empires will rise and fall….America declines as the economy in asia rises. truth is the west is philosophically, spiritually and morally bankrupt, as often happens when empires collapse. Making money alone will not win the day…the world is changing quickly and big companies relocating to Dubai and China by the week.
Those who put their trust in mammon may yet rue the day
If you drew a line connecting those ten dots on the map, you’d circumscribe my entire adult life. Sheesh. Why am i not on Prozac? It does make the challenges of church leadership and effective evangelism look different in this neck of the woods from what i hear many of my peers discuss elsewhere. For every Ginghamsburg there are ten more committed pastors who struggle to hold a faithful message against the urge to merely popularize, just to maintain budgets at a minimum level.
Which is why the Vineyard does so well in these states, with most “clergy” non-professional and bivocational tentmakers. When your people are mostly marginal, a connection to the work environment and removing the needs of health insurance and feeding a family from the church budget re-opens the power of mission giving and relationship, which is so limited when 80-90+% of a congregational budget goes to salary, benefits, and utilities.
Underlines again why so many pres. elections turn on Ohio.
How would things be if EV were according to congressional districts instead of winner take all?
Is this really news? Many of these cities have been in decline since the 60’s or 70’s. As noted above most are in the Rust Belt. Springfield was a textile town and has been suffering along with other “heavy industries” with high operating costs. Look at the bright-side folks, the Top 10 does not include Houston, Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix.
Not too many surprises in that list, although Charleston, WV, raised my eyebrows at first, although now that I think about it, I don’t know why. Those cities that all their chips into the heavy industry pot are now in trouble. Very sad, but an economic reality.
“empires will rise and fall….America declines as the economy in asia rises. truth is the west is philosophically, spiritually and morally bankrupt, as often happens when empires collapse.” So does that means the China is spiritually and morally strong? Please, a little logic here. Applying that tired old “wisdom” one would have thought that San Francisco, New York and L.A. would have made the list..oh along with Vegas of course. Some very bad economic and trade policy choices were made and they have nothing to do with sexuality and family life.
#1 goes from “America declines as [b]the economy[/b] in asia rises.” to “[b]Making money alone[/b] will not win the day…” and then back to “the world is changing quickly and [b]big companies[/b] relocating to Dubai and China by the week” and finally concludes with “Those who put their trust in [b]mammon[/b] may yet rue the day”
His measure of “decline” is economic, yet he quickly admonishes us not to focus on money alone but then worries about companies going overseas while telling us not to trust in mammon…
Detroit, my old hometown, has lost 50% of its population in the last 60 years. Detroit peaked at 1,849,568 in 1950, down to 917,000 in 2007. Amazing drop in population. The trend is still downword.
I rightly guessed Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo before I peeked. It just seems like not much good news comes out of those cities lately. And the climate has a bad rep too. I live in No. Texas where lots of people are moving in and relocating from out of state. It’s nice to have new neighbors and friends from other places.
empires will rise and fall….America declines as the economy in asia rises. truth is the west is philosophically, spiritually and morally bankrupt, as often happens when empires collapse. Making money alone will not win the day…the world is changing quickly and big companies relocating to Dubai and China by the week.
Those who put their trust in mammon may yet rue the day
If you drew a line connecting those ten dots on the map, you’d circumscribe my entire adult life. Sheesh. Why am i not on Prozac? It does make the challenges of church leadership and effective evangelism look different in this neck of the woods from what i hear many of my peers discuss elsewhere. For every Ginghamsburg there are ten more committed pastors who struggle to hold a faithful message against the urge to merely popularize, just to maintain budgets at a minimum level.
Which is why the Vineyard does so well in these states, with most “clergy” non-professional and bivocational tentmakers. When your people are mostly marginal, a connection to the work environment and removing the needs of health insurance and feeding a family from the church budget re-opens the power of mission giving and relationship, which is so limited when 80-90+% of a congregational budget goes to salary, benefits, and utilities.
they’re all rust belt and Northeast, that much I think is for sure. I will go look at the list now….
Well most are what one might expect, except for Springfield, MA.
Very odd.
Underlines again why so many pres. elections turn on Ohio.
How would things be if EV were according to congressional districts instead of winner take all?
Is this really news? Many of these cities have been in decline since the 60’s or 70’s. As noted above most are in the Rust Belt. Springfield was a textile town and has been suffering along with other “heavy industries” with high operating costs. Look at the bright-side folks, the Top 10 does not include Houston, Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix.
Not too many surprises in that list, although Charleston, WV, raised my eyebrows at first, although now that I think about it, I don’t know why. Those cities that all their chips into the heavy industry pot are now in trouble. Very sad, but an economic reality.
“empires will rise and fall….America declines as the economy in asia rises. truth is the west is philosophically, spiritually and morally bankrupt, as often happens when empires collapse.” So does that means the China is spiritually and morally strong? Please, a little logic here. Applying that tired old “wisdom” one would have thought that San Francisco, New York and L.A. would have made the list..oh along with Vegas of course. Some very bad economic and trade policy choices were made and they have nothing to do with sexuality and family life.
#8 — Agreed.
#1 goes from “America declines as [b]the economy[/b] in asia rises.” to “[b]Making money alone[/b] will not win the day…” and then back to “the world is changing quickly and [b]big companies[/b] relocating to Dubai and China by the week” and finally concludes with “Those who put their trust in [b]mammon[/b] may yet rue the day”
His measure of “decline” is economic, yet he quickly admonishes us not to focus on money alone but then worries about companies going overseas while telling us not to trust in mammon…
The mind turns at the contradictions.
Detroit, my old hometown, has lost 50% of its population in the last 60 years. Detroit peaked at 1,849,568 in 1950, down to 917,000 in 2007. Amazing drop in population. The trend is still downword.
Poor Detroit! 🙁 My grandparents and great-grandparents knew and love ye well back in the day.
(Oops, that should be loved — not love.)
With the exception of Springfiel, all those cities are within a few hours drive from each other.
I rightly guessed Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo before I peeked. It just seems like not much good news comes out of those cities lately. And the climate has a bad rep too. I live in No. Texas where lots of people are moving in and relocating from out of state. It’s nice to have new neighbors and friends from other places.