Researcher and bestselling author George Barna says the current public debate about the implications of the Virginia Tech tragedy is missing the point. All the public discussion about gun control, campus security, counseling standards, campus communications, drug abuse and mental health funding avoids the main issue: the way that parents raise their children. The Virginia shooting spree is a dramatic wake-up call to parents. Read this week's Barna Update to understand what's happening in the lives of children and families, and what parenting strategies are most fruitful. And then give us your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with Barna?

Mark your calendars for April 21st - Creativity & Innovation Day. The Day is a celebration of the unlimited creative potential in all of us. Its goal is to raise awareness of the opportunity to unleash creativity from within - within ourselves, our families, our communities, our workplaces, our city, our country and our world. The theme for 2007 is "Plant an idea. Watch it grow!". Creativity is about expanding one's thoughts, breaking down deep rooted pathways in the brain, expressing oneself creatively or just doing something new or different. There are many ways to celebrate. For example: Brushing one's teeth with a different hand stimulates the use of new brain pathways or rearranging and redecorating ones workspace refreshes perspective. For more ideas on how to be creative at work, click here.

This piece has been put in your hand because you're trying to decide if this is really what you're supposed to do. Before we go any further, let's get one thing perfectly clear. You are not Belshazzar the King. Seriously, if I meet one more would-be Church Planter who's waiting for God to 'write on the wall' before he and his wife take the leap into the great unknown, I'm going to have to quit doing what I do and become a 'motivational speaker'. You are not a King. You are not a Prophet. You are not an Apostle. You are one simple soul who's feeling called to walk out the Divine Missional Partnership with God in a specific manner, that being: to copy the Creator in the smallest of ways by creating 'something from nothing' a Church where previously there was no Church... This is the opening paragraph from a very interesting article over at the Acts 29 Network. So...how do you know when you SHOULDN'T plant a church?

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."