Good insight here from veteran worship leader Tommy Walker on the purpose of worship:

God is not blessing you to reach some unattainable spiritual high that all those rookie worshipers can't get to. He's blessing you so you can be a blessing and show non-believers what they were created for.

Therefore, if you feel like you're starting to become a connoisseur of worship, let me recommend that you start seeking ways to share your worship experience with others.

Have we forgotten that the presence of God is what the world is looking for? Lost people are destroying their lives and doing every kind of insane, unimaginable thing — just to have a sense of oneness with their Creator.

We should be introducing them to their eternal destiny!

However sincere the intent may be, it is lost by the poor presentation.

I wonder:  In worship services, how many times are good ideas eclipsed by poor presentation (?).

(photo credit:  Sun-Sentinel)

Songwriter Gerrit Gustafson (Only By Grace, Mighty is Our God) writes:

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. Matthew 25:40

Tucked away in an alley off a dingy street in Calcutta is a very nondescript doorway. I was a bit uncertain that it was even the right place. But that humble doorway, through which I was warmly welcomed by the Missionaries of Charity, also became an entrance for me into an understanding of worship that is branded deeply in my mind and heart.

Mother Teresa was probably not someone you would have thought as a worship consultant to your church. However, as you retrace with me that conversation in 1988, I think you might just discover an insight that, if put into practice, could deepen your life of worship and increase the sense of God's pleasure in it.

More from CCLI here.

Here's this answer (in part) by Glimpses of Christian History:

Was Shakespeare a true Christian? Some of the anecdotes about his life make that doubtful. Nonetheless, a month before his death, he wrote his will, which he concluded by saying, "I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour to be made partaker of life everlasting."

He instructed that his tombstone to be inscribed:

"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones."

Especially interesting is the speculation that Shakespeare makes an appearence in the King James translation of the Bible (Psalm 46).

More here.

 (HT:  Ramon Alamon, colleague at Cross International)

With the 2008 Presidential Election in full swing last September, the tropical storms and hurricanes that ravaged Haiti escaped the attention of most...

...but not the Miami Herald, who sent photographer Patrick Farrell to the island nation.  He returned with this photo and others - which earned him a Pulizer Prize - chronicling the horrific toll the storms took on this impoverished country. 

Warning:  These photos are not for the feint of heart. They are, in Farrell's words, heartbreaking.  In fact, you can hear his voice waver and crack in the audio narrative.

Father God:  Open our eyes and our hearts to help those that are in need, as You have commanded us to do.

Have you seen our worship videos?

They are here and available gratis (free!) to interested churches.

Call me to order:  1-800-391-8454 x174 or go on-line here.

Or email:  cburge@crossinternational.org

“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

- Exodus 34: 6-8, NKJ

God honors those who honor Him.

An incredible blessing - and the reason God has granted Cross International favor - is in large part because we devote the first hour of every working day as a staff to Him.  We meet Monday through Friday everyday for a staff led devotion, followed by a Bible or Christian book study, mission report, and/or prayer for each other, our donors, and our field partners.

If you are struggling with your choir, worship team, or staff, I heartily recommend regular, daily devotions.  It will hold your team together like nothing else can.

Click here for more details.

• Is your worship a bit stale?

• Are your personal devotions rote?

• Do you need healing in an area somewhere?

• Are you asking for God’s protection and favor?

Then take a recommendation from Isaiah:

I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD...

Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless.

Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives.

   Then your light will shine like the dawning sun, and you will quickly be healed.

            Your honesty will protect you as you advance, and the glory of the LORD will defend you from behind.

   When you beg the LORD for help, he will answer, "Here I am!"

   Don't mistreat others or falsely accuse them or say something cruel.

    Give your food to the hungry and care for the homeless.

   Then your light will shine in the dark; your darkest hour will be like the noonday sun.

(Isaiah 58:6-10, Contemporary English Version)

A new opportunity from the Catalyst folks for songwriters:

Catalyst is about Leaders. Leaders who have a passion to impact our Generation, including leaders in music and the arts.

