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LifeWay.com and ChurchStaffing.com Team Up to Offer Ministry Personnel Center

Bryan, OH (PRWEB) November 17, 2004

Today over 300,000 churches in the United States employ well over half a million professional pastors and ministry workers.

LifeWay.com and ChurchStaffing.com today announce the launch of a full-service job and placement service for churches and pastors. With the introduction of the Lifeway Ministry Personnel Center, professional clergy and churches of all sizes will be able to tap into a great number of online resources designed to make the time of job transition go much easier.

“The internet provides the perfect environment for the ministry job search process,” according to Todd Rhoades of ChurchStaffing.com. “Using LifeWay’s new Ministry Personnel Center, church search committees are able to add their job opening to a database of over 700 current church and ministry job openings. They can also search nearly 6,000 ministry resumes at the new website.”

According to Rhoades, there are also a great number of services provided for the ministry job seeker. They can search the internet’s largest database of church job openings, add their resume, and even have access to low-cost resume tune-up and resume re-writing services. “It really brings the job seeker and the churches seeking workers together quickly, providing nearly instant contact. It allows churches to broaden their job search to a national scope with ease,” said Rhoades.

Other services include a unique range of church personnel printed resources, pre-employment background check services, and managed search options for larger churches.

ChurchStaffing.com, headquartered in Bryan, OH is a leader in the Christian website industry, partnering with such groups as LifeWay.com, Leadership Network, Worship Leader Magazine, Church Central Associates and others to provide ministry and staffing solutions to churches and individuals.

LifeWay.com is part of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Lifeway is one of the world’s largest providers of Christian products and services, including Bibles, church literature, books, music, audio and video recordings, church supplies and Internet services through LifeWay.com. Established in Nashville, Tenn., in 1891, the company owns and operates 122 LifeWay Christian Stores throughout the United States, as well as two of the largest Christian conference centers in the country.

For information: http://www.lifeway.com/jobboard


Contact: trhoades@churchstaffing.com

Contact:

Todd A. Rhoades

ChurchStaffing.com

6391 ST RTE 576

Bryan, OH 43506

Phone: 419-636-6862

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LifeWay’s Reconsider Explores the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Confronting the Black Church




Nashville, Tenn. (Vocus) March 20, 2010

The Black Church has traditionally been a loud voice for social change, though research conducted by LifeWay’s Marketing Research and reported in the current issue of Reconsider, a publication for leaders in today’s black churches, found that those churches have been curiously silent on the crisis of AIDS in the African-American community. Black church members say they need their churches to help stem the growing tide of new HIV and AIDS cases within the black community.

In this recent study to understand the needs of the Black Church, LifeWay found that 92 percent of black church members surveyed said they wanted their church to provide support to people dealing with socially stigmatized issues (i.e. HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, etc.) with a maximum amount of services (e.g. counseling, clinics, classes, etc.).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the HIV/AIDS epidemic in African-American communities is a public health crisis in the United States. At the end of 2006, there were an estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV, of which almost half (46%) were African-American.

And while blacks represent approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, they continue to account for a higher proportion of cases at all stages of HIV/AIDS—from infection with HIV to death with AIDS—compared with members of other races and ethnicities.

“In sharing these findings, we at LifeWay admit that we don’t have all the answers, but we share in the churches’ burden to react to the realities we see and to consider and determine tangible ways to respond,” said Elgia Wells, who directs LifeWay’s focus on the Black Church and serves as the pastor of a black church near Nashville, Tenn. “We hope these statistics cause pastors and leaders in black churches to work to determine specific ways to address these and other similar issues.”

LifeWay’s findings about the issue of HIV/AIDS in the Black Church are part of a broader set of findings from a larger survey among black churches across the United States. Study findings are the result of more than 60 qualitative interviews with church leaders, church members and unaffiliated persons and a quantitative survey with responses from approximately 780 individuals (196 church leaders, 315 church members and 272 unaffiliated persons) from across the U.S.

“Our research findings, which we are releasing through our new publication, Reconsider, give us a tool and a challenge to help churches evaluate the way they minister to different people and different situations in our communities,” said Wells.

About LifeWay’s Reconsider Campaign

Reconsider is a quarterly publication designed to help black churches evaluate the way they minister to different people and situations in today’s communities. To find more information on LifeWay’s Black Church research, or to learn about resources available to help churches address theses issues, visit www.lifeway.com/blackchurchlife.

About LifeWay Christian Resources

LifeWay Christian Resources, established in 1891 in Nashville, Tenn., is one of the world’s largest providers of Christian products and services, including Bibles, church literature, books, music, audio and video recordings, church supplies, and Internet services through LifeWay.com. The company owns and operates 154 LifeWay Christian Stores across the nation, as well as two of the largest Christian conference centers in the country. The company is a nonprofit organization that reinvests income above operating expenses in mission work and other ministries around the world. For additional information, visit www.lifeway.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Amy Gray, APR

Gray Public Relations

615.497.1799    

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LifeWay Research Study Reveals Church Planting in U.S. is Bigger Than Previously Realized



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Nashville, Tenn. (Vocus) November 15, 2007

Denominational growth in America has reached a plateau and in many cases has declined, but one would get the wrong idea to think the evangelical church is dying in the United States. A recent study finds just the opposite.

