en mford@multicastmedia.com Copyright 2010 2010-02-23T17:39:04+00:00 http://316networks.com/church/entry/968/ http://316networks.com/church/entry/968/#When:17:39:04Z 316Networks.com recently sat down with the popular blogger and worship leader.Watch as Carlos shares with 316Networks' VP of Ministry & Media Development, Alan Riley, his passion for authentic worship, his new EP, and his desire to help plant a brand new church in the heart of Chicago. For more information about Carlos, log onto http://ragamuffinsoul.com. 2010-02-23T17:39:04+00:00 http://316networks.com/church/entry/966/ http://316networks.com/church/entry/966/#When:15:03:16Z eaving comfort and safety looks and sounds alluring and attractive - but the attraction fades quickly.Leaving comfort and safety looks and sounds alluring and attractive - butthe attraction fades quickly-in fact I have never felt so vulnerable, small, and needy.... words that are not known for their alluring appeal. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to question your decision.It will cause you to look around for the safety bars, seatbelt, and any kind of security button. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to try to make something happen.Scheme, make phone calls, send out hail mary e-mails-anything to distract from sitting in the fear. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to doubt your abilities.You will look at everything that you have failed at in the past ... failed relationships, failed financial decisions, failed leadership calls-and you will wonder will you repeat those patterns and are they indicators to go out and look for comfort again. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to doubt the author of the calling on your life.Thinking that God is too busy to take care of your little fear Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to be jealous of your neighbors.-who seem to be perfectly content with their lives. You will wonder if you are some sort of crazy person that has a unhealthy propensity to live on the edge. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to look for the easy way out. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to pray like never before.Wonder if you know any scripture to cast out the inner demon of doubt. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to white knuckle yourself around anything that feels secure and semi safe.-even though you know earthly security and safety is a mirage and the place where Jesus is, is most where you want to be. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause you to feel weak in the knees.-a good indicator that you should stop standing up and get ON your knees. Moving from comfort to courage will...cause others to question you.Especially those that have found security to be a bedrock to build their lives on. You will be misunderstood, questioned, and perhaps even seen as foolish. So today, God, I feel every one of these fears. I am terrified... straight up terrified. I am calling out to you to be a voice of truth and freedom. Tell me to settle down, to trust you and to release every one of these fears into your arms of faith. I know it is impossible to invite others into a life of obedience if I am unable to live it myself-so today I am re-upping my commitment to obey and be faithful.   2010-02-22T15:03:16+00:00 http://316networks.com/news/story/965/ http://316networks.com/news/story/965/#When:14:58:05Z President Obama’s support among born-again Christians has decreased after a year in office, a new survey shows."The study suggests that many Americans may be losing their patience with President Obama," the Barna survey noted. "[I]t appears that many committed Christians who were supportive of Mr. Obama during the election campaign are substantially less supportive of him today." A born-again Christian is defined in the study as people who said they had made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated belief that when they die they will go to heaven because they had confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their savior. Not all born-again Christians are evangelicals by Barna's standards. Evangelicals meet all the born again criteria plus seven additional conditions. Among evangelicals, Obama's job approval was even lower. Only 18 percent of evangelicals said they were satisfied with the president's job performance. But Obama's job approval was significantly higher among the general American public, with 42 percent saying they are satisfied. Though the figure is a significantly higher figure than for both born-again and evangelical Christians, it still signifies that most of Americans are dissatisfied with his job performance. In general, Americans believe the president's top priority should be to restore the national economy. But most Americans are dissatisfied with Obama's efforts so far on this issue. Only 42 percent of the overall public said they are satisfied. The percentage drops even lower among some categories of Christians: 26 percent for evangelicals, 38 percent for all born-again Christians, and 39 percent for Protestants. Notably, Catholics were slightly more satisfied (43 percent) with the president's effort than Americans overall. There were a few categories, however, where the majority of Americans said they are satisfied with the president's job performance: on the environment and fighting terrorism. But there are more categories where most Americans are dissatisfied with Obama's work, including on tax policies, the war in the Middle East, reforming the political system, and health care reform. "While most people recognize the complexities of the job, they have high expectations of their leader and have been generally disappointed during the first year of the Obama administration," the study noted. The study is based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,005 adults across the United States, on Feb. 7-10, 2010. 