Kenda Dean, a United Methodist pastor in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference and Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, shared this list of the Top 10 Characteristics of  a Healthy Youth Ministry on her blog at http://kendadean.com/. What would you add?

With annual conference just a week away, along with the elections that take place every four years (a quadrennium), it may be helpful to review a few approaches to the voting process. First timers may feel like many Americans when they see their first Cricket game--baffled about what is going on and perhaps wondering "why?"

A USAToday article titled, "Entrepreneurs find office alternatives to coffee shops," tells of a new business on the west coast called NextSpace.  It’s a concept where customers can rent a desk, an office, or a conference room, to conduct personal business.  

Could we use a this idea in our churches?

Bishop Michael Coyner of the Indiana Conference sent out the following e-mail to his conference. It is a list of unfruitful practices that congregations might engage in.

I got a kick out of "Sunday's Coming," the "Contemporvant Service" Movie Trailer. Have you seen it? It was created by North Point Media, the audio/visual arm of North Point Community Church in Atlanta.

We have much to pray about this May. As we have talked with friends from Tennessee, North Alabama, Mississippi, and the Gulf Coast, we are so aware of the urgency to respond. The most powerful response to these neighbors and friends is always through prayer. I urge you to form prayer groups and to pray individually and collectively. 

Have you ever sent out a one paragraph informational e-mail, that literally took less than one minute to write, and then spent hours clarifying to recipients what you meant?  So much for time-saving digital communications!

The Swiss theologian Emil Brunner is credited with having said, “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.”  Hope is the message of the Church to a doubting and worried world.