Disability and Government Budgets

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article how the high costs of caring for the seriously disabled are clashing with the budget crises of most states and the Federal Government. The Journal notes that it is easier to cut money that have been budgeted for home care than to cut money budgeted for institutional care. The WSJ does not take sides in the debate but concludes that it is much more expensive to care for the disabled at home than it is to place them in an institution.

Some of the comments by readers disagreed with the WSJ on that point,arguing that many people receive care from each employee and only one receives care per employee at home. That needs to be examined very closely by people who understand these issues well.

We at Sweeten Life Systems are completing the first year of a research study on how to best support families with severely disabled children. The results have been very insightful and somewhat surprising to us. Many of the most pressing issues focus on the needs of parents to receive very practical support. Things like:

House work
Ironing
Painting
Lawn care
Transport to the Doctor, grocery shopping, etc.
Food preparation
Respite care
Spiritual support

Now we need to find churches, schools and individuals willing to volunteer to help these families with those practical and important areas. Are you willing to help? Does your church already have a program of support for shut ins, the elderly, etc?

Growing up in Christ

I am writing again on my other blog. It has my thoughts on being a Seasoned Believer with maturity, talents and gifts that God will use to change the world.

Many of my friends are Seasoned Believers with no place to unleash their ministry skills. The world is dying for a lack of Christian service and many churches are dying for want of ministry. At the same time there are multiplied millions of well off, mature believers with enormous personal experience and business acumen who are wanting to find meaningful places to help people.

What is the hold up?

Who is to blame?

The Jesus Movement

What difference does it make that we are in the midst of The Fourth Great Awakening? Well, it makes a big difference. Every world wide revival brings major changes. Revivals have babies called Awakenings where spirit filled believers grow up and change society. This means that everything we have grown used to in church life is changing before our eyes.

Here is the problem, most Bible schools, seminaries, books and media are still operating on the old paradigm.

Pastors, Professors and Church Leaders are stuck in an outmoded, old fashioned and failing approach to life and ministry. Starting in the rebellious Sixties and continuing in the Seventies, Christianity made some radical shifts in focus, practice and process. The anti-authoritarian mood of students, radicals, Viet Nam protesters and young believers turned everything upside down. The result was dramatic, especially in college campuses.

Campus ministries shared the good news of Christ with millions of students and many came to faith in Christ. Inter varsity Christian Fellowship, the oldest of all the groups, increased its focus on college Campuses and their annual missionary gathering at Urbana grew to over 20,000 in attendance. The world is a different place because of IV and their emphasis upon missions. And, the IV students took their new ideas overseas.

The radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)drew about two hundred students at their conference. That paled in comparison to Urbana but received all the publicity from a media interested in promoting politics.

Bill Bright's Campus Crusade for Christ recruited thousands of staff and started aggressive evangelism programs on hundreds of campuses all over the USA. Their Four Spiritual Laws and disciplined follow up studies showed all of us how to reach out with the gospel.

Young Life joined Youth for Christ as dynamic forces for evangelism, Bible study and good works in high schools across the land.

These changes were powerful because millions of young people came to Christ. However, the impact was much greater than simply evangelism. I think they did something that was even more far reaching and it led to The Fourth Great Awakening.

What could be more important than reaching millions for Christ? Establishing a new, focus with a new process of discipleship and growth for those who had come to faith. The new process proved that young, lay persons could do effective evangelism and discipleship. These campus groups were led by non clergy and proved that the Bible's call to "Equip all the believers to DO the WORK of MINISTRY" works. It is possible, effective and essential.

In the First Reformation, God took His Word out of the control of the few and gave it to all His people.

In this New Reformation, God has taken His Works out of the hands of the control of the few and given it to all His people.

This is the essence of the Fourth Great Awakening and it is largely due to the outpouring of the Spirit on young people and their leaders in the Sixties and Seventies.

Hope for a Christian Future

You may wonder why I am writing some of this dry history about what scholars call, Great Awakenings in American history. First, most Christians do not know about our spiritual history in America. Second, that history is exciting, faith building and hope generating. Third, we are in the midst of The Fourth Great Awakening for which I am very happy.

