Survey finds Africa is most religious part of world
(ENI/RNS) — Researchers say they've found the most religious place on Earth — between the southern border of the Sahara Desert and the tip of South Africa.
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ARP pastor seeks way out of Erskine lawsuit “minefield”
A North Carolina pastor in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church has written a widely-circulated statement critical of the denomination's handling of governance issues at ARP-affiliated Erskine College and Seminary in Due West, S.C.
COLA looks for volunteers to be prayer partners
MINNEAPOLIS — This July several thousand Presbyterians will attend the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Minneapolis. But there are many more who would like to be at the Assembly, but can’t attend because of time, distance, or other commitments.
Winning? Losing!
We’re winning. Christians in the Great State of Texas have taken the majority of seats on the state’s Board of Education, and they are re-writing the curriculum for social studies courses (final vote in May).
Salvation Army reports record U.S. donations despite sour economy
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ENI/RNS) The coins and dollar bills added up quickly last Christmas, despite the economic slump, as Americans donated a record US$139 million to the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign.
Spring 2010 book issue
Do you enjoy prowling through old bookshops on a rainy Saturday afternoon?
A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that Are Changing the Faith
by Brian McLaren
HarperOne. San Francisco. 320 pages.
reviewed by Jan Edmiston
Brian McLaren first came on my radar in 2004 when Time magazine named him “One of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.” James Dobson and Rick Warren were familiar names and faces. But Brian McLaren was not only an unfamiliar name; his message sounded very different from his fellow “Influential Evangelicals.”
10 minutes with … Brian McLaren
(RNS) Traditional Christian values and modern culture need not clash, according to Brian McLaren, 53, a nondenominational pastor and one of the leading lights of the Emerging Church Movement and a polarizing figure in conservative circles.
The Worshiping Body: The Art of Leading Worship
by Kimberly Bracken Long
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009. 130 pp. $19.95
reviewed by Ronald P. Byars
Whether it is playing the piano or soccer, doing so with a measure of grace requires both coaching and practice, and that is equally true for skills such as preaching, reading Scripture aloud, or presiding in worship. Few find leadership in worship comes naturally, but it can be learned.
This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public & Private Lives of Two Ministers
by Lillian Daniel and Martin B. Copenhaver
Eerdmans, 2009, Pb., 235 pp.
reviewed by Stephen r. Montgomery
Ever since Barbara Brown Taylor wrote her critically acclaimed book Leaving Church, I have been waiting for someone with equal eloquence and theological depth to respond with reflections on why, given all the shortcomings and problems of churches, one would choose to stay in church.
They Were Just People
by Bill Tammeus and Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn
University of Missouri Press, Columbia Missouri, 2009.
reviewed by Leslianne Braunstein
I saw the movie, Schindler’s List in 1993. I thought Oskar Schindler was incredibly brave and appropriately recognized by the State of Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations – a non-Jew who risked his life to save Jews from Nazi extermination.
Strategic Leadership for a Change: Facing our Losses, Finding our Future
by Kenneth McFayden
Alban Institute 2009
reviewed by Roy W. Howard
This book can be read in an afternoon; but for the attentive reader who practices what it teaches, the insights will last a lifetime. The premise of the book is simple: “the church both yearns for and resists effective leadership, particularly transformational leadership.”
BOOK REVIEW BRIEFS
All the Living: A Novel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (2009). 208 pages. By C.E. Morgan.
A finely written novel that portrays the deepest connections of love, land, grief, friendship, marriage, and faith. The author deftly and accurately renders the language and culture of those who tend the land. Theological and pastoral insights are subtly woven into the narrative. An extraordinary story by a skilled young writer.
Commissioned Lay Pastors: Second-tier or top-rung leaders?
Louisville. Barbara Wheeler, director of the Center for the Study of Theological Education at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, has a knack for laying hard issues directly before the Presbyterian church – and encouraging it to push for better ways of doing ministry.
Hard To Deny
Two generations ago, the deal was pretty clear: church members went to Sunday worship.
That Tillich fellow
My associate pastor wasn’t surprised, but I was.
A lesson in Cuba
LOUISVILLE — Yes, Virginia, there is a vital Presbyterian Church in Cuba.
Houston church encourages, collects prayers in light of possible NASA layoffs
STATESVILLE, N.C. — Many people know the famous line "Houston, we have a problem," referring to the Apollo 13 lunar mission.
Film in review – “After.Life”
You know all those movies where immediately upon death, there’s a really bright light, and you get to go to a place that’s colorful and fantastic, with phenomenal visuals?
Fire destroys sanctuary of Houston church
A devastating fire on April 9 at A Community of the Servant-Savior Presbyterian Church (servant-savior.org) in Houston, Texas, destroyed the church’s building. Arson is suspected, but the investigation is still ongoing, according to Pastor Alan Brehm. It was insured for $1.6 million, according to the pastor.
Church growing rapidly in Manchuria region of northeast China
SHENYANG, China — Three large classrooms at Dongguan Church here are filled on a Friday afternoon with well over 1,000 church members who are studying Psalm 92. A young female pastor leads the Bible study in one room; her image is projected on large screens in the other two rooms by closed circuit television. Students nibble on the remnants of their lunches as they take copious notes.
Church of Sweden celebrates 50 years of ordained female priests
(ENI) — The Church of Sweden is celebrating 50 years since the first woman was ordained a priest by the church, the largest denomination in the Lutheran World Federation.
Judge issues preliminary injunction in Erskine lawsuit
A South Carolina circuit judge has issued a preliminary injunction affirming a status quo situation for Erskine College and Seminary’s Board of Trustees in response to a lawsuit filed in March by three board members and the Erskine Alumni Association against the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
“Reformed Theological Seminary fires OT scholar for believing in evolution”
“When it comes to incriminating videos these days, the one of Bruce K. Waltke might seem pretty tame. It shows the noted evangelical scholar of the Old Testament talking about scholarship, faith and evolution.
Erskine College lawsuit restraining order extended indefinitely
A circuit court judge on April 6 extended the temporary restraining order relating to a lawsuit brought against the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by members of the Erskine College Board of Trustees and the Erskine Alumni Association.
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