We value the local church.

We value songs that move our generation.

We value songwriters, musicians and worship leaders.

We value the next generation of worship.

We want to help facilitate the next generation of worship songs from the Church by providing a platform for worship leaders, musicians and songwriters to connect their Local songs to the Global church. Thousands of leaders have been blessed with songs, with anthems of praise they believe will help the Body of Christ bring glory to Jesus in a whole new way. We want to find them and release them. Songs that will become written on the heart of our generation.

You can upload original songs here that could be part of a release by INO Records. 

Your call, but an interesting opportunity (until June 1 anyway).

By Mary Karr

From the far star points of his pinned extremities,
cold inched in—black ice and squid ink—
till the hung flesh was empty.
Lonely in that void even for pain,
he missed his splintered feet,
the human stare buried in his face.
He ached for two hands made of meat
he could reach to the end of.
In the corpse’s core, the stone fist
of his heart began to bang
on the stiff chest’s door, and breath spilled
back into that battered shape. Now

it’s your limbs he comes to fill, as warm water
shatters at birth, rivering every way.
 

HT:  Desiring God blog, which includes a nice analysis.

As a worship leader, team building is among your biggest challenges.  For your services to be successful and glitch-free (relatively), your group has to be functioning as one.  This is especially challenging with ‘creatives’, who tend to distrust structure and formality.

How do you take a group of creative, imaginative people and effectively build consensus, cohesion, and like-mindedness for the glory of God?

Chances are you are doing that already. 

The secret, according to blogger and author Seth Godin, is ‘intentionally building communities’ by shared activity and a goal:

Put multi-disciplinary teams of ten people together and give them three hours to create something of value. The esprit de corps created by a bunch of strangers under time pressure in a public competition would last for decades. The community is worth more than the project.

The challenge is to look at the rituals and events in your organization...and figure out how amplify the real reason they exist even if it means abandoning some of the time-honored tasks you've embraced…

Working side by side doing something that matters under adverse conditions... that's what we need.

That sounds very similar to what happens every Sunday in my church.

Also see what Paul had to say about building teams and the importance of community.

Scene from the Passion of Jesus, as Matthew describes it:

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, "You also were with Jesus the Galilean." But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what you mean."

And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." And again he denied it with an oath: "I do not know the man."

After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you." Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know the man."

And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

Art by Wayne Forte 

Hat tip:  Imago Fidei (Christianity Today)

 ...I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

    for his judgments are true and just;

for he has judged the great prostitute

   who corrupted the earth with her immorality,

and has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

 - Revelation 19:1-2 (ESV)

St. Helen's Bishopgate Church of London (England) does a good job of explaining the basics of the celebration of Passion Week and Easter in a series of short films on their website.

Take-away quote: 

"Some people think Christianity is all about making us feel guilty...(when it really is) all about a release from that guilt."

Not according to Michael Brush of MSN Money, who compares the social networking site to Walmart:

It's a giant, like Wal-Mart Stores. And as a one-stop shop that lets users easily build networks of friends to share news and photos, join groups and search for school and work buddies, it has the potential to bury MySpace, Classmates.com and other competitors the way Wal-Mart has busted local retailers.

He posts these facts as evidence:

• Traffic. In December, 108 million people, or 30% of the world's Internet population, visited Facebook, compared with 81 million who visited MySpace, according to Nielsen Media Research.

• Users. Facebook now reports more than 175 million active users, compared with 130 million for MySpace, its closest direct competitor. "Facebook is eating MySpace's lunch," says Bill Douglass, a social-media strategist with Brainerd Communicators.

• Value. Two years ago, based on the sale of 1.6% of its business to Microsoft, Facebook might have been worth $15 billion. That's up there with household names like Nissan Motor, Halliburton, and Kellogg today.

Some pundits posit that Facebook could surpass Google (!) for total worldwide unique visitors.

