Posted 11/23/12 at 8:33 PM | Bright Ideas
The following infographic from Michigan State University outlines 8 steps in leadership training.
Step 2 gets much attention in churches and seminaries: character training. This step focuses on beliefs, ethics, integrity, mission, purpose and values.
One area that Christian leadership varies greatly from secular leadership is an emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately all Christian leaders must be followers of Christ and must pay attention to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
In John 16:13 Jesus tells his disciples, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."
Posted 11/21/12 at 8:46 PM | Bright Ideas
Happy Thanksgiving to our Hispanic readers. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Posted 11/21/12 at 8:32 PM | Bright Ideas
A partial list of the foods served at the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving exists because two men attending the historic 1621 event wrote about that day. According to Mayflower History, Edward Winslow wrote a letter with details about the event and William Bradford wrote a book about the history of the Plymouth Pilgrims in the book Of Plymouth Plantation.
The following infographic by Lemon.ly suggests foods to eat if you want to eat a meal like the Pilgrims ate in 1621.
Posted 11/16/12 at 11:42 PM | Bright Ideas
November is Adoption Awareness Month and November 17th is National Adoption Day.
The following infographic by the University of Southern California Social Work Department provides a list of interesting statistics regarding adoption in America:
Posted 11/15/12 at 11:58 PM | Bright Ideas
Because of the poor economy many Americans are fearful for the future. This infographic by CashNetUSA shows the results of holiday sales projects and reports, "35% of families with children are worried about paying for holiday gifts this year."
The Bible offers advice for dealing with holiday stress: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:34
Posted 11/14/12 at 11:00 AM | Bright Ideas
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc., gave Stanford University's 2005 commencement speech and spoke about death and priorities:
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Death has a way of reshuffling the deck. Our wealth does not follow us when we die. As the Bible says,
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:19-21 NIV
In the world of fiction there are creatures that do not die: vampires. The following infographic shows the projected wealth of the characters from the book/movie series Twilight.
Vampire Carlisle Cullen's wealth would have grown to $36.3 billion because the money was not left as an inheritance to his children and compound interest would make a small amount of money from 1670 to multiply many times.
Proverbs 13: 22 reminds us, "A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children, but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous."
Posted 11/12/12 at 10:56 PM | Bright Ideas
The statistics in this infographic by Ashbush reveal an interesting story: "Evangelical Christian married men have the lowest rates of reported domestic violence of any major religious or secular group in the United States."
But why?
Perhaps evangelical Christian married men are more likely to exhibit the fruits of the spirit. Besides showing patience and kindness, such a person will also have discernment in relationship choices.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." - Galatians 5:22-23
Posted 11/12/12 at 8:29 PM | Bright Ideas
Changes in family structure have been noted by numerous researchers. There are several important statistics in this infographic that I wanted to point out:
How effective is your church in reaching out to single dads, multi-generation families and people that are LGBT? You may want to pray to God about how you can show these people the love of Christ.
Posted 11/9/12 at 10:04 PM | Bright Ideas
In this year's presidential election President Obama had 20 million more followers on Facebook than the challenger Mitt Romney. Other interesting statistics: 32 million Americans voted before November 6, only 6% of African-Americans voted for Obama and 59% of caucasians voted for Romney. These statistics and more are featured in the following infographic by the Tampa Bay Times.
Posted 11/8/12 at 11:58 PM | Bright Ideas
Feeding the hungry is a recurring theme in the Bible. Jesus fed the crowds on two occasions with fish and bread and also described himself as "the bread of life."
In another well known Bible passage Jesus tells a story where people that feed the hungry are praised by God:
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ - Matthew 25:34-36 ESV
This infographic by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations reports on the 870 million people that are hungry around world and reports progress in combating hunger in Asia and Latin America. Unfortunately, hunger is on the increase in Africa.