2010-02-22T14:58:05+00:00 http://316networks.com/church/entry/963/ http://316networks.com/church/entry/963/#When:14:49:02Z Pastor Steven Furtick why 'spontaneous' generosity is only part of the solutionOne of the fastest growing churches in the country, Elevation Church didn't need to take a "special offering" when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti last Tuesday and left possibly 200,000 dead and millions homeless and hungry. The megachurch already has a partnership in place with a major humanitarian organization, Samaritan's Purse. A portion of Elevation's weekly offerings is set aside for the organization along with other local and global partners. "What we found at Elevation is that it's the people who give strategically and regularly who make the greatest difference for the Kingdom of God," the young lead pastor said. While immediate relief in Haiti is still needed, especially as aftershocks continue to rock the Caribbean island, the country will soon shift to rebuilding efforts – typically a time when much of the media spotlight is dim and the spontaneous gifts are few. At that time, it's going to be people who give regularly and churches that have a budget set aside for global outreach that make the long-term impact, Furtick pointed out. Furtick challenged churches to evaluate themselves and ask how they will make a difference for the cause of Christ for years and years to come. "We're building a lifestyle of generosity so that the needs of people who have a lot less and who are hurting very deeply can be blessed by the church of Jesus Christ," he stressed. At least 72,000 people have been confirmed dead but many more remain under collapsed buildings. U.N. officials say they may never be able to determine the final death toll. To watch this special video message by Pastor Steven Furtick, click here! 2010-01-29T14:49:02+00:00 http://316networks.com/news/story/962/ http://316networks.com/news/story/962/#When:14:48:33Z New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good is leading this new initiative"We believe that Jesus calls us to work together to set free those who are held captive by debt. This call is especially acute in times of crisis," the group has expressed in statement. "In light of the catastrophic earthquake and the destruction of Haiti's already fragile infrastructure, we, the undersigned, call upon all nations and institutions that have made loans to the Haitian government to quickly and completely forgive these debts," it added. The statement was signed by more than 60 Christian leaders including Dr. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of Northland - A Church Distributed in Florida and a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnership; David Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University in Georgia and founder of Evangelicals for Human Rights; the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners; and Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary. It marks the first initiative by the newly formed group as well as Cizik's full re-entrance into public life since he resigned from the NAE in late 2008 due to his suggested support for gay civil unions. "We have founded this organization to bear witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ," said Dr. David Gushee, chair of the New Evangelical Partnership. "We have yearned to offer a better model for how Christians address public issues; to be known for always standing up for those whom God loves but the world or the church often mistreat or neglect." Gushee noted that the group did not plan to launch this early but the leaders felt the Haiti quake was "precisely the right time to get started" and the right issue to begin with. The New Evangelical Partnership's statement was released a day after the World Bank announced it would waive payment on Haiti's $38 million debt for the next five years. The International Monetary Fund on the same day said a proposed $100 million loan for Haiti would be interest free until late 2011 to help the country rebuild. Last year, the IMF and the World Bank canceled $1.2 billion of Haiti's debt. IMF spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said given Haiti's situation after the devastating quake, donors may be willing to consider canceling the country's debt again. To date, Haiti's government has reported the deaths of more than 111,000 people from last week's 7.0-magnitude quake, which struck the capital Port-au-Prince. The quake has the second-highest death toll in more than 30 years, second to the Asia tsunami in 2004, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. More than 600,000 people living in or near Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, have been left homeless by the quake, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.   2010-01-29T14:48:33+00:00 http://316networks.com/news/story/961/ http://316networks.com/news/story/961/#When:14:45:01Z The wife of former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard discusses the release of her new book, Why I Stayed. “Going over this mountain together has given me the marriage that I’ve always longed for,” Gayle told NBC Today host Meredith Vieira on Wednesday. Since her husband’s confession more than three years ago, Gayle says she has been on a journey to understand her husband, having chosen to stand by him even as everything else seemed to move away. The highly-publicized drugs and sex scandal led to Ted Haggard's resignation from the presidency of the National Association of Evangelicals and forced him out of the church he had started from his basement at the age of 28 - New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., which grew