A very interesting piece in The Wall Street Journal today about Bobby Jindal’s journey from the Hindu faith of his family to embracing Christianity as a teenager. Some have questioned the authenticity of Obama’s Christian faith saying it was a conversion of convienence- a community activist simply connecting with a powerful church to get political leverage. I don’t share that cynical view of Obama’s faith, but I understand why some might hold it.

Jindal’s story is different. His converstion began as a teenager- I assume his decision to follow Christ was not because this son of Indian immigrants living in Baton Rouge was plotting a political manuever to become governer and possibly vice president. Anyway, with faith being such a hot topic in this political year I thought others might be interested…

This week the International Christian Retial Show is underway in Orlando. For those unfamiliar with ICRS, it features every piece of tacky Christian merchandise one can imagine. Today the Orlando Sentinal featured a story about Don Levine, the man who created the first G.I. Joe action figures 45 years ago. Levine has no moved into the biblical action figure market with his Almighty Heroes product line.

This comes from the Orlando Sentinal:

In the two years since its launch, the line has grown from seven to 50 items and is now available in 29 countries. Besides the action figures, Almighty Heroes includes puzzles, board games, costumes and a $3,000 Noah’s ark bounce house…

Levine’s Almighty Heroes embody the universal theme of good versus evil. The designer, nevertheless, said he was moved…

Conventional ministry wisdom goes something like this: When launching a new church, first analyze the felt-needs within the target area or population. Then construct ministries to address those felt-needs. Felt-needs based ministries will draw people to your church, and simultaneously positively predispose seekers to the gospel message. In this scenario, caring for peoples’ felt-needs plays a supporting role in the mission.

What if this conventional wisdom is wrong?

The idea outlined above is what I was taught in seminary, it’s what I read frequently in ministry books, and it’s what I see practiced virtually everywhere I go. But I increasingly suspect that the theological foundation for felt-needs based ministry may be sand rather than stone.

The biblical rationale comes primarily from the gospels. Jesus, it is thought, performed miracles in order…

Francis Wilkinson from the New York Times recalls an interview with John McCain two years ago in which the senator told the story about leading worship services for other POWs during captivity in Vietnam. The sermon McCain recounts gives clues to his ideas about God and government. From the article:

I was intrigued by a passage in which he described leading religious services in Hanoi for fellow prisoners of war. “Not because of my particular excess of religious zeal,” he explained, “but because I’d gone to that boarding school and, of course, to the [Naval] Academy, where you had to go to chapel. So I knew all the words to the service.”Here’s Mr. McCain’s description of a sermon he delivered :

One day I talked about the parable of…

Our gospel arsenal is a lot bigger than it used to be. We can choose to preach the Good News from a number of different angles, according to the audience we’ve been given.