2014 Spring Retreat Guide PAGE 8 Topeka EDITION ! includes Lawrence, Manhattan, Emporia & Holton FREE ONE! The Area’s Most Complete Event Guide AKE T CENTER Se nior LivingGuid e PAG E 18 $ #% #* %%$( + $ )%"&%* #*%*! '% #$$% MANIC DRIVE AT CAFE BARNABAS PAGE 13 #$!$!$ CELEBRATING FAITH, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY IN N+#%ORT %'%$HEAST %KANSAS &#$"&$%#( #$ facebook/metrovoicenews Now in our 8th Year! VISIT US A T or metrovoicenews.com VOLUME 8 • NUMBER 6 February 2014 TO ADVERTISE, CONTRIBUTE, SUBSCRIBE OR RECEIVE BULK COPIES, CALL 785-235-3340 OR EMAIL [email protected] NEW RESIDENT Parents Find church guide Education Expo Wanamaker Woods Church of the Nazarene Invaluable Tool March 1 event will host FFaallssee FFaaccttss 50 Christian colleges, area K-12, homeschool resources & seminars See inside by Lee Hartman cover! Private education, whether on the back K-12 or college level, continues to be an important topic to many Christian par - Kansas Prayer ents. Add to that the growing number of families considering homeschooling, breakfast to and it is no wonder the Christian Why we love Education Expo on March 1 will attract feature former Bob Smietana | Lifeway NASHVILLE, Tenn. – We’ve all gotten the ebmaails odr se esn tthe ats No MmattLer Bthe wpealthaer, yabeoutr a thou - Facebook posts–strange and fairly believable facts on just sand people will show up very early for about everything. For most, we know to do a little research breakfast at the Ramada Inn in downtown before we pass them on or share over the water cooler. Topeka on Friday, March 28th. As several Sometimes these unresearched “factoids” make it into buffet lines open for serving at 6:00 a.m., the evening news or even the Sunday sermon. the banquet hall will be filled with Like this one, which came halfway through a recent Kansans from all walks of life. sermon I heard on marriage. Things are scary out there, thousands of people. The 16th annual The occasion is the 53rd annual Kansas the preacher told us. And there’s no difference between event, which runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2 Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by Topeka people sitting in these pews and everyone else when it p.m. on March first, will again be held at Fellowship, Inc. Statewide leaders in gov - comes to divorce. Colonial Presbyterian Church, 9500 ernment, business, education and indus - It made a great sermon illustration. Only it’s not Wornall Road in south Kansas City, just try will be on hand as usual as the pro - true, according to Bradley Wright, a sociologist at the north of I-435. gram begins at about 6:45 a.m. University of Connecticut and author of Christians Parents looking both at K-12 This year’s featured speaker will be Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites ... and Other Lies You’ve n Please see BAD STATS page 2 Please see EDUCATION page 3 Brian Holman, a former Major League n Baseball player. After a successful career with the C5 Christian Chamber Montreal Expos, Kansas seeks to reverse past economic trends the Seattle RECENT CHANGES Plans Easter Parade Mariners and the HAVE THE STATE ON It seems that Easter is the only major Cincinnati Reds, holiday that doesn’t have a parade in the Holman was THE UPTURN city of Topeka. forced to retire in That is about to change! 1994 due to an Travis Perry | Kansas Watchdog Capital City Christian Chamber of arm injury. He began his business career (KansasWatchdog.org) — The Sunflower State scored Commerce (C5) will hold the Topeka in 1995. From 2000 to 2013 he served as a middle of the pack in a recent study of economic freedom in Easter Parade & Family Fun Fair on Managing Director as well as a Sr. Client North America, and while policy analysts say Kansas is trend - Saturday, April 19, 2014. The parade will Advisor with Ronald Blue & Co. Holman ing in the right direction, the state still has some ground to be the first of its kind and will be held now focuses a majority of his attention on cover. inside Gage Park. A Family Fun Fair will his motivational speaking. He also Breaking down the data released last month by the be held in conjunction with the parade, remains heavily involved in youth baseball Canada-based Fraser Institute, an independent, nonpartisan and will blend in with the other regular where he conducts private pitching les - research and educational organization, Dave Trabert, presi - activities at Gage Park, such as the Zoo, sons, camps and clinics. dent of the conservative Kansas Policy Institute, said the the Carousel and the Mini-Train. Involved with many charitable organi - numbers show what Kansas needs to do to improve. Churches, non-profits and local business - zations, Holman currently serves on the “The biggest thing it