T.D. Jakes "Divine Impulses" Washington Post Video Interview

Christianity with a taste of Europe

One of the marvels of the internet is how it makes the world so accessible. To get a taste of what evangelical Christianity is like on "the other side of the pond," check out the Christian Today website. (Note: This is NOT the same thing as the U.S. based, Christianity Today website, which is another great online resource.) The British site includes news and articles from a thoroughly Continental perspective.

Another great way to expand your horizons beyond the borders of the U.S. is to check out Christian radio and TV in Europe. Here are links to both of the major Christian radio networks in Britain, UCB and Premier. If you understand French, listen to Radio Phare FM, run by a very dear friend of mine, Pastor Claude Greder of La Porte Ouverte church in Mulhouse, France, and their TV broadcasts.

To get a taste of what British Christian television is like, check out the live, online broadcasts of the God Channel and Premier Christian TV.

Enjoy...!

Real-Time World Conversions Map...!

One of the most fascinating new uses of technology in ministry that I have seen recently is something my friend, Samuel Balverde, over at France Advance and Top Chrétien is working on right now. Their various sites, including the wildly successful Looking for God witnessing portal, are now available in several languages and are seeing over four hundred people a day registering decisions for Christ. (For more information about their various ministries, read this post from my Hillcrest Church pastoral blog.)

Their new beta technology feeds the results of those first-time commitments to Jesus into the Joy in Heaven mapping engine which displays satellite maps showing where the latest decision for Christ has just been registered through their sites. Global activity, of course, depends on what time of day it is in the various time zones of the world, but in the last few two or three minutes as I have written this post, I have seen decisions registered in Nairobi, Kenya; Wichita, Kansas; and a little village in Austria...!

As we prepare to go into our annual 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting at Hillcrest Church, this is going to be a wonderful tool to mobilize people to intercession during our evening corporate prayer meetings. As you watch the map, right before your very eyes, it shifts to a new place in the world where someone has just prayed, asking Jesus into their hearts...and you know to pray for that person in that place...! I admit that I am a closest techno-geek, but I really do think that is a very cool and creative and "out-of-the-box" application of emerging technology...!

Dr. David Shibley's New Blog

Had a great chat today over Tex-Mex with my very good friend, Dr. David Shibley from Global Advance. After tasting such local delicacies as roasted avocado with chicken fajita meat at a new restaurant called Chiloso (that I really hope opens franchises soon - sort of like Chipotle taken to the next level...!) we went back to his office for a bit. During our visit, he mentioned a book that he was reading and I urged him to start a blog that he could use to share his thoughts with pastors like me.

Well, one thing led to another and in a few moments we had him up and running at davidshibley.blogspot.com. David is one of the leading spokesmen for world missions in the charismatic world today, the author of several books including A Force in the Earth and The Missions Addiction. Anything he writes will be well worth reading!

If you know pastors in developing countries, in particular, I encourage you to point them toward another of Global Advance's websites entitled www.2tim2.org. It contains resources for spiritual leaders in English, Spanish, French, and Russian. At Hillcrest Church, we believe in David and the Global Advance ministry and we support them financially on an ongoing basis. If you would like to find out more about the work they do around the world, check out their online video entitled, Touching Leaders - Changing Nations.

Great list of Charismatic/Pentecostal blogs

I have just stumbled across a great blog by Rich Tatum called Blogrodent : Pentecostal Rumination and Review. I have just begun reading his blog and have already discovered that, among other things, he has an interesting list of links to other blogs called PneumaBlogs and a call to fellow Pentecostals and Charismatics to begin blogging.

Rich also has a link to a great post on Google Blogoscope pointers on good blogging style. The layout of Rich's own blog is a great example of how to "spruce up" your blog with graphics, fonts, and neat little tools like showing an executive summary of posts on your home page with links to the full post that even include an estimate of how long it will take you to read that post...!

Looking at the beautiful layout of Rich's pages shame me terribly and have already added to my determination to update the look and feel of this page just as soon as I can...!

Enjoy...! It is well worth the clicks to check Rich out...!

Evangelicals: Where we are and how we got here...

Here is an excellent article from Christianity Today tracing the historical rise of American evangelicalism and the reasons behind it. As the byline puts it, "50 years ago, evangelicals were a sideshow of American culture. Since then, it's been a long, strange trip. Here's a look at the influences that shaped the movement."

Generous Giving Stewardship website

Here is a great website with lots of material on stewardship: http://www.generousgiving.org/

Should we do away with theologians?

Here's an interesting read from C. Peter Wagner entitled, "Goodbye Theologians!" I chuckled when I read that a student at Fuller Seminary had a research paper rejected by a professor because he had quoted Jack Hayford in it, saying Hayford was not "theological."

Leadership book excerpts

Check out this link to find free excerpts from some top leadership books: http://leadershipnow.com/leadershop/readingroom.html

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.