Understanding how God seems to operate in nations can help us think more effectively about ways to share the gospel, build disciples and gain insight into the daily news. Review the past Great Awakenings and notice that theology and actions by ordinary Believers mark each stage of change. Second, revivals and awakenings do not happen suddenly or out of the blue sky. They come about through our prayers, planning and openness to God's Spirit.

So, don't give up. Share God's good news with those around you and do good works with your neighbors and friends. The Holy Spirit will use the energy and prayers as well as the good works and weave together a beautiful tapestry of spiritual truth, love and power.

Oh Ye With Great Faith

I am on the list of Disabled Christianity . It is all about the need for Christians to reach out to disabled persons in our communities. They recently published an article about a miracle of faith. I hope you will read it.

We received a grant from The Hatton Foundation to do "Ethnographic Research" with families with special needs children. Last Sunday we came together to share our insights about the heroic nature of the people who are opening themselves to our probing questions.

Without exception, these folks are outstanding and hard working people. The reason each one gave for taking the time to be involved with us at least ten hours each month was, "We want to help other people." (And believe me when I say, these parents do not have the time to give ten hours each month.) They want to GIVE!

Gary Sweeten's July Report to The Hatton Foundation

We interviewed each family as a precursor to enrolling them in the project. We also asked each couple to fill out an extensive report on their situation, support systems, stresses and needs. Each family is then interviewed by a team of two persons. Every session is audio or videotaped so we can intensely review the family’s sharing. Emerging insights early in our process:

1. A strong desire not to be victims but victors that rise to meet the daily challenges of disability. This admirable attitude can, however, limit the family’s ability to seek available support.

2. The lack of coordination among treatment professionals. Families are sometimes left to their own devices to find and access assistance that is due them.

3. The immense financial costs of rearing a disabled child and the need for sensitive, well trained professionals in law, insurance, financial planning, etc.

4. The ignorance, avoidance and sometimes anger of professionals about the insights, strengths, pressures or needs of the child’s family. The approach of many professionals comes across as accusatory, punitive and distrustful.

5. The amazing level of resilience that families must possess to deal effectively with the medical, educational, insurance and personal systems while facing the pressures of caring for a family. The families that are responding best to those pressures have a great deal of help from family members, friends and church fellowships.

6. The importance of spiritual resources to the families but their paucity in the community.

7. The uneven availability of educational, medical, spiritual and psychological resources in the Greater Cincinnati area. (And, we assume, other areas as well.)

8. The importance of educating professionals and spiritual leaders about the benefits of understanding what the parents can contribute to the child’s and the medical, educational systems’ welfare.

9. The need for each family to have coaches, mentors and wise support systems in place to walk with them and advise them each step of their journey.

10. This new approach to research which actually asks the clients what they need is desperately needed by medical, educational, financial and religious systems to get the whole picture.

Go to my web page for more information.

Marriage Mentoring

Almost every day news media cover some terrible and tragic stories about the results of sex outside marriage and babies/children without two parents in the home. For example, today in the Cincinnati Enquirer there is a story about a mother and father who are fighting over the custody of their daughter.

Mom and Dad were never married but had one child, at least.

Mom had another child earlier with another man who is living with a foster family.

Dad got a court order to have visitation rights but Mom disagreed.

Mom is currently living with a man with whom she is not married.

Mom kidnapped the child and hid her from Dad and the police.

Mom was arrested.

Police found the child.

Police took the child into custody and would not allow Dad to have her despite the court order.

This is a mess and is costing our government many thousands of dollars. It will damage all the children involved and very likely result in several generations of damaged, addicted, traumatized adults and cost millions. Few of these kids will get an education, keep a job or make enough money to take care of themselves. Many will be involved in violent crimes and end up in prison.

Almost 40% of all children born in America are to single Mothers who are on welfare. the kids will be on welfare their entire lives. Medicare is broke. Medicaid is broke. But the financial, social and psychological destruction of this epidemic is far worse than either Medicare or Medicaid.

What is the answer? Marriage before sex or at least before children. Husbands and wives staying together and rearing their children, making sure kids get a good education.

These are critically important.

