Sending $38 each month to sponsor a foreign child—a practice made popular by Compassion International—has some fresh evidence on its side. A new report from researchers at the University of San Francisco reveals that sponsored children are more likely to graduate both secondary school and college, have salaried employment, and be leaders in their communities.

In downtown Los Angeles, four major missions serve 8,000 free meals a day to homeless men and women. However, one group of clergy is urging those missions to stop their feeding ministries, suggesting the effort is "well-meaning but misguided".

The Downtown Clergy Council has issued a paper urging homeless service providers to stop street feedings, arguing the practice "takes away the incentive for people to go into the missions." This echoes a growing debate among homeless ministries amid a nationwide wave of feeding restrictions this summer.

An English nobleman has apologized to his neighbors for allowing thousands of evangelical Roma, commonly known as "gypsies," to hold a convention on his property.

The week-long Light and Life Gipsy Church convention, held annually since the 1950s, changes location every year and features Bible studies and prayer meetings under a tent. The event usually "attracts hostility" between local villagers and visiting Roma, reports The Telegraph.

Though Colorado's wildfires have more than doubled in size over the past 24 hours, buildings on the Navigators’ camp properties remain largely untouched.

“We don’t currently have access to the camp, the Glen, or the headquarters buildings, but initial reports claim none of the structures have been touched,” Navigators’ chief communications officer Gary Cantwell said of the Glen Eyrie property Wednesday. “We don’t feel like it's over – the fire tends to pop up in odd places. But, at this point, everything’s safe.”

Flames currently surround Eagle Lake Camp on all sides, but sources on the ground claim the horses have been corralled, firefighters are holding the lines, and only one cabin has been consumed. All campsites have been evacuated since Saturday afternoon.

Navigators are currently running "essential operations" out of Focus on the Family’s offices. “The body of Christ really sprang to life here,” Cantwell said. “When we evacuated Saturday night, we had several different churches open their doors right away. Dozens of our staff people have been displaced from their homes, and we’re currently operating from Focus on the Family’s headquarters. They’ve been fantastic.”

More than 32,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Colorado Springs. No official numbers have been released as to how many structures have burned, but Flying W Ranch, an off-site event destination for past Evangelical Press Association conventions, is reportedly “a total loss.”

“Things are surreal and somewhat chaotic here,” EPA president Dean Ridings stated in a press release Wednesday afternoon. “My family is among some 32,000 who have evacuated.… We're trusting in the Lord, grateful that there have been no reported deaths or even injuries. There's a strong sense of unity that ‘we're all in this together.’”

Officials say the fire won’t likely be contained before mid-July, as it has consumed over 15,000 acres and high winds pose a significant challenge to workers on the ground. Smoke hangs densely over Colorado Springs, and homes that have not been directly affected by flame are likely to have incurred smoke damage.

“Our hope is not in buildings – the Navigators are not a bunch of buildings,” Cantwell said. “We’re people who care about people. That’s what our ministry’s all about.”

The daughter of the founders of Teen Mania Ministries remains hospitalized after a plane crash that killed four others.

The plane was headed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, for Teen Mania’s Acquire The Fire youth event when it crashed Friday afternoon. Three graduates from Oral Roberts University—Luke Sheets, Garrett Coble, and Stephen Luth—were killed at the scene.

The remaining passengers—Austin Anderson, also an Oral Roberts Graduate, and Hannah Luce, daughter of Teen Mania founders Ron and Katie Luce—managed to escape the wreck and get help, though both suffered serious injuries. Anderson died the following morning; Luce is recovering at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City.

In a statement on their blog, the Luces credited Anderson, a former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, with saving their daughter’s life.

“We believe [Anderson] helped Hannah out of the plane and to the roadside,” the Luces wrote. “Not only is he a hero for serving our nation, we probably owe our daughter’s life to his courage and strength.”

Anderson and Luth had recently been hired to Teen Mania’s marketing team, the organization said in a statement, though all those involved in the crash “were friends of Teen Mania.” Coble was a professor at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, The Kansas City Star reported.

Among today's many Supreme Court actions, the justices opted not to hear Sylvia Spencer et al v. World Vision, a case that had potentially significant implications for religious organizations' hiring practices.

The Supreme Court's denial of certiorari lets stand an August 2010 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of World Vision and against three employees who were fired after the organization concluded that they did not believe that Jesus Christ is fully God.

"Today's action by the U.S. Supreme Court represents a major victory for the freedom of all religious organizations to hire employees who share the same faith--whether Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, or any other religion," World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns said in a press release. "I am pleased, relieved and gratified with the court's action. After four years of litigation, we at World Vision U.S. may now put this matter behind us, and continue our policy of hiring Christians."

The denial brings an end to the World Vision lawsuit, but the issue of religious-based hiring will be one of the key issues before the Supreme Court this year. One of the key questions in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, which the court will consider on Wednesday, is whether an elementary school teacher can be considered a ministerial employee.

The question in the World Vision case was slightly different: at issue was less the "ministerial exemption" of the 1964 Civil Rights Act than a 1972 amendment to the act said churches and religious corporations and associations could use faith-based criteria in hiring. In the World Vision case, all sides agreed that the nature of the firings were religious, but the fired employees argued that World Vision was not truly religious since its work was humanitarian rather than religious, and not significantly different from groups like the Red Cross.

In the Hosanna-Tabor case, all the sides agree that the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church school is religious, but disagree on whether the employee, who was dismissed for issues related to her narcolepsy, was a ministerial employee. The congregation that runs the school argues that she was, noting that her duties included leading prayer, devotions, and religious studies.

In its World Vision decision, the 9th Circuit Court ruled that an organization is religious if it has a self-identified religious purpose, acts consistently with those purposes, and promotes itself publicly as religious. But the court did not rule on whether World Vision’s humanitarian work is religious. "Making that determination, the court said, "runs counter to the core of the constitutional guarantee against religious establishment."

Prison Fellowship, a prominent evangelical ministry to inmates, has laid off dozens of employees, citing the faltering economy.

A total of 72 staffers were let go as part of a restructuring that included new leaders as of July 18. Jim Liske, a former pastor in Michigan, began as CEO and Garland Hunt, a former Atlanta pastor, is now president.

"Like many nonprofits in the wake of this economy, Prison Fellowship has had to deal with shrinking resources and rising costs," said Frank Lofaro, executive vice president of the ministry.

The ministry was founded in 1976 by ex-convict and Nixon aide Chuck Colson.

Lofaro declined to disclose the current total number of Prison Fellowship staffers.
"Prison Fellowship is not focusing on its recent staff reductions but rather on the new season it is embarking on for the ministry," Lofaro said in a statement.

The ministry, which turns 35 this month (August), works with about 8,500 churches and 14,000 volunteers to support prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.

(RNS) A Baptist minister from Oregon who was killed in Afghanistan on August 30 is the first Army chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam, according to the Army.

Capt. Dale Allen Goetz, 43, died in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's Arghandab River Valley. He had been in Afghanistan less than a month. Four other Fort Carson, Colo., soldiers were also killed in the attack.

Goetz is the 124th service member with strong ties to Oregon to die in Afghanistan or Iraq. But as a chaplain, he was a noncombatant and unarmed.

The more than 400 Army chaplains in Iraq or Afghanistan are military officers. Their job is to reach soldiers on the battlefield, to provide religious support and to perform services or rites, said Lt. Col.
Carleton Birch, a spokesman for the Army Chief of Chaplains.

An armed chaplain's assistant travels with each. The first assistant to die in the wars was killed in Afghanistan last month, Birch said.

