Ark Encounter gets tax incentive up to $18.25M

SI Filings

“The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority approved the incentive at its April 25th meeting, ending a years-long AiG battle with the state for the incentive that allows developers of certain tourism projects to recover up to 25 percent of the project’s development costs over a 10-year span.” BPNews

Discussion

How would you characterize your church's relationship (by and large) toward "revival?"

Ed Vasicek

Both evangelicalism and fundamentalism developed partly from revivalistic movements. The Great Awakenings, tent meetings, even annually scheduled “revivals.”

As a newer believer, I was influenced by that concept somewhat (although not to the extreme), and it is no longer the way I think. And it is not the way our church (by and large) thinks, although it was an important part of our church’s past.

So we are not asking about individuals in your church, but the direction and leadership of your church are in view.

Discussion

The Importance of Presence in Ministry

TOvermiller

Going Beyond Public Gatherings

God calls every believer to teach His Word to others at a grassroots level. To motivate and equip them to do this, He provides pastors. These are responsible to “hold nothing back,” devoting themselves to ministry in two venues: public gatherings and private settings (Acts 20:20). While both settings are necessary, it seems that prevailing Western models favor public gatherings over more personal settings. Perhaps this imbalance hinders our efforts to engage people in ministry.

We work hard at our public gatherings. Pulpit style. Stage lighting. Usher training. Multimedia presentations. Music of all kinds: congregational, choral, instrumental, solo, ensemble, instrumental and choral. Service orders and liturgies. Invitations (or not). Announcements. Special events. Dramatic interpretations. Guest speakers. Sound systems and auditorium acoustics. We give attention to all these things and more.

But do we give equal or adequate attention to the other important ministry setting? Do we devote ourselves to connecting with believers in personal settings to the same degree? Church ministry that occurs only (or primarily) at a central church building misses a key element of the “hold nothing back” approach that Paul emulates.

Discussion