This requires churches and Christians who know how to minister healing and wholeness to their people. Every church needs 12 Step Groups, Peer Care and Healing, Divorce Recovery and Prayer Groups.

Contact

Sweeten Life Systems

to learn how to be a healthy church. On August 29 I will teach a seminar on Mentoring Marriages. Sign up at the web site.

Building a Representative Democracy

In the last post I spoke about the fact that a representative democracy requires its citizens to learn a high level of interpersonal skills. Interacting with others on issues of great importance push our emotional buttons and tempt us to lose our cool. But, as the Bible says, "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger for human anger does not achieve the righteousness of God". James 1:19-20

For a long time I have tried to train Christians to listen to one another and learn how to quell their angry emotions as well as successfully deal with conflict. It is not easy to do this but the work is worth the patience it takes to accomplish the goal.

In fact, the scripture clearly calls us to allow the Holy Spirit to develop dynamic crop of healthy interpersonal fruit. In Galatians 5 is a list of intra-personal and inter-personal fruit that St. Paul sees as the core of the mature Christian life. They are:

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self Control

Part of my doctoral dissertation focused on relating this list with the positive interpersonal skills found in most counseling and management training manuals. St. Paul's list is remarkably similar to the aspects and attitudes found by psychologists in the most effective influencers.

As we Christians grow in God's grace and mercy toward one another and let go of anger, bitterness and judgmentalism the Spirit's positive aspects will be able to thrive in our relationships. This will inevitably lead to better discussions and happier solutions to family and political problems.

The classes we teach in the USA and around the world enables Christians to speak the truth in love and make better decisions. Our American way of life came out of a Christian background that was soaked in free church dialogue. Authoritarian and state church systems were unsuccessful in the Colonies because the early pioneers were looking for freedom from dictators.

As our ministries grow around the world and touch people unused to healthy decision making we will see increasingly large numbers of believers rise up the ladders of politics, business and education. We promote "A lifetime of great relationships".

Jesus House Reunion

The Jesus House in Cincinnati held its reunion yesterday but I couldn't attend. Grand Kids here and that trumps everything else. Take a look at the blog put up by the Jesus House curator of memories, Terry Fisher to learn more.

The Jesus Revolution started in the late Sixties and expanded for about ten years as millions of people from all walks of life came to faith in Jesus. That was the beginning of The Fourth Great Awakening. According to Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Fogel, we are in the midst of a spiritual "Hinge of History" right now because the mature members of the Jesus Revolution are Seasoned Believer with the wisdom, wealth and wit to change the world. (See Fogel's book, The Fourth Great Awakening.)

It is God's timing for Seasoned Believers to rise up and make a difference in education, health care, business, art, music, foundations and politics. For example, my friends and I who were deeply touched by the Jesus Revolution have just begun a research study on ways to empower, support and educate parents of Special Needs Children.

This project has the potential to change the way we do health care. The system of health care is deeply flawed. Doctors, Mental Health Counselors and others in health care are hampered by Byzantine bureaucratic rules set down by local, state and Federal Governments as well as paranoid regulations by health insurance companies. For example, Doctors ignore the parents and extended families of sick children, and they are the experts in the care of such children.

Chairman Ow is dead set on nationalizing health care and infusing it with more bureaucracy and more rigid rules. We all know that the politicians who make these rules do not have to live under them because all Governmental Health Plans are exempt.

We who came to spiritual and emotional maturity in the Spirit must mobilize ourselves and be positive influences in our communities. Speak up!

Gary Sweeten

New Web Site to Visit

Let the little children come to me.

My dear friend Dorothy Faye Geverdt has put up a nice web describing their ministry to disabled kids in Romania. The ministry is Romanian Handicapped Ministry and is led by several local men and women.

The way Communist countries treated persons with handicaps was brutal, callous and heartless. Despite often saying that they were supportive of the rights of minorities, women and poor the track records of places like Russia and Romania were awful. The Eastern Bloc fell because of their cruelty to all persons but the terrible ways they treated the handicapped was especially egregious.

The Romanian Handicapped Ministry is trying to make up for all those years of neglect and downright persecution. Please pray for the ministry and support them as you can.

