Pastor Dan Scott – The Pathological Metamorphosis of the American Church

Pastor Dan Scott from Christ Church in Nashville, Tennessee gave an interesting quote from a recent message by Church on the Way Worship Pastor Dr. Tom McDonald in a post on his blog this week entitled, "The Pathological Metamorphosis of the American Church:"

"Something serious occurs to our worship and music whenever we change them from sacramental instruments that we employ to connect the human heart with God, into mere tools for church growth."

Starbucks and Church Marketing

Thanks to Todd Rhoades over at Monday Morning Insight for pointing the way to this very funny video entitled, "What if Starbucks marketed like the church?" at BeyondRelevance.com.



If you found this video thought-provoking, I encourage you to check out Richard Reising's post entitled, "re-Branding on Momentum." Here are a few quotes,

It seems like churches these days have seen the power of marketing and branding just enough to jump onto the band wagon. Churches everywhere are sliding onto the re-branding table and looking for a quick-fix for their "growing" concerns. A few recent conversations have illustrated the often missing link in a church's preparedness to go under the knife for a branding make-over.

...please note that true "branding" goes much deeper than skin deep. True branding is a plum-line from the core of who you are to the people God has called you to reach. It is a promise you deliver on in all that you do and is seen on the surface as your communication, design, image or brand.

...surface re-branding...is an epidemic. It is the concept that if we are not attracting people, it is because we do not have the right name or image, and therefore, we need to change it and re-design our look. With all the love I can muster, if you are not growing what you have, it is not because of your logo. If you are not connecting with people that come through your doors in a way that causes them to come back and bring others, no amount of design can create a long term fix. If you do have momentum however, the right brand can be a catalyst to new levels of growth...

...re-branding should only take place after momentum has been generated. To simply re-brand a church when it has not found its traction is generally just an indication to your community that you’ve tried everything else without success and in your last attempt, you’re changing your style and/or name in order to reinvent yourself...

Here’s the deal: if you aren’t currently connecting with people right where they’re at, no amount of branding/design can solve your problem. Re-branding without momentum is kind of like dressing up for your prom and forgetting to court a date...

...Design cannot obtain what a disconnected ministry cannot reach.

Well said!

On Schuller, Succession, Scripture, and Sin

According to articles in the L.A. Times newspaper entitled, "Schullers' Rift Centers Around Hour of Power" and "Rev. Robert H. Schuller Ousts His Son as 'Hour of Power' Preacher," the son has been sidelined and the father has taken the reins of leadership at the ministry he founded back into his own hands. According to a letter from the father on the Crystal Cathedral website, the move stems in part from a desire by the father to use the television platform he built to highlight some of America's best known preachers, including Bill Hybels and Kirbyjon Caldwell.

I encourage you to join me in prayer for this congregation, one of the most influential in America, and all its leadership, including its pastors, as they walk through these difficult days. I do not have any personal knowledge of any of the dynamics involved, but two very interesting statements in the L.A Times articles stood out to me. One is an assessment by the journalist and the other a direct quote from the father.

As the author of the Times' article put it,

Schuller built his worldwide ministry over a half century on the psychology of positive thinking and appealing to people turned off by the formality of traditional faiths. In contrast, his son's sermons have been full of direct references to the Bible.

He then quotes the father as saying,

"I was called to start a mission, not a church," Schuller told his audience Sunday. "There is a difference. . . . You don't try to preach . . . what is sin and what isn't sin. A mission is a place where you ask nonbelievers to come and find faith and hope and feel love. We're a mission first, a church second."

That concerns were expressed concerning the son's more frequent use of Scripture in preaching strikes me as particularly noteworthy given the fact that back in April of last year news articles in the Christian press were highlighting an unusual move of God that had begun under the son's ministry at the Crystal Cathedral. Over 500 people spontaneously came forward to give their lives to Christ and follow the Lord in water baptism during a single Sunday morning service! (Click here to Christianity Today magazine's account of those events.)

