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Church Relevance is largely made possible by its parent company, Bombay Creative. Web development and logo designs fund the time that’s needed to write each post.

But now there’s a simple and affordable way for you to support Church Relevance.

Bombay Creative just launched a new stationery product line called evie s. By purchasing products from evie s., you help make Church Relevance possible. With the holiday season upon us, I recommend getting some creative Christmas greeting cards.

Birthday cards, thank you cards, and cards for any occasion are also available. All notecards are available in 6 packs or as singles.

FontShop is giving away another free font - Relato Sans. Download your copy today.

Happy designing!

Earlier this year, I and the rest of the team at Bombay Creative had the privilege to work with Jason Wenell of Prodigal Son Magazine to develop the backend coding for OneMillionWitnesses.com. It is a website looking for one million witnesses (Christians) to share their testimony while helping fund non-profits like Living Water International.

For a minimum donation of $10, you can create a block featuring your testimony. The first 100,000 blocks go to helping Living Water International build about 100 wells. Non-profits to benefit from the remaining 900,000 blocks have not yet been determined.

It is a similar concept to The Million Dollar Homepage except it is for humanitarian efforts and ”witnessing” and has significantly more pixels. To buy your block, visit OneMillionWitnesses.com.

In a recent blog post, Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) defines ministry success as this:

You are successful because of who you are in Christ. You please God by obeying him, not performing up to your personal expectations.

It is good to be reminded that all that matters is that we obey God to the best of our abilities. That is success in God’s eyes.

According to research by Oxfam International, natural disasters have quadrupled over the past two decades. They blame global warming. The world now encounters about 500 natural disasters each year.

Jeremy Hobbs of Oxfam International believes that humanitarian assistance will be overwhelmed in the future if organizations do not begin preparing now. Disaster relief is a great opportunity for churches to help the hurting world. There will always be natural disasters, and setting aside funds to aid such crisises is something worth considering.

[via Physorg]

This January 17th-19th, Erwin McManus and Dr. Robert Schuller are hosting a new conference called Rethink at Crystal Cathedral (Garden Grove, CA). It is designed to give church leaders fresh perspectives from the minds of 30+ “global influencers.”

Rethink has been kind enough to offer Church Relevance readers a 20% discount on tickets by using the following promotional code during online registration:

rethink08kents = promotional code

Speakers include well-known church leaders such as George Barna, Chuck Colson, Dan Kimball, and Lee Strobel as well as other “global influencers” such as George H. W. Bush, George Foreman, Larry King, and Rupert Murdock. It is a diverse group of speakers with an equally diverse lineup of topics - world issues, cultural trends, success secrets, faith, and relationship dynamics.

Rethink is also offering churches the option to host the conference at their own facilities via satellite. For more information, check out www.RethinkConference.com.

Over the past year, Ryan Heneise from Art of Mission has been conducting a survey with churches about their websites. The results are in from that survey, and Church Website Survey Version 2.0 is under way.

Help Ryan out by taking the survey, and you may even win a $15 iTunes gift card. More importantly, your answers will help ministers understand how churches are using their websites and what features are most effective. Hurry, the deadline for your submission is November 30, 2007.

Culture has certainly changed over the past 40 years. The New York Times reports that DVD Volumes 1 & 2 of “Sesame Street’s” original episodes come with the following warning:

These early “Sesame Street” episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.

Why? According to Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente, Cookie Monster smokes and eats a pipe during “Monsterpiece Theater.” And other characters may seem too grouchy, depressed, slow, or drugged. The NY Times also notes:

On the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have wanted anything.

The DVD warning is a reminder that our culture has become much more politically correct over the years and our streets have become much more dangerous for children. From a ministry perspective, what worked 40 years ago certainly seems out of place today.

1969 Sesame Street Intro

Recent Sesame Street Intro