This is my pre-published version of an article I wrote for Christianity Today International's Resources department. It is part of a larger downloadable study exploring Church rental issues. Here, with the help of a few friends, I consider the advantages and disadvantages of renting worship space.

The urban landscape is becoming increasingly crowded — and expensive. While churches have been moving out of the city to the suburbs, the cites have been growing. The North American Misssion Board reports that nearly 6 out of 10 Americans live in the 50 largest cities. And while establishing a new congregation in a populous city context poses many challenges, the lack of affordable space for church property is one of the most daunting. Purchasing facilities for worship in most large cities, especially for a church plant, is often impossible.

Wherein I opine on the culture war between Christianity and those of homosexual persuasion, and their supporters.

So, breaking news, San Fransisco is a gay-friendly town. Oh, more breaking news: Chrisitanity is anathema to a sinful lifestyle. And it's an easy target for sinners.

So the 24th annual hedonistic fetish event, San Fransisco's Folsom Street Fair (wiki definition), created a poster playing off da Vinci's "Last Supper." Instead of tableware, there are sex toys. Instead of Jesus and his disciples, there was "Sister Roma" and " "half-naked homosexual sadomasochists" (WND). And, of course, there were sponsor logos.

The fair is scheduled for September 30, three days from now.

Predictably, the Christian community at-large has recoiled in disgust and lashed back with angry diatribes and calls for apologies. The poster, itself, has been labeled an "unprovoked attack against Christ and His

The question …

I recently received an email note from a friend. She wrote:

"I am curious if anyone knows of some Christian articles dealing with internet flirting or cyber sex … I just can't seem to find anything that I can relate to or identify with, and I know that there must be some other folks who have encountered the same thing."

Not just a guy thing …

Indeed, there are a number of articles online dealing with this issue. Reviewing them reveals something interesting, if not downright scary. Pornography usage and cybersex traditionally have been viewed as a "male problem," because men are thought to be more easily excited by what they see. But now women are at risk too.

Sometimes business meetings can be funny in their own little way. Especially when politicking gets heated.

Oh, the hi-jinx of business meetings. I actually laughed out loud at one minor General Council tempest that could have had massive implications for the vote for the general superintendent on Thursday.

During the nomination process, pastor Tommy Barnett from Phoenix, Arizona (pastor of one of our fellowship's largest churches) announced he wasn't interested in being nominated as he didn't want to surrender his pastorate, there came a resolution to clarify language regarding the role of the General Superintendent. (The resolution stated that the GS would be responsible to "cast the primary vision" for the fellowship along with other executive officers, to "provide spiritual oversight and leadership" to headquarters personnel, to "strategically

Tomorrow, the 52nd biennial business-meeting for the General Council of the Assemblies of God begins. On Thursday, our next General Superintendent will be selected. Here are my thoughts on matters over which I have no input or influence, and which are probably inappropriate for me to publicly opine over. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop me from writing! If you read this and think I'm an idiot for writing it, just remember: you read it!

[Skip all the blather and just see my pick for the vote, if that's what you're after!]

The Generational Exchange … Happens Now

Stop now. Before you go any further, before you cast your nominating vote, before you accept your nomination (as if anybody reads this), go listen to

On the resignation of the Assemblies of God's current superintendent, Rev. Thomas Trask, and the chaos that is in its wake. Wherein I opine on matters explicitly not my business.

I'd like to make it perfectly clear at the outset: I am not a credentialed Assemblies of God minister. I'm not a credentialed anything really. I'm blogging on this matter because it's of interest to me as an Assemblies of God churchgoing Pentecostal who loves his Fellowship and because it's also of interest to you, my faithful readers.

Oh, also because I tend blog on this sort of thing, and I promised you that I would.

What you are about to read (if you read it) is opinion mixed with some facts. I will try to source

For the second time in my short life as a blogger, I've been meme-tagged by an evil blogging compatriot hoping to provoke me into playing a silly blog-tagging game, generating more content, and generally surrendering to mass hysteria.

Okay. I'm in! But only because I'm a sucker for attention. And because, like the "One Book Meme," this question interests me, and I like it.

By the way, I was tagged by Carl Thomas over at the Revival Blog who, believe it or not, actually got a touch snarky with me in his post. This is a bit like playing touch football, only instead of being touched, or tagged, or merely pushed, you get a wedgie:

Rich — If he completes it, (remember that "imminent" post on Ted Haggard

The light of the Church on Earth is a bit dimmer today, but the chorus in Heaven is that much more joyful.

Statement by the President Regarding the Death of Ruth Bell Graham
Contact: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 202-456-2580

WASHINGTON, June 14 /Standard Newswire/ -- the following is a statement by the President regarding the death of Ruth Bell Graham:

Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Ruth Bell Graham, a remarkable woman of faith whose life was defined by her belief in a personal, loving, and gracious God. She was an encouraging friend, accomplished poet, and devoted mother of five and grandmother of 19.

