John Stossel of 20/20 did an interesting segment last week when he interviewed Rusty Leonard, the founder of a research group that gives grades to Christian ministries and charities based on their financial transparency. The research Leonard and his staff does is available for anyone to view free on MinistryWatch.com.

At present, 28 Christian groups, including some of the most successful televangelists in America, received a failing grade for having little or no financial transparency. (Click here to see the full list.)

Three of the missions that Christ's Church supports made the list. All three received and "A" from MinistryWatch:

Good News Jail and Prison Ministry
Samaritan's Purse
World Impact

I hope you'll take the time to watch/listen to the video I posted about last night. One of the main points of emphasis in the message encompassed the biblical evidence of salvation. In other words, how do I know that I have been genuinely converted?

Evidently Paul Washer took some heat over his contention that the biblical evidence for our salvation rests, not in a prayer we may have prayed in the past, but in whether or not there is any fruit in the present. Some of the other points he made included: Read More...

Wow! We had a special event tonight for our senior and junior high students, and their parents. We showed the hard-hitting message on video that Paul Washer preached at a youth conference in 2002. Rumor has it that the message was so shocking that he was never invited back.

That would be unfortunate because it was one of the most convicting messages I have ever heard. In fact, when the video was over tonight, nobody moved, nobody talked, everybody just sat there in silence. But it was a healthy silence. . . everybody was processing what we had just heard.

He preached on Matthew 7:13-27. It was a strong challenge to examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith (II Cor. 13:5). If you missed the above link, you can listen to message here.

"There should be no confusion that deliverance from habitual, life-controlling problems is a journey and not an event."

Amen! Well said. Gary Sweeten had a very insightful post today on the PROCESS that is involved in changing long held habits.

This is a very good idea.

My oldest had the following 'Away Message' on her iChat earlier tonight: "If God made Earth like Microsoft made windows, then one worm could completely destroy civilization." Oh yeah, beloved daughter of mine, way to represent!

The White Horse Inn is a nationally syndicated radio talk show featuring regular roundtable discussions of Christian theology and apologetics. On a recent edition, the hosts interviewed Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

They talked about creative ways of reaching out to non-Christians without dumbing down the Christian message. Listen here.

One of my favorite things to do on Mondays is spend some of the morning catching up on my favorite blogs over a good cup (pot?) of coffee. Here's the current list of blogs that I follow pretty closely. They aren't listed in any particular order. Read More...

Anybody want to head down to SEBTS with me? They are hosting a conference on the emerging church in September. Some of the speakers include Mark Driscoll and Ed Stetzer.

The conference will be examining the emerging church through the lens of orthodoxy.

Having listened to numerous messages on the subject by both Driscoll and Stetzer, it should be a terrific conference. I'm also looking forward to hearing the rest of the speakers as well. Read More...

In preparing for Sunday's message, I just read a tremendous article entitled, "What is the Missional Life?" Good stuff!

"Whether your church is in Dallas, Texas or Sydney, Australia, Philly or New York, La Paz or Orlando, God has strategically placed you and the members of your church in that place. He has radically converted you and called you to be missionaries. Why? Because he wants his kingdom to be revealed, he wants the lost to be saved. And your church gets to play a part in it. What a mission!"

If you're reading this before Sunday (3/18), please pray for me as I finish studying and preparing for Sunday's message – thank you! We're going to be talking about how to get the "insiders" out in order to get the "outsiders" in!

Did you guys see the picture in today's paper of our very own Pastor Tim "the Glide" Bredamus taking it to the hoop? Faculty from Bassett and Magna Vista high schools took to the hardwood to raise money for Communities Helping Improve Local Lives. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Hillary Clinton went on record yesterday declaring that she does not think homosexuality is immoral. How should the church respond to the current cultural debate over this issue? One thing is certain – this issue is not going away. In fact, there are many who warn that the church had better be paying attention because there are those pushing for "hate speech" legislation that could eventually criminalize those who say that homosexuality is wrong.

But even more important, how should Christians enter the cultural debate as salt and light? We've all heard the cliche that, as believers, we need to hate the sin but love the sinner, but what does that look like practically? Read More...

We just got home from Robert's basketball game. It was the final game of the season tournament between the top two teams and it was a barn burner! It was a super competitive championship. Both teams played exceptionally well, giving it all they had. They battled back and forth the whole game and were tied with less than a minute to go.

The gym was loud, the players were exhausted, and everybody was on pins and needles. But. . . our team came up short with just seconds to go. The buzzer sounded and our season came to an end. It was a tough loss, but I was proud of our team and even prouder of my son. Robert, you played the best I've ever seen you play! Kudos for your exceptional effort and unrelenting tenacity! I'm proud of you!

Beautiful weather... good coffee... first class fellowship! I look forward to men's group at Binding Time every Wednesday. We took advantage of the warm weather and met outside today. We had a really good discussion about evangelism and mission – more specifically, what is the most effective way to help Christians realize that we are all ambassadors for Christ? Read More...

Every way of not doing evangelism is wrong.
– Carl F. H. Henry

(A great quote to consider when someone complains about how you are witnessing with a method they don't like.)

This past Sunday night in our first 301 class, I shared about a pastor I know who received a call from a woman who was interested in their congregation. After talking for just a minute, the pastor realized she was "shopping" for a church and that ultimately, what she really wanted to know was, "what's in it for me?" The exchange ended up going something like this:

She said, "We're looking for a church where we can be blessed." The pastor said, "That's fine, but we're looking for members who can bless the church."

She said, "You don't understand, we're looking for a place where we can be fed." He said, "That's fine ma'am, but we're looking for members who can feed others." She finally said, "What kind of a church is this?" Read More...

I am really excited about the upcoming financial seminar that we'll be hosting beginning next month! It is a 13 week video series taught by Dave Ramsey called Financial Peace University.

I've spoken to numerous people who have taken the seminar and literally every single one of them said that it changed their life. I've asked some good friends to come one of the Sundays this month and briefly share how the seminar has helped them. So keep your eyes peeled!

In a nutshell: you'll learn how to get out of debt, live on less than you make, invest for retirement and college, build wealth, take control of your personal finances, learn the biblical principles of stewardship, as well as much, much more. The average family pays off over $5,300 in debt and puts over $2,700 into savings during the first 91 days of this program.

There will be a special PREVIEW MEETING in our auditorium at Christ's Church, on Sunday, March 11 at 7:00 pm. It will last about 45 minutes and you'll be able to get all the details about the seminar.