Goetz attended Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis. He completed his Master of Divinity degree in 2000 at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, an independent Baptist seminary in Minnesota. He was pastor of a church in White, S.D., until he joined the Army and began his work toward chaplaincy in 2000.

He served with the infantry at Fort Lewis, Wash., then three years in Okinawa, Japan, until he was transferred to Colorado in January. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson. He served 11 months in Iraq in 2004-05.

Survivors include his wife and three children ages 10, 8, and 1. Funeral services are planned in Colorado Springs, Colo., with burial at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the seminary Goetz attended. He completed his Master of Divinity degree at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, an independent Baptist seminary in Minnesota.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling this afternoon allowing the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision to base its hiring decisions on matters of religious belief.

Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain authored the three-judge panel’s majority opinion, which declares World Vision a “religious organization” and therefore exempt from the rules on hiring practices that Congress set down in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, mainly because it is a nonprofit entity which self-identifies as religious.

“This is a significant victory for World Vision’s religious hiring rights,” said Dean Owen, World Vision’s director of media relations. “The right of faith-based organizations to hire people who are co-religionists, who are of their own faith, has been law in this country for nearly 50 years.”

Three former World Vision employees, Silvia Spencer, Ted Youngberg, and Vicki Hulse, sued after World Vision fired them in 2006 for disagreeing with central tenets of the organization’s Statement of Faith. As O’Scannlain notes, everyone involved agreed that the three employees were fired for religious reasons. The question was whether World Vision qualified for the religious exemption to the Civil Rights Act, which normally prohibits any organization from hiring or firing based on religious beliefs.

The former employees asserted that both law and legal precedent limited “religious organizations” to “churches, synagogues, and the like.” The Ninth Circuit, who produced some of the precedents they pointed to, disagreed.

“If Congress had intended to restrict the exemption to ‘[c]hurches, and entities similar to churches’ it could have said so,” Judge O’Scannlain’s opinion said. “Because Congress did not, some religious corporations, associations, and societies that are not churches must fall within the exemption.“

Full disclosure: Art Simon, founder of the Christian hunger advocacy organization Bread for the World, is one of my personal heroes; I served briefly on the Bread for the World’s board of directors; and I consider David Beckman, Bread’s current president to be a sacrificial servant leader.

That’s why I was delighted yesterday to learn that David Beckman and Jo Luck, president of Heifer International, have been jointly awarded this year’s World Food Prize.

"Neighbors," shot on location in Jos, Nigeria, examines what happens when segments of a community oppose one another in a standoff that appears to have no solution. This is a story not only of Jos, but of places throughout the world where historical differences of tribe, race, and religion lead to violent conflicts.

Related Elsewhere:
Previous Christianity Today coverage of the January Jos riots includes:

• More Human Smoke Rises in Jos | This week's deadly riots struck home for the academic dean of ECWA Theological Seminary. By Sunday B. Agang (January 21, 2010)
• The Truth About the Religious Violence in Jos, Nigeria | It's not easy to state who started it or how many died. But the horror for those affected is clear. By Craig S. Keener (January 21, 2010)
• 'In Jos We Are Coming Face to Face in Confrontation with Satan' | The Anglican Archbishop of Jos speaks out on last week's deadly attacks and the media coverage that followed. By Benjamin A. Kwashi (January 26, 2010)

Previous Christianity Today coverage of the 2008 Jos riots includes:

• Fault Line of Faith | Six pastors killed, 40 churches razed in Jos's most recent violence (Jan. 15, 2009)
• Diagnosing Jos | Political problems don't always have political solutions. (December 23, 2008)
• Violence Smothers Jos in Smoke | Peace eludes us. (December 3, 2008)

Coverage of earlier violence includes:

• Mutual Mayhem | A plea for peace and truth in the madness of Nigeria. (Nov. 3, 2004)
• Religious Riots in Nigeria Leave Hundreds Dead | Leaders condemn the use of religion as a tool for violence. (Oct. 2, 2001)
• Nigeria On the Brink of Religious War | Northern states adopt Islamic law, increasing Christian-Muslim tensions. (Dec. 16, 1999)

Thousands are feared dead after an earthquake and 12 aftershocks struck Haiti yesterday near Port-au-Prince.

Haitian president René Préval told The Miami Herald that he had been stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped under the rubble of the national Parliament. A Red Cross official told the Associated Press that 3 million people will need emergency aid.

Reporter Joseph Delva described the scene as one of total chaos. "I saw people under the rubble, and people killed. People were screaming 'Jesus, Jesus' and running in all directions," he told the Times.

Catholic News Service reports that Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, was killed.

World Vision, which has about 370 staff in country, is among the faith-based organizations responding to the quake.

"It felt as if a truck had hit a wall," World Vision staffer Magalie Boyer said in a press release from the organization. "There is extensive damage in the city. People are getting ready to spend the night in the streets. They are not comfortable staying in their houses."

Samaritan’s Purse is sending a disaster assistance team on a cargo plane today with emergency rolls of plastic shelter material, hygiene kits, and water purification kits.

Baptist World Aid has pledged $20,000 in emergency funds for Haiti, according to Associated Baptist Press.

BWAid director Paul Montacute said grants of $10,000 each were committed to the Baptist Convention of Haiti, a group of 110 churches and 82,000 members established in 1964, and the Haiti Baptist Mission, a network of 330 churches and schools founded in 1943.

The Salvation Army has committed $50,000 to the relief effort and is preparing to send more than 44,000 pounds of pre-packaged emergency rations to the country with emergency disaster teams.

This morning, President Obama pledged "full support" from the United States. The Boston Globe has posted a photo gallery illustrating the devastation.

Update: Habitat for Humanity will also send a team to Haiti, where it has placed 2,000 people in homes.

Gleaning for the World is preparing to ship supplies to earthquake victims in Haiti.

Floresta, a Christian nonprofit organization trying to fight deforestation and poverty that CT wrote about recently, has not be able to connect with its Haitian staff, most of whom are located 40 miles of Port-au-Prince.

Update: A leader of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee will be traveling to Haiti, expecting to assist with temporary shelter and long-term home repair and reconstruction.

Food for the Hungry has staff members on the ground.

Mennonite Central Committee and World Relief are planning their response.

Operation Blessing International has a relief fund and the Children's Hunger Fund is sending food and aid. Christian Aid has pledged £100,000 for emergency relief.

When? Tuesday, October 6, 10 a.m. CST
Where? CT's Webinar Page
Why? Because when else will you have a chance to have a conversation with Christian Smith?

If you haven't yet read Christianity Today's interview with sociologist Christian Smith in the magazine's redesigned October 2009 issue, tune in for the live version, tomorrow morning at 10 CST.

I will be speaking with Christian — professor at the University of Notre Dame and director of its Center for the Study of Religion and Society — about his latest research on young adults. Souls in Transition, The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults in America is the follow-up to his and Melinda Lundquist Denton's groundbreaking 2005 book, Soul Searching. We will talk about the social and religious instincts of Americans ages 18-29, a group sociologists have coined emerging adults (and one that Christian profiled in his 2007 Books & Culture cover story). Christian and I will also discuss ways the church can root emerging adults in Christ at a time they are most likely to leave all things religious.

Join us for an informative, lively conversation, and come prepared with your own questions for Christian.

A Michigan-based Christian relief group, International Aid, has closed its doors amid financial struggles while World Vision, one of the largest evangelical relief agencies, has eliminated about 75 positions.

