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R.C. Sproul Announces a New Bible College in Central Florida

seniorSOY — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:10:56 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul are pleased to announce the undergraduate programs at Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies in Sanford, Florida. The founding of this Bible college establishes a premier center for discipleship and for in-depth instruction and fellowship in central Florida, united around Ligonier’s core ministry commitments. Applications are being accepted now for Fall 2011 enrollment.

“Ligonier Academy is a Bible college for the next generation that offers a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies, a Bachelor of Arts in Theological Studies, and an Associate of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies,” says founder and president, R.C. Sproul. “I am convinced that if you ground students in biblical truth at the college level, it will capture their thinking for the rest of their lives and enrich the church, and enrich the culture in which we live.”

Ligonier Academy will welcome students with a range of educational goals. Some will lay a foundation for seminary or graduate school. Others will prepare for further undergraduate work by first laying a foundation in biblical and theological studies, while some will complete their college education begun at another institution. Still others will seek personal enrichment and development through structured learning opportunities.

Dr. Fowler White, vice president for academic affairs, explains the academic focus. “Our degree programs are designed to give graduates a thorough knowledge of the Bible, a firm grounding in theology, and a conversance with the classic works of literature, philosophy, and music that shaped the intellectual world within which the great theologians of the church lived and wrote.”

The Academy is now accepting applications for its first two- and four-year undergraduate degree programs, beginning Fall 2011. Faculty includes Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr. Fowler White, Dr. Keith Mathison, Rev. Michael Morales, and other outstanding teachers such as Dr. Paul Helm, Dr. Stephen Nichols, Dr. Duncan Rankin, and Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. Learn more about our college program at http://www.studyatligonier.org.

Ligonier Academy is committed to the historic Reformed faith as expressed in the solas of the Reformation and in the consensus of confessional standards from the Reformation era. The institution’s doctrinal commitments also include endorsements of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and the Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The student body of the Academy will represent a broad range of evangelical affiliations. Ligonier Academy is a natural expansion from the ministry’s nearly four decades of teaching Christians to think deeply, critically, and obediently about every aspect of their faith.

About Ligonier Academy

Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies (http://studyatligonier.org/) was established in 2009 to provide a destination for in-depth teaching and learning essential to Ligonier Ministries’ purpose to equip Christians to know what they believe and why they believe it. Founded by Dr. R.C. Sproul, the school offers a Doctor of Ministry program, two- and four-year undergraduate programs, and a distance education Certificate Program. Ligonier Academy is located in Sanford, FL.

Ligonier Academy can be found on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr. Follow @LigonierAcademy on Twitter or become a fan of Ligonier Academy on Facebook.

About Ligonier

Ligonier Ministries (www.Ligonier.org) is an international Christian education organization established in 1971 to equip Christians to articulate what they believe and why they believe it. The ministry is home to the Renewing Your Mind with R.C. Sproul radio program, broadcast internationally; Tabletalk devotional magazine, read internationally; The Reformation Study Bible with R.C. Sproul as general editor; Reformation Trust Publishing, the publisher of new titles by Dr. Sproul and other contemporary authors and theologians; numerous teaching series, sacred music, national and regional conferences, an extensive catalog with more than 3,000 unique resources online at Ligonier.org and the Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies, an institution focused on instilling rigorous biblical knowledge in its students.

Jesus Banned from Prayers by NC Speaker of the House — Over 143,000 Petitions to North Carolina Legislators

seniorSOY — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:15:29 +0000

RALEIGH, N.C. /Christian Newswire/ — The Pray In Jesus Name Project is faxing more than 140,000 petitions to the North Carolina State-House, demanding legislators reverse Speaker Joe Hackney’s ban against the forbidden word “Jesus” during public prayers spoken by volunteer pastors giving the invocation.

Nearly 1,000 citizens from all 50 states signed the free petition on the first day, which was then faxed to each of 120 North Carolina State Representatives and all 50 Senators.

On May 31, Speaker Hackney verbally banned Jesus’ name as “illegal speech” by disinviting Pastor Ron Baity from praying before the legislature after pre-screening the prayer content and objecting to his closing words, “in Jesus name.” No written policy exists banning prayer content, but the Speaker is now writing one.

“I got fired,” said Ron Baity, pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. He had been invited to lead prayer for an entire week but his tenure was cut short when he refused to remove the name Jesus from his invocation.

“Our petition campaigns have helped reverse Jesus-bans in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, California and Virginia, and now we fight for free religious speech in North Carolina,” said former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, leader of The Pray in Jesus Name Project. Klingenschmitt himself was punished for praying “in Jesus name” in uniform in 2006, but was later vindicated by the U.S. Congress. “Pastor Baity is a hero for refusing to water-down his prayers,” he said.

Despite deceptive claims by the ACLU’s easily-offended atheist complainers, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals specifically authorized legislatures to allow Jesus-prayers in Turner v. Fredericksburg, when Justice O’Connor wrote: “the Establishment Clause does not absolutely dictate the form of legislative prayer. In March, the legislature employed a single chaplain…the legislature in Simpson allowed a diverse group of church leaders from around the community to give prayers at open meetings. Both varieties of legislative prayer were found constitutional.”

Concerned citizens are encouraged to sign the free petition at prayinjesusname.org and tweet these words on Facebook and Twitter:

Speaker of the House Bans “Jesus” as illegal speech during prayers, fires Pastor. Sign free petition! http://tinyurl.com/illegaljesus

What is Live Blogging?

Bill — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:13:13 +0000

Typical blogging is pretty much an off-line type of activity. What I mean by that is the author/blogger writes a page or post, publishes it and then walks away to have a coffee or sometimes tea. Then if people do leave comments they are checked every so often by the post’s author and the author replies and so on.

