Gospel.com Blog

The 2009 Christianity Today book awards have been announced! The editors choose the top books in each category from 436 submissions.

• Fiction: Home: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
• Theology/Ethics: People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology by Michael S. Horton
• Spirituality: Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris
• Missions/Global Affairs: Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change by Paul G. Hiebert
• The Church/Pastoral Leadership: Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
• History/Biography: Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America by John G. Turner
• Christian Living: Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing by Emmanuel Katongole, Chris Rice
• Christianity and Culture: Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling Andy Crouch
• Apologetics/Evangelism: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
• Biblical Studies: Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus by Klyne R. Snodgrass

Intervarsity Press also reported today that they nabbed two top honors and one merit award. On a personal note, I’m about 3/4 of the way through Culture Making and enjoying it thoroughly. The Reason for God is sitting in my “to-read” pile.

Today, a couple of quick updates from the COMIX35 ministry! COMIX35 is a Christian comics ministry that publishes and distributes evangelistic comics around the world. They also do a lot to identify and recruit promising comic artists from within the Christian community.

They’ve got updates on two comics contests that they’re running:

• They’ve launched the Christian Comics Competition for U.S. Prison Inmates as a way of identifying talented Christian artists in the US prison system. The first phase of the competition asks prison chaplains to recommend inmates who “exhibit exceptional talent in the areas of drawing and storytelling.” The three candidates who make it to the end of the contest will help produce a short comic for inmates and at-risk youth.
• The deadline for the Manga Messiah video competition has been extended to March 4 to give all “amateur and professional video producers, YouTubers, and GodTubers around the world” a chance to get their entries in. The competition webpage has full details on the contest, as well as free music tracks you can use with your video.

Take a look at these contests, and while you’re there, get to know COMIX35′s unique comics evangelism ministry!

Is it accurate to say that Christianity is “under attack” by our society? Why would this be the case, and more importantly, how are Christians to respond to it? Is it possible to present an intellectually credible defense of the Christian faith in a postmodern, secular culture?

Two new essays at Ravi Zacharias’ website address the issue of defending, and living out, a Christian life amidst criticism and pressure from non-Christian philosophies and ideas. The first, Defending Christainity in a Secular Culture, is an interview with Ravi Zacharias in which he talks about the importance of earnestly defending the Christian faith—a task not just for theologians and preachers, but for everyday Christians! And in An Uncompromising Faith Lived Out with Grace, Michael Ramsden describes a uncompromising but grace-filled Christian life.

If you found these essays useful, there are plenty more in the Just Thinking archives at the RZIM website.

There’s no shortage of Christian conferences out there to attend—there are leadership conferences, revival conferences, marriage conferences, and countless others, all aimed at cultivating your talents, relationships, or faith. But the more technologically-oriented among you might be interested in Godbit’s list of Christian tech conferences in 2009.

They list several tech conferences taking place this year that have a specific focus on the intersection of faith, evangelism, and technology. First up (in February) is the Ministry 2.0 conference, followed by BibleTech in March, Dynamic Church in May, and the Echo Conference in July. Whether you’re a veteran techie, a blogger, a church leader, or just want to explore how Christianity does and should make use of media and technology, take a look at these conferences and see if one of them is a fit for your schedule and interests.

Next month is the 2009 Academy Awards ceremony, when the best films and performances of 2008 will be chosen and honored. While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does the actual voting, that hasn’t stopped every film geek and blogger in the world from weighing in with their opinions. Here are a few Christian film critics with some interesting thoughts on the nominated films. How do their opinions match with your own?

• First, what films have been nominated? Hollywood Jesus helpfully lists all of the nominations. Elsewhere on the HJ site, critics Tim Berroth and Darrel Manson share their picks for the best films of 2008.
• Jeff Walls and Greg Wright from the Past the Popcorn crew weigh in with their own lists as well.
• Film critic Peter Chattaway’s thoughts on the Academy’s list of nominees.
• Jeffrey Overstreet of Looking Closer doesn’t think much of this year’s nominations, and proposes something different for Oscar night.

Enjoy the Oscars tonight (or not), and browse around these critics’ websites to see what else they’ve got to say about faith and film.

Image by flickr user Anne Siegel.

Note: this post originally mis-stated the date of the Oscars ceremony. The correct date is February 22.

