Evangelicals across the nation are shifting their political foci. A recent article from the New York Times talks about younger Evangelicals retreating from politically polarizing issues that have helped brand Evangelicals as ignorant and hateful. Furthermore, they are seeking to more fully embrace the issues that Jesus was strong on, but that many Evangelicals have been soft on: poverty, injustice, loving & engaging outsiders.

"They say they are tired of the culture wars. They say they do not want the test of their faith to be the fight against gay rights. They say they want to broaden the traditional evangelical anti-abortion agenda to include care for the poor, the environment, immigrants and people with H.I.V., according to experts on younger evangelicals and the young people themselves."

The article also highlights a reaction against this growing movement. The MO SBC is now reluctant to fund new church plants with more socially liberal leaning attitudes (like the one featured in the NYT article). Here's a VERY interesting quote:

"For Roger Moran, a lay Baptist leader in Missouri, being theologically conservative but culturally liberal could put evangelicals on the path to sin. To underscore that concern, the state convention will no longer finance start-ups of churches like the Journey."

This brings-up a very important question. Many pastors, including the venerable Craig Groeschel, seem to have embraced the philosophy "we'll do anything short of sin to get people saved." But does "being culturally liberal" put evangelicals on the path to sin? Please share your thoughts, this is a definitive question for Evangelicals.

Read the rest of the article!

ONE PRAYER is an initiative that was launched by Craig Groeschel and LifeChurch.tv (well, probably, technically by several partnering churches too, but Craig's head is on the video).

The idea is simple: a bunch of churches are getting together to do a series called "One Prayer." It's a 4-week series on your "one prayer" for the Church. BUT you give the first message in the series, and for the remaining three messages (a-ha!), you use videos from other pastors (like Groeschel, Ed Young, Perry Noble, etc).

The cool thing about this is that it's helping promote unity between the various, independent, distributed pieces of the body. It's encouraging working together! They're even using the site to raise money to plant 500 churches overseas! Hotness!

They've already enlisted almost 1,000 churches, representing over 500,000 believers. That's powerful. Brings a tear to my eye. I'm so excited that there's a movement to help unite Christ's stereotypically divided Church and perhaps approach Christ's prayer that we would be one as He and the Father are one.

What does this mean for the Church? Do you think we're lacking unity? If so, what do you think OnePrayer will do for us?

ROOV.com is a MUCH anticipated local networking site! It rolled-out yesterday nation wide. It's helping to create community by connecting people based on passions and experiences. WATCH THE VIDEO!

FREE SONG from Sigur Ros (the Scandanavian Sensation!) AWESOME SONG - Kids from MGMT - so hot right now ARTSY MOVIE TRAILER - All the Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far - thanks Joshua! KLUSTER - stop telling people what's new (starting next week).

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Very excited about ROOV.com. It's a social networking site that works locally. It connects people in the same geographical area based on interests AND it gets people off the computer and into each others' FACE - as they hang-out and do fun stuff together.

As social networking gains popularity, a few people have questioned whether this phenomenon is actually making us more isolated. I mean, we may have 300 friends now, but very, very little depth, and less human interaction. ROOV is a welcome remedy to that, using the internet to help you meet & connect in real life - facilitating conversations and experiences that have real depth and meaning.

God Bless you, Roov

Ed Young, Jr. recently blogged and spoke to his staff about "Church Pirates." Church Pirates are church planters who left a church to start their own thing, taking lots of people (and money?) with them.

Ed Young so strongly condemns this in his video, even going so far as to say that any church that experiences transfer growth is a Church Pirate. This is interesting because so many churches are innovating to attract outsiders - they are also probably attracting members of other churches.

Watch the video (7 min)

He's probably referring to the kinds of church planters (like Absalom), who build-up a following at their old church and split with the old church to do something different (or "better").

Is a church split always wrong? When does a Church Planter become a Church Pirate?