Hunger relief advocates came to Congress last week and painted a bleak picture of a country struggling to meet an increased need for food assistance at a time of high unemployment. Soup kitchen workers are seeing new faces in line and charities are taking more calls for help.
Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.
[...]On Christmas morning, after devouring Mom's legendary homemade sticky buns, the Stevens family gathers around the Christmas tree. The three kids — Danny, 10, Molly, 8 and Christopher, 6 — excitedly begin opening their presents.
Their parents' joy soon turns to dismay' [...]
Gimmick Brings in Church Attendees
The Lighthouse Church of All Nations in Alsip, Illinois, has raffled a combined $1,000 to attendees in their three Sunday services over the last month. Not surprising, the attendance has dramatically increased from 1,800 to 2,000.
"I make no" [...]
By a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent, the voters of Maine on Tuesday repealed a state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed. Maine becomes the first state in which residents reversed the state government's decision to allow same-sex "marriage." In every single state — 31' [...]
I received a copy of Andy Stanley's newish book "The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be" a while back to review. Thomas Nelson Publishing gave me this copy (free!) to review. It has taken' [...] DALLAS — First Baptist Church Dallas announced plans Sunday to build a $130 million state-of-the-art campus in the middle of the downtown Dallas arts district.
It is expected to [...]
This is a post from the Lake City campus pastor, James Harleman, that originally appeared on the Lake City blog.
Let’s just confess: I like to dress up. [...]
Halloween has become a major [...]
A new report from Pew Research Center® — the 2008 American Community Survey — offers the most detailed portrait yet from the U.S. Census Bureau of marriage and divorce statistics at the state level.
Results from the report show that, in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma, men and [...]
S. M. Lockridge video clip:
The Bible says my King is the King of the Jews. He is a King of Israel. He's the King of righteousness. He's the King of the ages. He's the King of heaven. He’s the King of glory. He’s the King of kings' [...]
The October issue of Outreach magazine is all about growth. It lists the 100 largest U.S. churches, based on [...]
From Leadership Network's ADVANCE:
A number of our students are needing Bibles so I thought I would put together a quick set of links to the Bibles I suggest.A recent national survey of pastors and church staff shows the compensation package paid to the average pastor — including salary, housing allowance/parsonage, life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, continuing education allowances and retirement — has declined in 2009 by 2.4 percent for lead pastors to an average of $70,806. [...]
A special meeting will be held this Sunday at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church to determine the future of their new senior pastor, Tullian Tchividjian. The Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., church — founded by the late D. James Kennedy — installed Tchividjian this past Easter as their second senior minister in five [...]
For the second year in a row, Chicago is the country's most stressful city. Los Angeles, Calif., is second, followed by New York, N.Y., Cleveland, Ohio and Providence, R.I. Factors that were considered in determining the country's most stressful cities were: unemployment figures for June 2009; [...] 
I got an interesting book in the mail to review a few weeks ago, and while I haven't read it all, what I have been able to read (and what I have thumbed through) has been quite interesting. Below is a partial review with links to' [...] 
From World Magazine - HT Justin Taylor.Perinatal hospice offers an alternative to the trauma of aborting a disabled child | Matt Anderson
Illustration by Krieg Barrie
"Something's wrong with this baby," my ultrasound technician told me. She had [...]
I recently got a couple of books for review. The first one was:
Results from a new study to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior show that divorce or losing a spouse to death can exact an immediate and long-lasting toll on a person's health, even after remarriage, according to [...]
In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach [...]
A California judge has ruled in favor of a college student who was openly insulted by a professor during a speech on the value of traditional marriage. U.S. District Judge George H. King ruled that the college strike from its Web site a sexual harassment policy that censors speech deemed [...]
for the record, I am way, WAY under these "averages"..... :-)
(from FotF's Pastor's Weekly Briefing)
Fifty bishops serving with the United Methodist Church have agreed to a four percent pay cut. The salary reduction, which will begin Jan. 1, 2010, will return their pay to the 2008 [...]
The gay and lesbian population, which constitutes about three percent of adults, has received a lot of national attention in the past several years, primarily due to the efforts of gay activists who have promoted same-sex marriage, homosexual adoptions, domestic partner benefits and numerous other issues. [...]
Over the course of several months, Keith Mathison put together a list of his top 5 commentaries for each book of the Bible. With his recommendations of commentaries for Malachi and Revelation, he has now completed [...]
Here's a piece from MSNBC that lists the worst and best states for getting speeding and other driving-related tickets.
The state ranked the worst based on 17 factors, including:
Speed limits.The use of red-light or speed cameras. Laws banning cell phone use while driving. Whether speeders are allowed jury' [...]
The first three photos come from the photo gallery on the Waseca County News website. Photo above by Ginny Bergerson, second photo by Wes Ruedy, third photo by Phil Wala. First picture is the storm cell, second picture is of the tornado [...] A new survey conducted by LifeWay Research shows that the majority of Protestant churches (65 percent) have expanded their facilities, increased their presence on the Internet or added worship services within the past five years.
The study, "Effects of Ministry Space and Outlet Expansion," was [...]
The results of a new study released this week by the Barna Group reveal that many churchgoers and church leaders find it difficult to define the concept of spiritual maturity.
The research, which was based on 1005 telephone interviews conducted in August of 2008, shows that a large number of [...]
