When I was a child, I remember learning about the government structure of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). One of the lessons that was drilled into our heads was the fact that the USSR government controlled the media. The people's rights were denied to them, but they were not even able to talk about it, write about it or oppose the ideas or laws being forced upon them. We have so much to be grateful for by living in the United States of America. Granted, our country has its flaws and problems as well, but that doesn't take away from the fact that we have so many liberties that allow us to build stronger communities and operate more effectively amongst a diverse group of people. I am thankful for the instruction that I received as a child and I believe that it will be a guiding principle as I move into the very public arena of online blog posting.
I believe in and am very grateful for the United State's First Amendment rights, and it is important to me to honor the men and women that lead and fight for this country so that those rights will not ever be denied to anyone living herein. I count it as a privilege to step into waters that I personally have never chartered before, in an attempt to express my views that support a Judeo-Christian, "must be born-again", "repent and turn from sinful practices","salvation by grace alone, through faith", worldview. As my wife and I launch Breathe 150 Entertainment, our aim and desire is to establish this business/ministry as a well-spring of education, encouragement, and inspirational entertainment for the Body of Christ. Though we believe strongly in the Body of Christ being evangelistic, our specific call and approach to reaching the lost takes a different approach. Our specific call for this business/ministry is to encourage, educate, and entertain pastors, church leaders, and families from within a Christian household. We believe in the power of communication and entertainment to tell better stories about our Christ-centered culture and we make it every effort to reach families that have children with autism and special needs. We believe that sharing the Gospel and Biblical stories can be fun and adventurous and that encouraging the Body of Christ across multiple denominations will allow us to shine brighter as lights for Jesus in a darkening world. That is our evangelistic worldview. It doesn't discredit the efforts of other respected evangelistic outreach efforts, but we believe that it grafts in the idea of storytelling as an effective method of reaching lost or discouraged individuals.
There are a number of groups and individuals that have taken to online blogging for the purpose to utilize their First Amendment privileges to express their views or grievances with someone else or another group. In some cases, a number of those sites express ideas and worldviews in a confrontational way, while even more sites populate material that lacks credibility and appropriate research qualities that made journalism a once respected institution. When it comes to religion (especially the Christian faith) more effort is spent on insulting, threatening, and demeaning the existence of the reader or another subject matter of discussion than actually submitting anything that builds up the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is still under immense persecution, but it is also now done online and through social-media with the Word of God being taken out of context.
We within the Body of Christ have committed a trespass against our own community in an effort to prove some other believer wrong...and make ourselves right. This blog will not be a platform for expressing hatred of any kind, antisemitism, or used to attack a person or a group based upon their race, worldview, community, culture, government, belief system or other unmentionable preferences. It will however be used to challenge our Christ-centered ideas, worldviews, and culture as we live amongst a world that is dying and hurting. It will simply be our voice expressing our love, our concern, and the direction for our lives and the lives of those that we are called to encourage, educate, and inspire. This site will be used to share ideas and open up conversations about social topics and issues, and it is our service to the online world to respond with a "serve you" attitude and not a "how dare you" attitude. It's tempting, but we'll do our best to stay tethered to the purpose behind this vision. It is not our calling to try to force people to change or to stop what they are doing in an effort to prove their salvation or moral conversion. Our call is to share biblical stories and ideas in a fun, adventurous, and worship-filled way that should and could re-shape our Christ-centered communities...and hopefully the world. I hope that you will share this particular blog and our entire blog-site with your friends and family. We hope that we can be a great encouragement to you as you walk in the light of Jesus Christ. Thank you and God bless.
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