International Aid needed to collect about $1.5 million in the past two months to balance its $70 million budget, but only gathered between $150,000 and $200,000, according to CEO Gordon Loux.

"Since we have insufficient funds, the board felt it was prudent to cease operations," Loux said.

The Spring Lake, Mich.-based Christian nonprofit has offered health and humanitarian support worldwide since 1980. Loux said he is in discussions with six or seven nonprofits about rolling some programs into other organizations.

About 40 people were employed by International Aid, roughly half of the organization's staff a year ago. The company also has 32 employees working in Honduras and the Philippines who will be out of jobs.

Meanwhile, about 50 members of World Vision's 1,200-member staff were laid off and about 25 open positions will not be filled, said spokesman Dean Owen.

Today, the Michigan-based ministry International Aid announced its decision to cease operations. The news release (posted today, but dated yesterday) reads as follows:

SPRING LAKE, Mich., July 1, 2009 – Spring Lake, Mich. - based International Aid (IA) said today it is ceasing operations effective immediately. Board Chair Roger Spoelman said the board voted this morning to shut down the agency.

"While this was a tough decision for all of us who believe in the mission of the organization, we simply do not have the resources to continue even another day," said Spoelman. IA acting CEO Dr. Gordon D. Loux informed the agency's 40 U.S. employees this afternoon. The shutdown also immediately affects 32 employees in Honduras and the Philippines.

Founded in 1980, International Aid provided health care services, technology, training and supplies to the poor in developing countries around the globe in addition to emergency aid for those affected by natural disasters.

Loux said the agency will continue shipments of medical equipment and supplies. He said he will be working with vendors and creditors affected by today's shut down as well as notifying the agency's corporate and other partners.

Last week, evangelical creation care entered a new phase as key pastors, scientists, and thought leaders gathered near Atlanta for a "coming out party." That's what Jonathan Merritt called the gathering as he welcomed conferees to Flourish 09, hosted by Cross Pointe Church where Merritt serves on the staff with his father, senior pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention James Merritt.

Like all debutantes, the leaders of Flourish were clearly self-conscious as they tried to forge a new identity in public for the first time. Flourish president and co-founder Rusty Pritchard was the first of many to declare, "I am not an environmentalist." For Pritchard, a natural resources economist who founded the environmental studies program at Emory University, that label is loaded with overtones of judgmentalism and apocalypticism. We don't need environmentalism for us to be perceived as judgmental, said Pritchard. If you want judgmentalism, "just come to my church."

What emerged from Pritchard's keynote talk was not a passion for the environment so much as a passion for people, their health and well-being, and particularly for social justice. If our abuse of the environment raises, for example, the rate of debilitating asthma attacks, then it is a compassion issue for the church.

Calvary Chapel?Golden Springs, a nondenominational megachurch in Diamond Bar, California, will be providing assistance in the form of childcare to Nadya Suleman, the single mother whose birth to octuplets by in-vitro fertilization January 26 has received much media attention (and criticism) the last two weeks.

Pastor Rex Wolins told the Whittier Daily News that Calvary's women's ministry is gathering volunteers to help Suleman once her octuplets, born nine weeks premature but in good health, come home from the hospital. Suleman has six other children ages 2?7 who were also conceived by in-vitro fertilization.

Suleman and her publicist told Whittier Daily News that she attended Calvary in the past. "[Suleman] thought it was a wonderful church," said publicist Mike Furtney. "She was more than delighted to take her kids up there. I think they went there frequently."

Pastor Wolins says he does not remember Suleman and does not know other members who do. "We just know this person is extremely hurting . . . and this church wants to take care of needs, whether she did or she didn't attend this church," said Wolins.

According to yesterday's Los Angeles Times, Suleman has no job or income, and owes $50,000 in student loans. Beyond Calvary's support, Suleman may also qualify to receive large amounts of public assistance in the form of food stamps, healthcare reimbursements from Medi-Cal, and federal security income for her three children who are disabled (not including the octuplets).

* * *

Update: Calvary Chapel released a statement on Friday, February 13, saying that, in contrast to the claims of Ms. Suleman and Whittier Daily News 's story, the church will not be providing her assistance in the form of establishing a foundation, providing monies, or helping her find a house. Associate pastor Beau De Graffenreid made the following statement in a recorded press conference: "[W]e are unable to confirm or deny whether she actively attends Calvary Chapel, Golden Springs. We can say, however, that no one currently on staff knows her, and to the best of our knowledge, Ms. Suleman's only contact with us was a minor inquiry regarding our children's ministry."

However, Pastor De Graffenreid goes on to say that his church is "relieved that the birth of these infants was successful. Because of the physical and emotional strain that these eight newborn babies will place upon her and her other six children, they will be in need of spiritual guidance, childcare assistance 24 hours a day from her local community for many years to come . . . We would ask that Christians everywhere pray for her and these babies."

Millard Fuller, who founded a house-building ministry called Habitat for Humanity with his wife, died today. He was 74.

Linda Fuller told that Associated Press that her husband was complaining of chest pains, headache and difficulty swallowing.

"Millard would not want people to mourn his death," she told the AP. "He would be more interested in having people put on a tool belt and build a house for people in need."

Former President Jimmy Carter, called Fuller "one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known.

"He used his remarkable gifts as an entrepreneur for the benefit of millions of needy people around the world by providing them with decent housing," Carter said in a statement. "As the founder of Habitat for Humanity and later the Fuller Center, he was an inspiration to me, other members of our family and an untold number of volunteers who worked side-by-side under his leadership."

Fuller founded the organization in 1976, which has built 300,000 houses for more than 1.5 million people. In 1996, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

However, the organization went through turmoil amid allegations that Fuller had harassed women on staff. Fuller denied the charges, but the board ousted him after he spoke publicly about the matter.

After he left Habitat, Fuller founded the Fuller Center for Housing.

Funeral services are scheduled for tomorrow, and he will be buried at Koinonia Farm in Georgia.

In light of tightening financial times, and the heightened scrutiny of household spending that follows, some churches are making it easier for congregants to follow the money. Waterfront Community Church in Schaumburg, Illinois, gives 100% of its offerings each week to local households identified by a partnering Christian agency. This practice allows a church member, in pastor Jim Semradek's words, to "see a face on the other side that you're blessing."

How does the church take care of its own operating costs? Eight sponsors cover rent and salaries, freeing it to use all of its offering in this way. The model is an attempt to restore trust in local churches and return mission to the core of their identity. Its mission-minded sponsors believe freeing Waterfront from concerns about its own expenses does just that.

Waterfront is, of course, not alone among local churches experimenting with new budgetary models as it rethinks mission.

New Yorkers today found a special copy of The New York Times today -- from the future! The July 4, 2009, edition shouts: "Iraq War Ends" along with headlines like "Court Indicts Bush on High Treason Charge," "All Public Universities To Be Free," "
"New York Bike Path System Expanded Dramatically," and "Maximum Wage Law Passes Congress." It's kind of like the Focus on the Family Action letter from 2012, only liberal, happy, and less bloody. (Gawker says it's the work of The Yes Men, a liberal prankster group.)

A bit of an odd note was struck, however, but this item: "Evangelicals Open Homes to Refugees: Up to a million Iraqi exiles -- nearly half the total -- will find sanctuary in Christians homes throughout the U.S., vows the National Association of Evangelicals. Other denominations are expected to follow suit."

Get it? Evangelicals caring about refugees -- especially Iraqi refugees -- is about as likely as a 100% car recall! Tee hee.

