Gospel.com Blog

Several new items today at Past the Popcorn, as new movies hit theater screens.

Helen Mirren took another of what will probably be a host of awards this season, winning the Best Actress Golden Globe. Jeffrey Overstreet, host of Christianity Today’s Film Forum, interviewed Greg Wright about Mirren’s performance in The Queen. Greg carries the interview this week at Past the Popcorn.

Also this week, Jeff Walls reviews Steven Soderbergh’s failed film noir, The Good German, and Greg Wright examines how Dave Meyers dismantles The Hitcher–already a horror flick of ill repute.

After a turbulent 2006, what’s in store for the country of Lebanon in 2007? What has Lebanon’s Christian community been doing since last year’s Israeli/Hezbollah fighting, and what does the New Year hold for Christians in the region? The Middle East Area Director of Arab World Ministries has written a few thoughts about what the future might hold for the people of Lebanon, including its Christian population. And if the plight of Lebanon’s church moves you, consider adding these prayer points for the church in Lebanon to your list of things to pray about this year.

Pastors–do your sermons inspire your congregations, making the words and teachings of the Bible come alive to listeners? Of course, while pastors are the primary “public speakers” of the church, there are many occasions when a typical churchgoer might be called on to make a public speech–addressing a church committee or leading a Bible study group, for instance. Regardless of your role, does your public speaking communicate a message in a compelling and Christlike manner?

Richard Bewes writes about how to speak effectively in public at his Pocket Bible Thoughts site, and he’s got a lot of good insights into what makes for a good speech. He lays out a lot of good advice for communicating well in public–which involves not only practising to be a more technically proficient speaker, but also understanding how to best let Christ speak through your words. (For more about Christianity and public speaking, see also this interview with Quentin Schultze on the subject at ThinkChristian.)

Do you have a few extra Bibles sitting on your bookshelf? As it turns out, your used Bibles can be put to good use on the missionary field! The Bible League will take your unused Bibles and send them around the world to places where Bibles are hard to come by. (It’s less expensive to ship a used Bible than it is to print and ship a new copy.) All languages and versions are acceptable, as long as they’re in good condition. If you’ve got a spare Bible or two just gathering dust, consider donating them to the mission field!

Is your church website any good? There are many factors that go into making an effective and useful church website, and not all of them require advanced technical knowledge. The Internet Evangelism Guide has a new feature up that will help you make your church site as good as it can be–take their church website self-assessment test and see how you rate. There are over 50 questions, each accompanied by an explanation of why it’s important. Take the test, and identify the areas in which your church site can be improved!

“In one ear and out the other”–that’s what many parents fear happens to the advice and instructions they give their kids. If you’re a parent, you’ve surely experienced the frustration that comes from wanting the best for your kids, but having to deal with their unwillingness to follow instructions meant for their own good.

How can you “train them up the way they should go” if they won’t even listen to you? In a recent article at Mothers of Preschoolers, Tricia Goyer suggests that we can find an answer by looking at God’s response to His own disobedient children.

Pastors, have you ever wondered if it’s time to pack up, leave your congregation, and go in search of a new church ministry? Few pastors remain at a single church throughout their entire leadership ministry. When your ministry isn’t going well, it might be easy to decide to move on–but how would you know when it’s time to leave a successful ministry?

Those are the questions raised in the latest Online Pulpit column, which is about how church leaders can recognize when they should (or shouldn’t) move on to a different church congregation.

From Past the Popcorn, commentary on last weekend’s new film releases (some of which seem like holiday regifting): first, Mike Brunk reviews Code Name: The Cleaner, a light action comedy spy-spoof starring Cedric the Entertainer; then Jenn Wright advises that Happily N’Ever After, while pleasing enough, might not prove worth the price of admission.

The good news is that Miss Potter, which went into limited release last week and goes wide next Friday, is a good fit for family viewing. Greg Wright gives it a positive review, with some words of caution.

Also new at PTP: Greg responds to a reader’s query about moral relativity in films.

Churches and Christian ministries are often accused, not without some justification, of being behind the technology curve when it comes to using technology in ministry. If you’re a Christian who thinks there’s plenty of untapped ministry potential in computers and technology, TechMission is the ministry for you.

TechMission’s main purpose is to rally Christians and churches behind the cause of spreading computer literacy. To that end, TechMission supports hundreds of Christian computer centers across the US and around the globe, assisting local communities with training and other resources. Most churches and ministries would benefit from their freely-downloadable Christian Freeware CD, which contains dozens of free programs of use to Christian organizations. They’re also behind the Christian Volunteering project, which we’ve mentioned here in the past.

There’s plenty more to read about at the TechMission site–if your passion is to see technology put to work serving people in the name of Christ, take a few minutes to read about their ministry–and consider getting involved yourself.

What’s it like to look down on Earth from space? Is it a transcendent experience, one that imparts a new understanding of God and faith? It’s an interesting question, and one that Army astronaut Jeffrey Williams addresses in a column at the Officers’ Christian Fellowship. Drawing on personal experience, Williams talks about the fresh perspective on his own faith that his extra-terrestrial work has given him.