The Christian Century recently asked several significant Christians to provide their take on the Gospel in seven words or less. Martin E. Marty, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Modern Christianity in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, responded as follows: " God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you anyhow." So What? If you were given just seven words (or less), how would you answer the question: "What's the gospel?" Read More …
Discipleship
Communication Tools &The Future of the Church (#0542)
Bobby Gruenewald serves as innovation leader for LifeChurch.tv, which is a congregation of nearly 30,000 who meet at 14 campuses throughout the United States. In this role he "oversees the Digerati, Media Design, and Communications teams as well as the LifeChurch.tv Open, Network and United operations." His innovative leadership, especially with the YouVersion Bible (more on that here), earned him a spot on the FastCompany's list of the top 100 creative people in Read More …
The World’s Most Powerful People (#0541)
Forbes recently released its latest list of the world's most powerful people. Americans and politicians both fared well this year, and an American politician received the highest overall ranking. Rank Name/Title Organization Age 1 Barack Obama President United States of America 50 2 Vladimir Putin Prime Minister Russia 59 3 Hu Jintao President People’s Republic of China 68 4 Angela Read More …
Review of Will There Be Faith? (#0538)
Meet the Author Thomas Groome is chair of the Department of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry as well as professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, where he has taught since 1976. Groome has written numerous books on religious education, including the now classic Christian Religious Education: Sharing Our Story and Vision (1980), which introduced his shared Christian praxis approach. His latest book is Will There Be Faith? A New Vision Read More …
Trust/Mistrust in God & Worry (#0536)
A recent article in the Scientific American, co-authored by Sarah Estes Graham and Jesse Graham, considers a scholarly article in the July 2011 edition of the Journal of Clinical Psychology written by a group that includes professors from Harvard Medical School. The research found: Studying hundreds of devoutly religious Jews and Christians, the researchers explored what religious cognitions can lead to more or less worry. Specifically, they found that mistrust in God . . . was Read More …
Ministry in 2011 (#0535)
Jin An, IT Director at Quest Church and owner of 8 Four Consulting, recently wrote a guest piece for the New Media Project. He begins his article with observations about what he knows of life in 2011, including "I can have church on my phone or laptop." So What? For years, many have taught that ministry modeled after Jesus should do as he did. One implication of that philosophy is that those who follow the way of Jesus should meet people where they are. An provides updated Read More …
American Faith at an All-Time High (#0532)
Joel Osteen is truly unique. He is Pastor of America's largest congregation; Preacher of happiness (above all else); and an Accidental popular author and preacher ("inherited" his dad's congregation and has no formal training - e.g. seminary). Cheryl Wetzstein's article in the Washington Post provides a look into his latest claim: "I see faith in America at an all-time high." So What? Of course, Osteen bases this lofty assertion on nothing more than his own incredibly Read More …
Pastors & Forced Termination (#0531)
Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, recently shared some observations on church staffing trends in a piece for the Christian Post. One of the six trends he discussed is the percentage of senior pastors who lose their jobs each year because of forced terminations. Over the last seven years, approximately 1.5% of senior pastors have been subject to forced termination each year. So What? Basic math indicates that over that 7 year period, 10.5% of senior Read More …
Halloween at the Hell House (#0529)
Brian Kirk's recent article, "Christian Haunted Houses: Scaring the 'Hell' Out of Teens?," caught my attention for several reasons, including: fear based evangelism targeting teens remains a tactic used by fundamentalist Christians hell houses or evangelistic productions staged to "convert" teens and "save" them from hell are an extreme form deployed each year at Halloween I have been to the Hell House at Trinity Church (Assemblies of God) in Cedar Hill, TX (the "original" upon which so Read More …
Bible-believing Means . . . (#0526)
Casey and Bob Baggott, executive minister and senior minister of the Community Church of Vero Beach, recently wrote an article for TCPalm about just what it means to call one's self "Bible-believing." In contrast to those who are Biblical literalists, the Baggotts propose: . . . none of us is capable, nor do we choose, to live out every literal dictate of the Bible. Instead, all faithful people must apply some principle by which we are capable of discerning the underlying Read More …