lukewarm church

Discipleship means complete dedication. It demands everything - the whole heart, the whole mind, and the whole of life, including one's time, energy, and property - for the cause of love. Half-hearted Christianity is worse than no Christianity.

~~J. Heinrich Arnold via the daily dig

we were talking about this very thing in our bible study yesterday - we had to choose one of the seven churches in revelation and say why it reminds us most of our particular parish, and while it is not an easy thing to admit, i chose laodicea which is the church, i'll remind you:

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

"So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

you have to love a God who doesn't mince His words.

our parish runs on autopilot. there are a handful of people -- the same people -- who volunteer for everything, take part in ministries, et cetera while the bulk of the others warm their pews. how can you light a fire in the Holy Spirit if folks are unwilling to cease their pew-warming?

and if you have a pastor who is in his *retirement* phase and is happy with the way things are, where do you go from there?

for more thoughtful discussion, what church are you?

~*~*~*~

in an unrelated matter and because i am getting ready to go to work (and go from quite comfy in my air conditioning to ... well, anything but lukewarm), i need parental advice.

how do you delegate time spent on the internet with your children?

my two youngest, max (15) and mol (12) are home three days a week by themselves. with the oppressive heat and humidity it is too hot to go outside and play and with almost all their books exhausted (i relented and bought max the harry potter book, which he is devouring...), they fight over internet time.

i have aol for broadband which has great parental controls, but they bypass that and access through internet explorer. they are online for HOURS and that is no exaggeration. if i fall asleep on the couch, like i did last night, they go on after their alloted "time off" which is 9:30 - miss molly was sneaky but max is the one who ratted her out as soon as my eyes opened and i was about to go upstairs. she was on at 11:00 but max was a tattle tale (yeah, at 15) and i am equally as upset with him....)

this has to stop.

i am actually tempted to unplug the modem and bring it to work with me, but the b*s that would ensue from them calling and being pissy with me isn't worth it, so tonight at dinner we will have a *team meeting* and lay down ground rules.

i need help with ground rules.

all advice will be taken under consideration and printed out for this evening's meeting's agenda.

thanks, all :)