Titanic director James Cameron is said to be “sinking Christianity� (http://www.rushprnews.com/press/archives/12391) in his upcoming documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.� The show will air on the Discovery Channel March 4th. A press conference will be held today about the show. According to a news release the documentary is about “the discovery of a 2,000 year old cave containing ten coffins. Six of the ten coffins were carved with inscriptions reading the names: Jesua son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Matthew, Jofa (Joseph, identified as Jesus’ brother), Judah son of Jesua (Jesus’ son - the filmmakers claim).� (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3368731,00.html). I am already getting emails from students who fear that Christianity will be hurt by this discovery. Looks like the Di Vinci Code and Gospel of Judas all over again.

I did a chapel at Valley Forge Christian College on Friday (2/22). We are an Assemblies of God college, and at the moment the AG is experiencing a serious issue with the departure of younger ministers. I decided to talk about the issues giving some of the numbers and reasons headquarters says the exodus is taking place. Here are some of the statistics.

In 1986 there were 2,900 ministers under 29 years of age or 11% of total AG ministers.
In 1996 there were 2,802 ministers under 29 years of age or 9% of total AG ministers.
In 2005 there were 2,836 ministers under 29 years of age or 8% of total AG ministers.

In 1986 there were 7,217 ministers ages 30-39 years or 27% of total AG ministers.
In 1996 there were 6,936 ministers ages 30-39 years or 21% of total AG ministers.
In 2005 there were 5,240 ministers ages 30-39 years or 16% of total AG ministers.

The percentage of ministers under age 40 has dropped from 38% to 24% from 1986 through 2005.
The percentage of senior pastors under age 40 has dropped from 25% to 15% from 1996 through 2005.

All the while the average age of AG ministers has risen from 46 in 1979 to 51 in 2005.

I wonder if other denominations are experiencing something similar.

Looks like the East Coast is going to have another slippery beginning to the week. Its days like this I really miss Southern Cal.