Dallas-based Leadership Network, in cooperation with the director of LifeWay Research , has uncovered striking changes in the number and type of new churches started in the United States. These developments promise profound cultural implications for the future.

“While much of the North American church is in decline, a surprising number and increasingly diverse group of new churches are being started in innovative ways,” said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. “These churches are causing many Americans to reconsider churches they have rejected and to re-think what church is. I anticipate that as cultures change, through the inevitable shift of time, migration, and other means, even more churches will be born that reach people from these new cultural contexts.”

The “State of Church Planting USA” study was based on interviews with more than 100 denominational leaders (representing dozens of different denominations), 200 church-planting churches and some 45 church planting networks (The four-part study including a podcast can be downloaded at www.leadnet.org/churchplanting). Stetzer headed up the project and reported that the results surprised him in many respects.

“Church planting has grown in its scope, diversity and impact,” Stetzer said. “North American churches, networks and denominations are making church planting a growing priority. Such emphases push the church closer toward a movement – where churches plant churches that plant churches across North America and the world.”

Dave Travis, managing director at Leadership Network, observed, “Most church-planting studies tend to look at either a very narrow slice of church planting or developments on a global scale. In commissioning this study, our goal was to review the current state of U.S. church-planting efforts and begin to assess what today’s reality means for the next generation of planters.”

Key findings of the six-months-long effort include the following:

1.    Interest is growing rapidly. The pace of church planting has accelerated dramatically in recent years. For example, a simple Google search on the term “church planting” now returns over one million hits. And, while only two mainstream books were published on church planting from 1996 to 2002, no fewer than 10 have been released in the last five years, with several more on the horizon. Equally important, church planting has now become a preferred ministry option, not a consolation prize – denominations and individual churches report that many of their “best and brightest” leaders are pursuing church planting as a primary ministry focus.

2.    Local churches and church planting networks are driving the charge. Historically, church planting has been a denominationally driven activity. Today, the picture is quite different – with much of the energy centered at the local level. Many of the country’s most vibrant congregations see church planting as one of their central purposes. “Church-planting networks” – loose affiliations of churches that may or may not be tied by denomination but do share a commitment to launching new, like-minded congregations – are also at the forefront of the movement. As a result, denominational offices are increasingly taking a subordinate role – equipping rather than directing local congregational efforts.

3.    “Affinity” strategies dominate. Church planters once based their efforts on geography – the goal was to place new churches in “unserved” communities and areas. Today’s church planters are much more sophisticated. As Travis noted, “Through this study, we learned that most successful church planters today are specialists who emphasize a particular style of worship or a specific demographic. For example, they may exclusively plant house churches or ethnic churches – or perhaps build purpose-driven, seeker or missional churches. And the trend toward specialization is likely to continue as more tools and resources that serve specific types of planting strategies are developed.”

4.    Survival and success are markedly greater than realized. Observers have long assumed that most church plants fail within the first year – as many as 80-90 percent, by some estimates. Research reveals a very different picture – suggesting that 68 percent of the roughly 4,000 churches planted each year are still functioning four years later. These baby churches may not yet be self-sufficient, but the congregations themselves are alive and many are thriving.

What do these results mean for the future of the U.S. church? According to Travis, “I am hopeful that this study and the growing number of outstanding church planting conferences and resources will inspire a new wave of planters in the years ahead. That would be very good news indeed. Launching vibrant new congregations is often a more feasible and more fruitful strategy than attempting to revitalize struggling congregations.”

Leadership Network has created four free reports that summarize different aspects of this groundbreaking study:

    Church Planting Overview
    Who Starts New Churches?
    Funding New Churches
    Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches

All can be downloaded at www.leadnet.org/churchplanting. A 25-minute podcast interview of Dave Travis and Ed Stetzer is also available as a free download at www.leadnet.org/podcasts.

About LifeWay Research: LifeWay Research is a department of LifeWay Christian Resources and exists for the purpose of assisting and equipping church leaders with insight and advice that will lead to greater levels of church health and effectiveness. Additional studies can be found at www.lifewayresearch.com. Contact Chris Turner, media relations manager, LifeWay Christian Resources, to arrange an interview with Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research.

About Leadership Network: Based in Dallas, Texas, Leadership Network is a non-profit public charity that fosters church innovation and growth in furtherance of its far-reaching mission to identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact. Church planting is one of many areas in which the organization works. For more on Leadership Network, see www.leadnet.org , www.halftime.org and www.successtosignificance.com or contact Rick Long at 1.800.477.6698 x102 or rlong @ sourcepub.com.

