Friday, January 9, 2004

January 9, 2004


7:45 PM Special thanks to Keith and Bev Haselhorst of Lancaster, PA, who sent me some rare photocopied Billy Sunday material from 1917. 7:40 PM This afternoon the OPCA boys and girls basketball teams played Timothy Christian School in Elmhurst. The girls game went down to the wire with Timothy coming from behind to win the game. When the boys played, Timothy jumped on top and led the entire game. I made it out in time to cheer for the OPCA boys. We’ve got some scrappy players, including Trevor Nordberg who is so small he has to hike his shorts up to his chest so that his number is hidden. What he lacks in size, he makes up in hustle. 7:39 PM Speaking of weblogs, Lynette Hoy (Director of Lifecare Ministries) has a brand-new advice weblog. Check it out. 7:37 PM Judith Roberts has some good news:

Dear friends and family, Celebrate: My first son, EN1 John Christopher “Jack” Lindsey, will be returning from Iraq, arriving on native soil any time today and is due to fly into his home port at 05:00 Saturday morning. Please remember him in prayer for extra traveling mercies in this last leg of his journey home to his family.

11:15 AM Here’s another article about the growing popularity of weblogs. Get ready, people. We’ll all be blogging soon. 8:01 AM Big headlines today regarding a newly-released study on singles in Chicago. Among the findings: —”The typical Chicagoan is now single for about half of his or her adult life.” —Singles are waiting longer to get married, cohabit for 3.7 years, and stay married for 18 years. They will single half their lives. —”Chicagoans are destined spend half their lives as single people, and half their single years will be spent alone.” —”The rise in cohabitation has increased domestic violence because people who cohabit are much more likely to experience jealousy.” —Adultery breaks up 4 percent of Chicago marriages each year. However, that number jumps to 15-20 percent for unmarried couples who live together. You can read more in this Chicago Sun-Times article. There are huge implications for the church to consider. We have an open door to reach singles for Christ, but it will not happen by accident. The church must move away from the old stereotype of considering singles as “second-class” citizens and realize that increasing numbers of those who attend our services will not be married. (I said it that way on purpose we tend to assume that everyone is married with children. That’s never really been true, but today we risk overlooking a large segment of our community if we continue to assume everyone who comes to church will be married and have children.)

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