 (hat tip to Nell Handley, colleague @ Cross International)

Savvy advice from leadership expert John Maxwell:

Vincent Van Gogh failed as an art dealer, flunked his entrance exam to theology school, and was fired by the church after an ill-fated attempt at missionary work. In fact, during his life, he seldom experienced anything other than failure as an artist. Although a single painting by Van Gogh would fetch in excess of $100 million today, in his lifetime Van Gogh sold only one painting, four months prior to his death.

Before developing his theory of relativity, Albert Einstein encountered academic failure. One headmaster expelled Einstein from school and another teacher predicted that he would never amount to anything. Einstein even failed his entrance exam into college.

Prior to dazzling the world with his athletic skill, Michael Jordan was cut from his sophomore basketball team. Even though he captured six championships, during his professional career, Jordan missed over 12,000 shots, lost nearly 400 games, and failed to make more than 25 would-be game-winning baskets.

Failure didn't stop Vincent Van Gogh from painting, Albert Einstein from theorizing, or Michael Jordan from playing basketball, but it has paralyzed countless leaders and prevented them from reaching their potential.

At some point, all great achievers are tempted to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere. In the face of adversity, shortcomings, and rejection, they hold onto self-belief and refuse to see themselves as failures.

Click here to read Seven Principles for Failing Forward from the rest of the article "Failing Forward."

Hallelujah!

How  good it is to sing praise to our God, 

how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

Free streaming of Raise Up the Crown, a new and very solid collection of modern worship songs, is available now here.  Nice mix of both old and new which can either be sung by congregations or presented as special music.

Worth a listen (if not a purchase) are:

• Beautiful Scandalous Night by the Robbie Seay Band (great and underappreciated song)

• The Wonderful Cross by Philips, Craig, and Dean (just because I usually like these guys).

• Raise Up the Crown by Chris Tomlin (begins with All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name and Tomlin adds a new chorus, much like he did with Amazing Grace (My Chains Fell Off).

• How Deep the Father's Love by Nicole Nordeman (best arrangement in the collection)

Bonus track:  Remastered live version of Keith Green performing Easter Song.

Again, free to stream at least for now.  

Is there room for improvisation within planned church services?

Most churches in which I've served in worhip leadership have had weekly rehearsal times and a planned order of service.  Everything is gone over so that when Sunday morning comes, so all know exactly to expect.  While this led to an orderly service, quite often we would begin at 11:00 am 'sharp' and end at noon 'dull.'

One church in which I served, however, planned nothing.  We had no set rehearsal times, and the song leader would step up Sunday morning at begin playing from what he knew and had learned.  The rest of the musicians and I simply followed.  This led to some inspired times of worship, but also had it's share of frustrations (varying lengths of service, confusion among the musicians and congregants).

I thought of this order-improv tension when I read this blog entry from Tony Kim of Newsong Church: 

I respect a thoughtfully choreographed Sunday experience- I’ve been a career from it. A well crafted moment can truly change lives. But sometimes, I just miss the drama of improv.

What if speakers, moderators, musicians, and artists, did not know what they were doing till the moment? Sure there would be some embarrassing minutes on stage, but there might also be beautiful unique moments that the audience can experience with you for the very first time. It can create a shared experience- and a shared experience brings people together.

Improv is not for everyone or every performer, but it’s certainly opens up the possibilities of the unknown.- and we all can use a few more surprises in our churches.

Professor John Stackhouse of Regent University lists five reasons why worship bands should watch the level of amplification:

1.  Cranking the volume is a cheap trick to add to a room's energy.

2.  Bad intonation at loud levels is painful.

3. Most church PA speakers cannot handle high volumes.

4.  Loudness marginalizes older folks.

5.  The focus of worship is taken off of God.

While appearing polemic (or cranky), his points are worth consideration.

Read it here from Christianity Today.

Comedian Louis CK explains to Conan O'Brien why "we might spend some time walking around with a donkey with pots clanging on it."

Click here to go to NBC to view.

