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The world's largest Christian television network has launched a contest in search of quality, independently produced programming that is family-friendly. The contest is called the "INNOVATE Program Challenge" and involves each of Trinity Broadcasting Network's four digital networks. Entrants could submit programs at the recent Radio-Television News Directors Association meeting in Las Vegas. Submissions can also be mailed to the network's California offices. ... The Christian broadcasting entity hopes to "capture the imagination" of its viewers, says a press statement about the contest, and to move past the status quo. "The stereotype is that Christian television is basically the TV...

Another category of Christian, however, is rapidly losing its traditional identity in our culture: Evangelical. While it never made distinctions on theological grounds, that term could always be counted upon to identify those Christians who are conservative, Protestant, culturally influential and outspoken about their faith. With recent developments, however, the defining elements of Evangelical may soon go the way of the much-encompassing Christian. Why? Because some who purport to speak for all evangelicals are being sucked into marginal issues that are usually harped on by America-hating liberals. And because conservative Christians are allegedly being divided, the mainstream media is eating...

By Ethan Cole Christian Post Reporter Sun, Mar. 25 2007 11:42 AM ET The Holy Bible has undergone a major cosmetic change including glossy pages and a seductive cover rivaling contemporary fashion magazines.“Bible Illuminated, Gamla Testament: The Book” takes on the format of a magazine and was designed by former Swedish advertiser Dag Söderberg, who is now project leader for the new Swedish publication, according to an article featured on Sweden’s official website.“Most people have issues with the Bible,” Söderberg said in the article posted in Sweden.se. “They have never gotten into it. They don’t find it accessible. But it’s...

People have described some of the contemporary practices within evangelicalism as being driven by consumerism. We can see evidences of this with many of the popular devices that are employed, whether it be in the altering of vocabulary, the transition from preaching to conversations, the emphasis upon felt needs rather than spiritual needs, the polling of unbelievers as to how church should be conducted, a deemphasis upon doctrine, a redefinition of Jesus as weak and effeminate, and an idolatrous portrayal of a God who’s love is able to trump his righteousness. Regrettably, all of these things are common today. Even...

1. The historical coordinates We give the name "pietism" to a phenomenon in church life which certainly has a particular historical and "confessional" starting point, but also has much wider ramifications in the spiritual life of all the Christian Churches. Pietism made its appearance as a distinct historical movement within Protestantism, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, around 1690-1730. [1] Its aim was to stress "practical piety," as distinct from the polemical dogmatic theology to which the Reformation had initially given a certain priority.2 Against the intellectualist and abstract understanding of God and of...

Mission Expert: Evangelicalism Fastest Growing Religious Movement By Jennifer Riley Christian Post Reporter Thu, Sep. 28 2006 03:32 AM Young Christian leaders from around the world listened to a mission expert present about the rapid growth of evangelicalism, especially in the global South, at a Lausanne gathering in Malaysia this week. Jason Mandryck – co-author of the mission prayer guide Operation World – presented on the status of the Christian faith around the world Tuesday during the plenary session “State of the Gospel” at the Younger Leaders Gathering. Nearly 500 young leaders from over 110 countries have gathered in Kuala...

Romney in the Dock: Or Are Traditional Christians in the Dock? Mitt Romney is nearly a picture perfect Republican candidate for President. With a long family Republican heritage, he is a popular and successful governor and that is the job that has been the best stepping-stone to the Presidency in my lifetime. He is a traditional conservative from New England with Michigan roots who would put several Blue States in play for the Republicans. He is close enough to Bush to comfort Republicans, but distant enough as a governor to allow him to be critical of specific policies in the...

he worst of times: Evangelicalism in critical condition With the wild popularity of so many evangelical fads like "Forty Days of Purpose"; the lucrative success of the Christian publishing and contemporary Christian music industries; the growing influence of the "emerging church" phenomenon; and a recent cover story by Time magazine featuring "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America," lots of evangelicals might be tempted to think these are the best of times for their movement. My own assessment would be that evangelicalism's spiritual condition at the beginning of the twenty-first century is reminiscent of the medieval church just prior to...

This is something I found on a Christian forum written by an evangelical Christian: --------------------------------------------------------- "In 1992, I graduate high school and went off to the Marines. I grew up in a Baptist church, where we would say the pledge during church and honor veterans during Memorial Day and July 4th holidays. We believed in “just war”. I grew up believing it was God’s will to fight for America, we were one nation under God and it was honorable and Biblical to do anything and everything to defend God’s nation. I served my four years as an 1833. That’s the...