Let's put aside for a moment the fact that the NAE is not a denomination but a network that includes a number of denominations, among other groups. The parodists seem a bit in the dark about just how much personal advocacy and public policy work the NAE has done on refugee settlement (including and especially Iraq refugees since the beginning of the invasion). But it's not just public policy work. World Relief, launched by the NAE in 1944, has been working with churches to house, settle, and welcome refugees since 1979. It's not close to a million refugees yet (it works with about 10,000 refugees a year), and it's generally settling refugees in their own homes rather than in church members' homes. But church members are indeed giving sacrificially to help refugees.

Oh, and as for "other denominations expected to follow suit"? Yep, yep, yep, and yep.

Joke's on you, Yes Men. The future is not yet fully realized, but it's already here.

This evening, an influential evangelical leader in New York City issued by email to me a personal call for Christians to pray for the crisis hitting the investment community. Allow me to share his (edited) email as follows:

It is crucial to take forceful leadership in praying for our business leaders, Christians in the financial industry and those whose investments and mortgages are tanking. We may find it hard to pray for these bankers because they are insanely wealthy, true.

A few of them can be terribly arrogant; and some can have little heart for the less wealthy. Yet, Jesus prayed for the rotten because he loved the rotten. In this situation prayer could accompany a revival of the heart on Wall Street. Christian leaders need to lead during this financial crisis, which is threatening to become one of the greatest in our nation's history.

We can hope that these are only "rough spots along the road." Or "You have to throw out the history books because there's really nothing to compare this to," said one chief investment officer.

A chief market strategist said the magnitude of the financial industry fallout is unprecedented, and could only be compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s or the railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s.

NYC financial industry may lose 150,000 jobs this year. Ministries and churches that rely on donations from the financial industry should expect a 25 percent drop in giving.

Yet, we shouldn't be too alarmist because it could create a sense of panic.

We should recognize the intense pressure on our brothers and sisters in the financial industry. In discussions with financial leaders earlier this year I found that their spiritual and emotional condition was already sending an //SOS// for help.

Now, they may be shouting for the life buoy.

Pray for more of Jesus on Wall Street.

The latest from Jeff Shinabarger, co-founder of the Fermi Project and former Catalyst guy: a bench monster.

In his words, it's "a celebration of mass transportation." But it's also a way of ministering to his community in East Atlanta Village. On his blog, Shinabarger noted, "I couldn’t just buy a bench and fix the problem, instead we are turning it into a viral idea with a custom artistic bench, recycling bins, trash cans, a flower bed and a full film crew to share the transformation with the world."

Benched from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

The Salvation Army plans on deploying its prepositioned forces tomorrow morning in a pincer movement from the east from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and from the northwest from Tyler, Texas, against the ravages of Hurricane Gustav.

From Mississippi a command team with 25 canteens, a satellite communications trailer, and a mobile kitchen on an 18-wheeler will rumble down the highway. The team will pick up prepositioned supplies to take to the Louisiana tri-city area of Lake Charles, Lafayette, and Alexandria, where heavy flooding is anticipated. A similar unit will sweep from Texas, picking up more units in Shreveport, Louisiana, and elsewhere. There are also Salvation Army units waiting in a northern band right outside of the city of New Orleans.

The Salvation Army learned from Katrina that they needed to preposition more units and supplies.

"Our response is different from Katrina," said Major Gene Hogg, the Unified Incident Commander from the Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi division. "First, there is a lot more preparedness. Second, we are taking this threat more seriously." At a planning meeting last Thursday, Hogg says the Salvation Army knew that they had to avoid thinking "we have gone through many hurricanes before. In Katrina we had 11 canteens prestaged." This time, the Army has 25 canteens in Hattiesburg alone. A similar number is in Texas, with additional canteens others scattered around the region. And more canteens are on the way, with the prepositioning supplies in Florida and the Carolinas for the next storms rumbling on the horizon.

The Army has already served more than 100,000 meals to refugees scattered from Kentucky to Texas.

"Anytime you send people into the unknown we worry," Hogg said. "But Christ is sufficient for us. We know that we are held in the palm of Christ, who puts a hedge of protection around us." The Salvation Army has additional hedges as well, particularly in preparing staff through the strains and potential dangers of disaster relief. As a rule, the Army will not send married couples together but rotate each spouse every week or ten days, allowing some time for couples to be together outside the emergency zone.

Related:
The Salvation Army is taking donations at salvationarmyusa.org, which notes that a $100 donation will feed a family of four for two days and provide two cases of drinking water and a household cleaning kit.
Christianity Today's past coverage of Hurricane Katrina is archived on our site. For now, the CT Liveblog is where we're covering Hurricane Gustav.

World Vision is preparing to distribute hygiene items, clothing, and toys in Dallas and Jackson, Mississippi, for millions of people who are fleeing Hurricane Gustaf, spokeswoman Rachel Wolff told me this afternoon.

The Christian relief and development organization has been working with more than 150 churches and organizations along the Gulf coast, Dallas, and Jackson since Hurricane Katrina.

"We expect that people are going be turning to churches house them," Wolff said. "The faith community is going to be at the forefront of this response. We want to make sure people don't fall through the cracks. Even if the storm misses the U.S., we still have more than million people are evacuated who still have needs."

The organization distributed $10.2 million worth of donated goods and $6.1 million in grants to local churches and organizations after Hurricane Katrina. Donations to World Vision can be made by calling (888) 56-CHILD on on its Web site at www.worldvision.org.

Howard M. Friedman at Religion Clause reports that the Institute for Southern Studies just released in August a report titled Faith in the Gulf: Lessons From the Religious Response to Hurricane Katrina. The report concludes that: "More than any other nongovernmental sector - and in many cases, better than government agencies - faith organizations were able to quickly and effectively deliver the people and resources needed to help storm victims in need."

The Baptist Press reports that the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley called for a mandatory evacuation of the main campus.

Michael Paulson of the Boston Globe writes that the Rev. Jane B. Bearden, an Episcopal priest from Massachusetts, is blogging about Hurricane Gustav from Biloxi, Miss.

"We had about 55 today for church. There is a sense of relief that we will get minimal hurricane frce winds and only a 15 ft surge - 1/2 of Katrina. But there is great sadness for New Orleans. I cried all the way home. One of the parihsioners had come along I 10 and she said that all she could see for mile after mile were LA plates. I am reminded of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. And now I am crying again. I have got to stop that as I need to go put baptismal records in plastic bags and feed the cats..."

Update: Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008, 8:30 a.m.

Here's what the Voice of America reports:

The U.S. National Weather Service says hurricane Gustav has increased in intensity, with winds reaching 180 kilometers per hour as it crosses the Caribbean towards Cuba. More than 80 deaths in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica have been attributed to Gustav, which is now being called a "major hurricane." It is expected to hit western Cuba Saturday, and is heading toward the southern United States, including New Orleans, which was devastated by hurricane Katrina exactly three years ago.

Don't think that hitting Cuba won't hit the church. The Cuban charismatic movement seems to be evident in every nook and cranny of Cuba. In fact, I had lunch last week with a Christian leader involved in minisry on Castro's domain. And, he told me that Christianity in Cuba continues to explode, growing year after year. Born-again military officers, doctors, lawyers, government officials are giving up on their careers and doing church-planting, island-wide.

Today, Gustav is expected pay a memorable visit to Cuba. No visa, no hotel reservation, no permit from the US Treasury to spend dollars there.

There's this update from the Salvation Army about the US Gulf coast.

