Measuring Quality Church Growth

A criticism often heard concerning the Church Growth movement is that it emphasizes quantity growth to the supposed neglect of quality growth. One explanation for this neglect is that presently there exists no effective instrument by which quality growth in a church can be measured. The absence of such a measuring instrument can be attributed to many reasons. Some of the problems inherent in developing such an instrument are: 1) the fact that the universalness of a measuring tool is limited by . denominational barriers; 2) the issues of judging. subjectivity, commitment, and the quality vs. quantity debate; 3) what variables are to be used in order to measure the level of spiritual maturity; and, 4) what kind of survey is needed to adequately measure spiritual maturity in a church. The age old quest for measuring spiritual quality is likewise researched. This is accomplished by using the Anabaptist, the Puritans, the Pietists and the Methodists as historical examples of how spiritual standards have been established from generation to generation. The more recent 20th century sociological and psychological attempts to accomplish this same goal are also explored. But these efforts at measuring spiritual maturity are found lacking in one manner or another. The author seeks to establish a measuring tool that is both simple to use and accurate in its measurements. The resulting instrument is the Spiritual Life Survey (5LS). The SLS consists of twelve qualities that are biblically based as well as scientifically field tested in order to ascertain a rating of importance for each variable. By responding to 60 statements, the participant rates his or her involvement in each of the twelve areas. The survey also has a scoring grid by which the respondent grades and compares him- or herself with a national average. The SLS was field tested seven times under various conditions and in different forms before taking its final shape. Subsequent statistical and content analysis supports the thesis that the SL5 is an adequate tool by which spiritual maturity can be measured in a church within the twelve categories covered in the survey

Pickaninnies\u27 Jubilee / words by Fred H. Day

Cover: description reads Schottische for pianoforte; Publisher: White-Smith Music Publishing Co. (Boston)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_a/1033/thumbnail.jp

What, if anything, is Australopithecus afarensis?

Accepted manuscrip

New U-Th Dates from Vindija, Velika pećina (Kličevica) and Mujina pećina and Their Implications for Chronology of the Middle Paleolithic in Croatia

This paper reports new results obtained by Uranium-Thorium (U-Th) dating of animal bones, tooth and flowstone samples from three Croatian Middle Paleolithic sites. Dates were obtained on bones and teeth from Vindija (Hrvatsko zagorje) and flowstones from Velika pećina in Kličevica and Mujina pećina (both in Dalmatia). Obtained results support the previously established chronology of the Middle Paleolithic of Croatia by confirming that the oldest layers of Vindija belong to MIS 6 and that Velika pećina in Kličevica was visited by Neandertals after 40 ka BP

New Developments in Hog Houses and Equipment.

39 p

EXCEDE Technology Development III: First Vacuum Tests

This paper is the third in the series on the technology development for the EXCEDE (EXoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer) mission concept, which in 2011 was selected by NASA's Explorer program for technology development (Category III). EXCEDE is a 0.7m space telescope concept designed to achieve raw contrasts of 1e6 at an inner working angle of 1.2 l/D and 1e7 at 2 l/D and beyond. This will allow it to directly detect and spatially resolve low surface brightness circumstellar debris disks as well as image giant planets as close as in the habitable zones of their host stars. In addition to doing fundamental science on debris disks, EXCEDE will also serve as a technological and scientific precursor for any future exo-Earth imaging mission. EXCEDE uses a Starlight Suppression System (SSS) based on the PIAA coronagraph, enabling aggressive performance. We report on our continuing progress of developing the SSS for EXCEDE, and in particular (a) the reconfiguration of our system into a more flight-like layout, with an upstream deformable mirror and an inverse PIAA system, as well as a LOWFS, and (b) testing this system in a vacuum chamber, including IWA, contrast, and stability performance. The results achieved so far are 2.9e-7 contrast between 1.2-2.0 l/D and 9.7e-8 contrast between 2.0-6.0 l/D in monochromatic light; as well as 1.4e-6 between 2.0-6.0 l/D in a 10% band, all with a PIAA coronagraph operating at an inner working angle of 1.2 l/D. This constitutes better contrast than EXCEDE requirements (in those regions) in monochromatic light, and progress towards requirements in broadband light. Even though this technology development is primarily targeted towards EXCEDE, it is also germane to any exoplanet direct imaging space-based telescopes because of the many challenges common to different coronagraph architectures and mission requirements.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, to be published in proceedings of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation (2014

Proteomic analysis of Arabidopsis glutathione S-transferases from benoxacor- and copper-treated seedlings

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are involved in many stress responses in plants, for example, participating in the detoxification of xenobiotics and limiting oxidative damage. Studies examining the regulation of this gene family in diverse plant species have focused primarily on RNA expression. A proteomics method was developed to identify GSTs expressed in Arabidopsis seedlings and to determine how the abundance of these proteins changed in response to copper, a promoter of oxidative stress, and benoxacor, a herbicide safener. Eight GSTs were identified in seedlings grown under control conditions, and only one, AtGSTU19, was induced by benoxacor. In contrast, four GSTs, AtGSTF2, AtGSTF6, AtGSTF7, and AtGSTU19, were significantly more abundant in copper-treated seedlings. The different responses to these treatments may reflect the potential for copper to affect many more aspects of plant growth and physiology compared with a herbicide safener. Differences between RNA and protein expression of GSTs indicate that both transcriptional and translational mechanisms are involved in regulation of GSTs under these conditions

Earliest Porotic Hyperostosis on a 1.5-Million-year-old Hominin, olduvai gorge, Tanzania.

Meat-eating was an important factor affecting early hominin brain expansion, social organization and geographic movement. Stone tool butchery marks on ungulate fossils in several African archaeological assemblages demonstrate a significant level of carnivory by Pleistocene hominins, but the discovery at Olduvai Gorge of a child's pathological cranial fragments indicates that some hominins probably experienced scarcity of animal foods during various stages of their life histories. The child's parietal fragments, excavated from 1.5-million-year-old sediments, show porotic hyperostosis, a pathology associated with anemia. Nutritional deficiencies, including anemia, are most common at weaning, when children lose passive immunity received through their mothers' milk. Our results suggest, alternatively, that (1) the developmentally disruptive potential of weaning reached far beyond sedentary Holocene food-producing societies and into the early Pleistocene, or that (2) a hominin mother's meat-deficient diet negatively altered the nutritional content of her breast milk to the extent that her nursing child ultimately died from malnourishment. Either way, this discovery highlights that by at least 1.5 million years ago early human physiology was already adapted to a diet that included the regular consumption of meat