Bernie Madoff, a Wall Street mogul, was arrested earlier this month for defrauding his clients, including a number of charities, of $50 billion. If true, it will rank as the largest fraud case ever. I don’t suppose anyone is that surprised anymore when a powerful figure abuses his or her position for personal gain. And sadly we’ve seen such abuses among church leaders as well.

But The New York Times is reporting on a much smaller case of fraud not coming from a position of power in the church, but from the pew. Bryant Rodriguez, 44, began attending El Camino Church last year. He attended baptism classes, became well connected with the small congregation, and subsequently defrauded members of the church out of $600,000.

The authorities said that Mr. Rodriguez asked…

Barna research now shows that the number of “unchurched” people in the United States has increased by 92 percent between 1991 and 2004. He defines “unchurched” as an adult that has not attended church in the previous six months other than a holiday or special event (funeral or wedding). Such a dramatic increase can only be accounted for by one thing-more people have quit going to church.

You might be one of them. And if you are, the Seventh Day Adventists want to know. Ken Wetmore, a Seventh Day Adventist pastor in Spokane, has launched the WhyIQuitChurch.com campaign. The site, which is being advertised on buses in Spokane, features a simple survey where people can explain their church background and why they’ve stopped attending.

At that address, respondents are faced…

The financial talking heads are attributing the current economic crisis to a number of things: lack of regulatory oversight, bad mortgage lending practices, and globalized market structures. But some of the more plainspoken pundits sum up the mess in a single word: Debt.

Simply put, for too long people have been spending more than they have. We have been purchasing homes we cannot afford, saving less than we should, and racking up debt at an unprecedented rate. The average American currently has a negative savings rate and over $8000 in credit card debt. As Dave Ramsey says, we are not “acting our wage.” On a national level, we have been importing more than we export and borrowing money from foreign governments to make up the difference.The picture is not…

Has anyone else noticed an increase in church advertising? I’m not opposed to getting the word out, but sometimes churches take it too far. They seem to believe that there really is no such thing as bad publicity. But at what point does the medium contradict, or even demean, the message?

Although some churches are developing much more sophisticated ways to market themselves–we’re working on an article for Leadership about churches using Google Adwords–I want to take a brief look at a much older, but still potent form of advertising…the billboard.

A reader recently sent in this photo. It comes from a church near Kansas City. It’s not unlike a church billboard in my areas that says “Kids love our church. It’s FUN!”, but it takes a much darker tone.…

Amazing.

How else can you describe what happened last night when Barack Obama became the first African American elected President of the United States? The internet is saturated with essays documenting the magnitude of this event, but it’s the images of people cheering, crying, and celebrating throughout the world that really capture the emotion of it all.

Amid the reflection there have been numerous references to Martin Luther King Jr.’s pioneering civil rights movement and his “dream.” One commentator on the news last night said the day King delivered his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial he could not have known that a two year old boy in Hawaii would become the fulfillment of his prophecy.

I’ve been fascinated by Martin Luther King since seminary–not just as a civil right leader,…

This comes from Honda’s global website:

Honda engineers are committed to the development of advanced technology, but recognize that the purpose of technology is to serve the needs of people. At Honda, this philosophy has long been expressed as “man maximum, machine minimum.” In short, Honda’s goal with each product is to minimize the space required for machinery, while focusing on the comfort and functionality of the product for the people who will use it.

The “man-max, machine-min” philosophy has been guiding Honda for decades. It can be seen in their cars and even in their new corporate jets which have odd looking engines mounted above the wing rather than below or on the tail like most small jets thus allowing greater interior space. This ad from 1978 captures the spirit of…

Something’s wrong. We pastors are the stewards, the spokespeople, the advocates of a message of hope, life, and peace. And yet so few of us seem to be experiencing these qualities in our own lives. Something’s wrong. In a world saturated with fear, insecurity, and stress, we are to show a different way. And yet those at the center of the church are burning out and leaving ministry at a rate of 1,500 per month. If that’s what’s occurring at the heart of the church, why would anyone on the fringe want to move in closer? I’ve just read an article by two Christian counselors about the soul-killing impact of church ministry on leaders. (The statistic above comes from them.) They note that the pressure to grow the church…

I don’t drink coffee but that hasn’t stopped me from using the Starbucks across the street from my church as a second office. I sip my overpriced beverage in the armchair near the window. On this afternoon I was meeting Greg and Margaret*—members of our church I’d worked with closely for the last few years.

“We’ve decided to leave Blanchard,” Greg started. “For two months we’ve been church shopping.” Church shopping—where did that dastardly term come from? I thought while gazing out the window at the swarm of suburbanites fluttering between The Gap, Banana Republic, Barnes & Noble, and Williams-Sonoma.

“We really love Blanchard,” Margaret added to soften the blow. “It’s been a great church for our family, with a wonderful children’s program. Greg and I really like it, but our boys…

I haven’t seen MTV in years, with no regrets, but I recall a show on the network that impacted me like a train wreck. It was awful, gruesome, and terrible—but I couldn’t look away. “Celebrity Deathmatch” featured clay-animated celebrities in a wrestling ring where they pummeled, grinded, or dismembered each other into a bloody pulp of scarlet Play-Doh. It wasn’t exactly wholesome family entertainment.

We can pick apart the moral depravity of the show (which is all too easy), or we can talk about why it was so popular with the young (which is probably related to its moral depravity). Let’s simply draw this conclusion—the younger generation isn’t enamored with celebrities. They aren’t cultural gods to be worshiped and respected. They’re more like rodeo clowns trying not to be…