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Breaking the Rurals

By Jeremy Myers
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Do you pastor a church in Rural America? One book you could read is Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O’Dell. I have always had a passion and a heart for rural churches and have previously pastored two rural churches. So when I received O’Dell’s book from Booksneeze to review, my first thought was, “Finally! A book for the rest of us!” It seems most books on church health focus on the big and popular churches, forgetting that about 90% of American churches have 100 people or less. Rural pastors and rural churches have to define “success” in a different way that metropolis mega-churches. I was hoping that O’Dell’s book would be a step in that direction.

And was it? Well…kind of. He still emphasized the importance of numerical growth. It didn’t take him long to point out thatย even rural churches can go from 50 people to over 2000 if they just follow a few simple steps like he did (pp. 17-18).ย Sigh.ย 

For the most part,ย Transforming Church in Rural America isย just another book touting the mega-churchย mentality, but repackaged for a rural setting. ย It was kind of confusing, however, because later in the book he stated that smaller churches tend to be healthier churches, andย God loves to work in obscurityย (p. 168). Butย two pages later, he goes back to talking about numbers, andย a bitย later,ย how his church reached over 24,000 people in 110 days.ย So…is smaller actually better or not?

Having said that, it’s still a good book to help rural pastors overcome some of the unique challenges they may face, such as bringing about change, the importance of family, and hiring staff from the inside.

The best part of the book is pages 80-84, where I believe he touches onย the dire need of all churches worldwide, not just in the sticks, but also in cities. He says this:

Flat out, I want as many homosexuals, drug addicts, divorcees, and alcoholics as possible darkening the doors of Brand New Church, because those people want and need change. I want to associate with everything that is disassociated with the church in rural America, because I know that is when God shows up. I want to see the pregnant 17-year-old who was kicked out of her Christian school attend worship. I want the guys whose pickups rattle with the sound of empty beer cans to come one Sunday and decide to stay. I want the woman who has been going from bed to bed trying to find true love to attend and learn about the authentic love God has for her. Because when they show up, God shows up to impact their lives.

So true.ย Of course, even here, the numbers game has reared it’sย ugly head. I would argue thatย it is not about getting people like this to show up at our church, but rather, getting the members of our church to show up in the lives of people like this. Who cares if they ever “come to church”? What I want is the church to go to them. O’Dell kind of says something along these lines on p. 84:

…Please understand: it is really not about the ten families that have been there forever. It is about the families that will never experience a relevant gospel and never meet the living God unless someone with vision shows up and starts preaching the gospel with their words and their life. Yeah, most rural churches say they want to grow, and they think they want to grow, but they really don’t. They don’t want a real pastor — a true and dedicated shepherd to lead them into new fields of harvest — they want somebody to pacify them, tell them what they already know, and keep things the way they are.

So over all, even though Shannon O’Dell hasย simply tweakedย the mega-church mentality forย a rural setting, the book contains many good things that will be helpful for any pastor in a rural church. I recommend this book.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Discipleship, Theology of the Church

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Sex Slaves

By Jeremy Myers
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I recently read Priceless by Tom Davis.ย  It’s the story of man who find himself in a dangerous attempt to rescue helpless girls who are trapped in the Russian sex-slave industry. I could not put the book down, and several times, found myself brought to tears as I read about the hellish plight of these young girls.

I don’t care what book you are reading right now; put it down and read this book.

The only complaint I have is that the book takes place in Russia. I found myself thinking at times, “Well, that’s Russia.”

The tragic fact is that you could change someย place names in the book, and the story could happen right here in the United States, or any other country.ย This is not a problem that happens on the other side of the world. It probably takes place in a city where you live. Check out these statistics (from This website):

  • Human trafficking is the third most profitable criminal activity, second after drugs and arms trafficking
  • An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked yearly across international borders, and the trade is growing (Department of State. 2004. โ€œTrafficking in Persons Report.โ€ Washington, D.C.; U.S. Department of State.)
  • Of the 600,000-800,000 people trafficked, 70 percent are female and 50 percent are children; the majority of these victims are forced into commercial sex trade (ibid)
  • The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country each year is estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry (U.S. Department of Justice. 2004. Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year 2003.)
  • Seventy percent of Internet sex shows are in the United States, of which women and children are forced into sexual acts while being taped.
  • As many as 7,000 Nepali girls as young as 9 are sold annually into Indiaโ€™s red-light districts, 200,000 in the last decade.
  • Afghani women are sold into prostitution in Pakistan for around 600 rupees โ€“ less than $4 a pound, depending on their weight.
  • About 50,000 Asian, Latin American and Eastern European women and children are trafficked into the United States for sexual exploitation, the going rate between $12,000 and $18,000 each.
  • Ten thousand children between the ages of 6 and 14 are in Sri Lankan brothels.
  • Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have become the sex centers for Western Europe, featuring women from the former Soviet Union.
    About 1,000 women from the former Soviet Union became prostitutes in Israel in exchange for legal documentation.