Preparedness for Gustav begins as Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary approaches Alexandria, Va. (August 28, 2008) - Salvation Army personnel throughout the Gulf Coast are mobilizing to respond to Tropical Storm Gustav, expected to develop into a serious category three hurricane by early next week. Army units in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas have 100 mobile feeding units and three fully-equipped 54-foot field kitchens ready for immediate response. Additionally, The Salvation Army is prepared to supplement Gulf Coast states with 70 canteens from inland states, as was necessary in response to Hurricane Katrina. In total, The Salvation Army is prepared to provide a minimum of 560,000 meals a day as necessary.

"The Salvation Army is prepared to respond immediately to the needs of survivors, emergency aid workers, and volunteers in communities affected by the storm's landfall," said Major Gene Hogg, Divisional Secretary for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. "The Army recognizes how difficult these circumstances can be and will do everything in our power to assist individuals and families following this storm as we do in these communities 365 days a year."

In addition to feeding, The Salvation Army is prepared to provide:

Clean-up kits containing brooms, mops, buckets and cleaning supplies
Hygiene kits
Drinking water
Shower units
First-aid supplies
Missing persons support through The Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (www.satern.org) and
Emotional/spiritual care
The Salvation Army encourages all residents of areas in Gustav's path to prepare an Emergency supply kit, an evacuation plan and stay informed to all warnings and evacuation orders. Disaster response professionals recommend having a three to five day supply of food and water for each individual of your family as well as flashlights, medication, and battery powered radio.

"It is imperative that residents of New Orleans and the central Gulf Coast region heed all warnings and orders associated with Tropical Storm Gustav, regardless of its path," said Captain Ethan Frizzell, Area Commander for The Salvation Army in New Orleans. "It is important that each of us prepare now for Gustav."

The Salvation Army asks people who want to help those affected by Hurricane Gustav to visit www.salvationarmyusa.org or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY. Monetary donations are needed to meet survivors' most immediate needs.

Pray against Gustav.

PS CT readers are welcome to post updates on the messages section about ministry resources. If you are in the path of the storm and have on-the-scene updates, email me directly: TMorgan@christianitytoday.com

Youth Ministry Exchange
By youth workers and for youth workers, YMX is the place to discuss all things youth ministry, with thousands of threads on every imaginable subject. Some sections are free, but a $5 annual pass gets you access to the whole thing - and it's totally worth it.

The Source for Youth Ministry
Jonathan McKee started this site (formerly Jonathan's Resources) as a labor of love for youth workers. Chock full of free resources and ideas (the game section alone is amazing).

The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
This website, from CPYU founder Walt Mueller, is really for parents, but youth workers find it extremely helpful. It's loaded with blogs, articles, links to relevant stories, and more resources than you can imagine to help you learn about youth culture. And the free, weekly e-mail updates are a must.

YouthMinistry.Com
When Group Publishing partnered with Doug Fields's Simply Youth Ministry, they resurrected this long-dormant domain to create a new site, distinct from their two other sites. They're just beginning to move from a commerce-only site to a content-and-commerce site.

Especialidades Juveniles
Youth Specialties' Spanish division has its own website, completely separate in location, content, and maintenance from the English-language YS site. Based on traffic stats, it's the most popular youth-ministry site in the world. Of course, it's all in Spanish.

Youth Specialties
Okay, it's a bit self-promotional, but it truly is my favorite for all things concerning youth ministry, with thousands of pages of articles, ideas, and free stuff - plus the most comprehensive youth-ministry job bank anywhere (with over 700 listings at any time).

My friend Dean's list of interests on his facebook profile reads as follows: "Interests: You Name It. The World Is An Interesting Place." I tend to share Dean's expansive interests, which partially explains why on a day when I could have blogged about yesterday's ruling allowing gay marriages in California, the global food crisis, continued gnashing of teeth regarding the Evangelical Manifesto, or the critical response to the latest Narnia film that opens this weekend, I'm instead drawn to this Houston Chronicle story about Lone Star Cowboy Church in Montgomery, Texas.

I'm admittedly a latecomer to the cowboy church phenomena, which was reported on in the pages of our magazine some five years ago. And upon reading that Lone Star has its own rodeo arena, which was built almost as soon as the tent church that served the congregation for the first two years, it's tempting to dismissively file the whole movement under news of the weird, as an odd bit of cultural ephemera spun out of American evangelical subculture machine. Yet the Chronicle article also indicates that Lone Star has over 1300 members, and that there are more than 100 churches linked with the Baptist General Convention's Texas Fellowship of Cowboy churches alone. (I highly recommend you take a look at this map, which plots cowboy churches in the Fellowship.)

April 25th marked the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network's annual Day of Silence, described by the Network's website as a "student-led day of action when concerned students, from middle school to college, take some form of a vow of silence to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment--in effect, the silencing--experienced by LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students and their allies." Not surprisingly, the nationwide event elicited a range of responses from evangelical Christian groups at both the national and local level, and therefore offers promise as an occasion for further reflection about what form Christian witness should take in a pluralistic democratic society.

Evangelizing persons of other faiths, or even committed atheists, agnostics, or freethinkers, is tricky business in our pluralistic and increasingly politicized religious landscape. In Western cultures where tolerance is preeminent among public virtues, such efforts are generally met with scorn, chastisement, and much journalistic gnashing of teeth. In other parts of the world, interfaith gospelers are subject to far worse than a tongue-lashing from the cultural gatekeepers. Such activity may win them spots in jail, or cost them and their families their livelihood, if not their lives.

As the economy turns sour, there's no need to worry that food for the poor will too. That's because the country's food banks can't keep any on their shelves. A combination of factors have led to fewer food donations while a growing number of people are need of assistance, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Food services for the poor "are scrambling to make up for a loss of government provided surplus items as commodity prices have soared. Surpluses have dropped as some commodities, like corn, are being turned into alternative fuels and others are going overseas as the weak dollar makes U.S. exports more palatable to other countries."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture buys surplus food in order to help farmers by maintaining demand for their crops. But high prices have decreased the need for the government to step in. That's good for farmers, but government money given to food banks is now buying less food than in past years.

"Demand for food-bank assistance is climbing rapidly," says Chris Barrett, a Cornell University professor, "when the resources are falling in dramatic terms because the dollars just don't go as far." Demand is up 20 percent said a spokesman for one network of 250 food banks.

The Journal says:

The East End Cooperative Ministry in Pittsburgh is relying more on daily deliveries from a nearby Whole Foods store, as weekly deliveries from an area food bank have gotten smaller. The ministry group prepares meals in a church basement.

David Hereth, head cook at the soup kitchen, might get kumquats, pomegranates and artichokes, along with more common produce. One day, he received a yellow fruit he had never seen before. After researching the fruit, called a Buddha's Hand, he passed it out to soup-kitchen patrons, along with staples like peanut butter and pasta.

More and more services for the poor are being frequented by middle class families as food and energy prices rise while home values sink.

Believing that the casualties and violence in Kenya were being grossly underreported, the Kenyan blogging community put together Ushahidi.com. Ushahidi means "witness" in Swahili. The website is mapping out occurrences of violence throughout Kenya, asking witnesses to submit incidents on a detailed form on a computer or by SMS. Kenyan NGOs verify the reports before they are shown on the map.

Erik Hersman, who blogs at WhiteAfrican.com, is trying to get the word out, "In hopes that by reaching out and talking to a broad selection of media more people will hear about it and that the news of Ushahidi will trickle down to the Kenyans who need it most."