Obviously presenting a secular point of view, his point is nevertheless well taken.

Songwriter Chris Rice says it is the "Donum Mundus clause" in this interesting post:

 I have introduced a new clause (or provision) into my label contracts called the Donum Mundus Provision, which will serve as an example to artists, labels, publishers, and others in the music industry. I insisted on this new legal language in order to call attention to the concept.

Here’s the concept behind the provision: In an exclusive recording or publishing agreement, a writer or artist is giving up his/her right to compose or record any work for anyone other than that publisher or label. There is nothing wrong with an agreement like this. But in order to reserve the freedom to create something outside of that contract, for no other reason than to beautify the world, a Donum Mundus clause provides the artist/writer with an exception to the exclusivity. An exception of one song per period, or one song per record, (or any terms agreeable to both parties) that the artist/writer may write or record one of his works to GIVE AWAY, without obligation to the label or the publisher, and without compensation of any kind to himself. Simply as a GIFT TO THE WORLD (DONUM MUNDUS).

This is essentially accomplished by declaring the song, at its creation, a PUBLIC DOMAIN work. That work is therefore free to be used by anyone, anywhere. It is still copyrighted to the composer/author, but no compensation is sought. It is a gift to the world--a concept that has been lost in the shuffle of intellectual property rights.

I still believe in intellectual property rights. I simply want to reserve for myself and other artists the ability to create something, outside of the confines of an exclusive contract, that I can offer to the world as a free gift, no strings attached.

Note that this post is from February 2007.

At least two questions arise:

1.  How has this worked for Chris?

2.  Have other songwriters/artists followed his lead?

In a Miami Herald article chronicling former President Bill Clinton's visit to Haiti this week, the reporter mentions the Haitian Education Leadership Program (HELP), to which Cross International provides scholarships.

Here's why:

The statistics are daunting: almost half of the country's estimated 9 million people are under 20 years old.

Of the school-aged students, 60 percent are enrolled in primary school, but only 20 percent make it to high school while only 5 percent actually graduate.

(HT:  Mike Wilson, Project Director for Cross International)

Soli Deo Gloria is a helpful resource site if you are seeking current sacred music.

For example, I discovered a new oratorio The Fiery Furnace which was commissioned by SDG, composed by Daniel Kellogg and recently debuted by the San Diego Symphony.  It led me to a link with Instant Encore, under which I previewed a number of new selections of sacred music. 

I even enjoyed a few gorgeous minutes of Johannes Brahams German Requiem by the San Diego Symphony and Master Chorale.

All of this was done in less than 15 minutes!

Glory to God, indeed.

Jane Bennent Clark of Kiplinger offers solid benchmarks for measuring sound charities:

1. Look at spending priorities - aim for organizations that spend at least 75% of their budget on programs and split the remaining 25% between fund-raising and overhead.
2. Evautate accountability - be sure the group has a well-defined structure and organizational support.
3. Beware of red ink - on the 990, look for the line that indicates positive or negative assets.
4. Gauge the cushion - look for 6-12 months worth of working capital.
5. Review the annual report - look for 'unqualified' in the auditor's notes.

Self-promotional plug:  Cross International channels over 95% of budget on projects and less than 5% on fund-raising and overhead and passes the other four benchmarks very well. Check our Financial Accountability information here.

Sweet story from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (the gifts went to World Harvest Missions' Children's Home in Haiti through Cross International).

Feb. 28, 2009 - by C. Ron Allen / South Florida Sun-Sentinel

(Boca Raton., FL) - Kyle Conger turns 7 today, but he doesn't want any presents.

The Boca Raton boy, touched by images and stories he saw online of an orphanage in Haiti, has asked his friends to donate money instead of bringing gifts to his birthday party this afternoon.

"I want to help them because that's what God told me to do," said Kyle, a first-grader at Spanish River Christian School.

Kyle's mother, Debbie Conger, said some parents encourage their kids to forgo gifts at birthdays and ask for charitable donations instead. Party guests are not required to make donations, she said.

