GREENSBORO – A new study by Men's Health magazine ranked Greensboro number two on the magazine's list of America's Most Religious Cities.
Colorado Springs, Colo. topped the list. Three other North Carolina cities ranked high on the list of 100, Charlotte was number nine, Raleigh, 13, and Durham, 14.
Men's Health said it scoured U.S. Census Bureau data, the yellow pages and other resources to rank America's holiest hometowns.
Among the criteria was the number of places of worship per capita. In Greensboro they abound.
"There are a lot of choices here in town. It's a good sign,” said Clarke Martin, executive director of Guilford Interfaith Hospitality Network. “I'm encouraged by it. It did make me think about what's going on in the rest of the country.”
The magazine looked at the number of religious organizations in each city. Martin's is one of many in Greensboro and churches are its life blood.
"We have 59 churches that support our network,” he said. “We're a homeless center for family. Homeless children and their parents are who we minister to."
And apparently people in Greensboro spend lots of money on religious books, another factor in the rankings.
"I think that's probably accurate,” said Ann Mann, manager of the Franciscan Center, a book store on Greene Street. “We do get a lot of people coming in here looking for good books. Books that they can get something out of. It's just not a novel just to read."
Another criterion used to develop the survey was the number of volunteers who support organizations like Martin's.
"We figure in that group that's housing families 365 days a year there are probably 1,500 volunteers that are involved in that operation," Martin said.
"This is a good community. People like living here,” said Lana Gainey, a Network volunteer and parishioner at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church. “If we are members of churches I think our pastors and our ministers reach out to us to help."
The rankings wouldn't likely change hearts, but Martin said it looked like Greensboro's heart already was in the right place.
"It's good to know in Greensboro that there are indications that God is at work," he said.
i thought that y'all might like to read about Greensboro, and what they had to say. I've spent the last two days trying to find the post about Jax again, but for some reason it has vanished . mmmm.............imagine that!! i first read it on www.news4jax.com , and they can't even help me find it again. strange.......huh?
anyway when i first read it i started to question the care of the homeless in jax. the article about jax didn't say nary word about these folks like our neighbors to the north. my question when i first read it was why if we are ranked #6 in the nation, then why do we only have three homeless shelters?
more than that,.............yep,..............that right,................I'm going to point fingers, and call some names!! the First Baptist Church owns a large section of property downtown. they simply have huge buildings sitting vacant. why don't they have a homeless shelter? in fact,...........why does their security guards run off the homeless during their church services? i know that they do a little for the homeless,..........very little!! they don't do anything for them personally in their church, but they have donated small amounts to outside missions.
maybe it's a blessing in disguise that they don't. i think that it probably is because you need to have good morals, and values to begin with, and they don't possess either. the are corrupt, and evil as hell!! they actually kicked out one of their members for writing a blog called fbc watchdog. how did they know who was writing it? they suppeaned Google for the information under false pretenses. the whole sheriffs department was involved, and the sheriff did a private investigation, and he said that he found no wrong doing!! actually,........most of the members of the J.S.O., are members of the F.B.C. also.......a.k.a. the henchmen!! would you like to hear the strangest part of all this? the paperwork that had been filed about this case mysteriously vanished one night. .............duh!!,..............imagine that!!
now i used to attend myself when Pastor Jerry Vines was running that show. i liked his preaching ability, but I'm not sure if he was the leader of the downtown mafia. I'm gonna say one more thing, before i stop and wait on the J.S.O. to come and take my hard-drive from me. the Holy Bible says that satan can come as an angel of light!! I'm finished with these bunch of idiots now. just rock on in the name of Jesus fellers!!
i do love a mega-church in this area. it called Trinity Baptist Church, and they support their own mission downtown. they had a horrible thing come to light about one of their founding members a couple years ago. the difference between them and the F.B.C. was the fact that they didn't try to cover it up. the sought out the truth, and they let justice serve. i would imagine that hurt them somewhat, but they allowed the grace of God cover them with His love!! yep,.............that's right,..............I'm not going into the details. yep,............that's right,.............i do know them, but where you hold yourself responsible for a tragedy then i consider the case pretty well dealt with!! it's in the hands of the Almighty God!!
the only way that i can attend T.B.C. is to go downtown, and ride the bus from the mission. the are located on the west-side kinda off the beaten path. they do have another option for me though. actually it's good for everybody. it called a live feed of all their services. when i don't attend i always watch them, but it's not the same. you can't feel the real power of God sweeping throughout the sanctuary like when your there. you can't experience the love of the visitors toward you, and each other like when your there. www.tbc.org
from the first time that I've sit in that church I've always felt welcomed and loved. I've never failed to feel the warmness from a loving God either. Tom Messer is a great pastor. he is the senior pastor, and has always been since that I've been affiliated with them. he doesn't really worry about offending his members either. he just preached the word of God like it is!! he knows that all the church money comes from God to begin with, and his job is to tell it like it is, but i have never heard him being rude at the same time. how can a man be rude while preaching the love of God anyway? Tom Messer ranks right up there with my favorite preachers.
back to the helping of the homeless. Trinity Rescue Mission has suffered somewhat since I've been involved with their program. the place has not been maintained properly since Brother Gene Pruett has left the ministry. the mission used to kept immaculate. i know this because i was in their program way back then, and i was a part of the cleaning of the mission everyday. a lot of things have changed since Bro. Gene's time. now that just concentrate on Jesus when He wont interfere with work time. they are concentrating more on the money aspect that the Jesus time. the schedule is a farce, because you never know what it really is going to be like. the one thing that is a constant is the fact that your going to work from 16-18 hours everyday. it's not like they are slave driving you, or anything like that. most of the time you simply need to up and ready for what ever comes next.
i don't really think that the members, or the staff at the church really knows what is going on down at the mission. i can really see how they could. i believe the man, or men in charge at the mission are covering up a lot of what's going on down there. now I'm not including pastor Jim in this statement either. i just think that he is so involved in his work that he can't really see it. i believe that pastor Jim is a Godly man. have you ever heard him pray? he is very impressive about the way he humbles himself, and speaks to the Lord from his heart.
i know the difference first hand that the right people, in the right position came make. I've graduated both their programs back in the year of 2000 without any problem. i recently came back in of August this past year, and was kicked out with in three weeks for not focusing my proverb time on others. instead of putting all my focus on Jesus. do i think that it was the will of God for me to be kicked out? sure i do!! even under those strange circumstances. He simply had a different plan for my life, and i can accept that.
i have nothing bad to say about T.B.C.............nothing!! i do however wish that they would take a closer look into their homeless ministry, and see if you can make it better like it once was.
now,............I've got totally off track, but i guess you readers are used to that by now. i wished the the city of Jax would have had the kind of write up that Greensboro had wrote about themselves. they should have took the time to share what these city churches are doing for the homeless in our area. more than likely the reason was because the F.B.C. wouldn't get any good exposure. they run everything in this city, and anything that they want censored gets censored!!
well,..............I've exposed the same old bad one once again, and I've lifted up one very deserving of praise. there will be more to come in time. the good,.......the bad,...........and of course the ugly.
..........................much love
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