Soulation has a new website! We’ve noted Soulation’s apologetics ministry several times before, but if you’re not familiar with them, now’s as good a chance as any to learn more about their ministry.

Soulation’s husband-and-wife team consists of Dale and Jonalyn Fincher, who have lots to say about topics ranging from apologetics, art, relationships, and what it means to live as somebody who is, in their words, “appropriately human.” Stop by the new site and have a look around!

seeJesus.net quietly launched a new blog on their site last month. They produce small group Bible Studies (like The Person of Jesus) and run small group training seminars.

Recently, Paul at the seeJesus.net blog posted about an article in the London Times concerning an atheist’s reaction to the effect of Christianity on Africa.

The author, an atheist, acknowledges not just that Christianity has helped Africa but that the inner change that comes from encountering God (who he does not believe exists!) produces the change.

I saw this first hand when I was Associate Director of World Harvest Mission (www.whm.org). We were keenly aware that change came from the inside out. One of our missionaries in western Uganda, Rick Gray, told me that after he had been discipling one of the Babwisi tribal leaders Rick asked him what he was going to do with what he’d been learning about the gospel. The tribal leader said, “I think I’m going to eat with my wife.” That is how the gospel works.

Read the rest of the article over at seeJesus.net.

Last week, US Airways Flight 1549 lost both engines just minutes after takeoff. With just a few moments in which to act, the pilot managed to bring the plane down in the Hudson River with no loss of life.

The pilot’s skill saved the passengers on that plane—but it’s natural to wonder if God was watching out for the people on what has been termed the “miracle flight.” One passenger was shared her thoughts on her unlikely survival: “I was praising God. While I’m giving the captain his due justice, it was only by the grace of god that kept us alive.”

In that spirit, here are two short essays that reflect on the near-tragedy and draw spiritual conclusions and parallels from it:

• Miracle on the Hudson: at Out of Ur, Gordon MacDonald considers the teamwork, training, and discipline that saved the lives of the people on that plane. Does your church community exhibit those same traits?
• A Ron Hutchcraft devotional essay sees a compelling real-life illustration of the Gospel message in the crash and subsequent rescue efforts. Hutchcraft has a knack for seeing reflections of the Christian message in traumatic events.

Let’s give thanks that the passengers and crew of Flight 1549 survived, and find inspiration in their story.

Image by Twitter user Janis Krums

It probably comes as no surprise that the way the Bible defines wealth contrasts with the way the world defines it. Wealth—according to the world—is based upon accumulation and comfort. Wealth—as defined by the Bible—is concerned with everything God has given us: our friends, family, and opportunities. God is not just concerned with the size of our bank accounts, but with every blessing He’s given us.

Here’s an excerpt from the article God’s Gift of Wealth by Woodrow Kroll:

When we understand wealth as the gift of God, we understand that it comes from God and it belongs to God. This is a very difficult attitude for the world to adopt. But the Bible makes it clear that God created everything, God sustains everything and God owns everything. Psalm 104:24 declares, “The earth is full of Your possessions.” In 1 Chronicles 29:11 we read, “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours.” Haggai 2:8 reminds us, “‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of Hosts.” Everything in the ground, everything above the ground, everything in the air, everything that passes through the air ultimately belongs to God. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine.

Read more over at Back to the Bible.

What are your spiritual gifts… and how are you using them? The newest issue of Uplook Magazine is out and available for download (PDF), and it’s all about the idea of spiritual gifts—God-given talents we’re all given and charged with using in Christ’s service.

Writers like Sam Thorpe, Robert McClurkin, and W.H. Burnett all chime in with essays on different aspects of spiritual gifts. Thorpe’s essay challenges us to consider the way in which we use our spiritual gifts, and Burnett asks an interesting question I hadn’t considered before: is it possible to acquire a temporary spiritual gift, a spiritual talent meant to be used for a specific time and purpose?

It’s an interesting topic that applies to all Christians, whether or not you consider yourself “gifted,” so read through the issue and see what you think. And if you’d like to explore your spiritual gifts further, you might also check out this series of essays about spiritual gifts, which include a spiritual gifts inventory to help you discern where your own gifts lie; as well as two articles by Blaine Smith which discuss understanding your gifts and discerning where you can best use them.