"He's got a really good heart," Conger said.

She and Kyle searched the Internet for charities.

"I was kind of gearing toward a school or something like that because it's hard to explain an orphanage to a first-grader," Conger said. "He said, 'Go back. ... What's an orphan? ... That's what I want to help.' So who was I to argue?"

The Word of God through Isaiah the prophet:

I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD.

Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly.  Free throse who are abused.

Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share you home with the poor and homeless.  Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives.

Then your light will shine like the dawning sun, and you will quickly be healed.  Your honesty will protect you as you advance, and the glory of the LORD will defend you from behind.

Michael W. Smith concurred with this during his Feb. 8 presentation at the National Religious Broacaster's convention in Nashville:

"I have another whole definition of what worship is...Everybody comes up to me and says, "Oh, we love your worship, we love our worship records..." But are we feeding the poor?  Are we looking after the orphans?

Worship is much greater than just having a worship service. If we are not living out Isaiah 58, we've totally missed it.  I don't care how many conferences you have, I don't care how many times we gather together, if we're not taking care of the downtrodden and the poor and the orphans and he widows, we have totally missed it.

Do you want the favor of God on your life?  Then start reaching out to the poor."

A common bit of wisdom is that when the U-S economy goes south, attendance in evangelical churches (in particular) spikes up.

A New York Times piece from late last year reported:

...since September, pastors nationwide say they have seen such a burst of new interest that they find themselves contending with powerful conflicting emotions — deep empathy and quiet excitement — as they re-encounter an old piece of religious lore:

Bad times are good for evangelical churches.

“It’s a wonderful time, a great evangelistic opportunity for us,” said the Rev. A. R. Bernard, founder and senior pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York’s largest evangelical congregation, where regulars are arriving earlier to get a seat. “When people are shaken to the core, it can open doors.”

The article goes on to quote a study by Texas State University:

During each recession cycle between 1968 and 2004, the rate of growth in evangelical churches jumped by 50 percent. By comparison, mainline Protestant churches continued their decline during recessions, though a bit more slowly.

What changes (if any) are you seeing in your church?

CT has a nice interview with Lincoln, who serves as a worship arts pastor, discusses the balance of performance and worship leading, considers himself "the Forrest Gump of Christian music."

Worth the read. 

Under the Radar radio hosted a delightful (if under attended) coffeehouse-style songwriter’s showcase Sunday night at NRB 2009, “highlighting some of the best undiscovered and under-appreciated music from Christian musicians.”

(Fuzzy photos courtesy of my Centro phone)

Ginny Owens opened with a sweet but short four-song set, closing with her signature song “If You Want Me To.”  She can hold a crowd’s attention all on her own with her unique insights and beautiful melodies.

Jeremy and Jennifer Deibler led a reconstituted FFH through a strong set, providing insights from their recent sojourn in Africa and health difficulties Jeremy has been facing.  Highlight was the first song Jeremy wrote on guitar – “One of These Days.”

Randall Goodgame brought his high tenor and folk/blues sensibilities to close the evening ably.  Despite reoccurring monitor difficulties, he delivered an energetic and varied set, including the new “Bluebird.” 

Besides Under the Radar the evening was sponsored by the Mocha Club, which challenged us to contribute $7 a month (cost of 2 mochas, presumably) to a relief or development project on their website.  Clever idea, and one that is sponsored by a variety of artists.

You can download the UTR program at their website or on iTunes.

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening of insightful music that can benefit the poor. 

May their number increase.

Pixar movie studios has an unbroken record of hit films (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc. to name a few) that are both excellent in production and engaging in content.

So how does Pixar manage to stay fresh, creative, and consistantly successful?

Pixar President Ed Catmull says:

Unlike most other studios, we have never bought scripts or movie ideas from the outside. All of our stories, worlds, and characters were created internally by our community of artists....