to become one of the most prominent megachurches in the nation. The scandal also forced the Haggards into seclusion, which they did not come out from until only about a year ago, in the weeks leading to the debut of the documentary “The Trials of Ted Haggard” on HBO last January. Prior to their return, the Haggards went through therapy, individually and as a couple, and Ted Haggard had gone through at least three different crisis response groups, one of which believed his process of restoration was “incomplete” and that his recent activities – media appearances and the start of a prayer group near his former church – were “insensitive” to New Life Church. “The irony of all of this is that, from the very beginning, Mr. Haggard had been counseled to go to another city, complete his restoration program, experience healing in his family and with his addiction, and only then begin again,” commented H.B. London, vice president of Pastoral Ministries at Focus on the Family, who had joined the team overseeing Haggard’s first counseling program. "But, he has made a choice not to do that," he added this past November, when the Haggards started holding weekly prayer meetings at their home. Haggard, however, says he has not had one impulsive thought or behavior since going into therapy. “No," Haggard told talk show host Oprah Winfrey Tuesday when asked if he felt he was a heterosexual with homosexual issues. "Not at all.” After watching a clip of their appearance on The Oprah Show, Gayle told Today’s Vieira that she believes what her husband claimed on the show and that she has come to understand the complications of sexuality. “I think with all of this, our sexuality is conditioned,” she explained. “And we can be conditioned in any number of ways – in our heterosexuality, homosexuality.” So while experiences that he had as a child affected him as they replayed themselves in his mind, Ted has come to rid himself of the unwanted compulsions that he once had after he was able to identify them in therapy and was given the tools to deal with them, Gayle reported. “But that’s not true for everybody. That's his story,” she clarified. In acknowledging that every person’s case is different, Gayle expressed her belief that, “as human being, we all need the support of others to choose what we want our lives to be.” And she said that while trying to be something that we’re not may – by definition – be hypocritical, but it’s also the human condition. “[A]ll of us have ideals that we strive for in our lives,” she stated. “So I think all of us are to one degree or another a hypocrite. Ted just had to play his out on a very public stage.” Gayle Haggard’s recent media appearances coincided with the release of her new book, Why I Stayed, in which she recalls the November 2006 scandal and her “journey of choosing to love” rather than deciding to separate from her husband. The book was released Tuesday through Tyndale House Publishers. 2010-01-29T14:45:01+00:00 http://316networks.com/news/story/960/ http://316networks.com/news/story/960/#When:14:12:50Z Click here to discover how you can watch this event on 316Networks.com!  The three day Synergize 2! Pastors Conference will take place in Orlando with the purpose of networking key Christian leaders and pastors to help double the size of the Church in the United States and worldwide. 316Networks.com is proud to bring this special event to you via Pay-Per-View!! Click here for more details! "The overarching theme of the conference is Synergize the Body of Christ by multiplying vision for local impact, mentoring servants to glorify God and mobilizing leaders to finish the race," said James Davis, founder and president of the Second Billion Network. "Synergize 2! is the place where some of the best Christian thinkers network to compound the growth of the Church worldwide." According Davis, Christian leaders from nearly every U.S. state, most provinces in Canada, and nearly 45 nations will attend the biennial conference. Attendees include pastors, Christian business leaders, local church deacons and trustees who will represent more than 60 different denominations. "North American leaders will be challenged to synergize their resources in order to start a fresh church planting movement in this world region," Davis said. "We must move forward in the fulfillment of the Great Commission, despite the present challenges in our culture." In 2008, the Synergize! Conference that took place in Atlanta developed a strategy to host Billion Soul Leadership Summits throughout the world over the next 24 months and then present reports at the 2010 Synergize 2! conference. For the past two years, the network has helped organized international regional summits in nearly 90 percent of the world regions. During the summits, regional key leaders "synergize" and strategize and share resources with the goal of reaching the next billion people for Christ and plant more churches. The common goal is to double the size of the church through five million new church plants throughout the world to bring the next billion people to Christ. The Second Billion Network hopes to achieve the goal of a billion new Christians in the next 15 years. This year's conference co-hosts are: Jonathan Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va.; Leon Fontaine, founding pastor of Springs Church in Winnipeg, Canada; Suliasi Kurulo, founding pastor of World Harvest Centre, Suva, Fiji; and James O. Davis. 316Networks.com is proud to bring this special event to you via Pay-Per-View!! Click here for more details!   