The family of God here at Dowagiac Church of Christ wishes to extend to you a warm welcome. If you have questions about our worship services and why we do what we do, we will be glad to give you a biblical answer. The uniqueness of the Church of Christ is that we are trying to restore to the best of our ability those things that we see the first century Church doing. We are also working hard at building the spirit, unity, and love that Jesus taught and prayed for. We have no clergy, but are working together as equal co-workers trying to serve one another and the area in which we live. Come study with us, grow with us, and serve with us as we strive to do God's will in all things.


POTLUCK TODAY. This is our usual first Sunday time of fellowship and discussion together. Plan to stay, whether you brought a dish or not. This week is spring vacation for most of the school systems in the area, and a lot of folks are out of town. A lot of us brought extra and we do not want leftovers, so stay and enjoy some time together.

DECISIONS. For the past several weeks we have been asking everyone to let their wishes known on some of the projects the congregation is involved in. Thank you for your input. We have ordered the carpet for the downstairs classrooms, and it should be installed soon. One thing we might consider when we have it all done is having a community open house to show everyone in the area what we have available to serve the community. It has been a huge change from where we were when we had the basement flooded three years ago to where we are now. Give us your thoughts on this idea.

We have also decided as a congregation to once again have a booth in the Cass Country 4H Fair. We have had some discussion about the value of the fair booth, but there can be no question that it is the best and cheapest advertising we have. If you have not seen the ad we had in the Dowagiac paper recently, have Bill Gibson show it to you. This was a special price at just under $200. The Fair booth comes close to $500 but it involves personal contact with people and gets everyone in the congregation involved. It was the consensus that this was worth doing. Now we need to think about what our booth should be this time.

THE FAITH OF GIDEON
Judges 6 and 7:1-22

 
We live in a culture that has accepted gambling as an acceptable form of recreation. We are even seeing elementary schools conducting carnivals with roulette wheels, games of chance, and betting as a way of raising money. In 1982, U.S. citizens spent $4.2 billion at casinos and $2.2 billion on lottery tickets for a total of $6.4 billion. In 2008, those numbers increased to $120 billion with $32.54 billion at non-tribal casinos, $26.7 billion at Indian casinos and $61 billion on lottery products. Internet gambling is now being enacted that will allow any person including children to do "point and click" gambling. This is now legal in Michigan, but not in Indiana. There is a good probability that sometime in the near future a casino will opened across the street from us here in Dowagiac. This IS an issue for us.

The Bible makes it clear that Christians are not to be a part of anything that "has the appearance of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22). The facts on gambling are crystal clear. When gambling is present there is a rapid growth of prostitution, embezzlement, suicide, and drug and alcohol related crimes in the area. Economists report that the cost of addressing social problems created by gambling exceeds the profits by a 3:1 ratio. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that "Pathological gambling is one of the fastest growing mental health problems in the western world." Claims that legalized gambling improves things economically in an area are not supported by the facts. States with lotteries and casinos have not been able to lower their taxes. Places like Las Vegas where gambling has been well entrenched for a long time has a high unemployment rate of 14.5% and was ranked by Forbes as the most stressful work environments in the country. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics found that the average wage of a card dealer is $16,000 a year, just $5,000 over the poverty threshold.

The Church is to oppose evil, use its resources to help those who are in need, and stand for that which is consistent with God's teachings in the Bible. Gambling and the gambling establishment do none of these things. We should not participate in gambling, and should be prepared to oppose gambling being forced on our community as Christians and citizens.