I believe our adherence to a set of principles and practices for managing creative talent and risk is responsible (for our success):

• Pixar is a community in the true sense of the word. We think that lasting relationships matter, and we share some basic beliefs:
• Talent is rare.
• Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur.
• It must be safe to tell the truth.
• We must constantly challenge all of our assumptions and search for the flaws that could destroy our culture.

More on How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity from Harvard Business Review here.
 

What can music directors and worship leaders learn from Pixar?

If you are planning to attend the 2009 National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, please stop by the Cross International booth on the exhibit floor and say hello.

Or drop me an email and perhaps we can get together for coffee & discuss ministry.

I've been serving on the NRB Board of Directors for a few years and am always up for discussing music, ministry, and media.

For details on the NRB convention, click here.

Are you swamped with requests for funding from ministries?

Are you losing track of to whom you are giving and how much?

Do you know what impact your gifts are having?

If any of these ring true with you (or if all of them do), Joel Belz of WORLD Magazine suggests the following to help you out of the haze:

Instead of shotgunning $10 and $25 and $50 gifts all over the direct mail landscape, pick two or three (or more) worthy causes and support them robustly.

Set a goal (I'm assuming you're already tithing to your local church) of designating an additional 1 percent for Christian education, still another 1 percent for Christian relief or social work, and still another 1 percent for missions or evangelism. (One percent is easy to calculate!). And then keep going.

Just imagine what would happen if a million Christian donors did that for a thousand organizations. I'm enough of an optimist to think it might actually make on impact on the larger economy as well.

Interesting model of a Chicago-area church which gives "100% of offerings gathered from the collection plate to those in need," according to this USA Today article.

Here's the nut:

Churches typically use at least part of the money collected at worship services for administrative costs, including heating the sanctuary and paying the pastor's salary.  

Waterfront is instead funded by eight sponsors; half attend the church and the others are outsiders who support the mission. Their combined contributions, along with some fundraising, pay for renting the school auditorium and salaries. In addition, several of the church's nearly 200 members donate their services as accountants and financial planners to make it all work.

 The church began in October 2008, so it's a bit soon to tell if this is a feasible model for others.  But I like what Dave Travis of Leadership Network says about it:

"What this church is starting with is very on trend with the culture right now and the desire to be very integrated and involved with communities," Travis said. "People are looking for a church that authenticates the Gospel."

Good word from Dwayne Moore of Next Level Worship:

I know how easy it is to become frustrated and impatient with members of our team when we don’t see them growing and developing like we think they should. When they grumble and complain, when they are late for rehearsals and don’t take their responsibilities seriously, when they seem to want the spotlight all to themselves - all these attitudes and actions are realities every seasoned worship pastor has had to deal with at some point. “What am I going to do with these people?” we say in exasperation.

The answer is simple: We need to fervently and consistently pray for them. The good news is that it’s not up to us to change them. That is God’s job. The powerful message of 2 Corinthians 3:18 can be boiled down to six words: “Gaze on him and be transformed.” According to Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is both the author and the finisher of our faith.

Our responsibility then, first and foremost, is to intercede for those in our worship ministries, asking our great Gardener to grow them and transform them in his time and in his way.

More here, including 'four practical steps' to help our team through the growth process.

Derek Webb has a terrific song Rich Young Ruler...

...but it's probably not about what you think.

Derek says:

...this is not a song about wealth. nor is it a song about the poor. it is no more so than the story from which it gets it name. ‘rich young ruler’ is a song about idolatry. it’s about the things that we’re not willing to give up in order to follow Jesus.

Here's the first few lines:

Poverty
Is so hard to see
When it’s only on your TV
Or 20 miles across town

Where we're all living so good
We moved out of Jesus' neighborhood
Where He's hungry and not feeling so good
From going through our trash

Full lyric here.

Mp3 (live session w/Relevant Magazine) here.

Investors say Haitian bilked them out of millions

South Florida Haitian Americans said they are victims of a massive scheme that bilked hundreds of investors of millions.