Could this be the future of crisis aid? Through this site, people are not only able to set the record straight about what's really happening ("There is still a ban in place on live broadcasts related to the election here and this seems to be one way of ensuring that information is not being choked off by the government," writes one blogger), they're also able to communicate with those who have the resources to help them. Some recent posts include:

Some displaced families are going hungry. Rowdy mobs are stopping villagers from taking food to the starving women and children whose property has been looted from the tea estates where they were working. These are third generation workers being evicted in retaliatory attacks. Someone should provide enough security so that the villagers can feed these people without fear.

* * *
Yes there is a lot of need specially food, Mosquito nets for those i saw in Oyugis, they dont have food and i was thinking that if we could get some money we can buy some flour and then we transport them there and give them. I used my own tranport money just to look if things have come back to normal in those places and at least there is movements of vehicles although fares is double due to fuel cost which is very high at the moment. . . I want to thank you all for doing this for Kenyans specially when people are really in need. May God bless you all.

Public radio's The World yesterday reported on the website, which went live last Wednesday.

On this Wednesday last year, Brent Hopkins and I drove his Civic (not my Civic) out I-15 to Las Vegas for the annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. I am fairly certain that will be the only time I spend 20 hours over two days at a porn convention. My excuse was that I was writing a big story about adult-industry Christian ministries for the LA Daily News' then-upcoming porn series.

I focused on the guys and gals of XXXChurch.com, "the #1 Christian porn site," who are the most prominent of the anti-adult-industry ministries. Another character in this milieu is a former stripper named Heather Veitch, (pictured on left) who runs JC's Girls. I spoke with her last year at her booth, a black backdrop with furry pink accents, that was for some reason located in the gay porn section. She's back in Vegas this week with Hooker for Jesus Annie Lobert, and an LA Times blog gives them some play.

One Vegas topless bar allows Veitch to come at night to buy lap dances and use the time to talk to the dancers about Jesus. I have been invited along for a future trip and am very curious to see how that works out. Veitch says she has received almost no hostility from the people she is trying to reach in Vegas, even those not at all interested in her message.

On the other hand, selling her fellow Christians on her project has been difficult. Veitch has found that some churches are not interested in populating congregations with strippers she has invited to services. And then it always comes back to her look. Veitch says, "The Christian community can be very judgmental. But we think our look lets girls in the industry identify with us."

For the upcoming 40,000-strong Adult Entertainment Expo, Veitch and Lobert will be working the convention floor, handing out cards and delivering their message to whoever will listen.

There is no question that patrons and performers at the porn convention are open to Veitch and XXXChurch and the handful of other ministries. But after watching these interactions, I wasn't sure how effective they were. A lot of people listened, few people turned down the "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" Bibles handed out by XXXChurch, but they seemed to think it was more kitsch than Gospel.

Craig Gross, who runs XXXChurch, told me that people ask him all the time whether he feels like he is making a difference. And at one point he wasn't so sure. In his book The Dirty Little Secret, he writes about a guy who he thought he had helped free from the bondage of porn -- only to find the guy later fly off the deep end.

Some Christians are cynical of Gross and his colleagues, claiming they're a bunch of perverts who want an excuse to cavort with unnaturally endowed women. In a documentary, "Missionary Positions," one of the guys from XXXChurch (I can't remember who) gets smacked by a more fire-and-brimstone preacher who thinks Gross is doing the work of the devil.

I don't buy this. Certainly there are people who want out of the adult business. People like Keri Humble. And knowing that, these ministries just want to be there. Even if there is there.

This article was co-posted at The God Blog.

The favorite evangelistic websites of evangelist Luis Palau, president of the Luis Palau Association and coauthor of A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian (Zondervan, 2008).

Need Him
Answers common questions about faith for people in every walk of life. Those who want to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, or who are interested in learning more, can connect with someone online or through a 24-hour call-in service.

Jesus Central
Credible, powerful, and educational. This impressive website helps people from all cultural and spiritual backgrounds study Jesus of Nazareth, the person. It offers relevant learning for people of all ages, as well as a place to connect and dialogue with others about Jesus.

God Speaks
Presents the Good News of Jesus Christ through stories, testimonies, audio messages, and clearly answered questions about faith. Simple, lucid, and relevant.

Lee Strobel
This website is packed with helpful material, including hundreds of great videos and newsletters. Find answers to your faith questions from more than a dozen top Christian speakers, authors, evangelists, and professors.

The Good News
It’s not flashy, but it’s powerful. This simple website, created in partnership between the Luis Palau Association and Campus Crusade for Christ, uses the Four Spiritual Laws to walk its visitors through the Good News. Best of all, each person who indicates a decision for Jesus Christ is connected via e-mail with a well-trained counselor, who leads him or her through the discipleship process.

The uncle of Matthew Murray, the reported gunman in Sunday's shootings, spoke at a press conference today at the Youth With a Mission training center where Murray began his attacks.

"Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims and families of this tragedy. On behalf of our family and our son, we ask for forgiveness," said Phil Abeyta, pastor at His Love Fellowship church in Denver, speaking for Murray's family. "We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief. We are cooperating fully with the police agencies involved in the investigation of the events that led to this tragedy." (The comments were published by The Denver Post and KUSA.)

At the press conference, YWAM director Peter Warren explained the organization's connection to both the shooter and to the victims at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The organization also released a similar statement on its website:

The victims at New Life Church, sisters Stephanie Works (18) and Rachel Works (16) were involved with a summer outreach organized by New Life Church and a ministry of YWAM which rents office space in the New Life campus. An older sister from the Works family participated in a YWAM Discipleship Training Program at a centre in Colorado Springs.

Murray was briefly a student at the YWAM Arvada training centre in 2002. He was enrolled in a Discipleship Training School (DTS) but did not complete the program. The DTS is a 12 week classroom course followed by a 12 week field assignment, usually to another culture. The goal of the program is to form Christian character and assist students in discovering their unique, God-given talents. Cross-cultural exposure and global awareness are special emphases throughout these courses, preparing the students to use their talents to obey the commands of Jesus. The program also involves local outreach with nearby churches and communities, and each student is involved in helping run the practical operations of the YWAM centre.

Not everyone completing a DTS necessarily joins YWAM. Many participate in a DTS to take time out to focus on their faith and consider whether God might be calling them to Christian ministry. For those who choose to go on into a career with YWAM, successful completion of the DTS qualifies them to apply for hundreds of staff opportunities or further training.

Murray did not complete the lecture phase of his Discipleship Training School, nor did he participate in the field assignment. The program directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him to do so. Murray left the Arvada training centre and no one at the facility recalls that he has made any other visits or had any communication with the centre since that time.

YWAM would like to express its heartfelt condolences to the families of the other victims. Our hearts also go out to the Murray family, to whom we extend a spirit of forgiveness.

Five people were left dead after shooting sprees at two Colorado megachurches Sunday. Five others were wounded.

Two people were killed and two wounded at the YWAM training center on the grounds of Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, a Denver suburb. A man walked into the center around midnight and after about 30 minutes of talking with staff members, he asked to spend the night there. The receptionist at the center told him no, that no unauthorized person were not allowed. The man reportedly said, "Then this is what I've got for you," pulled out a gun and began shooting.

About 70 miles away and 12 hours later, three people were killed after a man in similar dress opened fire at New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

Sisters Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael Works, 16, died from gunshot wounds. Their 51-year-old father, David Works, was shot twice in his abdomen and groin area and is in fair condition. Also wounded were Judy Purcell, 40, and Larry Bourbannais, 59. They were treated and released.

