Category: Featured Books

Book Reviewed by Theresa Harvard Johnson
Author Fran Clark
 

According to the New York Times, bullying has become a hot topic across the nation.[1] It is reported that 28 percent of students in the United States experience bullying in grades 6-12, and 30 percent report being bullies according to StopBullying.gov, a collaborative initiative of federal agencies dedicated to prevention, awareness and intervention. Bullying, however, can occur anywhere not just at school.

 

Author Fran Clark addresses this subject in her novel for youth and teens, The Meeting on the Moon. She introduces us to 11-year-old Andrew James Carmichael, a skinny, but athletic, studious young man who loves kickball, but is being tortured daily by a school bully. Like many children his age, Drew – as he is lovingly called – finds himself afraid, intimidated and humiliated beneath the brutal beatings, daily searching for a way of escape.

Book Review Written By Theresa Harvard Johnson
Author Mary Catherine R. Ard’is

 

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots. The other is wings.  – Hodding Carter, Jr.

I don’t think there’s anything in the entire world more challenging, difficult and yet overwhelmingly rewarding and joyful as raising children. The buzz word in our modern century is parenting, but I still prefer the old school terms – rearing, training and raising up. For me, they connote a bygone era in which foundational, Christ-centered morals, ethics and beliefs had a tangible presence in our nation’s root system. Just thinking about the disintegration over the years is heart-wrenching.

Book Reviewed by Theresa Harvard Johnson
Book Written by Apostle Joseph L. Prude

Go ahead! Type this question into any search engine: “Can a woman be an apostle?” Before your finger lifts from the right-click-button-of-your-mouse, the web page before you will be filled with articles, bible studies, forums and sermons exceeding 20 pages deep that not only discuss this issue; but enter into the age-old debate concerning whether women should be in leadership among the congregation.

The good news is that statistics show that attitudes toward women in ministry are changing at a steady pace. Barna Group reports that between 1999 and 2009, the number of female pastors in Protestant churches doubled. (Review the findings here.) For clarity, the term “Protestant” simply refers to any denomination of the Christian faith that is separated from the Roman Catholic Church – particularly as it relates to the universal authority of the Pope. The report also states that:

Excerpt, The Sin of Spiritual Plagiarism
Purchase at My Scribal Store

Whether you’re surfing the web about goings-on in the church today or casually engaging in conversations with experienced leaders in the body of Christ, the mere search on the Internet or mention of the term “plagiarism” in connection with the congregation initiates a string of editorials online and long, in-depth discussions concerning the state of the congregation today.

      On one side of the discussion, leaders talk about how the Internet has made today’s ministers lazy and trapped them in cycles of what some call “borrowing sermon ideas from others” instead of searching the Spirit through their relationship with God for their own unique messages. On the other hand there is this belief that in the present day church, a number of leaders just don’t care – and want the easy way out in their bible studies and Sunday morning services. Then there’s this group of broken believers, those whose lives have been disrupted, and in some instances devastated by the effects of plagiarism among the congregation, who write or record their experiences or share testimonies about how they’ve been affected by the sin of plagiarism.

      Regardless of the conversations, we cannot deny that the moral and ethical climate of the church today is at an all-time low. The news media and the web have made it increasingly difficult for anyone to hide their bad or even questionable behavior as it occurs. It has also provided a blindingly bright platform for the congregation to take center-stage amid increasing accusations – some valid and divisive, and others fictitious. It forces us to confront ourselves in the mirror and take a close look at who we view as leaders, truly considering whether or not our motives for ministry are centered upon God’s heart – reconciliation; or an increased man-made focus in hot pursuit of prestige, entitlement and ease in a celebrity driven man-made-ministry environment.