Boiling Point , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - George Barna , Mark Hatch

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

202 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Two decades ago a groundbreaking book called "The Frog in the Kettle" changed what we believe about the evangelical Church and its influence in America. Subsequent books by George Barna have become must-reading for church leaders and concerned Christians everywhere. Now Barna takes a fresh look at the Church--where we stand and where we are headed--at the dawn of the new millennium. With revealing statistics from cutting-edge research that illustrate the changing beliefs and attitudes in our society today, this book clearly shows the Church is at a crucial juncture in history--a time of rapid change in which we must begin to anticipate the world's needs in order to meet them.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

History of religions

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	26 novembre 2003
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441223661
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0490€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 2001 George Barna and Mark Hatch
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition created 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-2366-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Cover and Interior Design by Rob Williams
Edited by Wil Simon
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acknowledgments
Prologue A Day in the Life of Jill
Chapter 1 Change Is Our Middle Name
Chapter 2 Changing Demographics
Chapter 3 Five Generations, Four Disparate Nations
Chapter 4 America’s Evolving Values
Chapter 5 The Way We Live
Chapter 6 Technology and You
Chapter 7 The Wild World of Technomed
Chapter 8 Business and Employment
Chapter 9 What Americans Really Believe
Chapter 10 Faith in Practice
Chapter 11 The Local Church and Its Future
Chapter 12 The Global Economy
Chapter 13 International Politics and the One-World Government
Chapter 14 Making the Most of the Times
Appendix 1 About the Authors
Appendix 2 About Barna Research Group, Ltd.
Appendix 3 About The Barna Institute
Bibliography
Notes
Back Ads
Back Cover
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
My sincere thanks go to Mark Hatch for lending his expertise in technology, medicine and health care, and international business and politics to this effort. I could not have worked on this book had it not been for the stellar efforts of my colleagues at the Barna Research Group, who ran the company in my absence. The core unit included Rachel Ables, Pam Jacob, David Kinnaman, Jill Kinnaman, Carmen Moore, Sarah Polley, Irene Robles, Celeste Rivera and Meg Wells. My partner in The Barna Institute, Kim Wilson, endured being ignored for weeks as I wrestled with the writing of this book.
Our friends at Gospel Light have been helpful and encouraging, as always. In particular, thanks must go to Bill Greig III, Kyle Duncan, David Webb, Bill Denzel, Wil Simon—and the other 200 or so GL partners who will make this book a ministry resource.
Most of all I thank my family for letting me abandon them for three weeks while I hibernated to write this book. My wife, Nancy, did everything required—included major sacrificing—to keep things afloat and copacetic. My daughters, Samantha and Corban, were also understanding and supportive, asking me daily how the book was progressing and praying for the book and me every night during this process. I am grateful that God has surrounded me with such tangible representatives of His love and encouragement and that He provided this incredible opportunity to try to help the Church. I pray that this book will serve Him and His Church well.
George Barna
First, for this amazing journey that He leads me on, I must thank my Lord. Then, thanks to George Barna for inviting me to participate in this project as well as for providing all the help in making it work. I thank Bill Greig III, whose question over lunch, “Have you ever thought of writing a Christian book about the future?” started this adventure for me.
I am grateful to the folks at the Barna Research Group that helped and to Marcia Zimmermann and Ron Archer who slogged through noisy transcription duties. To the staff at Gospel Light, particularly Kyle Duncan, David Webb, Bill Denzel and Wil Simon, a special debt of gratitude is owed for pulling the book together.
To those I owe the most gratitude, my family, a special thanks. A great debt is owed to my helpmate, Cindy, who makes the amazing journey possible through her unending support, encouragement and prayers. I could not do what I do without her, and for that I am eternally grateful. To my boys, Luke and Christopher, who often waited to see their dad until he was done writing and who lifted me up in their prayers—thanks guys.
Mark Hatch
P ROLOGUE
A D AY IN THE L IFE OF J ILL