Witnesses told the Gazette in Colorado Springs that a man in a black trench coat opened fire in the parking lot setting off a smoke grenade before blasting cars and church members. Police said that the gunman was shot and killed by a plainclothes security guard with a law enforcement background and who is a member of the church.

New Life's senior pastor, Brady Boyd, said that after the YWAM shooting the church called in more than the usual number of security volunteers and "because of the extra precautions we saved many lives yesterday."

"They came to church with their families to worship, and what happened today was a tragedy," Boyd said at a press conference. "As a pastor, my heart is broken today for people that lost their lives."

Another Colorado Springs megachurch, Woodmen Valley Chapel, is providing grief counseling for New Life members, pastor-at-large Tim MacDonald told Christianity Today.

"We're in a sense of disbelief and surrealism that this would take place. We're still dealing with shock and after effects of what has taken place," he said. "We are so saddened by what's taken place, but we're helping in whatever way we can."

MacDonald said the shooting creates concerns for Woodmen's level of security.

"Our security plan is being scrutinized at this very moment," he said. "We're looking at what we need to do to have security without drawing away from the reason that people have come to church and that is to worship Christ."

The two dead victims at the YWAM center were identified as Tiffany Johnson, 26, of Minnesota and Philip Crouse, 24, of Alaska. Youth With a Mission leases property on Faith Bible Chapel's property.

George Morrison, the church's senior pastor, told Christianity Today that Crouse had put up Christmas lights at his house just two weeks ago. "It was tragic," Morrison said. "He was a young man that had a vision for his life and wanted to be involved in missions in Kazakhstan."

Morrison said church members were concerned and questioning, especially after hearing reports of the shooting at New Life. "These things happen in malls, in churches and in the world we live in, it's sad that we live with this. It's sobering that this could happen anytime, anywhere, to any person," he said. "We just have a sense that you have to move on."

The choir at Faith Bible Chapel had planned to kick off Sunday's service with "Joy to the World."

"We couldn't do it, Phil Waters, a member of the church choir, told The Denver Post. "There was no joy this morning."

The choir instead sang a piece about bringing offerings to God, he told the Post.

"We are really close to these kids," he said. "It was tough to be out there (singing) and not have tears running down your face."

More coverage includes:

• Colo. church gunman had been kicked out (Associated Press, most recent AP version)


• Shooter was seeking revenge, court papers say (The Gazette)


• A gunman's bloody trail: from hate mail to mass murder (Rocky Mountain News)


• Pastor tells of horrific day | The New Life Church attacker refused a guard's order to drop his weapon and fired before he was shot to death (Rocky Mountain News)


• Church members find comfort in groups, prayer (The Gazette)


• Church members await news, ask why (The Gazette)


• Gunman defied guard's order | The New Life Church attacker refused a guard's order to drop his weapon and fired before he was shot to death. (Rocky Mountain News)


• Gunman sent 'hate mail' to Arvada missionary center (Rocky Mountain News)


• Church gunman "hated Christians" (The Denver Post)


• Arvada investigators believe attacks linked | Gunman among 5 dead in assaults at center, church (Rocky Mountain News)


• Deadly attacks at mission, church may be linked | "Reason to believe" in connection (The Denver Post)


• 7,000 at church when shots fired | When bullets started flying, security officers locked the doors and people crowded into the basement (The Denver Post)


• Gunman fires on parishioners | Two members of New Life Church are killed and three are hurt. A security guard shoots and kills the attacker (The Denver Post)


• A commitment to overcome tragedy | First a wayward pastor, then a gunman in the parking lot. (The Gazette)


• 'Last place' for a deadly attack | Thousands were at one of state's largest churches (Rocky Mountain News)


• Danger and death in Arvada | Missionaries were training to serve in violent regions (Rocky Mountain News)


• Arvada missionary workers gunned down (The Denver Post)


• Group targeted in shooting has far reach | Begun in 1960 after a 20-year-old college student said he experienced a vision from God, Youth With a Mission has grown into one of the world's most formidable Christian missions groups (Associated Press)


• No general alert sent after center shootings | Deputy Chief Gary Creager said Sunday night that detectives had no indication the gunman was headed anywhere in particular and were given only a sketchy description that would have been useless to other law enforcement agencies (Rocky Mountain News)

On the victims:

• Slain Springs sisters were active in Arvada missionary group (Rocky Mountain News)


• Philip Crouse had undergone transformation (Rocky Mountain News)


• Tiffany Johnson was known for her smile, her love of children (Rocky Mountain News)


• Charlie Blanch involved with YWAM for 2 years (Rocky Mountain News)


• Dan Griebenow has group rooting for his recovery (Rocky Mountain News)


• Young missionaries caring, forgiving | One victim had turned away from gangs; one was called "an angel" (The Denver Post)


• Police ID teens killed in New Life shootings (The Gazette)


• Vietnam vet among Springs wounded | Larry Bourbannais, 59, was eating a hamburger in the cafeteria on the church campus when he heard gunfire, said his daughter(The Denver Post)


• Teen sisters killed in Springs (The Denver Post)

On church shootings and security:

• Attacks force churches to boost security | Some of the nation's estimated 1,200 megachurches have been quietly beefing up security in recent years, even using armed guards to protect the faithful (Associated Press)


• Church security can be tricky | Some already employ armed, professional security officers, while others rely on volunteer church members (The Gazette)


• At a glance: violence at churches (The Denver Post)

From our sister publications:

• Leader's Insight: Security Against Shooters | A police officer's advice on how to prevent, or react to, a gunman at church. (Leadership, June 11, 2007)

Johnson, 26, died, as did Alaskan Philip Crouse, 24. South Dakota resident Dan Griebenow, also 24, is in critical condition and was shot in the neck. Charlie Blanch, a 22-year-old from Minnesota, was shot in the legs and is in stable condition.

About 45 YWAM students were in the facility, which is on the grounds of Faith Bible Chapel megachurch.

"The young man – I don't know who he is; I don't think [the victims] knew him – but he must be going through a lot personally in his own life to do something like this," Peter Warren, the Director of Youth with a Mission Denver, said in a press statement. "Our belief is that only God is the judge and our place is to forgive and that's a difficult thing to do, but really, I think it's the right thing to do."

The suspect is still at large.

Coverage includes:

• Gunman kills 2 in missionary center (Associated Press)
• Two killed in shooting at Arvada missionary dorm (The Denver Post)
• Police hunt for gunman who killed two at Arvada missionary dorm (The Rocky Mountain News)

The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Iowa's InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) yesterday, saying that they could no longer receive funds from the state because the religious basis and religious content of the program violate the Constitution's establishment clause.

"For contract years 2000 to 2004, religious indoctrination can reasonably be attributed to Iowa's funding." The three-judge panel, headed by former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, affirmed the Iowa district court's June 2006 ruling in part and reversed it in part.

InnerChange is an affiliate of Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship. It's a residential program for inmates and operates in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Texas. Only the Iowa program is directly affected by yesterday's ruling.

Neither the Americans United for Separation of Church and State (the plaintiffs) nor Prison Fellowship considers the ruling a loss - just read their press release headlines. IFI's says, "8th Circuit Overturns Much of Ruling Against IFI," and Americans United's subtitle reads, "Americans United Praises Court Ruling That Upholds Separation Of Church And State."

Why are they both happy? Americans United lawyer Alex J. Luchenitser, said that the decision was "A major setback for the White House's ?Faith-Based Initiative.' It reaffirms that the government must ensure that public funds are not used for religious instruction, and that the government must not aid programs that discriminate based on religion."