I have great respect for the work the father has done and was powerfully impacted a few years ago when I read his autobiography, "My Journey: From an Iowa Farm to a Cathedral of Dreams," particularly his account of sensing the call of God to spiritual leadership as a young farm boy. I must say, though, that I was intrigued by the fact that he apparently believes evangelism and "mission" should not include any preaching against sin.

He is a good and great man and I do not have any doubt that his concerns are well intentioned, but his paradigm strikes me as markedly different from that which graces the pages of the New Testament, whether Gospels, Epistles, or the Book of Acts. According to the latter, Paul's presentation of the Gospel to Governor Felix, aimed at bringing him to faith in Jesus Christ, included themes like righteousness, self-control, and divine judgment. That approach brought such deep conviction to Felix's heart that he was "afraid." He was not willing to give his heart to the Lord and wanted to put off hearing any more preaching like that until he was ready to be converted.

24 Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” (Acts 24:24-25 NIV)

According to Jesus, salvation requires both turning away from sin and faith toward God,

"14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”" (Mark 1:14-15 NIV)

Preaching and teaching against sin is not only part of the discipleship process, but passages such as these indicate that it is also a necessary and biblical part of evangelism. Preaching repentance involves preaching against sin, not to condemn the sinner, but in order to bring them to a place where they understand their need of a Saviour.

Jack Hayford on Pastoral Leadership, Etc.

While I was working at my laptop earlier today, I saw an interview on TBN between Matt Crouch and Jack Hayford that every pastor and church leader needs to watch. Pastor Jack says some great and very needful things about pastoral leadership, genuine ministry, and church growth. Click here to watch the program online from the TBN archives.

Following up on Willowcreek's Repentance

There is a great, thought-provoking article on Christianity Today's website entitled, "Am I Growing Yet?" by Mark Galli. It is good follow-up reading to the links I have referenced in my post, "The Wake Up Call of His Life" - Bill Hybels on discipleship failures at Willowcreek."

"The Wake Up Call of His Life" - Bill Hybels on discipleship failures at Willowcreek

If you have not yet done so, I urge you to click here and watch Bill Hybels at the last Willowcreek Church Leadership Summit share how their congregation's leadership has recently been confronted with their inneffectiveness at turning seekers into fully commited followers of Jesus Christ. I also urge you to click here to watch Greg Hawkins' comments on the process the Willowcreek leadership went through that led them to that conclusion.

While the congregation I lead (Hillcrest Church) is not a "seeker-driven" church like Willowcreek, I have great respect for Bill Hybels. I am convinced his passion for bringing people to Christ is authentic. Knowing the criticism he and his team have received over the years for some of their innovations, I honor him for the tremendous courage it must have taken to publically acknowledge the results of their research. I urge you as a leader to watch these two video clips and then ask yourself the hard question, "Regardless of whether or not the church I serve is the same style as Willowcreek, do their conclusions apply to us, too?" Chances are they do, at least to some degree, as is the case in certain ways here at Hillcrest Church.

In the final analysis, the command Jesus has given to us to make disciples requires effecting profound life-change in people. May God give us the insight we need in order to know the truth about how well our ministries accomplish that goal, and may He grant us the wisdom we need in order to become much better better at doing it...!

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into, thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually; when the data actually cameback it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for. … We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own." —Willow Creek Community Church senior pastor Bill Hybels [revealnow.com, 10/19/07]

Emotional Prejudice and Spiritual Gifts

The International Missions Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention recently decided to no longer appoint missionaries who pray in tongues privately. This has generated a lot of discussion in the blogosphere. One of the more interesting posts I have read is by Pastor Dwight McKissic entitled, "The IMB tongues policty: “Emotional Prejudice” or Exegetical Precision?" In his view, much of the current controversy within the Southern Baptist Convention regarding whether or not the exercise of a "private prayer language" (PPL) is proper for Baptist believers has much more to do with social prejudice and emotional backlash than with serious study of the Scriptures.

