For more and more churches and their ministers, a match made in heaven may have been launched in cyberspace. For more and more churches and their ministers, a match made in heaven may have been launched in cyberspace. Every day, thousands of ministers log onto a constellation of Internet Web sites looking for a new church to serve. And with increasing frequency, church representatives also turn to the Web, posting ministerial vacancies and sorting through resumes. And although cybersearches may not totally replace more conventional means of finding ministers, they are gaining ground. Indeed, www.ChurchStaffing.com receives 2,500 to 3,000 visitors on weekdays and slightly fewer on weekends, say Todd Rhoades, president of the site. The site normally carries 400-500 job openings and has about 3,000 resumes on file. The site also has teamed with Leadership Network to offer www.LeadNetChurch-Staffing.com, which deals with churches with attendance that averages 1,000 or more. The Baptist General Convention of Texas hosts two free Internet-based search programs - www.CPIS.org serves churches of all sizes and ministers of all types, while www.bivocational.com specializes in bivocational ministers and smaller … [Read more...]

For visitors to the capital of Alabama, the granite monument of the Ten Commandments is the most popular attraction that is not there. For visitors to the capital of Alabama, the granite monument of the Ten Commandments is the most popular attraction that is not there.   In the rotunda of the state Supreme Court building, behind the United States and Alabama flags, the floor shows only vague scuff marks where the monument used to sit. But even in its absence, the Ten Commandments has a presence.   Tourism has gone up since the controversy over former Chief Justice Roy Moore’s monument became national news this past summer, courthouse Marshall Willie James reports. "Visitors always ask: ‘Where are the Ten Commandments? Can we see them?’" James says.   The response is that the 2.5-ton monument is locked away in a room, the private property of Moore and off-limits to the public - as court order dictates. Only two people have the necessary key to reach the monument - James and building manager Graham George Jr., a retired U.S. Army colonel.   It was George who presided over the physical removal of the commandments monument last August.   "The media was pasted up … [Read more...]

Okay, gang, let’s have a little chat about driving in interstate holiday traffic. Okay, gang, let’s have a little chat about driving in interstate holiday traffic.   First, just know that getting from home to Grandma’s house is going to take longer. Count on it. Plan for it. Certainly we all want to get to Grandma’s house while the turkey is still fresh and the dressing in the back seat is still warm, but it ain’t gonna happen Accept it; it is not the end of the world.   On your drive, you can rant and rave and honk and shake fists and make everyone in your car and the cars you encounter miserable, but it will not get you there one second faster. The rest of the traffic is going some 10 miles an hour over the legal speed limit anyway, so settle for that.   You can struggle to pass every car on the road, but when the traffic is bumper to bumper for a hundred or more miles, you are wasting your time, energy and anger. I have seen drivers unmercifully pushing their autos, working for five minutes to get past one car only to have the next car go no faster and the passing lane just as clogged.   On those rare occasions the traffic opens a little, one of those uniformed folks … [Read more...]