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While more churches adopt large projection screens and multimedia technology to draw new believers and the unchurched, one church communications specialist points back to the traditional church signs that stand outside sanctuaries for more effective outreach. Related To Hell and Back "It may sound like a line from the 70s, but people will ask, 'What's your sign?' A sign should be a primary ministry touch-point that encourages people to visit your church," said Woody Murray, who has worked for 30 years in communications and marketing in advertising agencies and at a major Christian organization. Bottom line is either get a...

THE PASTOR'S CAT Who say's the Creator doesn't have a sense of humor?

Today’s thread will explore a variety of useless topics in no particular order.

In the tradition of that greatest of all historic theological reflections, "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" we offer a similar conundrum, "How many statues can dance on the head of one veneration?" This has variously been proposed as "How many statues = 1 Veneration?" XS=1V S=IV/X These are thoughts destined to shatter the world of theology. Both the Theology of Statues and the Theology of Veneration breathlessly await the pronouncements of this thread. In short, you can contribute to this discussion by: 1. Solving the above equation. 2. Adding another (interesting) equation of your...

The Nature of Fallen Humanity This chapter explores whether the Wesleyan concept of prevenient grace can be supported from the Scriptures. Before examining this question, I want to emphasize that there is a significant area of common ground between Wesleyans and Calvinists. The disagreements that we have in some areas can cause us to overlook the extent to which we agree on major doctrines. In one arena of theology, namely, anthropology, the harmony between Wesleyans and Calvinists is of the utmost importance and our harmony in this area should be celebrated. Both camps acknowledge that fallen human beings are born...

MEN are often accused by women of, to put it bluntly, having their brains in their balls. A joke, of course. But perhaps not as much of one as people might like to think. For a study of bats carried out by Scott Pitnick, of Syracuse University in New York State, and his colleagues, suggests that there really is a trade-off between the two organs. With about 1,000 species, bats are the second-largest group of mammals (rodents are top), so there is plenty of material for interspecies studies. Dr Pitnick's project, published in this week's Proceedings of the Royal Society,...

Washington — How did American interrogation tactics after 9/11 come to include abuse rising to the level of torture? Much has been said about the illegality of these tactics, but the strategic error that led to their adoption has been overlooked. The Pentagon effectively signed off on a strategy that mimics Red Army methods. But those tactics were not only inhumane, they were ineffective. For Communist interrogators, truth was beside the point: their aim was to force compliance to the point of false confession.

Since the Hebrew Christians were not completely removed from Jerusalem until well into the second century, for the first one hundred years, the Church remained very much a part of first-century Judaism, and its leaders stayed involved in many Jewish affairs. There was no immediate split from the synagogue, as evidenced by Jesus’ warning that some synagogues would punish His followers for preaching a different brand of Judaism (Matthew 10:17). We know that this scourging by synagogue leaders was not an abnormal part of normative Judaism since it is mentioned a number of times in early rabbinical literature.[1] The structure...

Alan Maben is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach and Simon Greenleaf School of Law   ARE YOU SURE YOU LIKE SPURGEON?"The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works..." -- C.H. SpurgeonPraised by many evangelicals as a great preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon is considered a successful and "safe" example of a "non-theological" ministry. His works are recommended as a means to lead many aspiring pastors into developing their own successful ministries. His Lectures to My Students are often used for this purpose, emphasizing the "practical" aspects of...

How Does Doctrine Affect Evangelism? The Divergent Paths of Asahel Nettleton and Charles Finney by Rick Nelson(From "The Founder's Journal" Issue 33-Summer 1998) The average Southern Baptist (if such a person exists) offers a puzzled look upon hearing the name of Asahel Nettleton, the last great evangelist who espoused the doctrines of grace. Although Nettleton (1783-1844) saw thirty thousand persons converted during a decade of active ministry in the early nineteenth century, his legacy suffers from tragic neglect, if not active contempt, at the hands of contemporary church historians. Charles G. Finney (1792-1875), on the other hand, has recently...