[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fstay-colders":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fstay-colders-surround":97},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":12,"columnName":79,"date":80,"description":18,"extension":81,"image":82,"meta":83,"minRead":84,"navigation":85,"path":86,"postType":87,"publication":88,"publicationUrl":82,"seo":89,"stem":90,"topics":91,"__hash__":96},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fstay-colders.md","Stay Colders",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11],"Matthew","1 John","1 Peter",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":75},"minimark",[15,19,27,30,33,36,39,42,45,48,51,54,57,60,63,66,69,72],[16,17,18],"p",{},"Recently a minister friend was telling me about the people in his church, and I was surprised by the unflattering phrase he used to describe them. He kept referring to some of the members as \"stay colders.\"",[16,20,21,22,26],{},"I wondered, ",[23,24,25],"em",{},"What is a stay colder?"," I'd never heard that expression before.",[16,28,29],{},"I've heard lukewarm Christians sarcastically referred to as God's \"frozen chosen,\" but what are \"stay colders\"?",[16,31,32],{},"Finally the confusion melted away when I realized my friend was talking about \"stakeholders.\" I thought he was putting down the people in his church, but he was actually complimenting them. His church members are stakeholders. They have a compelling interest—a personal stake—in their congregation's wellbeing.",[16,34,35],{},"In your church, are you a stakeholder or a \"stay colder\"? Jesus warned that a time will come when, \"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold\" (Matthew 24:12).",[16,37,38],{},"Love has grown cold when we watch news reports about hurricane victims and casualties of war and feel no compassion in our hearts.",[16,40,41],{},"Love has grown cold when a husband and wife share a house but not a life.",[16,43,44],{},"Love has grown cold when a dad wastes precious hours on the couch watching TV, ignoring his sons and daughters during irreplaceable years when their values and memories are being shaped.",[16,46,47],{},"Love has grown cold when neighbors suffer in silence and no one realizes the person next door is struggling until word gets around that she died of cancer or he committed suicide.",[16,49,50],{},"Love has grown cold when we look at young people and see nothing more than strange clothes and loud music.",[16,52,53],{},"Love has grown cold when we neglect the old and idolize the young (who one day will be old themselves).",[16,55,56],{},"Love has grown cold when we avoid anyone whose skin color or accent is different from our own.",[16,58,59],{},"Love has grown cold when church is about what we want instead of what Jesus wants.",[16,61,62],{},"Love has grown cold when our hearts no longer ache for our friends who are wasting their lives and dying without hope.",[16,64,65],{},"Love has grown cold when we rush out of church to beat the crowd to the restaurant instead of sticking around to rejoice with the new believer who was baptized at the end of the service.",[16,67,68],{},"Love has grown cold when we know the good we ought to do, but don't do it—when we're surrounded by others' needs, but we're too blind to see and too self-absorbed to care.",[16,70,71],{},"The Bible says, \"Love one another deeply, from the heart\" (1 Peter 1:22). And, \"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth\" (1 John 3:18).",[16,73,74],{},"That's good advice for every stakeholder in the family of God, whose love alone can keep our hearts warm.",{"title":76,"searchDepth":77,"depth":77,"links":78},"",2,[],"First Look","2005-12-04","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fstay-colders","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":18},"articles\u002Fstay-colders",[92,93,94,95],"Church Leadership","Biblical Theology","Intergenerational Ministry","Perseverance in Suffering","n38jLOv9qZSVRhhfGP5JywN7JqTOuOgkZS4q6xJbgtM",[98,103],{"title":99,"path":100,"stem":101,"description":102,"children":-1},"Star Power","\u002Farticles\u002Fstar-power","articles\u002Fstar-power","I’m guessing you have never heard of a 19th-century English poet named Jane Taylor, but I’m certain you can quote some lyrics she wrote. Her poem “The Star” appeared in 1806 in a book called *Rhymes for the Nursery*. It has six stanzas, but the poem is best known for its first verse: “Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are!”",{"title":104,"path":105,"stem":106,"description":107,"children":-1},"Still a Live Issue","\u002Farticles\u002Fstill-a-live-issue","articles\u002Fstill-a-live-issue","Andy Metas works as a building manager for a Manhattan skyscraper on New York's Third Avenue. His grandparents came to the United States from Greece soon after World War I, and his dad was a building manager before him. A lot of gray sparkles from Andy's black hair, but his darker features still contrast sharply with his wife Laura's blonde hair and fair Irish complexion."]