There has been no end of often-dissatisfied talk among conservatives about George W. Bush’s conservatism, or rather, the lack thereof. Robert Bork, for example, recently asserted that “[t]his George Bush, like his father, is showing himself to be indifferent, if not actively hostile, to conservative values.” The Claremont Institute's Charles Kesler is similarly unsparing in his criticism: Compassionate conservatism is the President's self-proclaimed philosophy. This term proves the old admonition that the adjective is the enemy of the noun. Conservatism defends "liberty and justice for all," meaning that there are limits to what government can do to, and for, us....

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Seventeen Quiet In the Presence of God My mind is not at rest. I do think that we will never be what we could be unless we learn to be quiet in the presence of God. It does seem to me that there is a constant tendency to smooth over problems to the loss, not of the weak men, but the stronger ones -- perhaps not the loss physically, but a loss as far as spiritual leadership is concerned. I am more and more realizing that Scripturally...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Sixteen Everything Is Spiritual Because God Made Everything The painting of a picture, the work of a good shoemaker, the doctor, the lawyer - all these things are spiritual if they are done within the circle of what is taught in Scripture, looking to the Lord day by day for His help. Thus everything is spiritual because the Lord made everything, and Christ died to redeem everything. And though full restoration will not come until Christ returns, it is our calling, looking to Christ for help, to...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Fifteen Do Not Be Afraid of the Past The sixties was a hard time, and of course we here at L'Abri have seen so many who have been wiped out through drugs, through Eastern religious thought forms, and through the promiscuous sex life. Yet we have seen many here whom the Lord has touched and healed, and we can only be thankful. On the other hand, it seems to me that with many young people it is even worse now, with apathy ruling everywhere and then not...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Fourteen Salvation, Works and Grace, Eternal Security, and the Sacraments Each one of us must say that we are guilty because it was for our sin that Jesus was willing to die on the cross. In a very real way each one of us must say, "I am the one who crucified Christ." The Bible makes plain that there was no other way that even God could provide a way of salvation except by Jesus paying the price for the guilt of our sin. It is not...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis SchaefferLetter Thirteen Times of Strength and Times of Weakness We all have our times of being strong and our times of being weak. The swings of the pendulum cover different ground for different ones of us, and the swings of the pendulum are of greater intensity for one of God's children than another. But the swings are there for all of us - for weakness and unhappiness and also for sin. It is for this reason that any honest person must be totally in despair unless they understand the...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Twelve Spiritual Battles Draw Real Blood We must never forget too that the Bible tells us our actions in the seen world have a cause and effect relationship in the "battle in the heavenlies," in the unseen world. But spiritual battles must be understood to be real battles which draw real blood. While the real battle is in the heavenlies, yet it is never abstracted from life. Satan will always carry the battle into the place of our own problems - whether it is the lack of...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Eleven Imperfection and the Continuing Work of Christ It would seem to me that your central problem, as you have expressed it in your letter, is that you forget the Bible makes clear that none of us will be perfect until Christ comes back again. The Bible states clearly that our standard is perfection: "Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect." But on the other hand, the Bible makes equally plain that while this is our standard, yet every Christian has places for further...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Ten On Knowing the Presence of God I am so glad that during your hard time you did not come to a place of feeling the overwhelming desire to take an overdose of something. I beg of you to sit down and write to me instead, or even phone if that would be a help, if you do feel that way again. There are indeed many reasons why we should go on living, and the largest one is that God really is there, He really does exist,...

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Nine Something with Both Usefulness and Beauty Edith has an illustration that I like very much. There was a girl who was supposed to make cakes in the Les Melezes kitchen, and she got all messed up until she had nothing but a mess of goo. It would have seemed as though there was nothing to do but throw the whole mess out. But as you know, we don't have a great deal of money, and so Edith has learned to be very economical in the kitchen....

Words Written to Friends selections from the letters of Francis Schaeffer Letter Eight Being Angry at God In the midst of a fallen world things are abnormal; they have been changed from that which God made them originally. Christ could be angry at the tomb of Lazarus as He faced the abnormality of death; and we have a right to be angry too. But to be angry at God is both silly and blasphemous. One cannot have the Christian answer that men are really significant in history and then expect God to eradicate every wrong result from that significance...