2010-01-19T14:12:50+00:00 http://316networks.com/church/entry/956/ http://316networks.com/church/entry/956/#When:14:41:28Z Discover how you can join us in providing relief to this region!Several countries and aid groups large and small are working to help survivors in quake-ravaged Haiti in an international effort rivaling the response to the 2004 Asian tsunami. Many are scrambling to help as people dug furiously to rescue loved ones trapped in the rubble on the streets of Port-au-Prince. International aid groups are seeking to provide medical care, food and water to tens of thousands after Tuesday's devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake.World Vision is on the ground rushing emergency supplies to survivors of this catastrophe. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the next 24 hours "critical to save those lives that can be saved" and said the United States was "moving as quickly as possible." Our entire team here at 316Networks.com are praying for the people of Haiti and invite you to consider donating to the following organizations to bring the relief this country so desperately needs. World VisionSamaritan's PurseCompassion InternationalYele.orgRed Cross Let's all unite and demonstrate the love of our God during this time.   2010-01-14T14:41:28+00:00 http://316networks.com/church/entry/954/ http://316networks.com/church/entry/954/#When:21:47:52Z Miles McPherson, pastor of The Rock Church in San Diego, Calif is challenging his congregation to transform communities.Outreach, Inc., has produced materials that complement McPherson's new book, DO Something! Make Your Life Count, to help churches set and attain goals for service in the building of the Kingdom of God. "[W]ith Outreach, Inc.'s special materials, whole congregations inspired by the book can form a team fully engaged in transforming their communities through a winning game plan," the megachurch pastor noted. In the book, McPherson tells Christians that they have a mandate to do something loving and to bring hope to the hopeless. And he assures, "God has eternally prepared you to do something significant in someone's life." Already, The Rock Church clocked nearly 600,000 service hours - worth more than $9 million - last year. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders declared March 8, 2009, "DO Something Day" in the city. More volunteer hours are expected this year as The Rock prepares to launch DO Something small groups later this month. The church hopes to form new 350 small groups. "Look around you. We're facing economic chaos, endless wars, AIDS, famine, ecological ruin, political corruption - the list is endless," said the former defensive back for the San Diego Chargers. Your neighbors are in desperate need of love and a helping hand. "I believe if we do something, if we allow Christ to do something in us and through us we can change this world." The DO Something! church campaign is a six-week series that includes a service day. Its goals include helping churches reach into the local community; increase small group participation; increase the impact on the unchurched; and create a culture and passion for service in every churchgoer, setting them free from insecurities and lack of interest. The campaign builds upon the personal transformation to bring about corporate transformation. Progress is measured by quantifying DO Something hours and decisions for Christ. The Rock Church is a predominantly young, urban congregation of some 12,000 people and more than 100 ministries.   2010-01-07T21:47:52+00:00 http://316networks.com/news/story/953/ http://316networks.com/news/story/953/#When:21:41:09Z Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt is scheduled to go into surgery Thursday morning to remove a cancerous gland."By the time you read this our dear friend @johnnymhunt will probably be in surgery," tweeted Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. "Please remember to pray for him today." Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Springdale in Springdale, Ark., wrote on his blog, "Pray for his (Hunt) wife, Janet, and their family, as well as their church family. We are praying for a successful surgery, concluding in a good report." Floyd added, "May God be praised and Jesus magnified through this entire experience. May our Johnny Hunt be healed by our Lord and may He experience in the future the greatest days of his life and ministry." Hunt announced in November that he has prostate cancer and expected to have surgery in January. In a statement released through Baptist Press, the news wire service affiliated with the SBC, Hunt said he was "very encouraged" that doctors had discovered the cancer at an early stage. He also shared that his mother had battled cancer and taught him to not ask "Why me?" but rather "Why not me?" "I must confess that she really did pass that along to me; therefore, my attitude today is not ‘Why me?' but ‘Why not me?'" Hunt said in the statement. "If anyone has been blessed by God, it is this pastor. The Lord has been so good to me." He continued, "I believe that the Lord often times allows things to come into our lives, and this, in particular, has been a great reminder of my mortality, and also of a genuine faith that has brought me through everything that I have ever faced; so, the Lord has been speaking encouraging words into my heart." In response to the outpouring of calls for prayer, Hunt tweeted, "I am really touched by your prayers and concern!" and "Thanks for all the prayers, Jesus is Lord!" Jim Law, executive pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., where Hunt is pastor, told BP that Thursday's surgery at Northside Hospital in Atlanta will remove the cancerous prostate. Hunt was elected to head the 16.2 million-member SBC in June 2008 and was re-elected this past summer during the denomination's annual meeting in Louisville, Ky. In addition to his duty as SBC president, Hunt also pastors First Baptist Church of Woodstock, a 172-year-old church in the Atlanta area that has over 14,000 members.   2010-01-07T21:41:09+00:00