CONTACT:

Chris Turner, Media Relations Manager

chris.turner @ lifeway.com

(615) 251-2307

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Church Openings Outpace Closings, but Support for Church Plants Lacking




Orlando, Fla. (Vocus) April 22, 2010

A newly released LifeWay Research survey of 1,004 Protestant pastors found only 3 percent of their churches served as the primary sponsor of a church plant (new congregation) during the previous 12 months, and only 14 percent gave financial support in partnership with other churches to help start new congregations.

However, a second study completed in partnership with Leadership Network revealed more churches open than close yearly. Only in recent years has the annual number of new churches in the United States outpaced the annual number of churches closing their doors.

Twenty-eight percent of the congregations participated in some way, financial or otherwise, in church plants, LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer said today during the Exponential Conference, a church-planting seminar in Orlando, Fla. Among that 28 percent, roughly half partnered with other congregations in supporting the new church financially, while 12 percent took direct financial responsibility as primary sponsor of the new church.

“Although we see more church planting involvement, we need to see a much higher number of churches starting churches,” Stetzer said. “It is widely acknowledged that church planting is the most effective form of evangelism. It should be of great concern that only 28 percent of our North American churches helped start new congregations at all, including only 12 percent of those who took primary responsibility.

“For too long, churches have assumed that mission involvement and church planting is someone else’s responsibility,” Stetzer continued. “The ‘pay, pray and get out of the way’ mentality causes churches to pay someone else to do what God has called them to do – and that may be part of why so many have become cul-de-sacs on the Great Commission highway.”

Far more churches reported participating in missions than church planting, Stetzer noted. A full 85 percent of the pastors said their congregations prayed as a group for missionaries at least once a month during the previous year, and 74 percent said their congregations focused that prayer on a specific mission field or people group. Fifty percent said their congregations conducted one or more short-term mission projects during the past year, and 20 percent reported their churches sent out missionaries who served 10 weeks or longer.

“We’re glad to see these numbers; prayer is where a heart for missions and church planting begins,” Stetzer said. “If God’s people are praying, they eventually will hear Him telling them to get their hands working directly in the fields that are ‘white unto harvest,’ but we have to help our people transition from short-term hands-on involvement to longer-term investment of their lives.”

Some of the other survey results, however, do represent a cause for concern, Stetzer added.

Among all Protestant churches surveyed, 5 percent provided one-time direct financial support, such as a cash gift, for a church plant, and 4 percent provided tangible support, such as equipment or rent-free meeting space, Stetzer said.

Although most churches are not currently involved in church planting, there is evidence – increases in the number of church plants and the response to church planting events – to suggest a growing interest and involvement in church planting. According to new research reported in the recently released book “Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers” by Stetzer and Warren Bird, all types of church leaders can become movement makers.

Citing several of the practical examples in “Viral Churches,” Stetzer challenged attendees at the Exponential Conference to adopt future church planters as short-term interns; co-sponsor a new church by loaning people and resources; and provide coaching, whether directly or indirectly, for the leaders of recently launched churches.

For more information on this and archived studies, visit LifeWayResearch.com.

The LifeWay Research telephone survey of 1,004 Protestant senior pastors, ministers or priests was conducted with a randomly drawn list of churches in December 2008. Up to six calls were made to reach a sampled phone number. Responses were weighted to reflect the geographic distribution of Protestant churches, and the sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +3.1 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. The Leadership Network data determining a greater number of church openings than closings was compiled in 2007. Numbers were determined by analyzing church plants and closures from 13 denominations representing 46 percent of America’s 300,000 Protestant churches.

Media Contact:

Micah Carter

615-251-2307

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Gentleman – Church and State


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Bush’s Church and State Pt. 1 by TheBlindWatchmaker


I will upload part 2 eventually. I just want to let everyone know that is strictly a criticism about his stance on Church and State. Anything else about his presidency should not be implied from this video.

Christine O’Donnell: “Where in the Constitution is the Separation of Church and State?”


Republican Senate Candidate Christine O’Donnell today challenged her Democratic opponent Chris Coons on his statement that the Constitution disallowed the integration of religion into the federal government, asking, “Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” The exchange, which prompted laughs from the studio audience, came during a debate this morning at Delaware’s Widener School of Law, which was aired by WDEL radio. In a discussion over the whether or not public schools should be allowed to integrate religion-based ideas into science curricula, O’Donnell argued that local school districts should have the choice to teach intelligent design if they choose. When asked point blank by Coons if she believed in evolution, however, O’Donnell reiterated that her personal beliefs were not germane. “What I think about the theory of evolution is irrelevant,” she emphasized, adding later that the school of thought was “not a fact but a theory.” Coons said that creationism, which he considers “a religious doctrine,” should not be taught in public schools due to the Constitution’s First Amendment. He argued that it explicitly enumerates the separation of church and state. “The First Amendment does?” O’Donnell asked. “Let me just clarify: You’re telling me that the separation of church and state is found in the First Amendment?” “Government shall make no establishment of religion,” Coons responded, reciting from memory the First Amendment to the US Constitution