The Legacy of Patrick

When I think about St. Patrick, there are a few things that come to mind.

The first is - Patrick started his ministry in Ireland when he was in his 40's. That's where I'm at, and we're starting our ministry there. That encourages me.

Next - Patrick was used in amazing ways by the Lord, yet never took any credit for himself. He always maintained a spirit of humility, couched with the knowledge that "..all things are possible with God...", which I think was key to his ability to win over those he was evangelizing.

He suffered many hardships in his lifetime, but always looked for the good that would come from such suffering.

Finally, his legacy and those of his contemporaries (monks, priest, nuns) was to pass on knowledge of the Scriptures and train Christian workers to reach the world with the Gospel. In fact, the Irish are responsible for not only saving the Scriptures from disappearing from the face of the earth during the dark ages, but re-evangelizing the mainland of Europe as the Renaissance dawned.

If each and every one of us who call ourselves Christian would clothe ourselves with the same ethic that Patrick possessed - it would be a whole new world.

You may want to read Patrick's autobiography, his "Confessio". It's a short read and can be found lots of places, including here: http://www.cin.org/patrick.html

I encourage you on this St. Patrick's Day to pray for Ireland. 99.3% of the people of Ireland have no relationships with Jesus. Also, several years ago Patrick organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin decided that Patrick was too religious of a figure and should no longer be allowed to appear in the day's festivities.

We want to see the "days of Patrick" return with a renewed fervor and watch in awe as revival once again spreads across the Emerald Isle!

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!

The Shifting Tide

You know how you're just trucking along in life -- trying to keep a handle on things, stay apprised of what's happening in the world around you, thinking you have a good broad perspective on things and then out of the blue your hit by something that either takes you by surprise, or shows you that your thinking has been way too shallow?

Well that's happening to me right now. I try to keep myself educated about things that are happening in Christendom here and abroad and how that relates to society as a whole, yadda, yadda, yadda...

In the past 4 hours, I have read two articles, brought to my attention by two individuals, that has me refocusing on my perception of the Western church and it's role in the world today.

Rather than go into a long diatribe about the content of these articles and my reactions to them, I think it would be more beneficial to simply provide you with the links to said articles and let you read them.

But before I do (I know, I just can't help myself) I must at least say that, although they both carry with them a fair amount of what appears on the surface to be "bad news", it gets me excited to think about what this really means for the overall health of the world-wide Body of Christ.

The first article is a straight-up news report based upon statistics.

The second is written from the perspective of a servant of Christ who shares his thoughts about coming changes in the evangelical church, based upon his observations, and then ends by giving us the "good news" of what it all could mean for the life of the church.

Thus said, here you go...

Religious Groups in US Losing Ground

The Coming Evangelical Collapse