Category Archives: Resources

Reaching the Campus Tribes – Free Campus Ministry eBook

I just got a Facebook message from Benson Hines.

Those of you interested in campus ministry, give this a look: Reaching the Campus Tribes by Benson Hines.

I met Benson at the 2008 CMU Workshop at Harding – he’s a young campus ministry advocate with Southern Baptist roots, and he wrote this book after spending an entire year (and a lot of student loan money) traveling the United States visiting campus ministries at different universities as a researcher/observer.

Here’s the description from the Reaching the Campus Tribes website:

I recently returned from a yearlong road trip researching Christian college ministry around the U.S. After 181 campuses, 44 states, and hundreds of interviews, Reaching the Campus Tribes (An Opening Inquiry) reveals the surprising things I found. With lots of great pictures. And it’s free.”

I haven’t read this book all the way through yet (I started the download just now and am writing this blog post while it finishes), but was honored to serve as one of the many editors for the project.

I just heard the ‘ding’ telling me my download is complete – I’m going to check this book out now. I suggest you do too.

Oh, and here’s Benson’s blog and his post on the new book .

Campus Ministry is the hottest mission field in existence today – whether you agree with all of Benson’s conclusions or not, we need more people as excited about campus ministry as he is doing the kinds of things he’s doing (i.e. going out of his way to put campus ministry on the map).

Keep up the good work, bro! Thanks for providing this resource!

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Barna: Most American Christians Do Not Believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit Exist

Did you read Barna’s latest research this morning? Fresh off the virtual press – check it out: Most American Christians Do Not Believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit Exist.

According to Barna, six out of ten Christians in the United States believe that Satan is not a real entity, rather a symbol of evil. In addition to that, tens of millions of American Christians believe Jesus Christ sinned while he was on earth.

Even more than that don’t believe the Holy Spirit to be a real, living entity. Rather, like Satan, most Christians in America believe the Holy Spirit to simply be a symbol of God’s power.

Most people – including Christians – are ignorant when it comes to basic biblical teaching.

It’s not that American Christians don’t have a high view of Scripture – according to Barna a  “slight majority of Christians (55%) strongly agree that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches, with another 18% agreeing somewhat. About one out of five either disagree strongly (9%) or somewhat (13%) with this statement, and 5% aren’t sure what to believe.”

While most Christians in the United States claim the Bible is God’s word, they disagree with core Christian doctrines.

Why do you think this is?

I’m going to ponder this, and answer that question in another post.

By the way, if you’re a church leader and aren’t signed up to receive Barna’s montly electronic newsletter, you ought to be. Sign up here – it’s well-worth it!

Blessings from San Francisco 🙂

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BestCommentaries.com

Check this out: www.BestCommentaries.com

I’m really glad I found this site. I plan to beef up Logos (which I use all the time – it’s great!) with more resources in the future, and BestCommentaries.com’s rating and review system will really speed up my shopping time.

This is a great website! Commentaries are reviewed and rated on a one to ten scale (one being horrible, ten being great), and since I’m familiar with several of the resources listed already, I can say that the actual ratings are spot-on! They also tell you whether a commentary is technical (i.e. for scholars familiar with the original languages), pastoral (i.e. written less technically – moreso with life application in mind), or both.

Very useful!

If you haven’t checked this site out before, do so.

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