As a footnote, I am amazed and saddened to see the United States of America moving backward into treating handicapped persons like the Romanians did under their Communist dictators. President Obama is taking aggressive actions to remove their rights and make sure they are discriminated against in the worst way: abortion.

About 85% of all Down Syndrome babies are already killed in the womb. If Obama has his way that percent will rise to 100%. Moving toward Romania in ethics and morals is not my idea of an enlightened nation.

Idols in the Pulpit

I just read a blog by Pam Hogeweide on the topic of some preachers who love the limelight and who become "idols" to a lot of Believers. Here is my response.

Pam,

Well written ideas about celebrity. My 2 cents.

Immature folks need some person to idolize. Almost every young believer idolizes a leader, a writer, a preacher or an apostle. Because of that, some narcissistic folks, usually males will puff themselves up and enhance their image.

Most of us will outgrow the need for idols and stop attending the BIG NAME gatherings while the immature will keep pumping them and holding seminars where a few can brag. It cannot be stopped but as God grows people up they will stop it. Here is the catch. When lots of people become “Seasoned Believers” and stop flocking after the big names the press will report it as a "sign that Christianity is dying”. That kind of Christianity needs to die.

There are almost no places where Seasoned Believers can come together for meaty discipleship and in depth interactions. Most people are left to attend shallow, showy, hyper active gatherings where BIG NAMES can talk. I know of hundreds of Seasoned Believers that are bored to tears. The research at Willow shows it but still the BIG NAMES want to put on more shows with bigger screens and more video tapes. That is giving 1% milk to carnevours.

So, we have millions of Seasoned Believers who came to faith in Christ during the Fourth Great Revival of the Seventies who want to become the Fourth Great Awakening but the RULING CLASS of leaders are still feeding them 1% milk.

What to do? Stop complaining about the idols and the immature and focus on the mature so we can go deeper no matter what others do.

Shalom,

Gary Sweeten

Go Into all the World

The Vicar of Vincennes, or Vicksburg or Vernon, made a great comment on my last post. I agree with it whole heartedly.

Today, Jens-Petter, Peder Paulsen and I did a short seminar of this topic, "The Church as an Equipping, Healing Community. We gathered with fifty or so saints at Karlslunde Lutheran Church just outside Copenhagen where I have been many times before. It is the "Mother Church" for the Holy Spirit Renewal" in Denmark and many great things have been birthed there that have touched thousands around the world.

Teleios Denmark is centered at Karlslunde Church and hundreds of leaderds have taken my training in Listening, Renewed Thinking, Breaking Free from the Past, etc. Jens-Petter and I stayed wikth Gina, a lady whose spiritual journey and growth has touched so many, including her son and daughter who are key leaders in taking God's love, truth and power to others.

Kirsten Callensen, Gina's daughter, has taken Listening and RCT into her professional work as a Psychologist that works with families touched by Autism and Aspergers. Kirsten is doing some extremely creative and significant work by bringing a combination of Psychological, Medical, Theological and Spiritual wisdom and knowledge together.

Kirsten's work is in the Government's clinics and private clinics. It is not openely "Christian" but she is using her time, talents and gifts to bring healing to these stressed out families. Read Luke 10 and see if you can find room for Kirsten's "Secular" ministry in the charge of Jesus to the disciples.

Innovation

Read Guy Kawasaki's speech at the NAIS web.

Guy is a fantastically talented innovator who helped Apple Computer develop its verve and beauty.

Helping Special Children Grow

We recently received a grant from the Hatton Foundation to research the needs of families with special needs children and develop models for meeting those needs. This is a huge and exciting venture.

One of our dear friends and former students in Denmark is Kirsten Callesen. She left her former position to get a Masters and Doctorate with specialties in Special Education. Kirsten took the materials she had learned in the

Apples and RCT classes and developed her unique approach for helping kids with Aspergers.

You can see her work at the CAT Kit web site.

It is very exciting to see Seasoned Believers take on such large challenges, especially when they are doing a great job.

Take a lool at this video on how they are working with kids.

Pray that we will be able to develop ministries that are as great as my friends in Denmark. I will visit with Kirsten in March when I go there to teach.