Ruth's marriage to her husband Billy was a true and loving

Social justice gets a bad rap among many Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, but Tony Campolo sets us straight. Check out this video.

Okay, I'll fess up. I am a shameless self-promoter. Yes, I blog for the writing and for you, my Gentle Readers, but it's also nice to get feedback and see real-world data that makes the feedback … um … exciting.

So, some time back I nominated my own site, yes this site right here, in the "Religion" category at the Blogger's Choice Awards (I waited till now to mention it because Alexa, which generates the thumbnails for the contest, kept pulling in a screenshot for my site that was showing a brain-dead URL.) I am sure this self-nomination is a mark of my own immaturity. And I'm okay with that — while also recognizing there's probably something there worth analyzing … someday.

Do I think I have a lollipop's chance in kindergarten of actually

Recently, I posted my Spider-Man Bible Study / Discussion Guide. Simultaneously, I dropped a few comments on some blogs that referenced a different Spider-Man Bible Study produced by Fuller Theological Seminary's professor Craig Detweiler.

Some GodBloggers have been critical of the whole "movie-based Bible study" enterprise. Not surprising, really: using Hollywood movies to teach Biblical truth is a little like using dance to teach worship, or wine to serve Communion. There may be a place for it, but it's going to generate controversy somewhere.

I've been asked before to justify how I could write a Bible study with a movie as its context. After all, if I'm writing a

My Spider-Man 3 movie-based Bible Study is here, at long last! I have permission from CTI to provide the study here on my site. Over the next few days or weeks, I'll post the previous combo-study I wrote for Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 as well.

Warning: the following contains spoilers! Stop now and do not read below this paragraph if you hate knowing anything beyond what the trailers reveal.

Spider-Man 3
The greatest battle lies … within

The first two Spider-Man films established Peter Parker and his super-heroic alter-ego as a popular and profitable theatrical draw: Spidey is loveably unstoppable and Peter Parker is the nice boy everybody wants to see "get the girl."

But Spider-Man 3 severs those silky threads of comfortable niceness, dumping Peter Parker and Spider-Man into a dark abyss where evil infects the

While things are confusing down here, we can always trust in the hope of heaven.

About an hour northeast of Indianapolis on April 26, 2006, a tractor-trailer drifted across the Interstate 69 median. In its path: ten students and staff in a Taylor University van. The tractor ripped through one side of the van, scattering wallets, purses, and debris across the dark roadway and sending five souls into eternity.

In the accident's aftermath, one survivor was identified as Laura VanRyn, and officials contacted her family as she was airlifted from the site in a comatose state. Over the next several weeks the VanRyn family kept constant and prayerful vigil at her bedside while she struggled out of her coma.

Then came the shattering revelation: the young woman they lovingly watched over did not answer to the name Laura VanRyn. Instead, a battered and broken stranger lay in her place: fellow Taylor student and

For some time I've wanted to provide some sort of real-world ranking system so that those of you who want to know who the "big fish" are can find them, and so those of you who have successfully worked your blog into the stratosphere would get a little praise for your effort.

After thinking about it and hacking around with some online tools, I finally have an easy way for me to quickly determine the Technorati Ranking of every blogger on my PneumaBlogs list. (The Technorati ranking is determined by the number of links to a site by other bloggers within the last few months. So it's sort of like a "vote" by other bloggers.) Upon seeing the results I was surprised at some of the lesser-known bloggers making it to the top of the heap.

Congratulations!

In case you haven't noticed, over the past several days I've been trying to bring my "Pneuma" pages up-to-snuff within the new design and to make them all a bit more usable.

Just now I've added a third page to my collection: PneumaSearch. Yes, that's right, I've gone crazy with the whole "Pneuma" prefix, just like I've irrationally appended "Rodent" to everything else. I guess, in the tradition of Web 2.0 mash-ups, I'm the PneumaRodent. But that may be carrying things too far. (Talk to my editor about it.)

Anyhow here's what's new:

I've finally gotten around to evaluating everybody who's been asking for consideration, and it shows. My paltry list of 70-80 PneumaBloggers has shot up to 130+. That number could change daily, or weekly.

Also, previously, I've used the built-in "BlogRoll" or "Links Manager" function of WordPress to manage my ever-growing

Articles

• Church Rentals: Have Space Will Worship (Christianity Today Library, September 6, 2007 [via CTI])
• Cyber-Sexuality: Maintaining Real Purity in a Virtual World (Christianity Today Library, August 29, 2007 [via CTI])
• Involuntary Self-Denial and Relationship Breakdown (Christianity Today Library, June 13, 2007 [via CTI])
• Apostasy: Rejecting Ideas (Christianity Today Library, 04/11/2007 [via CTI])
• Misplaced Love: On Greed, Addiction, and Bad Affection (Christianity Today Library, 02/14/2007 [via CTI])
• Video Games: Violence In, Violence Out? (Christianity Today Library 08/09/2006 [

Last year, on October 3, I did a live interview with John Hall and Stephanie Fraschetti from Word-FM about the "Jesus Camp" documentary that was then the height of Evangelical fear-mongering (start here if you don't know what I'm talking about: "Jesus Camp: Brainwashed in the Blood — or Is it Spin?"). At least that was before the Ted Haggard fracas blew up.