Prison Fellowship is "grateful to the Eighth Circuit for refusing to handcuff people of faith who are helping corrections officials turn inmates' lives around," said Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. They are specifically grateful because Monday's ruling overturned the district court's requirement that InnerChange repay the state $1.5 million for the years (1999 ? June 2007) when it operated with state funding. IFI has continued to operate in Iowa without state funds since July.

The court ruling has more details on how exactly IFI functioned in the Iowa prison.

Christianity Today's earlier coverage includes:

Rx for Recidivism | Prison Fellowship president Mark Earley talks about challenges the ministry faces. (November 21, 2006)
Bad Judgment | Ruling imperils faith-based programs around the country. (Charles Colson with Anne Morse, August 1, 2006)
Imprisoned Ministry | The future of Prison Fellowship's rehabilitation program, and other faith-based social services, are in the hands of an appeals court. (July 14, 2006)
Study Lauds Prisoner Program | Prison Fellowship releases InnerChange research at a White House roundtable. (June 1, 2003)
Suing Success | Prison Fellowship says its Inner Change program is clearly constitutional (March 1, 2003)

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback church in Orange County, California, released this letter by email to church members in the past 12 hours:

Dear Saddleback Church Family,

Our campus has been spared, but with 3 of the 18 California fires in the Saddleback Valley (Santiago, Modjeska, and Trabuco Canyons), so many of our members have been forced to evacuate their homes. So far, over 28,000 acres have burned here in our Saddleback Valley area.

Our hearts grieve for all who have lost their homes this week in the 18 fires of Southern California. News agencies report that almost 800,000 people have had to evacuate from their homes, and over 1 billion in damage has occurred so far. Monday night, we prayed together for these people as our 40 Days of Purpose Hosts met for training.

Of course your church has been at the center of relief efforts once again. This is the eighth national or international disaster that Saddleback has mobilized for, so our disaster teams are quite organized and effective as first responders.

HERE'S A QUICK UPDATE:

Our 120 acre campus has served as a Fire Evacuation Center, caring for and feeding people who had to evacuate their homes. We've also been taking care of a lot of pets and horses!

We've also been a staging area and Relief/Refreshment Center for the fire fighters. Today we fed over 425 fire fighters on our church campus. These fire fighters are from all over California.

Our ministry teams have been placing evacuated families into homes of members.

We've sent out trained volunteer chaplains to many other evacuation sites besides Saddleback care, counsel, and pray.

Today Saturday, many of our relief teams will head to the hardest hit areas of San Diego, as well as serving here in our local communities. Also members divided up in small groups to do clean up work in the Saddleback Valley. Each small group was given 4 houses to work with.

Saddleback is serving as a clearinghouse for relief donations for victims. Many individuals, organizations, and congregations from other states have called and wired funds to Saddleback that we're distributing to those who've lost everything. For information on giving go to www.saddleback.com

AN OBSERVATION

As the fires have raged this week, I've once again seen the undeniable importance and benefit of being a part of a small group. While people without a church home or a small group were sent to evacuation centers across Southern California (like our campus), I kept hearing story after story of Saddleback small groups opening their homes to fellow group members who had to evacuate. I also witnessed small groups actually fighting fires together when a group member's homes was threatened by fire!

THAT, my friends, is what small groups are all about! Your group carries you through a crisis! Right now I feel sorry for those who've never connected with a group. It's never too late to join one.

Also, I am so proud of how our 3,500 small groups immediately moved into action in this crisis. Jesus said, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:35 (NLT)

(For those of you who asked: Yes, Kay (my wife) and Saddleback staff minister Elizabeth Styffe were captured briefly on video by a local TV news crew. Members of our small group were assisting in saving the Styffe home from the fire in their back yard. You may have also seen many of our college ministry ("CRAVE") students working alongside firefighters on the fire lines.

THREE THINGS YOU CAN YOU DO

1. Continue to pray for all the firefighters. MANY are Saddleback members.

2. This weekend, invite your friends and neighbors. I'm speaking on "HOW CAN I LOOK UP WHEN I'M BURNED OUT?" KEN BLANCHARD, the bestselling management author of all time, will share his personal testimony and response after his house burned down this week in Rancho Bernardo.

3. The following weekend, Nov. 3-4, invite everyone to join us as we publicly honor all the Fire Fighters at our six services Please pass on this word.

Remember, God's purpose for your life is greater than any problem you'll face.

"These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold - and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." 1 Peter 1:7 (NLT)

See you this weekend during 40 Days of Purpose.

Pastor Rick

Ken Blanchard (One Minute Manger) and Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren appeared on Larry King Live last night to talk about the Southern California fires. Blanchard will be speaking at Saddleback tonight.

Here's what Blanchard had to say:

I was in Florida when it happened. And on Monday morning, 4:30 time-out here, my son Scott who owns a house a third of a mile down from me said, "Dad, we just had to evacuate the house, and I'm down on the side of the road and flames are coming from my house and I think yours is gone, too."

And so, it was a double hit potential, Larry, and it was really interesting. My thoughts really went more to my son and his loss because he had just built this house and redone it with a new blended family, and they were just had so much love and hope in that home.

And so, you know, as a follower of Jesus, I just, you know, tried to quiet myself because I knew that He wanted me to have peace and joy and righteousness. And the way I felt I could do that was to, you know, focus my energy on my son Scott. And when I talked to my wife Margie (ph), she said her real pain was for Scott, too, and so we just prayed that maybe his house would be saved. But there was three eye witnesses, Larry, including a policeman that said his house was gone. And on Tuesday, he calls me and he says, "Dad, you won't believe it. I'm standing in our house. It's standing, he said, but yours is gone."

And I just cried with joy because that's what I hoped, you know, because I wanted it for him. And so, it was tough, you know, to lose our house, but it would have been so much from our standpoint tougher on him. ...

We get such great compassion in this country when there's a crisis. But we don't seem to get it in good times.

You know, good times, all the political people are fighting with each other. And tough times, everybody pulls together and are servant leaders. How can we keep that going? You know because I'm trying to lead like Jesus' ministry to say we ought to be serving each other all the time.

I am so proud of this country in crisis, but I really want and hope and pray that when times are good, we can have compassion and love and serve each other.

There's more in the transcript.

Finally, after four days of spreading wildfires, the situation in Southern California is improving. The Santa Ana winds that made the fires especially volatile have subsided, and firefighters are regaining control of the blazes. Taking stock of the damage this morning, the Los Angeles Times reports that 1,609 homes have been destroyed and 695 square miles scorched. The destruction is expected to cost insurance companies around $1 billion - a pittance compared to the staggering $41.1 billion insurers paid out for Katrina, but still a significant natural disaster.

Or was it a natural disaster? Authorities suspect that at least two of the dozen or so large fires in Southern California were caused by arsonists. One suspect has been arrested on suspicion of arson; another was killed during a police chase.

Whatever the cause of the fires, one little-reported aspect of the story has been the response of churches and Christian organizations. Congregations throughout the area are assisting in relief work of one kind or another. World Vision, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Society, and Samaritan's Purse have all contributed as well, with Samaritan's Purse sending five disaster-response trucks to Southern California. It's impossible to know the full extent of Christians' efforts - from churches that have housed evacuees to the person-to-person encouragement and assistance that pastors and church members have given to friends and neighbors - but hopefully more of this story will come out in the days ahead.

In the meantime, let's continue to pray. As a World Vision press release yesterday pointed out, low-income families in the area, especially those without adequate insurance on their homes or apartments, will be particularly devastated by fire damage.