Two New eBooks at Amazon Kindle!
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
In the past month the D&W grocery store chain in our area suddenly, at least to the general public, announced a new “rewards card” program. That’s what they called it anyway, “rewards.” Actually, it’s a new club-not-called-a-club in which customers must enroll or join if they want to take advantage of sales discounts in the store.
Now there’s nothing wrong, it seems to me, in a food corporation developing a new “rewards” program. Indeed I am more than supportive of the free enterprise system and allowing companies to offer initiatives and compete.
But there’s more to this story. The real reason for the new program is not to “reward” the customer, though admittedly customers can accumulate points toward acquiring products. The real reason is to channel customers into using the new system. Once enrolled, every purchase a customer makes is cataloged, just like so-called rewards programs at the casino. So one’s consumer inclinations are tracked.
But there’s still more to the story, the one that causes me to question the grocery chain’s ethics. They say joining the rewards program is voluntary, except there’s a catch. If you don’t join you are blocked from all in-store sales discounts. All of them. In other words, after shopping in this store for 20 years, if I choose not to give them my email and home address and not to subject my purchases to regular tracking, I no longer can purchase anything on sale. The company calls its program a “reward,” yet the company dismisses out of hand any and all customers who do not sign up, no matter how long they’ve been a loyal customer.
If this isn’t enough, the company has changed all of its sale signage, proclaiming a price, for example $2.99 for a pumpkin, and then in the corner in small print stating “$1.00 Less With Yes Card,” the name of the rewards program.
This actually happened to me. I saw a pumpkin for $2.99 with the accompanying statement that if I have a “Yes” card I may purchase the pumpkin for $1 less. So I think, “Oh, I don’t have that card, but I’m willing to pay $2.99 for that pumpkin.” When it’s run through the register, the price comes up $3.99. I point this out and am told the price advertised already included the discount—for which I do not qualify. But that’s not what the sign said and when I made this observation I was told “All our signs are that way,” as if this is an explanation. The new signage is, in my estimation, misleading at best.
As I said earlier, I have no problem with a company developing an optional club or rewards program. But D&W’s rewards program is an in or out, either you opt to join or you will be denied access to sales. It’s not really optional. It amounts to a members-only program like Sam’s Club.
D&W should re-think their program. It’s more of a reward to the company than to the customer.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
In my Christian "tradition" and upbringing we didn't talk a lot about spiritual warfare, dreams and visions, demonism, etc. Not that we didn't believe in these things, just that they weren't front and center in our theology or Christian practice.
Since having worked with SAT-7 I've had occasion to think more about such things and to talk with experienced people whose views I trust. I've learned to open my mind and heart to understanding more about what the Sovereign Lord can and does do, particularly in a spiritually oppressed region like the Middle East and North Africa.
I say all this, in all seriousness, to note that the Devil is alive and well, that spiritual warfare is real, and that SAT-7 USA is a place and mission Satan doesn't like.
For the past two weeks we’ve experienced one significant technological equipment breakdown after another. I can't claim that our run of IT problems are anything more than the product of living in a sin-tainted, cursed creation. But I also acknowledge that our run of more-than-usual IT problems could indeed be the work of spiritual opposition, because Scripture indicates that wherever there's spiritual opportunity there will be spiritual opposition. Note what happened to Nehemiah as he tried to rebuild the Wall and note what happened in Thessalonica (Acts 17).
So we’ve taken it to the Lord this week and we’ll keep doing so.
The Scripture says Satan is the Prince and Power of the Air for a season, but it also says the Omnipotent, Just, and Loving God is still in charge.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Erwin
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
I grew up in a small, southeastern Ohio town—“3,000 friendly people,” the sign said at the village limits. I was surrounded by an extended family in which virtually everyone was a believer in Christ and who, for the most part, practiced their faith. I didn’t know it then, but I now understand that this family experience was a rare gift.
Both of my parents are dedicated Christian people and have been since before I was born. Mom was a piano and organ teacher, who has participated in church music and worship services since her teens. Dad was a factory worker and barber and a member of my home church deacon board for over forty years, leading it for much of this time. When the church doors were open, so to speak, we were there. And when they weren’t open, Dad and Mom were still there, laboring faithfully behind the scenes—Dad fixing or preparing whatever needed attention, Mom leading music practices with others.
