Free Republic

Seattle's police chief now refers to gangs as 'small groups' in the wake of a mass shooting in the city that killed three. Shon Barnes repeatedly used the term during a press conference Monday, hours after Sunday's massacre at the Bite of Seattle food festival that is believed to have been gang related. He told a press conference that a motive remains under investigation but that it was 'certainly group activity.' Seemingly referring to gangs, the police chief added: 'We have small groups that appear to be at odds with each other.' 'In our city, 0.01% of the population is...

"Small Church Manifesto." We will no longer purchase any teaching videos or books produced by mega-church pastors. We will no longer feel guilty that our 1897-version sanctuary is not suited for today's contemporary worship services. Neither, we believe, is a pastor's theology suspect because he doesn't wear his shirttails out and sit on a stool while preaching. We will no longer feel that a sermon is lacking something if it doesn't include a video clip from a major motion picture. We will no longer use any statistics produced by religious research groups that are paid for by our denominational contributions...

How did you start it? How do you run it? What are the pros and cons? Do you have a collection? What do you do with the collection? thanx

* snip A house of worship such as FLM creates not merely a megachurch, but potentially a mega-experience well beyond the Sunday-morning services. It addresses the needs for nearly every stage of life between womb and tomb. Why, though, do members seek out services such as career advice or soccer games from a church, when secular society provides them in abundance? Clearly, FLM supplies something people want -- a fact that holds true for most of the nation's megachurches, which make up only 10 percent of the country's congregations but claim roughly half of all parishioners. PARADOXICALLY, perhaps, the small...