Gary Sweeten

Needed: Entrepreneurs

Christians must stop thinking like those in Sixteenth Century European villages. The focus back then was to raise up a few educated Priests and Pastors who would tell the village what to think, what to do and what to eat.

The situation has completely changed since the Dark Ages and the Protestant Reformation. It is time we started thinking about how to raise up thousands of Spirit filled entrepreneurs to fill the seats of science, education, medicine, politics and business. Gone are the days when a local Priest was the only person who could read and write or who had travelled outside the village walls.

Take a look at the video on leadership by the Washington Post. It clearly lays out a model for us to follow and I am expecting the Seasoned Believers of the world to lead the race.

Gary Sweeten

Habitat for Humanity Founder Passes into Glory

Unleash your faith and change the halls of power!

Millard Fuller, one of the founders of Habitat for Humanity died yesterday. His passing leaves a tremendous gap in the people who have used their treasure, gifts and talents for God and good.

One of the most important movements in the world the past fifty years has been a transition in the church from depending exclusively on theologically trained leaders to leadership by what used to be considered "The Laity". There has never been a more radical shift in Christianity than the transformation from professional led structures to those that are powered and led by men and women from the grass roots.

Millard Fuller was a millionaire whose commitment to Christ led to a radical change in his lifestyle. He gave most of his money to charity but retained the genius that led him to amass a fortune. He was an entrepreneur of the highest order and used his gifts, talents and innovative nature to build one of the largest and most successful charities in the world.

We desperately need more men and women like Millard Fuller and his wife. The only way the issues and problems that confront us around the world can be solved is if ordinary men and women use their God given strengths to tackle these seemingly intractable problems.

Who is the next Millard Fuller who will lead the challenge of health insurance? What woman or man has the gifts and insight to start a ministry to help single moms? Where are the people whose financial acumen to train churches how to unleash better ways to rear children?

Here is the first rule of being a social/spiritual entrepreneur. Do not allow anyone in authority stop you from using your strengths to change the world where you live. Take a look at my web page to see how to get involved.

See the Chronicle of Philantrophy for more information.

Video Link Restored

Last year when we kicked off the emphasis on Seasoned Believers Steve Helterbridle met with us to brainstorm how to make a short video that would help folks understand the issues we have found so important. He did and we called it, "What if?"

For some months the link was broken so Steve has put it up on GodTV and it is alive and working again. Take a look and let us know what you think.

The Pig in the Python

Ever since the vets came home from WWII nations around the world have been faced with a Baby Boom. Starting in 1946 lonely couples produced babies at a startling rate. That exceedingly high number of births stopped in 1964 but by then there were some 78 million new kids on the blocks of America.

Demographers have watched that huge bulge of babies-often called "The Pig in the Python" as they grew up, went to school, dated, danced to rock and roll and got married themselves after busting the walls out of every school in the nation.Marketers and advertisers have followed them closely developing new products and new ways to grab their attention.

The Baby Boomers have brought dramatic changes into every area of life since 1946 and her we are 61 years later still trying to figure out what we can do to meet their needs once more.The book by Dr. Mary Furlong, Turning Silver Into Gold, is a stunning overview of the needs, desires, wants and willingness of Builders and Boomers and how to design ways to meet their needs. According to her, spirituality is one of the most important areas of need among the B&B crowd.

The largest demographic cohort in history has a strong need to have "peak experiences". However, it is the businesses and marketers of America not the churches that are working hard to meet those spiritual needs. Most of what I read from Christian thinkers is focused on younger people not the B&B groups. In fact, some are saying that the best thing we can do is to sit down, shut up and worry about our incontinence products instead of what God has for us at this stage of the game.

Despite the fact that scripture clearly lays out leadership by "Elders" the modern focus in books and magazines is on youth. It is obviously important to reach out and witness to young people and young families. They are the future. However, the wealth, wisdom and winning ways of Seasoned Believers need to be unleashed so the next generations can continue to build on our foundation.

Come and join The Movement! The future of our kids and our nation depends on us getting involved.

Gary Sweeten

www.sweetenlife.com