To learn more about what you can do, contact someone like Tom Davis or Pat McCalla who are involved with rescuing children from the sex-slave industry.

To learn more about Human Trafficking and sex slavery, check out some of these posts:

Human Trafficking Posts

  1. Sex Slaves
  2. Would You Fight Slavery?
  3. Rescue Russian Sex Slaves
  4. Rescue Russian Girls from Sex Slavery
  5. Stop Her Nightmare
  6. Another Girl Rescued Today
  7. Girls for Sale
  8. Goal Reached!
  9. I Want to be a Prostitute
  10. $52,000 raised!
  11. 31 Million Sex Slaves
  12. Renting Lacy
  13. More Than Rice
  14. Human Trafficking Ring Busted
  15. The Other Big Game
  16. Sex Slavery, Planned Parenthood, and Your Tax Dollars
  17. How to Minister to Prostitutes
  18. Wisconsin Woman Held as Sex Slave in Brooklyn
  19. Coked-Up Whore
  20. Human Trafficking has Many Faces
  21. Into an India Brothel
  22. You Need a Girl?
  23. Human Trafficking Media
  24. The Son of God is Selling Children
  25. My Girls Raised $300 to help stop Human Trafficking
  26. Rape for Profit
  27. Human Trafficking Statistics
  28. Help Rescue Girls from Forced Prostitution

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Discipleship

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Beyond Opinion

By Jeremy Myers
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I recently read the book, Beyond Opinion by Ravi Zacharias.ย As with most of his books, this isย not a book you can skim through in an afternoon. It has substance. While the book is quite readable, the content requires you to stop and think about what you are reading. And that, of course, is what apologetics is all about – thinking about what you believe and why.

This book is a great introduction to some of the great issues of the Christian faith, and how we, as followers of Jesus, can stand firm on the Bible and what we believe to be true. It contains chapters on the reliability of the Bible, what Christians can do to stand against the challenges of postmodernism, Atheism, Islam, and other key apologetical issues (e.g., the problem of evil). Overall, the book did an excellent job of summarizing the Christian stance on these issues.

And best of all, the book has several chapters on how to incorporate truth into our lives. Living the truth is not about beating people over the head with it, but having the answers when the questions are raised in the relationships of our lives and our own spiritual development.

Disclosure: I reviewed this book for the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze website.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Discipleship

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My Addiction

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

I have probably lost all my readers by now…but if you’re still out there, thanks for hanging around. I haven’t posted in a while because we’ve been moving. Wendy and I counted the other day, and we think this is our twelfth move in twelve years. Not fun. We do not like moving.

Hopefully, we can stay here for a while.

Anyway, during this move, Wendy and I realized (once again) that we have an addiction. We are addicted to books. Between the two of us, we filled 25 bookcases.ย These cases are six feet high, with five shelves each.ย And we stacked books on top of the cases also,ย so each one is holding six shelves of books.ย That’s a lot of books!ย 

Let’s see…if each shelf is about 2.5 feet wide,ย and weย use six shelves on each bookcase, then we have about 375 linear feet of books.ย Not every shelf isย packed as full as it can be, so let’s make it only 300 linear feet. That’sย a football field of books!

And yes, in case you’re wondering, we don’t just collect books; weย hope to read them all as well. I currently have over 80 books in my “must read NOW” pile. Sigh.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading

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A Girl's Guide to Life

By Jeremy Myers
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Here’s a newsflash: I’m not a girl!

Nevertheless, one book I read this week was A Girl’s Guide to Life by Katie Meier. I now know more about makeup, hairstyles, and clothing selection then ever before. This, of course,ย isย only the beginning of what I will learn.

You see…I have three girls.ย They’re still young (8, 6, and 4), but I figure that I better get a head start right now on learningย about theย issues and problemsย that growing girls face, and how, as a father, I might be able to help.

Fathers, as a tip for Father’s Day, if you have daughters, do yourself a favor and buy and read a copy of this book.ย It was excellent.ย I can’t think of anything Katie missed. She dealt with inner issues like self-esteem and emotions, body issues of clothing, hair, makeup, all the transitions of puberty, and moral issues like dating, sex, and religion. And Katie’s style of writing perfectly matched the content of the book. As I read, I often felt I was eavesdropping on aย pajama party sleepover conversation where a twenty-something woman answered questions from a roomful of teenage girls.

I will definitely be giving a copy of this book to each of my three girls, and using it as a handy “reference guide” for myself as they get older.

——–
Disclosure: This book was sent to me by Thomas Nelson publishers for review through their BookSneeze program.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Discipleship

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