The mystery is, how could a convention that is usually biblio-centric and exegetically accurate reject plain, clear, scriptural, authoritive, inerrant and infallible biblical truth regarding the Spirit’s gifting of some believers to pray in tongues in private according to the sovereign will of God (I Corinthians 12:7,10, 30; 14:2, 4, 5, 13-15)? Just as the SBC initially adopted unbiblical views on slavery, segregation and abortion, then later recanted, I believe the SBC will eventually adopt a biblical position on tongues or drop restrictions regarding private praying in tongues for staff as did Campus Crusade for Christ who once held similar strict cessationist, anti-tongues policies for staff and students.

...

Why is there such strong “emotional prejudice” or “charisphobia” driving this policy? In conclusion, I offer three reasons: (1) Tongues historically has been associated with Pentecostals and charismatics. Certainly there has been a lot of abuse and misuse of the gift of tongues, by some in the Pentecostal movement. There was an abuse and misuse of tongues in the Corinthian church. Paul did not use the abuse of tongues as a rationale to disallow or rule out tongues, he simply regulated the use of the gift of tongues rather than forbid praying tongues.

Because of an “emotional prejudice” toward Pentecostals or charismatics, many Southern Baptist reject any practice or belief no matter how biblical that has any remote association with Pentecostals. Let’s throw out the bathwater of misuse and abuse but let’s keep the baby.

(2) Tongues have been historically associated with poor and uneducated people. This is true. However, I’m aware of highly educated and wealthy people, many who are Southern Baptist and other Bible believing Baptists who pray in tongues in private. The IMB tongues policy is driven by an “emotional prejudice” toward poor and uneducated people. The posture is certainly elitist and arrogant.

(3) Tongue speakers have often held viewpoints that they were spiritually superior to others without this gift or they have expressed a Pentecostal viewpoint of “the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues” as an absolute normative or universal experience and as an experience subsequent to salvation. Baptists recognize that these viewpoints do not have a biblical basis. Paul makes it clear that all believers do not have the gift of tongues (I Corinthians 12:30 and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs simultaneous with salvation (I Corinthians 12:13). Baptists recognize that all who are genuinely born again have been baptized by the Holy Spirit at salvation, but all do not speak in tongues (I Corinthians 12:30). But because many Pentecostals have taught an erroneous viewpoint of tongues and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit along with being elitist and arrogant at times, many Southern Baptist respond in kind with an “emotional prejudice,” “charisphobia” and an elitist and arrogant attitude as well.

I pray that God will forgive us as Southern Baptists for rejecting the truth about tongues as taught in the Bible and for rejecting missionaries who speak in tongues in private prayer. As a fellow Southern Baptist I confess our unbelief, “emotional prejudice,” “charisphobia” and arrogance and ask the Lord’s forgiveness.

One comment posted by a reader named BaptistBlog adds to that analysis,

Tongues is commonly associated with the poor, and evidence of charismatic advances in the Third World is regularly cited as a cause for the kind of prohibitive policies aggressively implemented and vigorously defended by our more elite cessationist kinsmen. They won’t say it, but here’s what they mean:

Tongues will drive the Southern Baptist Convention away from her “solid roots” in Anglo-American culture to become like those wild tribal peoples who don’t know any better than to mutter gibberish to idols.

While I certainly do not have any desire to comment on the internal politics of a denomination of which I am not a part, and for which I have tremendous respect, coming as I do from a classical Pentecostal background, I was struck by McKissic's analysis of the role the desire for social respectibility and upward mobility may have played in shaping the posture some of his peers have adopted toward the gift of spiritual language.

Pentecostal and Charismatic pastors are susceptible to falling into the same trap. They may feel compelled to "hide," "disguise," or "demphasize" the role of supernatural spiritual gifts in the life of their congregation in order to "market" their ministry to a broader audience. Somehow they come to believe that even biblically balanced charismatic activity in their public worship services will narrow the appeal of the church they lead and thereby hinder its growth.