In 1990, when I wrote The Frog in the Kettle , I opened and closed the book with a description of the life of Jill, a composite character. In the beginning I described what her life would be like in the year 2000. I closed the book with a revised depiction of her life, assuming the Church would heed the warnings about the coming changes in society and minister strategically during the ’90s. The tale you will read below picks up Jill’s life 10 years hence, in 2010, again assuming that the trends on the horizon occur without significant reshaping by the Church. The intent of this fictionalized account is to provide you with a feel for what a typical person’s story will most likely be at the close of the current decade. The rest of this book will fill you in on how Jill got there.—George Barna
The bedroom lights suddenly spring to action and the room is illuminated with a dim glow. Simultaneously, the stereo system begins to serenade the sleeping couple with tunes from a favorite CD while water, at just the right temperature, gurgles into the bathtub. It is 7:00 A.M. , Thursday, and Jill Moore’s “smart house” is doing its part to rouse her and her husband out of bed. Groggily, Jill and Carl roll off opposite sides of their king-sized bed and begin their unsynchronized morning stumble toward various parts of the master bedroom in preparation for the day ahead.
Carl reaches the bathroom vanity and rubs the vestiges of sleep from his eyes. Next to the medicine cabinet, the TV screen recessed into the wall automatically turns on, providing a specialty news channel—his choice is Digitas, commonly known as the Techie Channel—to bring him the latest moment-by-moment developments and emerging challenges in the world of technology. While he brushes his teeth, Carl calls out a command to the TV set and the program dissolves into a screen that displays e-mail messages and significant news headlines of personal interest. Standing before the mirror with his eyes three-quarters open, Carl does a double take at one particular line of text and immediately gives another verbal command that produces a video clip related to that news story. During the night the computer firm he works for was involved in a major deal; the video relays the key points of the saga to the dismayed man of the house. Disgusted by the news, Carl barks another order at the wall, and the screen shifts to a music channel, featuring gyrating dancers and guitar-waving musicians harmonizing to multilayered rock rhythms. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen is a scrolling menu of the day’s events around the world that might be of particular interest to Carl. He ignores it all and begins shaving.
Meanwhile, Jill leisurely slips into the tub and luxuriates in her morning bath—a habit she initiated three years ago just after her marriage to Carl. Following her divorce, Jill, as a single parent, had raised her son, Jackson, until he had decided to leave for college. Shortly after her son’s departure, she married Carl, with whom she had been living for several years. She celebrated her marriage to Carl by leaving her job; Jill wanted to enjoy her empty nest and the relief from the pressure of single parenting. But after seven months of puttering around the house, she was bored and quickly decided to go back to work, taking a respectable but low-stress, part-time job as an assistant hotel manager. Now she had settled into a daily routine that combined her desire to lead a more comfortable life with a job that presented some much-needed mental challenges.
Yet, as she soaked in the tub and watched Carl prepare for work, Jill thought, I wonder what brought us together? Why did we marry? She quickly recalled her divorce, the subsequent time of depression, the string of men that followed. She had hoped these relationships would provide emotional stability for her and a male role model for Jackson. Each live-in relationship—there had been three—lasted for several years.
Then she met Carl through an on-line therapy group for divorced parents. Following several months of cyberchat, they both attended a live, in-person event with the group and discovered that they hit it off in person as well. They dated casually for several months, and as the relationship became serious, the natural step for them was to live together, which they did for a couple of years before agreeing to get married.
Remarriage was a common thing in the United States, but it was still a big step for both of them. Carl, in particular, demurred. Besides the demands of his international consulting work, the memories of his sour first marriage and the challenge of making ends meet without Jill’s salary fueled his anxiety over how he thought his daughters would react to having a stepmother and being part of a blended family. The girls were still close to their natural mother, even though they lived nine months of the year with him. It was only after his girls reached their teen years (when Allie was 17 and Brittany had reached 13) that Carl felt the freedom to take the next step—to remarry and enter, as he labeled it, “phase 3” of his adult life.
The marriage, however, had proved to be more of an adjustment than they had anticipated. Unexpectedly, prior to their wedding, Jill’s son decided to move back and live at home. He had just turned 21 and had completed the number of credits required to finish what used to be known as the sophomore year in college. (Jill never quite understood why it took kids an average of six years to finish a four-y