Not long before this interview took place, I had also been interviewed by MSNBC for its program, "The Most." (If you're interested, see "Jesus Camp and BlogRodent on MSNBC."). It was interesting experiencing these two interview formats back-to-back. I enjoyed being on "The Most" as a floating-head talker, but I really enjoyed chatting with John

As I have mentioned in various posts throughout this weblog, I have been a proud employee of Christianity Today International for some time now. After serving as the first webmaster for the General Council of the Assemblies of God and a brief stint as a self-employed consultant, I was invited to join CTI's staff by Vice-President of R&D, John LaRue.

That was in the late-summer of 1999. I already had a relationship with CTI by then because when the A/G first decided to go online in 1995, we did it through CTI's America Online content-provider area, "Christianity Today Online." In order for the A/G to provide content on AOL via CTI, I was sent to the CT offices in Carol Stream to learn how to use the AOL "Rainmaker" system for content-management. (What a headache that system was!) As it turned out, only a few of us outside content providers ever took advantage of the training CTI provided after returning home, and that apparently made me noteworthy in CTI's eyes. So, when Judy Gill, office manager for the content production team at that time, found out that I was no longer working for HQ, she prevailed upon John LaRue to find a way for me to come work on staff in an official capacity.

Today (Tuesday, the 14th), I will be giving a presentation at the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's third annual "Publishing University." This is a shout-out to anybody from the ECPA-U who's stopped by to say hi.

My assigned topic is "Technology for Editors." But After working through several different plans of attack — and nearly losing my laptop in the process — I've settled on the subject: "Strategies for working and publishing in an information age."

I plan to give a very broad view of three subjects that could easily justify a week-long course for each:

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

Yesterday, I wrote about values, and what I think they are — especially how our values are revealed by behavior, along with some suggestions on how to assess your own core values.

So, I was asked some pointed values-questions by email from an online friend who knows my position. I thought I'd post my replies here so you, my Gentle Readers, can get to know me a little better. This was a useful exercise for me, perhaps it would be for you, too?

I've always been suspicious of the word "values" when used as anything other than a verb. As in:

"Johnny values his bicycle."

I'm suspicious because it feels like a noble word that has been debased by liberal educators in order to pander "values-based" curriculum. (Remember the dreaded "values clarification" exercises?  — see my thoughts on this at: "The Basis for Christian Ethics.")

Unfortunately, for those who don't recognize absolutes in morality and ethics, then one man's "values" are as good and worthwhile as the next with the only distinction being, "How's that working for you?"

I recently received this question in an email:

« Where does it say that we are not to torture others? No where in Scripture does it say "Thou shalt not torture." »

While it is true the proscription against torture can be nowhere found in the Book, we can also say that nowhere is doctrine of the Trinity explicitly spelled out. But this is an argument from silence, which says that because a text is silent on an issue, it has nothing to say to the issue.

But this argument from silence ignores the whole testimony of Scripture as to the expected character of the righteous man.

I would find it extremely ironic that the same God who instructs the righteous to care for animals would not expect us to extend similar care for prisoners (Proverbs 12:10, Deuteronomy 22:4, Exodus 23:5, Deuteronomy 25:4).

I want to say a few words about the power of blogging on a personal level. And I want to challenge my fellow quiet Pentecostals and Charismatics to pick up the keyboard and begin writing.

Words have Consequences
A friend on an email message group recently asked me about the effectiveness of ministering through a blog. So I'd been thinking about that when a couple things landed in my inbox that encouraged me and seem to illustrate the answer to his question. Writing in a public forum — whether blogging, managing a web page, or crafting freelance articles for a newspaper or magazine — can have an effect.

First up, from Amber, who sent me a nice note via my online contact form:

« I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your blog.  … Your blog is always honest and open, you don't shy away from even the hard stuff in your comments. After joining the Assemblies at 16, I soon discovered that opinions and controversy and doubt are all too often a flag for that person needing to "get saved" again.

I have just recently left the Assemblies … but a part of it is still in me, hopefully the good parts. And honestly, I think all of those good parts are what you portray here at your blog.

Thanks for being there and restoring a little of my fragile hope for humanity. »

That two unbelieving directors don't understand Pentecostals — or Evangelicals — isn't surprising. That they produced a film rife with ignorance and bias is also unsurprising. But that ordinary people who can normally tie their shoes and avoid bad movies like Gigli don't see how insufferably biased this documentary is … well, that's just depressing.

Now the admirably snarky and witty artist, Julie R. Neidlinger (a fellow Pentecostal who's actually been to the A/G campgrounds featured in the film), has blessed us with a post that might help. Julie has been guest-commenting, blogging here and there, and strenuously trading comments, attempting to defuse the snap judgments and shallow rhetoric inspired by the film and its trailer. And, frankly, she's about fed up.