By Thomas Mills, Mental Health Chaplain, Department of Veterans Affairs, Danville, IL

Marketing and branding is no longer just a tool for Corporate America, but rather, it plays a vital role in reaching beyond the walls of the church and into the hearts and minds of a public looking for the “right” message — a Smart message — to grab their attention. A Smart church is able to successfully direct that attention toward the message of Christ.

In an overwhelming vote Sunday, the members of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church elected the Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of famed evangelist Billy Graham, to be their new pastor.

As the world mared St. Patrick’s Day this week—remembering the Irish apostle who helped turn a pagan nation into a hotbed of Christianity—a Vineyard church in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, is helping spread a new wave of spiritual renewal across the nation.

Under the theme “Together in Spirit and in Truth for a Lasting Change”, the South American Seminary (SEMISUD) in Quito, Ecuador, will gather the national bishops and directors of the Church of God in South America on March 17-20, 2009, as called by their field director, Bishop Dr. David E. Ramírez.

Author Joe Keysor combats the growing charge that Christianity fed the Nazi purge of the Jews and Hitler’s hatred in his book “Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible: A Scriptural Analysis of Anti- Semitism, National Socialism, and the Churches in Nazi Germany.”

Regent University’s award-winning film school is filling the gap by offering a full tuition scholarship to the winner of its ReelDreams Film Competition. Redemptive filmmaking is growing in popularity and this provides an opportunity for good redemptive filmmakers.

Are you running on empty? Does it seem like the air has gone out of your life? Do you ever feel like you are running the race of life alone? In “The Race: From Pit Row to Victory Lane,” author and Pastor Rick Lemons, reminds us to find strength in cooperation and encouragement for the race from one another. Just as NASCAR teams work together to improve a car’s performance in Pit Row, God has provided all the ingredients to help us run the Christian race. By making frequent pit stops by way of God’s Word, Corporate Worship, Fellowship, Prayer, Accountability and Encouragement, the child of God will be better equipped for the race.

The following testimonies illustrate how a Distance Learning Center (DLC), a program of Church of God Ministerial Development/School of Ministry, affected one church.