can be leveled at every other church organization in North America. Apostolics were no different than the fundamentalist Baptists who were no different than the liberal Baptists.
But that was crakjak's point, I guess.
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Actually, I have had an experience to the contrary when evaluating God's people....
A long time ago (hehehe) when I was in high school I did a research project. I interviewed about 35 couples as to length of marriage, length of courtship, where they lived right after they got married, what their birth order was, how many children they had, how long before the first child was born, etc. etc.
In other words lots of interesting questions to compare the couples with each other. The most interesting observation I noted at the time, was that Oldest children don't marry Oldest children and Youngest children don't marry Youngest children (generally speaking).
But the most important thing I have observed about that study from so many years ago is that NOT ONE OF THESE COUPLES (all from church) that I interviewed have divorced and all continue to serve God or did so until their death.
Granted, I had interviewed alot of the parents of my peers among others. And granted most had already been in church as long as I could remember.
But doesn't that count? In other words, is it fair to count someone who has only been in church a year and was already divorced when they got here? Or count someone who came in and never really stuck?
Or count those as Christians that backslide and then get a divorce? DAH???
YES! I will stand up and say that many people count themselves a particular denomination that bear no resemblence to what they claim. That doesn't mean the Word of God is not effective in the true believer's lives.
I also acknowledge that marriages probably are bumpier today and good people sometimes find themselves divorcing through no fault of their own.
BUT overall, I will loudly declare that God is faithful and his commandments not grevious. There are true and wonderful benefits in serving God. Stronger marriages and healthier families are a normal outcome for those who measure their lives by God's Word.
And sometimes when life throws unexpected hardship upon a family, it may result ia a bumpy ride. No point in denying it. But this is where the rubber meets the road and
God is faithful.
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