So it’s not a stretch to say my sister and I come from, in the best sense of the term, a “Christian home.” In response to the witness of my parents and many others in the church, at six years of age I made a personal profession of faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, following this with baptism some three years later.
All four of my grandparents lived nearby and all of them played a role in my upbringing. They were caring and loving, wise, optimistic, modeled incredible work ethics, and “finished well,” living consistent, admirable Christian lives till the Lord called them home. Each one made spiritual and life investments in me that I cannot possibly repay other than by attempting to live by their example and live up to their expectations.
My maternal grandfather was the lively, hilarious spiritual patriarch of the family, and to a considerable extent of many families within our community. He was also a leading deacon in our Baptist church. He and my grandmother, along with three or four other couples, had made the difficult choice years before to leave their church, which had begun drifting into theological liberalism, and to found a new church committed to the Lord and the Word of God. I was a direct spiritual beneficiary of their courage, decisions, and diligent efforts, and so are other generations in a church that yet thrives after their passing.
In my family I learned and I believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, our guide for faith and practice. As a young person I attended Sunday School, daily vacation Bible school, church camp, Jet Cadets, and Teens for Christ. You name it, I was there. I was no angel, but I did everything a kid from a Christian home and a fundamentalist church was supposed to do. Then I attended a Christian college, now called Cedarville University.
Aside from a Christian family upbringing nothing marked my life more than my undergraduate experience. I loved every minute of it. While I was in college God delivered me from a spiritual struggle. Early in my Christian life, given a strongly rationalistic mind, I wrestled with doubt—not in the existence of God but in whether or not I was truly saved. My struggle ended with the assurances I found in 2 Timothy 2:11-13. Later, I discovered others who struggled with doubt, so as one outcome of my spiritual journey I’ve often spoken about doubt with college students and others, using Os Guinness’s work on the subject as one key supporting source.
It was also in Christian college that I found and pursued what became a wonderfully liberating understanding of the Christian faith, what we at that time called “a Christian theistic world-life view.” My growing understanding of a biblically-based Christian philosophy of life gradually allowed me to set aside certain fears, undeveloped views, or limited understandings rooted in my good but sometimes legalistic church experience in favor of a still thoroughly biblical but culture-engaging, forward thinking perspective of life.
Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer began writing his influential books just before my college years and continued for a decade or so after I graduated. His books helped me look more confidently upon the world, life, and learning, knowing the Christian faith offered “true truth,” as he called it. Through my education and via Dr. Schaeffer’s books I was intellectually set free, for I realized that one need not fear learning something that would someday undermine one’s faith. The Christian faith, I learned and internalized, was as intellectually sound as it was spiritually trustworthy.
My Christian college years also provided me with an attraction to the teaching profession and Christian higher education and with a friend who would become my wife.
Years hence I was finally able to write what I consider something of a personal manifesto, Christian Liberty: Living for God in a Changing Culture (Baker Books, 2003), which has since been republished as an ebook, Living for God in Changing Times (Unlikely Leaders, 2011). This book expresses my understanding of how to apply a biblically Christian worldview so one may live “in the world” while being “not of the world,” yet remembering God said to go “into the world.” I believe regular prayer and Bible reading are important ways in which we may and should develop our relationship with the Lord and through which the Spirit of God enables us to live a life characterized by personal holiness.
I am theologically conservative and consider myself a conservative evangelical, though I understand the definitions of these terms are moving targets. Sometimes today I simply say I am a Christian or follower of Jesus. I’m an optimistic realist, which I believe every Christian should be. We embrace God’s providence and know the end of the story, yet we understand the reality of sin in our lives and the impact of evil in the world. God calls us to serve him now, to contribute, to build culture for his glory, to witness to saving faith in Jesus, and to proclaim the Lordship of Christ in all of life. Our faith is eternally contemporary and transformative. All of this is one reason “proactive” is my favorite word.
Sarah and I were married in 1974 and God later blessed us with four children, now adults, and later still with their spouses and four grandchildren. Sarah is a wonderfully gracious believer who uses her gifts, especially hospitality, to bless me, our family, our friends, and many more. She has always served the Lord and has stood beside me as a partner in ministry, but now in our empty-nest years she is even more engaged in volunteer support in missions—Women At Risk, International.