can do is deal with the fact that we es will take part in the parade, as well as board of directors for the Kansas City have a lot more government in Kansas than we need, and this AVERAGE: In a recent study of economic freedom in North America, Kansas setting up booths at the Fun Fair. Bands ranked in the middle of the pack nationwide, but trailed most surrounding n Please see BREAKFAST page 3 n Please see TRENDS page 3 states. Recent policy changes are designed to change that. n Please see EASTER PARADE page 5 2 • February 2014 ____________ ________ MetroVoiceNews.com __________________________ Facebook/MetroVoiceNews _________________________ Topeka Metro Voice end of their meal, the servers saw the Membership Study, 2010) and 75 mil - BAD STATS Christians’ robust attempts at ‘friendli - lion evangelicals (Pew Research). Affordable Care Act: continued from page 1 ness’ instead as pushy and arrogant. The That’s more than the estimated num - memories still pain me now.” ber of southpaws—between 30 and 45 Been Told. But a study from Michael Lynn of million Americans—and Texans (26.6 Wright looked at marriage statistics Cornell University and Benjamin Katz million, according to the U.S. Census). UPDATE DETAILS from the General Social Survey (GSS), a of HCD Research, showed that, overall, Going one for three might be good in national random survey of Americans, Christians are pretty good tippers. Their baseball, but it’s bad for preachers. Scott Day taken since the 1970s. Half of the online survey of 1,068 Americans found Bad statistics persist because they On January 13, 2014, The Department “Nones”—people who claim no reli - that the average Christian tipped 17 per - work—at least in the short term. They of Health & Human Services released its gious identity—were divorced. Only 42 cent for good service. Only about one in help sell books and tickets to confer - ASPE Issue Brief on the enrollment num - percent of self-identified Christians— eight Christians left a smaller tip for ences, make good sermon illustrations, bers for the Affordable Care Act and members of other faiths—were good service. The national average is just and get people in church fired up. The Marketplaces through December 28, 2013. divorced. under 15 percent for all tippers. problem, said Ed Stetzer, president of Following are updates for the enrollments will experience inferior quality or limited Catholics (35 percent) were least like - The problem is that there are a lot of LifeWay Research, is that bad statistics in Kansas. availability of care with those providers; at ly to divorce, followed by Mainline Christians out there. And since we tend don’t solve real problems. Kansas enrollees up to December 28, least with respect to BCBS, because BCBS Protestants (41 percent) and evangelicals to remember bad news, a few It’s difficult to solve a problem when 2013 have num - providers receive the same reimbursement (46 percent). Believers who show up to bad tippers give all the you don’t understand it, said Stetzer. bered 14,242. Of rate under all qualified health plans. church every week were even less likely other Christians a bad Too many bad statistics can also that 56% were Also, as I pointed out in my December to divorce. name. Another prob - undermine a leader’s credibility. Get females and 44% article St. Francis Hospital in Topeka is a Wright, who has been writing about lem is that with so too many facts wrong, and it’s harder were males. BCBS provider. In addition, my statements faith and divorce rates since 2006, found much media atten - for people to trust you. Distribution by age about narrow networks and reduced that only about a third of evangelicals tion, several recent has been: under the provider reimbursement rates under FFM (34 percent) and Mainline Protestants “bad tipper” Setting the record straight age of 18 is 5%; age plans did not apply to BCBS plans. (32 percent) and a quarter of Catholics episodes have Perhaps it’s time for Christians, 18 – 25 is 9%; age 26 I stated, “If you are a traveler do not buy (23 percent) who go to church are been found to be including preachers and conference Day – 34 is 18%; age 35 – a plan on Healthcare.gov. these plans divorced. Still the myth that churchgoers false with waiters speakers, to be more discerning when it 44 is 15%; age 45 – 54 is 19%; age 55 – 64 have KS networks . buy an off Exchange divorce at the same rate as everyone else and waitresses comes to statistics. Pigs can’t fly. is 34%; and in the important 18 – 34 plan that has a national network . It will persists. Wright thinks we pay more falsifying Stetzer said Christians should view all demographic...27%. cost you more than the subsidized plans attention to bad news than to good receipts in order statistics with healthy skepticism.