Monday, November 28, 2011

Interview - Franklin Graham

Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, came on The Matt Friedeman Show to talk about his father's newest book, Nearing Home. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

Is your father pleased with his legacy?
Of course, I would say yes. He loves his family.

At this stage in life, he takes time with the family; there's family coming to the home almost every day. He's still the head of the family.
What has been his least favorite thing about growing older?

Just not being able to do as much.

One of the unfortunate things is that he's lost the ability to read. Even in doing this book, he had to verbalize it so people could take it down. It was a little bit harder for him to do this.

But his mind is sharp.
What about the best thing?
I think he's got more time to reflect and more time to pray. This is one of the benefits of losing some of your strength; he's able to focus more than when he was fully capable.

He spends some time every day praying for family and friends. He prays for the nation. He's very concerned with the direction our nation is going in the last few years.
There's a chapter in this book called "Don't retire from life". What is that about?
There are a lot of people who just quit. They quit life. They retire and they don't do anything. He wants to encourage people to stay active.

Many older people feel like they're not needed, not wanted; it's important that they get involved.
How does your father feel about the explosion of the gospel in Asia and Africa?
He's just elated. Especially with technology today, we're able to go into countries and take the gospel where it would've never seemed possible.

The Billy Graham Evangelical Society is still pushing that as hard as we can.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Ministry Spotlight - Steve Seaton

Steve Seaton is the Executive Director of I Am 4 Kids, a faith-based program that provides one-on-one mentoring for teenagers. He joined The Matt Friedeman Show to talk about his ministry. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

Tell us about I Am 4 Kids.
It's so unique. Basically it's just going out and meeting the needs of the community.
We want to go in to these kids who are hurting and bring them wholeness all across the board.

The school system explained to us that they had 50 homeless kids in the high school; they had drugs in the homes, abusive parents.

We went in and just started eating lunch with the kids. After a while, when they found out I was a pastor, they ended up coming to church and giving their lives to Christ.

In 2007, we started to recruit other mentors to help us. Adults will leave work at lunch and go eat with a child in school.

The difference is amazing. The first thing that changes is the self-image. As their insecurity disappears, so do other problems. The truancy goes down.
Do schools not have a problem with your being faith-based?
The reason they don't have a problem is that we just establish relationships, without trying to push anything.

They don't have a problem because we're respecting their boundaries.

We just don't go in and hand them a tract. If we did that, that's proselyting. After several months of mentoring, a light will come on, and the child will ask, "Why are you doing this?"

If they ask, we get to share it. A lot of times, they'll say something and I can share a story about how God changed my life.
Is this something that can work in other places?
Definitely. I'm hoping and praying that once we have this established, we can help this start in other communities.

It's so simple, because all you have to do is find out where there is need, and how you can meet it.
 Your core values are unashamedly Christian. How does sharing your faith work in this situation?
When these kids truly see love, they're going to ask where the source is, and that's when you can share your faith.

Mentoring is imparting character. I want to make sure my mentors are Christians, so they're imparting the right values.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Ministry Spotlight - Al Proo

Al Proo is Executive Director of Happy Hands, a Oklahoma-based Christian school for children with hearing problems. He joined the Ministry Spotlight to tell us about Happy Hands and their outreach. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his segment.

Tell us about your ministry.

We serve children from birth to age 6. This is something the Lord showed me I needed to do when I was pastoring a church.

Many of the deaf people I served didn't bring their bibles to church, not because they didn't want to read it, but because they couldn't.
Why do you start so young?
Statistics have proven that 99% of all deaf children are born to hearing parents.

Here's the real gist of the whole matter, is that the child's brain is being mapped. Most parents do not find out their child is deaf until age two and a half.

By that time, the brain has been mapped already.
How do you teach deaf children?
What we do is no different than what we would do with hearing children, except that we make it visual.
How early can they learn sign language?
I know some infants at 8 months who were signing before they can talk.

Science has proved that the children who can sign before they can speak have higher IQs and better reading skills.
Have you seen successes later on in your children's lives?
Some of the children who have graduated high school and gone to college are actually on the student council with hearing students.

Some of them are on the marching bands, and the football and swimming teams.
How can churches do a better job of serving the deaf?
Churches can be familiar with the deaf, make them feel comfortable.

Give them an opportunity to sit close to the pulpit. If they can provide an interpreter for the service, that would be fantastic.

The problem is churches serving children our age, that's where it's more difficult.

That's where Happy Hands comes in. We're not here as Baptists or Methodists, we're simply here to tell them about Jesus.
How do you stay afloat?
90% of our income comes from donations. We are always working hard to get scholarships for our children.

We don't take government funding. We're living in a Red Sea miracle here at Happy Hands.

One reason Happy Hands is here is for us to say, "God did this."

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Brain Trust - Dave Kinnaman

David Kinnaman is the President of Barna Group.  He is the author of the best-selling book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, and the Barna report, Teens and the Supernatural.

We have a drop out problem with our youth with regards to church participation, talk to us about it.
Based on our research, of demographics and life span we have found that the least religiously active group is our late teens to early twenties. 
6 out of 10 young people drop out of their faith in between the ages of 18 and 22.
Most of these kids say they loved youth group. What's the deal with that?
We have found that active participation isn't a good indicator as to whether they will stay.  We have found that active discipleship and training is much more significant. 
Many youth groups are simply a social club, in spite of the best intentions of churches and youth leaders.
We need to work harder at understanding how to connect with young people in ways that make a difference.
How important is the parental unit in all of this?
It is the most important factor.  The level of seriousness with which the parents view their faith is the primary factor.  It isn't a foregone conclusion that strong faith of a parent will rub off on a kid.   
Due to our culture changing so much in the past 50 years we are now reaping what we have sown many decades ago. 
How should parents navigate this new cultural reality?  How can we make young people make sense of their faith in this day?
What are some of the things that we can do differently?
Most of these drop outs told us that they never had a solid adult relationship with anyone other than the youth pastor.   
Many do not understand how the Bible applies to their professional abilities or calling.  How do we mentor in terms of vocation or calling?   
Most of this demographic didn't have an understanding of a personal interaction with a real relationship with a Living God.
What are some of the negative perceptions of young people with regards to the faith?
Sometimes, they see the church as anti-science, as anti-intellectual. Sometimes the church just is not cool enough for them. 
 "In the world but not of the world" was how Jesus' prayer for his followers says it.
 I don't think the church is doing a good job of teaching them to be "in but not of the world" with this generation.   
Over-protection often goes against what we are really trying to do.  
We need to have more confidence with this next generation as they face these new challenges.  We must push them toward Christ and a real relationship with him
What is one thing that parents should be doing?
Treat your young people with respect.  They are just as intelligent as you are.  Don't fight wars that God doesn't want us to, but trust Him to work in their lives.