The Lord guided us in attaining advanced degrees, through some thirty-four years of service in Christian education, including 17 years with Cornerstone University, several months in consulting, and now service in missions, doing promotion and fundraising for SAT-7 USA. God has given me opportunities to teach, speak, write, and lead. For as long as he gives me, my aspirations are to honor the Lord by honoring my wife and family, to serve proactively with integrity and vigor in whatever organizations or contexts he places me, and to someday finish well.
For all of this Sarah and I praise God and remember our family verse chosen when we knew our first baby was on the way: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126:3).
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Last winter I began to feel like I was behind the curve on some things that seemed to me to be important to what I am supposed to do professionally. So since that time I've tried to learn a few "new media" and "social media" skills, among them how to:
--shoot and edit video in iMovie, then post it on YouTube,
--develop a YouTube or Vimeo channel,
--post audio and video files on websites or in emails,
--develop video blogs - "vlogs,"
--use website content management systems,
--burn CD or DVDs, including construct menus – yep, I'd never done this, but I have now,
--use Twitter, HootSuite or TweetDeck etc, iTunes, or construct/launch cause-related Facebook pages,
--use QR codes,
--use eReaders like Nook or Kindle, or use ebook software like iBooks, Kindle, Adobe Digital Editions,
--construct and use e-applications of audiobooks,
--acquire ISBN numbers for books and ebooks,
--construct ebooks, and then post, market, and sell them on Amazon Kindle.
I write this not to brag but to say it's been fun and productive. And more importantly, to suggest that I believe all of us should keep learning as much as we can about new/social media. Why? The more we know the better and more knowledgeably we can interact with our children, grandchildren, and culture.
I'm not a pro on any of this. But like learning PowerPoint a few years back, learning how to do basics gives me more freedom in my work and helps me talk to people who know more, so I can ask them to create what I need.
In addition, in the past couple of months I've gotten close-in looks at a couple of other ministry organizations. And frankly, I was amazed to discover how uninformed, unprepared, "behind," and thus unable most of the staff were in terms of new or social media. They didn't know how to do or use much of anything, and I thought then that our staff at SAT-7 USA could run circles around them. But of course we all need to keep learning.
So I write this piece not with an action plan or a to-do list but to encourage you to keep looking for ways to learn to do "new things." The learning curve might sometimes be taxing, but the end result will almost always enrich your professional experience, benefit you personally, and certainly benefit the ministry.
BTW, the old educator in me thinks that one of the things we're going to be doing for eternity in heaven is…learning. Think about it: we're going to hang out with the Omniscient Sovereign God who is never going to run out of cool things to teach us. We're going to learn, which is to say we’re going to go to school forever. Sounds good to me.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
I am pleased to announce the publication of my second ebook, Today You Do Greatness: A Parable On Success And Significance, co-authored with Dr. Rick E. Amidon. Dr. Amidon is Founder, mark217, and former president, Baker College of Muskegon and Sanford-Brown College. (The ebook is available for $2.99 via the title link to Amazon.com.)
This ebook is a parable about greatness, leadership, faith, and life portrayed in a short story about an immigrant whose memories include a father who encouraged him to “do greatness.” The new American obtains an education, finds a profession, works diligently, and matures.
Our ebook emerges from the fact that all people possess a philosophy of life informing what values they embrace, what choices they make, and who they become. In this story, our immigrant friend does “his thing” based upon the philosophy of life he inherited.
But he eventually faces inevitable questions: Has his quest for success really led him to a life of true significance? Are success and significance opposed to each other – or can he have both?
To probe and hopefully answer these questions we’ve included alongside the parable parallel commentary rooted in a Christian philosophy of life, greatness, and leadership, which is distilled in snippets of biblically based application. By comparing and contrasting the story and the Christian worldview commentaries you’ll discover ways to examine your values and choices, new insights, and new perspectives. You'll come to understand how to achieve both success and significance—and true greatness.
Rick’s talent for narrative fiction is evident in the parable. My contribution rests in the Christian worldview commentary. Together, we hope we’ve provided readers with much to think about, much to apply in their lives and careers, and much to use in the Lord’s service.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.