Sky Links, 2-23-19

8 SIGNS YOUR CHURCH IS ACTUALLY REACHING UNCHURCHED PEOPLE

-Carey Nieuwhof

1. YOUR DATA TELLS YOU IT’S HAPPENING

-I don’t attend church.
-(Attend) Once or twice a year.

2. PEOPLE AREN’T SINGING MUCH DURING THE SERVICE
3. LONG-TIME CHURCH PEOPLE GET UNSETTLED
4. IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE IS REGULAR
5. YOUR TIDY CATEGORIES ARE FALLING APART
6. YOU’RE GETTING SURPRISINGLY CANDID QUESTIONS
7. EVERYONE’S TOLERANCE FOR HYPOCRISY IS PLUMMETING
8. YOU SEE REAL LIFE-CHANGE

11 Ways to Know You’ve Settled for a Mediocre Marriage
-Josh Reich

1. Your marriage and life revolve around your kids.
2. It’s been over a year since you read a book on marriage.
3. Roles in marriage feel like a trap instead of freedom.
4. You can’t remember the last date night you had.
5. You have sex less than 2 times a week.
6. You nit pick at your spouse.
7. You consistently talk about how much you love your spouse on Facebook.
8. When you are alone with your spouse, you have nothing to talk about.
9. There are things in your past your spouse does not know.
10. You fantasize about being married to someone else.
11. A friend knows more about your marriage than your spouse does. 

The New Nihilism
-Victor Davis Hanson

• Democrats are calling for an unconstitutional “wealth tax” on the accumulation of already taxed income. They propose a radically new estate tax to confiscate already taxed income. And they envision new rates of 70% to 90% on the top brackets—on the logic that if the government does not get your savings account, or your estate, it can at least take your income.
• “The New Green Deal”, within a decade after its passing, would call for the end of the internal combustion engine, without ensuring that Americans have reasonable ground, air or sea transportation, affordable methods to heat and cool their homes, or the means to replace the sources of 83 percent of our generated electricity. 
• Forbid any border fence or wall, although border barriers were mainstream Democratic tenets during the passage of the Secure Fence Act of 2006?
• Make college “free” for all. Thereby, we would send a message to those who forewent college and have been working since 18 that they must shoulder the burden of the educational debts of their peers. 

In sum, the emerging alternative to Trump is not Democratic pragmatism, but an angry nihilism that is as incoherent as it is destructive.

Whoops! That Didn't Work!
-Mark Dice

9 Things You Should Know About the United Methodist Church
-Joe Carter 

From today through Tuesday, the United Methodist Church is holding a special session of their General Convention to determine the denomination’s policy on ordaining practicing homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions.

Next week TGC will report and comment on the outcome of the session. In the meantime, here are nine things you should know about America’s largest mainline denomination.

1. Within the United States, the United Methodist Church (UMC) is the largest mainline denomination, the second-largest Protestant denomination (after the Southern Baptist Convention), and the third-largest Christian denomination. 
2. The UMC is part of the Methodist movement, which began in the 1700s in England under Anglican minister John Wesley and his followers. 
3. The UMC’s polity is based on connectionalism, a term that dates back to the founding of Methodism. 
4. Within the connectional structure, the UMC’s primary grouping of people and churches is the conference. 
5. The General Conference is an international body of nearly 1,000 delegates that generally meets every four years. 
6. The foundational documents of the UMC include the Apostles’ Creed, the Articles of Religion of The Methodist Church, and the Confessions of Faith of The Evangelical United Brethren Church. 
7. The laws, doctrine, administration, organizational work, and procedures of the UMC are collected in the Book of Discipline, a document published every four years following the meeting of the General Conference. 
8. Within the UMC, clergy are individuals who serve as commissioned ministers, deacons, elders, and local pastors under appointment of an elder (ordained minister) who has been elected to the office of bishop. 
9. The UMC, considered one of the “Seven Sisters of American Protestantism,” is a member of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America and of the World Council of Churches.

Jordan Peterson interview (Helen Lewis) on a variety of topics