If you aren’t on an airplane flight to Cape Town right now, it’s OK—you can experience much of the Congress online. All of the plenary sessions will be broadcast on the internet, and you can join in discussion with Congress participants (with automated translation to overcome the language barrier).

Take a look at the Cape Town 2010 website for a complete breakdown of the Congress and how you can participate. The Lausanne Congress Facebook and Twitter pages are also good places to get up-to-the-minute updates. If you plan to participate, we’d love to hear from you in the comment section below, along with any of your reflections on the Congress once it wraps up!

The Internet Ministry Conference (IMC) was once the cornerstone of the now-defunct Gospelcom Ministry Alliance. Attendees, ranging from lone bloggers to the leaders of global Christian organizations, all gathered for one purpose: to learn how to more effectively use the internet to carry out their Christian calling. Today, that means more than just learning how to set up a good website—it also means making good use of social media, mobile devices, and other online tools to reach your audience.

The last IMC was way back in 2008… and so it was a pleasant surprise to learn that Reconnect Productions is re-launching the Internet Ministry Conference this fall! IMC 2010 takes place on October 26-27 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and registration is now open.

Speakers lined up for the conference so far include social media guru Dan Zarrella and online ministry expert Kent Shaffer. You can read more about the speakers and other conference-related news at the IMC blog.

Early-bird registration is still available but won’t last forever, so if you’re interested in two days of internet ministry training and networking, take a moment to see if IMC 2010 is a good fit for you.

Update: the Internet Ministry Conference Twitter feed is the best source of news and updates about the conference.

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?

What about you? Where were you on 9/11, and what went through your mind when you first heard the news? What does it mean to you today—is it just another tragedy (albeit a particularly horrifying one) among many that have struck the world before and since? Or has it had a more profound impact on your faith?

Ramadan is, of course, an Islamic tradition, not a Christian one. For Muslims, it’s a month-long period of fasting and prayer. But some Christians are suggesting that we use the month of Ramadan as a time of special prayer for Muslims around the world.

Arab World Ministries has put together daily Ramadan prayer points for Christians, each of which highlights a specific prayer need “for Muslims, Muslim background believers or Christian workers based in the Arab world.” If you’d like to participate, just check back each day over the next month for a daily prayer point.

Mission Network News is also running a story about Ramadan if you’d like more background about it. If you know of other Christians or ministries who are using the month of Ramadan as an opportunity to pray for Muslims and Christians in the Arab world, please leave a comment below!

The best places to keep up with what’s happening there are probably the official summit Facebook page and Twitter feed. Out of Ur is liveblogging from the summit, as are Tony Morgan and Justin Wise. Even if you weren’t able to attend, you can still get a good feel for the summit from these posts and writeups.

You don’t have to adhere to Calvinist theology to acknowledge the enormous significance of Calvin’s contributions to church history. Calvinism continues to be an important influence in Christainity today; Time Magazine recently noted its resurgence in evangelical circles. In honor of Calvin, then, here are a few links to help you get in on the celebration this year:

• Not surprisingly, Calvin College in Grand Rapids has an extremely comprehensive list of Calvin-related conferences taking place in 2009. They’re taking place all over the world, from Tokyo to Calvin College’s own backyard in Michigan.
• Perhaps the biggest Calvin celebration this year is the Calvin Quicentenniary, a conference and tour that visits most of the major locations relevant to Calvin’s life and ministry, and which features talks by a wide range of Calvin scholars. Have room in your schedule to visit Geneva, Switzerland this July?
• Even if you’re not participating in the big Calvin conference just mentioned, the Calvin 500 Blog is posting daily about all manner of Calvin-related events, trivia, and discussion.
• If you aren’t familiar with John Calvin or his teachings, there’s a good overview of his life and theology at the Christain History Institute. The Wikipedia entries for John Calvin and Calvinism have more detailed information if you’re interested.
• Calvin’s most important written work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, is available online for free at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, if you really want to delve into Calvin’s ideas.
• Not every Christian adheres to Calvinist theology, of course. The main theological branch of Christianity that is generally set in opposition to Calvinism is Arminianism. Googling around the web will turn up a lot of different (and strongly-held) opinions about the two strains of theology; for a neutral perspective, start with Wikipedia’s entry on the ongoing Calvinism/Arminianism debate.

Calvin’s birthday might not be the flashiest event in church history, but it’s an important one. Take advantage of this anniversary to learn a bit more about one of the church’s most famous scholars!

First up is the Internet Ministry Conference, hosted by Gospel Communications (creators of Gospel.com, among other things). Over 200 people—representatives of internet ministries both large and small—will gather in Grand Rapids, Michigan for four days of workshops and networking, all focused on the challenge of doing effective online ministry. Registration for IMC is closed, but keep an eye on the conference blog for updates and reports during the conference.

The other conference next week is the Revival Conference, hosted by Sermon Index. Registration is still open, and it’s free—so if you can make it down to Atlanta, Georgia next week, consider attending! There will be a live webcast of the conference on the conference website starting on October 21, so if you can’t make it, you can still participate online.

That’s a busy week—hope you can attend one of these conferences!

The death toll could rise to over tens of thousands in Myanmar after a cyclone struck early Saturday, according to government sources. State radio says 22-thousand have died and thousands more are missing.

Some news sources report that the government’s response thus far has been slow or lacking. The road systems are not in good shape and communications are essentially down.

It is predicted that the cyclone may have the largest death toll since the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia which killed 181,000 people in its path. “Obviously hundreds of thousands of lives are being terribly impacted, having lost their bamboo homes and watching their family members die. It’s been horribly devastating,” said Gospel for Asia’s K.P. Yohannan.

It’s difficult to fathom that much death and destruction. And it’s all too easy to chalk it up as another “other side of the world” crisis that doesn’t affect us, and move on to the next headline. But when disasters like this strike, there is tremendous opportunity and need for a Christlike response. Among the many ministries and organizations already responding to the crisis are two from the Gospel.com community:

• Gospel for Asia, which has converted its Bible college in Rangoon into a makeshift shelter for refugees and survivors. They set up the shelter after the local police station was destroyed; it’s currently providing shelter to over 80 people, plus 70 children from a nearby orphanage that was destroyed.
• International Aid, which has a lot of experience responding to crises like this, is calling for financial help in organizing a large-scale relief effort.

In addition to these ministries, organizations such as the Red Cross are already reacting to the situation. Consider whether you can help out by supporting one of these relief efforts—and be sure to put the entire situation at the top of your prayer list. If and when we hear of other ministries in our community getting involved with relief efforts, we’ll note them here.

Better yet, the event is also open to readers, pastors, and writers from other publications! On tap for this year’s workshops—December 29 through 31—are writer and critic Jeffrey Overstreet, recently honored at the City of Angels Film Festival; Peter T. Chattaway, film critic for CT Movies and Books and Culture; Mike Gunn, Harambee pastor and co-founder of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church; James Harleman, Mars Hill pastor; author, animation scholar and educator Ken Priebe; Hollywood Jesus founder David Bruce; HJ Managing Editors Greg and Jenn Wright; and HJ Channel Editors Melinda Ledman and Maurice Broaddus.

That’s an impressive lineup of Christians on the cutting edge of faith and culture. If that sounds like something you’d like to participate in, you can read more about the Gathering and get registration info over at Hollywood Jesus.