A brief glance at the statistics gives insight that Shippensburg is geographically located midway between the #21 and #32 LEAST Bible-minded cities in the U.S. (Hagerstown, MD and Harrisburg, PA).
This new data only alerts me further to the needs of my community and challenges me to involve our small congregation in things like the Community Bible Experience that we’re jumping into with our entire denomination this Lent.
A few days ago, I was sent a copy of the DVD, “Christianity, Cults & Religions” to sample and review from Rose Publishing. This afternoon I made some time to sit and watch through the first of six lecture-based studies and was very impressed.
The lecturer, Paul Carden is extremely knowledgeable and easy-to-understand. The first session gives a well-grounded Biblical basis for a study of this nature and Carden gives ample reasoning for why Christians today need to go through a study of this nature.
I am already planning on using this study in my adult Sunday school class in a few weeks.
The DVD curriculum includes six 30-minute lectures from Carden as well as a supplemental DVD with a PDF of the Leader’s Guide which can be printed and used in the classroom setting.
Here is a promotion-video for the DVD-based study:
From the product description: “Paul Carden, one of the most respected specialists in this field, has spent 30 years researching, writing and broadcasting on the topics of cults and new religions. He is the general editor of the best-selling cults comparison chart, Christianity, Cults & Religions.”
Rose Publishing sent me a couple copies of Carden’s “Cults Comparison Chart” that I am giving away here on stevansheets.com
To be entered in a drawing to receive one of these glossy comparison charts, simply comment below leaving your contact information and I’ll pick the winners by November 1st. The comparison chart is available on Amazon.com for $3.99, but you can potentially get one sent to you FREE simply by commenting on this blog post! Check out the comparison chart’s description over at Amazon.
I’m in Indianapolis this week for the FUEL youth pastor’s conference. Speaking this week is Pastor Dave Bever. He’s pastor of the New City Church in Cleveland and has become a great friend of mine over the past few years.
FUEL has about 150 youth pastors gathered for renewal, retooling, and refreshing. I’m honored to have been able to help plan and carry out this event! I love that the Wesleyan denomination values our youth pastors enough to pull together an event like this to train and refresh our youth leaders!
The following video comes from a pre-session sound check.
One of my “worship arts” heroes is Blaine Hogan. He’s a creative director on staff at Willow Creek, a small church in the Chicagoland-area.
I was a fan of his before I knew he was on staff at Willow, too. Jess and I were fans of his acting performance on one of our favorite shows of all-time, Prison Break.
This video he just released was a creative collaboration between him and a few others that was a part of the Global Leadership Summit at Willow Creek this year. I was eating my lunch today when I saw it. Time slowed as I watched it and soaked it in. Watch “Be Here Now”:
I have always been a fan of creative-uses of media in worship settings and this is one of my new favorites!