A lot of ink (and electrons, too!) have been used over the years dissecting, discussing, and debating exactly what the phrase, "Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers...(1 Cor 14:22)" means. One thing seems obvious in the verses that follow: The Apostle Paul believed both tongues and prophecy are powerfully effective evangelistic aids when they occur within proper parameters in public worship services,

"22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. … 24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”" (1 Corinthians 14:22-25, NIV)

My own roots and life experience compell me to acknowledge that some segments of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have failed to observe fully biblical paradigms in the operation of spiritual gifts. I am deeply saddened, though, when I see some of my colleagues with similar backgrounds backing away from an integral part of the spiritual life of the church in the New Testament. The reality of supernatural experience was a key reason why our wing of the Christian church experienced such unprecendented global expansion throughout the last century. As we lead our people forward in this 21st century, let's be sure to lead them into all of God's truth and into all of the Spirit's fullness!

Breakout Churches

If you are like me, you are always looking for a great book, particularly one that communicates information you find helpful that you have not seen before. On a couple of recent flights from Dallas to London to Amsterdam back to London on to Prague, I read Breakout Churches: Discover How To Make The Leap by Thom Rainer. It takes several of the principles from the business bestseller, "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't" and applies them to churches that have gone from plateaued or declining membership to significant growth over a period of several years.

Based on extensive research and analysis of several tens of thousands of congregations, Breakout Churches details how several congregations of different sizes, movements, and regions of the country experienced lasting turnaround. Director of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Rainer's obvious passion is to see churches increase numerically through conversion, not transfer, growth.

Every one of the churches he profiled broke out of their previous pattern without changing senior pastors. Perhaps above all else, Rainer's work points toward the necessity of a leader's willingness to not only persevere, but to also undergo deep, personal change in their life and methodology. Many other factors contributed to the tremendous, positive change each church experienced, but nothing was more important than the Senior Pastor's profound personal transformation.

Charles Spurgeon on Church Growth

Justin Taylor has a great excerpt on his Theologica - Between Two Worlds blog from Charles Spurgeon, who built the world's first "megachurch" in London, England over a century ago, giving Spurgeon's recipe for growing a large church. Like all of Spurgeon's writings, the English is a bit antiquated and flowery compared to the way we speak today, but it's worth reading.

Here's a taste (there's more on Justin's site):

My good ministering brother, have you got an empty church? Do you want to fill it? I will give you a good recipe, and if you will follow it, you will, in all probability, have your chapel full to the doors.Burn all your manuscripts, that is No. 1. Give up your notes, that is No. 2. Read your Bible and preach it as you find it in the simplicity of its language. ... Begin to tell the people what you have felt in your own heart, and beseech the Holy Spirit to make your heart as hot as a furnace for zeal. Then go out and talk to the people. Speak to them like their brother. Be a man amongst men. Tell them what you have felt and what you know, and tell it heartily with a good, bold face; and, my dear friend, I do not care who you are, you will get a congregation.But if you say, "Now, to get a congregation, I must buy an organ."That will not serve you a bit."But we must have a good choir."I would not care to have a congregation that comes through a good choir."No," says another," but really I must a little alter my style of preaching."My dear friend, it is not the style of preaching, it is the style of feeling... Preach out of your hearts just what you feel to be true, and the old soul-stirring words of the gospel will soon draw a congregation.

It's harvest time...!

Last week, I spent three days in Peru, ministering at a pastor’s conference in Lima. Having lived there during my early teen years, it brought back a flood of memories. I’ve posted some photos and thoughts about all of that on my Hillcrest Church blog. In the next few days, I’ll post some of the lessons in leadership from the life of Moses I shared at that event.

I’ve spent the first three days of this week in one of my M.Div. classes (Growing the Local Church) at the King’s Seminary at Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California. It was taught by Senior Pastor Jim Tolle. Their Spanish church has grown very rapidly and is now the largest in the United States, with some 12,000 Hispanics in attendance every Sunday.

