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Ed Young, pastor of the 20,000 congregant Fellowship Church, was recently accused of keeping financial secrets from his congregation by WFAA, a Dallas/Fort Worth news organization. Among the report’s claims are that Young owns a private jet and has a 10,000 square foot home valued at $1,500,000.

Oh, he also reportedly makes a million bucks a year from the church.

Suffice to say, the claims put forward by WFAA have been summarily rebuffed by Young and a few of his church’s board members. You can see Fellowship’s side of the story in the 25 minute video below. The truth seems to be that they lease the plane because of Young’s international speaking engagements and tight schedule, and the home is closer to 7500 square feet. The salary? Not so much.

Regardless of who is right in this circumstance—and from what I can gather from a token amount of internet research, the facts seem to be stacked in Fellowship Church’s favor—this presents a great opportunity to discuss an issue that I think is becoming increasingly important in the Internet age: how should a church handle critics?

Most churches over a certain size and age have had to face a PR nightmare of some sort. Maybe not on the scale of Fellowship’s, but a nightmare nonetheless. Perhaps, it’s something as simple as a bad reputation, or perhaps as terrible as a high profile scandal. More likely, the pastor is just really good at incensing a very vocal and disagreeable crowd.

That’s when blog posts, newspaper articles and gossip start. Pretty soon, googling the church’s name brings up the church’s homepage as number 1 and number 2 is a slanderous news or blog article. In the case of Fellowship, they chose to directly answer the criticism, but other churches ignore the naysayers.

How do you think a church should respond to critics? Do you think that Fellowship did the right thing in this situation? How have you seen churches effectively handle criticism?

We ask ourselves, “what if?” questions all the time. What if I lost my job? What if the stock market crashed? What if my significant other left me? Theoretical questions like those often bring about undue stress and worry. It is only when we face trials that we learn our greatest life lessons.

In the following devotional, Our Daily Bread talks about how real life trials are necessary for growth:

Real trials in life are not ifs—they are whens. In fact, life’s most profound lessons cannot simply be observed, they must be experienced. It is there, in actual seasons of heartache and loss, that we gain greater insights into life, faith, and our need of God. To that end, James wrote, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3).

Read the rest of the devotional at Our Daily Bread.

What trials have helped you grow? Did you count is as “joy” when you were in the midst of them?

The prospect of spring might seem like a distant dream right now, but those warmer months will be here soon—which means it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll spend them.

Many missions organizations, churches, and camps provide short-term service opportunities during spring and summer. Short-term missions can range from a day of volunteer work in your hometown to a season of missionary work abroad.

Do you feel called to participate in a spring or summer missions trip this year? Have you done so in the past, and if so, was it an experience you’d like to repeat?

Share your thoughts!

When you think about the people in your life, what stands out? Do their flaws and mistakes irk you? In this devotional, Dick Innes draws on 1 Peter 4:8 and an interesting visual trick to make the point that what we see in others often says more about us than it does about them:

…we see things not they way they are, but the way we are. For instance, if I am a negative person, I will see negative things in what others do—things that may not even be there—and be critical about them. If I am a supersensitive person, I will read into what others say or do and overreact—not on the basis of what they have said or done, but on the basis of who and what I am. On the other hand, if I am a loving person, I will overlook the petty faults in others and be accepting and forgiving of them, for love does “cover a multitude of sins.”

Indeed, what we see is who we are or who we are is what we will see.

Read the full devotional at Acts International.

Think about the people around you today—your coworkers, your family and friends, the clerks and passersby you encounter as you go about your day. What do you see in them? And what does that say about you?

We’re a little less than a week into the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver! Germany is currently ranked number 1 in the medal count, with the USA and France close behind.

Sports Spectrum is posting regular updates and reflections from Vancouver at More than Gold News. Their most recent audio update features an audio clip of Trevor Marsicano, winner of the 2009 World Championships Gold medal for the 1000m speedskating competition. In the clip, Trevor talks about how he refocused on his faith in God while recovering from a deep leg wound suffered during a 2005 competition.

Has God ever used a physical injury to draw you closer to Him?

And on a lighter note, what Olympic events are you most looking forward to?

Image from Trevor Marsicano’s wikipedia page.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Many Christians mark the season by making a spiritual commitment that helps them focus more on Jesus Christ: giving up a habit or luxury; reading a daily devotional; or doing volunteer work.

One simple but powerful way to prepare for Easter is to spend time in the Scriptures. Our sister site BibleGateway.com has just put a Lent daily Bible reading plan online to help—it walks through all four of the Gospels between today and Easter, so by the time Easter arrives you’ll have read the entire account of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection.

