~ Travis Stewart ~ Recently I was reading this article in Christianity Today and resonated with the words of the author J. R. Daniel Kirk, associate professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary: In the spring of my senior year in college, I was deeply immersed in the rhythms of Christian life. I was a leader in InterVarsity, participated regularly in a Bible study with other seminary-bound friends, set my Sundays aside for worship and rest, and read more ...

~ by Travis Stewart ~ John Lynch is the teaching pastor at Open Door Fellowship in Phoenix, Arizona and a gifted speaker and communicator. As a part of the team at Leadership Catalyst he regularly brings the life-transforming message of grace through his speaking and writing. But beyond all of this John is a man who deeply understands and lives out grace. Recently during a Sunday morning service at ODF he brought to life the story of Jesus inviting Levi the tax collector into this life of grace and the resulting banquet in Levi's home... a banquet of grace that turned everything upside ...

Word Pictures; Knowing God Through Story and Imagination by Brian Godawa IVP Books ~ Book Review by Travis Stewart ~ Brian Godawa writes in the first chapter of Word Pictures that he was a "mind-oriented" Christian and that he "thought mere theologically correct belief about reality was the same things as inhabiting that reality. Emotions were irrational and thus irrelevant..." He then goes on to write a book extolling the values of story and imagination and exploring how God uses both word and image in nourishing our faith, and he does so in such a way that uses both word and image ...

Behold the Lamb ©1999 Andrew Peterson ~ Listening to Andrew Peterson's music you will discover a reflectice, creative artist who many have compared to the late Rich Mullins but if you venture a visit to his Rabbit Room website you will find that he is leading a movement of Christians serious about faith intersecting with culture. He is a singer, songwriter, blogger, and writer of children's fantasy books. His work is both a source of thoughtful reflection and one of the inspirations for me to start viaRenovo. We will certainly be featuring more of Andrew's work in the future, but for now ...

Up Pixar Animation Studios 2009 • Rated PG Directed by Pete Docker & Bob Peterson There is a lot of beauty is Pixar's latest film Up (released on DVD 11/10/09), not the least of which is the stunning animation, brilliant colors and spot-on "set design". But the transformative power of the story lies in two primary relationships: Carl and his wife Ellie and later, Carl and young Russell. The former relationship (which technically last through only the first 11 ...

The Barna group recently conducted a survey of Non-Christians between the ages of 16-29 on how they viewed evangelical Christians1. The results reflected much of what was seen in this video. Among other things we are seen as: Judgmental - 87% Hypocritical - 85% Old-Fashioned - 78% Out of touch with reality - 72% Insensitive to others - 70% Boring - 68% Confusing - 61% From a business perspective this is a public relations nightmare. From the perspective of ...