By Patrick Danner and Michael Sallah

Federal and state regulators are investigating a self-styled investment guru who recruited hundreds of Haitian Americans and others to pour their savings into his ventures through a network of South Florida investment clubs.

Some investors claim they are victims of a massive Ponzi scheme concocted by George Theodule, a self-proclaimed evangelical minister from Haiti, who promised to double their money in three months.

A federal suit filed Friday in South Florida claims Theodule bilked hundreds of investors out of millions while promising to double their money through stock and options trading.

''Theodule said he was going to create 10,000 millionaires among the Haitian people and empower them,'' said Jared Levy, a West Palm Beach lawyer for at least 50 investors represented in the suit.

``The sad thing is, they believed him.''

The rest here.

It's an astonishing fact that year after year, the Bible is the best-selling book in America -- even though 90% of households already have at least one copy. The text doesn't vary, except in translation. The tremendous sales volume, an estimated 25 million copies sold each year, is largely driven by innovations in design, color, style and the ultimate niche marketing.

First Government Grant Will Help Cross Launch New HIV Prevention and Care Program for Haiti's Poor

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (December 1, 2008) - Cross International, a South Florida-based humanitarian agency, has been awarded a $4.8 million grant from the U.S. government for a new program to prevent the spread of AIDS in Haiti and provide care to orphans and vulnerable children affected by the disease.

The grant, announced today for World AIDS Day, is the largest Cross has received to date and marks an important step in the young organization's growth.

"This is the biggest single grant in the history of Cross, a real landmark in the seven years since we began serving the poor," Cross President Jim Cavnar said. "The competition was tough, and the fact that we were chosen says a lot about our work and how much we have matured as a ministry."

• Jesus tells us when you have done it to the least of these, we have ministered to him (Matthew 25).

• John the Apostle says if we possess the world's goods and sees someone in need, the love of God should compel us to share with them (1 John 3:16-18).

• James, the brother of Jesus, indicates that NOT feeding & clothing those in need is an indication of no faith at all, regardless of what we say (James 2:14-17)

My primary assessment would be because American Christians tend to be incredibly self-indulgent so they see the church as a place there for them to meet their needs and to express faith in a way that is meaningful for them.

There is almost no genuine compassion or urgency about serving and reaching people who don’t know Christ.

Source: Christian Post

I am Thankful...

For the husband who is on the sofa being a couch potato, because he is home with me and not out at the bars.

For the taxes I pay, because it means I am employed.

For the mess to clean after a party, because it means I have been surrounded by friends.

For the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means I have enough to eat.

For the floor that needs to be swept, windows that need cleaning, and sink that needs fixing, because it means I have a home.

For all of the complaining I hear about the government, because it means we have Freedom of Speech.

For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking and I have been blessed with transportation.

For my huge electric bill, because depending on the time of the year - I am nice and cool during the summer, and because that means I am warm in the winter.

For the thunder and rain that keeps me up at night, because it means I can hear.

For the pile of laundry and ironing, because it means I have clothes to wear.

For the weariness and aching muscles and headache at the end of the day, because it means I have been capable of working hard.

For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours, because it means I am alive and ready to give thanks for another day.

Jesus calls Christians to be "witnesses," to evangelize others, but also to be deeply concerned for the poor. He calls his disciples both to "gospel-messaging" (urging everyone to believe the gospel) and to "gospel-neighboring" (sacrificially meeting the needs of those around them whether they believe or not! The two absolutely go together.

1. They go together theologically. The resurrection shows us that God not only created both body and spirit but will also redeem both body and spirit. The salvation Jesus will eventually bring in its fullness will include liberation from all the effects of sin—not only spiritual but physical and material as well. Jesus came both preaching the Word and healing and feeding.
2. They go together practically. We must be ever wary of collapsing evangelism into deed ministry as the social gospel did, but loving deeds are an irreplaceable witness to the power and nature of God's grace, an irreplaceable testimony to the truth of the gospel.