Interestingly, the strategy God gave Pastor Tolle in the beginning was to specifically target illegal immigrants, welcoming them to the U.S.A. and to the Church on the Way in the name of the Lord. Apparently, this approach is very uncommon among other Spanish language churches in this country, but it has resulted in incredible fruit. Now, their goal is to plant fifty churches in the next five years. Even with that level of outreach, it still looks like they will need to move their public meetings to one of the area’s sports stadiums!

Hearing their story drove home to my heart in a fresh way something I heard said several years ago: “It is God’s job to ripen the harvest. It is our job to reap the harvest. Too many times we try to reap where we want to reap instead of reaping where the Holy Spirit has already ripened!”

Jesus put it this way while passing through Samaria with His disciples,

"³⁵ As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time! ³⁶ “The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. " (John 4:34-37, The Message)

May God give us all eyes to see the fields that His Spirit has already ripened around us…!

Should we fret the back door...?

Browsing the web today, I came across a thought-provoking article bearing this title on the LeadershipJournal.net website. The author is a pastor who leads a thriving church in Leawood, Kansas. I think every shepherd can identify with his words when he writes,

I carry a fair amount of guilt about our back door. I think to myself, If I were a better pastor, they would still be here; or, If I had done a better job of discipling them, they would not have fallen away; or, If I hadn't preached on that controversial issue, they would not have left angry. Each one who departs leaves me with a distinct sense of failure.

He goes on to write something we pastors may not think about too
often,

This is an issue Jesus wrestled with. In John 6:66 we read, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." We know that thousands came to hear Jesus preach, and to eat of the fish and the loaves, yet how few there were that actually pursued the life of discipleship.

Some who heard him were quite critical of Jesus' ministry, accusing him of operating by the power of the Devil! Even his disciples questioned what he was doing. And one of the Twelve became so disillusioned that he betrayed the Lord to his enemies.

Jesus, too, had a "revolving back door" in his ministry.

Many scholars believe that the Parable of the Sower and the Soils reflects Jesus' own self-assessment of his ministry.

He then concludes,

Here's the takeaway: you will never completely close the back door of your church. When people leave, it hurts. Learn all you can from those who leave. Listen to hear if there is something important God would say to you through them.

Reach out to them, apologizing when needed, offering clarification and love when this is what's called for. But remember that when Jesus, God's Word made flesh, preached the gospel on this earth, most of his hearers did not accept his message. Some accused him of having a demon. One of his key leaders even betrayed him.

Jesus knew that God's kingdom would not expand by "pleasing all of the people all of the time." Instead the Kingdom expands as the relative minority of people who hear the gospel, live it, and in turn, give it away. Our task is to keep scattering the seed.

That sounds like good advice to me...! What do you think?

Consumer Christianity - Too Many Choices?

I continue to be amazed about how many parallels there are between the life of a local church and that of a family. Pastoring, in fact, sometimes seems a lot like parenting. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy and Titus to careful consider the state of a candidate's family life when they looked for potential spiritual leaders. He did not say that elders and deacons had to be successful business men, but he did say they had to be sucessful family men.
Entrepeneurial acumen certainly does not disqualify one from spiritual leadership and can be very valuable when applied to the life of a local church. According to Paul, though, it should not be the grounds for considering or selecting someone for such a role.

I think the reason is very simple: while businesses and churches have many things in common, a local church is much more like a family than a company. In a business, people are a means to an end; in a family, people are the end. In a business, people are sacrificed if necessary for the sake of the bottom line; in a family, people are the bottom line. Jesus did not die for ministry buildings, projects, or institutions, but for people. Hirelings lead task oriented ministries; shepherds lead people oriented ministries. Moses was not only called to go to the Promised Land, he was called to lead a particular group of sometimes rebellious people to the Promised Land. His level of commitment to them and his love for them was much like that of a father to his children. As pastors, if we ever sacrifice our sheep on the altar of our vision, then our ministry has become our god and we are a hireling, not a shepherd.