Live blogging is where the author agrees, for a set period of time, to be online and to reply directly to comments as they come in. It has a kind of live chat feel to it but everything that is asked and answered is kept on the website in comments attached to the post.

What we are doing here on GatheredTogether.org is a sort of live interview with you as the interviewer. The guest will be online for 30 minutes talking about life, faith, service and everything else that you care to ask.

Who will be the Live Blogging guests?

We are going to to be doing live blogging events with, what we consider, outstanding servants of the Christian faith. That would be Christian authors, missionaries, evangelists, and ministry leaders. If you have someone in mind you would like to see interviewed here leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

When are live blogging events scheduled for?

We are striving to do one live blogging event a week usually on Friday evening but it will ultimately depend on the availability of the guest who may be currently living anywhere in the world with varied time zones. To stay up to date on the next scheduled Live Blogging guest, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and by Email.

What do I need to do to participate?

For now, comment posting is open to the public without registration being required. If the rules are abused (foul language,

The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ

inappropriate language, etc) then registration will be required as will be moderation (comments needing approval before posting) which will just slow down the question asking and answering so please see to it that you follow the rules while participating in Live Blogging. To stay up to date on the rules for Live Blogging participation, click here:

Live Blogging Rules

For now all you have to do to participate is show up during a Live Blog event and shout out your questions.

iPhone Church App Connects Internet Users to Orlando Church

seniorSOY — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:59:51 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. /PRNewswire/ — iPhone users have found thousands of uses for the now-ubiquitous device. Need to send a quick Twitter? There’s an app for that. Want to see if that picture on the wall is level? There’s an app for that. Need an air horn for tonight’s game? There’s an app for that, too … you can even use it to make calls.

Amazingly, a growing number of iPhone owners are now using the device to go to a place where cell phones typically aren’t allowed: to church.

Several churches are now streaming services over the iPhone. One of the first to connect with these upwardly mobile congregants is Northland, A Church Distributed, which launched an iPhone Web app on July 4 — offering not just videos of past church services, but the ability to join in live services as they are happening via streaming video.

The app works both on 3G networks and Wi-Fi on the iPhone, and via Wi-Fi on the iPod Touch, and is available at http://www.northlandchurch.net/iphone.

Nathan Clark, Northland’s director of digital innovation, and leader of the team that brought Northland’s services to the iPhone, explained, “We gather for worship on a weekly basis, but asking people to leave their communities and come to this place, to temporarily form another community … it just makes sense to also help people worship where they are.”

Northland has been taking the church to other communities since 2001 in the form of “distributed sites” and now operates four sites throughout Metro Orlando. The church began webcasting its services in January 2006, and two years later, it launched an interactive version of its webstream that includes immediate access to an online pastor and the ability to chat instantly with other worshipers.

Today, approximately 2,000 people regularly worship with Northland online, bringing the church into homes, coffee shops, restaurants, military bases, offices … even a Burger King restaurant.

Thousands have already tried Northland’s new Web app, which has spread largely by word of mouth via social networks. “Love it – in seat 9E on the Tarmac worshiping with ya,” Twittered one man waiting for his flight to depart.

Some have questioned whether online worship further adds to the isolation brought about by the Internet explosion. However, Clark notes that “the interesting thing with the iPhone is that it is even less an isolating tool than a PC because at it’s core, it is a communication technology,” adding that the church is working on ways to tailor its social media networks to the iPhone.

Also, with the ability to easily connect the iPhone to an external display such as a TV or monitor, Northland’s hope is that many users will use the iPhone to start home churches, especially in countries where advanced cell networks are far outpacing broadband connectivity. Northland also hopes to help other churches utilize the technology and has posted step-by-step instructions on its blog.

“We continually hear stories of people who start to worship online and eventually find a community to worship with others, or start one of their own,” Clark concludes. “People are coming to church, and they are also watching the services online. We just don’t see this as a zero-sum game.”

ABOUT NORTHLAND, A CHURCH DISTRIBUTED

Started by 11 people in 1972 in the “north land” of Orlando, Northland is a pioneering congregation of 12,000 that worships throughout Central Florida and worldwide via interactive webcast. Learn more at http://www.northlandchurch.net.

April 26th is International Web Focus Day for Churches

seniorSOY — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:01:06 +0000

“I recently discovered that over 500,000 of the population of my home town use the networking website Facebook,” writes a surprised computer user. Remarkably, 1.5 billion people now access the Web for a wide range of activities. A new internet service called ‘Twitter’ recently enabled eyewitnesses to pass on to thousands of other people their firsthand accounts (with pictures) of the jet that ditched in the Hudson River, well before TV and radio could tell the story. The digital world seems to change every time we blink!

How can Christians use this bewildering mix of technologies to share the good news? One place to find answers is Internet Evangelism Day’s website. It provides detailed resources, ideas and strategies to help Christians use what many leaders have called a ‘God-given medium’. These include a self-assessment tool for church websites, enabling them to better reach out into their communities.

Internet Evangelism Day as the name suggests is also an annual web-awareness focus day. Churches and other Christian groups can build a short focus spot into their meetings on 26 April, to explain to their members more about the potential for online evangelism, and how anyone can be involved in this rewarding ministry. A customized presentation (anything from 5 minutes to 50) can be easily created using free downloads from IE Day’s website: video clips, Powerpoint, handouts, music and drama.

One surprising fact is that online evangelism is for anyone, not just the technically gifted. “There are many ways to share your faith online, without any technical knowledge at all,” says IE Day Coordinator Tony Whittaker.

Church leaders who have already used these materials are excited. “This is a huge help for small churches such as ours,” writes a minister from California. “I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day,” says elder statesman John Stott.

IE Day’s website is at InternetEvangelismDay.com.