If you’ve not made a Lent pledge before, daily Scripture reading like this is a great place to start (and involves a relatively light time commitment). Take a look at the Lent reading plan and see it helps you focus your thoughts on Jesus as Easter approaches!

Does the way you talk about politics reflect the grace, patience, and humility of Jesus Christ? No matter which side of the political spectrum you’re on, it’s difficult to avoid hearing (or participating in) the vicious, grace-less talk that is the native language of political discourse today. But how does that square up with the Bible?

This devotional from Words of Hope gets right to the point:

In the world of cable news and talk radio, politics is played out much like old sports rivalries. The two teams have a blind hatred for each other, often regardless of truth, reality, or common sense. The current “losing team” (whoever is out of power) usually spends most of its time abhorring, disparaging, and making up lies about the opposing side. Political pundits create caricatures of their rivals and then attack them. And too often we mistake this kind of behavior for hard news, which is like mistaking a pep rally for the actual game.

Ephesians 4 calls us to be humble, gentle, and patient. It says we are to make every effort to be unified and peaceful. Unfortunately, we aren’t very good at this when it comes to politics. We often do the opposite, continually looking for reasons to call names and point fingers.

Grace-filled speech isn’t something to practice every now and then—it’s something to be actively pursued in every conversation you have or blog post you write. The devotional concludes with some suggestions for how you might respond the next time you encounter (or are tempted to engage in) this sort of interaction. Read the full devotional at Words of Hope.

Is this something you’ve encountered, or that you struggle with? How do you balance speaking the truth (about politics, religion, or any other topic) with speaking gracefully?

A sabbatical is an extended time of rest—modeled on the Sabbath day—in which you take a long block of time to focus on something other than your career. Many university professors take sabbaticals in order to write books or to focus on research, and some professionals take them in order to hone a new skill or simply do something else for a while. I’ve even heard of people taking them in order to invest time with their family.

The concept of a sabbatical is rooted in scripture. Starting in Genesis, God illustrates the natural rhythm of six days working, one day off. Later, in Leviticus the Israelites are told to let the land rest one year out of every seven. During the seventh year, they’re allowed to eat what the land produces, but they must let it grow wild.

Have you ever taken a sabbatical? Would you ever want to?

Share your thoughts!

Why is there such tension between many Christians and science? Many Christians have developed a suspicion of certain scientific fields (like biology and environmental science) due to the atheist or un-Christian philosophies held by particular outspoken scientists throughout the years. It may be understandable, but if that suspicion prevents us from exploring and appreciating God’s creation, it’s a problem.

The latest Wonder of Creation devotional challenges Christians not only to reconsider their attitude toward the sciences, but to actively claim a spot at the forefront of creation care:

Evangelical theologian John Stott is an avid birder who motivated the founder of A Rocha, a Christian nature conservancy. He writes, “Christian people should surely have been in the vanguard of the movement for environmental responsibility, because of our doctrines of creation and stewardship. Did God make the world? Does He sustain it? Has He committed its resources to our care? His personal concern for His own creation should be sufficient to inspire us to be equally concerned.”

Our relationship to the natural world is that of steward—the one who is responsible to care for what God has made. Homo sapiens is the only responsible species. How responsible have we been?

Read the full devotional at Wonder of Creation.

Does that call to action ring true for you? Have Christians neglected stewardship and creation care, and if so, how do we go about reclaiming it?

Valentine’s Day is over, and it won’t be long before the flowers wilt, the mushy cards are tucked away, and life returns to its ordinary, comparatively un-romantic routine. Most everyone realizes, of course, that cultivating a godly, Christ-honoring relationship isn’t something that happens just once a year at Valentine’s Day; it’s something that must be worked at day by day throughout the year.

There’s no shortage of relationship and marriage advice out there vying for your attention. But I thought it might be useful, in the aftermath of Valentine’s Day, to point out a few good sources of Christian relationship guidance:

ACTS International’s essays on marriage and family are quite good, and covers many dozens of different relationship topics (including singleness, if you aren’t in a romantic relationship at the moment).

Winning at Home regularly posts short but useful essays about different aspects of marriage and family life.

Focus on the Family’s Boundless blog regularly publishes articles about dating and marriage, with a particular focus on the single life. Focus on the Family’s selection of articles about marriage contains a lot of good material as well.

What other resources, online or offline, have helped you build healthy relationships with your spouse, family, or friends?