In every other gathering of human beings, people are brought together on the basis of some degree of shared interest or commonality, be it a love of football, similar political persuasions, common educational goals or something else, but in a family, people are forever bound together by simple DNA, no matter how divergent their values or diverse their personalities. Though their interpersonal conflicts may cause them to want to flee from each other, even if they go years without speaking or making contact, it is amazing how inevitably some occasion such as a wedding or a funeral or the discovery of a congenital family trait by some obscure biologist will thrust family members together once again.

God designed the biological family this way for many very good reasons. One of the most important must certainly be the perfection of our character. We can easily sever every other difficult human relationship without ever learning the lessons on interpersonal relationships from it that we should, but not our biological family ties. As one wag put it, "You can pick your friends, but you're stuck with your kinfolk!" Have you ever noticed how rare it is for siblings to be just like each other in temperament? This is not an accident! God intentionally places very diverse personalities in the same nuclear family for the simple reason that this forces every member to grow relationally. As we succeed in our families, working through conflicts and walking out forgiveness and forebearance, we learn valuable keys to success in every sphere of human relationships in broader society.

In this vein, I came across an interesting article a few minutes ago on Christianity Today's website (click here). It addresses some of the downfalls in adopting a purely "marketing" approach to local church leadership, especially focusing on meeting people's felt needs without ever calling them to a long-term, "come what may," commitment to a particular congregation. At first read, I think most any pastor who has seen someone lightly leave the flock they lead might read the article and identify with the frustrations felt in the conversation which opens up the piece. I encourage you, though, to take the time to ask yourself the question, "In the church I serve, how intentional are we about promoting the kind of interpresonal bonding between members that would motivate them to stay with this community of faith no matter what?" If we fail to do this, we rob our people of God's perspective on the local church and they will not grow unto the spiritually mature individuals He intends them to be.

What do you think?

Global trends in Christianity

During the WME World Ministries Conference we had the privilege of hosting here at Hillcrest a while back, Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, gave an excellent overview of the most significant global trends in Christianity. You can listen to his message via our website by clicking on the following link:

http://www.hillcrestchurch.org/index.cfm/PageID/692/index.html

Recently, I came across the transcript of an interview Rick Warren gave at a symposium hosted by the Pew Charitable Trust. It's title is a bit misleading because it is about much more than the mega-church phenomenom. During the interview, Rick gives his overview of where the global church is today. You can read the full transcript by clicking on the following link:

http://pewforum.org/events/index.php?EventID=80

Websites worth visiting

Here is a rather random sampling of some of the websites I have visited recently that are interesting, from a leadership point of view. I'll add a list of podcasts/vodcasts soon.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/ - "Following God's call in a new world. Conversations hosted by Christianity Today."

www.lifechurch.tv - Oklahoma based congregation that is using media very effectively to open many satellite campuses. They also offer free media content for churches.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/ - Seattle congregation with lots of great audio and video downloads.

http://www.mmiblog.com/ - Home page / web portal for pastors and church leaders.
www.mondaymorninginsight.com - I think this is a newer version of the same thing.

www.mosaic.org - Erwin McManus leads this church in California and is an exceptionally effective communicator. Lots of audio and video downloads.

www.therevealer.org - "A daily review of religion and the press."

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage - A totally different take (in English) on events in the Middle East.

http://www.churchmarketingstinks.com/ - "The blog to frustrate, educate, and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ."

www.seminarylibrary.com - "...provides a remote library viewer to thousands of searchable, digitized, hi-resolution books."

http://www.breitbart.com/ - All the latest news wires from one, convenient webpage.

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/ - Summarizes the major events of the week with news from around the world.

http://enewhope.typepad.com/ - Pastor Wayne Cordeiro's blog for leaders.

www.christiantoday.com - British christian home page / web portal.

www.blueletterbible.org - Bible portal with several versions, dictionaries, and commentaries.

www.biblegateway.com - Another Bible portal with many resources.