Something that strikes one person as funny—even something heard at church—may seem inappropriate to another. How can believers strike a balance as they use humor and laughter in ministry?

Individuals need to understand the human experiences that humor tries to relate, Day Lane believes. Lane is completing an integrated doctor of philosophy degree in religious studies and sociology.

“The difficulty in one person deciding how to weed the proper from the improper is that people experience and interpret humor from different vantage points. Humor that is hilariously funny to Aunt Sally is horribly offensive to Uncle Ben,” Lane said.

That particularly applies to religious humor—hilarious to some and almost blasphemous to others.

While serving as a pastor and director of missions, cartoonist Joe McKeever has seen “Christian” humor hurt others.

“At a state convention, a speaker told an awful joke on his daughter who was ‘dumb, dumb, dumb. She is so dumb that… .’ At the end of a joke that fell flat, he said, ‘I’m just teasing,’” McKeever said.

“I found myself hurting for that pastor. He did a truly foolish thing in making his daughter the butt of his humor, and then to top it off, did a lousy job of telling the joke. Where I was sitting, everyone around me wanted to crawl under the pew, it was so embarrassing.”

How can Christians use humor, even with the possibility of being misunderstood? Follow Jesus’ example, Christian humorists recommend.

“Personally, my basic standard as a comedian is this: I am a Christian first and a comic second,” noted Chonda Pierce, a comedian for about 15 years and current president of the Christian Comedy Association. “When I put my relationship with God in the right priority, then he will convict, convince and convey to me what is improper or not.

“We are carnal creatures, navigating through a fallen world. … If we were perfectly honest, most comics would have to admit that they have used jokes, premises, punch lines and stories that came from a place of sarcasm in an effort to get back at (someone) or to express pain.”

Lane, who has taught sociology of religion courses at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, believes humor should reflect the same concerns Jesus addressed. Christians should ask themselves: Is the humor healing? Is the humor loving? Is the humor performed at the expense of vulnerable people?

“These questions are not easily answered, because in cases where humor is performed as a social critique, the humor might not appear to be loving or considerate of others,” Lane explained. “But this was part of Jesus’ concern, too, not to intentionally hurt people but to, on several occasions, articulate a scathing critique of social structures that harm the masses and benefit a select few.”

Sometimes substituting a group with which the believer associates puts the comedic intent into perspective.

“When I was a young girl … I recited a collection of Polish jokes I had heard during recess at school,” Lane related.

Her father listened politely, laughing at the appropriate places. Then, she recalled, he gently explained: “When we poke fun at people who have a different label than we do, say Polish as opposed to American, we are really poking fun at qualities we all share as humans. So, if we are going to make fun of a whole group of people, how about we make fun of a group we belong to?”

“He paused for a moment, then with a sparkle in his eye, he said, ‘I know! Let’s tell Baptist jokes!’ From that point on, most ethnic and religious jokes told around the dinner table converted easily to Baptist jokes—except for those jokes including a rabbi, a priest and a Baptist preacher.”

SHREVEPORT, La. (ABP)—Jinny Henson, a native of Houston, began doing stand-up comedy when she was a student at Baylor University. While working on a master’s degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, she began touring nationwide.

Against the advice of friends, she took a six-year hiatus after the birth of her daughter, Maggie Lee, and son, Jack, two years later. In hindsight, she says she is glad she took the time off to be a full-time mom until her children entered kindergarten.

After a local event in November, she’s heading back to the comedy circuit with a major event April 24 in Pearland, and an August date in Monroe, La., for the first time since Maggie Lee’s death at age 12 from injuries received in a tragic church bus accident last summer.

“I am feeling more like myself than I have in a while,” she said. “In the very early stages, when someone would talk about Maggie Lee and then, in the same breath, mention my being a stand-up comic, I would think, ‘Now, isn’t that ironic, a grieving comedian?’ Being humorous was my last priority.

“Interestingly enough, I have found that humor, as well as hope, springs eternal. I have always felt God’s presence and encouragement through humor in my life and I have never needed that more than I have in the past seven-and-one-half months.

“It is refreshing to make people laugh again, even just out to lunch with my friends. It’s a relief to feel any part of my personality is still intact, like my soul is defrosting.”

In the past, her routine included thoughts about how a sense of humor sustained her after losing her mother-in-law and father within a short period of time. Losing a child, she said, confirmed that message at a deeper level.

“For years, I would get notes from someone who saw one of my shows that said, ‘I lost a child two or three years ago, and this is the first time I have laughed since then,’“ she said. “At the time, it was always profoundly moving, but now that I am on the other side, those words are much more meaningful to me.”

She and her husband, John, associate pastor of emerging ministries at First Baptist Church of Shreveport, La., were watching a comic recently, and she recalled their “cathartic belly-laughs.”

“It hit me then what an amazing gift comedy can be to someone with a broken heart. It’s like this little vacation from the trenches, a lifting of your soul above your circumstances. Being on the audience end of things makes me want to be even better at my craft,” she said.

In addition to her comedy, Jinny does religious retreats including new topics titled “God’s Amazing Grace” and “Devastating Blessing” born of her recent experiences.

“Amazing is an overused word, but I am astounded beyond description that God is carrying my family through this heartache,” she said. “It’s by his grace that we are viewing this as a bad chapter in a good book and not our final chapter. Maggie Lee gave me so much more than just good material.”

“It is true that life at times can be brutally painful, but my pain has been lightened by God’s gift of humor, and I want to encourage others using that gift.”

“For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven … a time to weep and a time to laugh,” according to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.

What is the role of laughter and humor for Christians? When should believers take time to laugh?

Humor takes several forms—from stand-up comics to cartoons to clowns to storytelling. Many Christians who practice some form of humor believe God granted them the opportunity to use it to enhance believers’ lives and to draw other people to Christ.

“God makes his people happy, and happy people love to laugh,” cartoonist Joe McKeever said, pointing to Psalm 4:7. “Laughter is a tension-reliever, an anger neutralizer, the best icebreaker and one of the sweetest sounds on the planet.”

“Humor is a godsend that we as human beings need to give one another,” said Joel Goodman, founder and director of the Humor Project, a Sarasota Springs, N.Y., organization that offers humor resources, training and life coaching.

Laughter and humor cause physical changes that enhance people’s lives, which can help defuse tension.

“Laughter relaxes the whole body, carries more oxygen to cells and tissues and increases cardiac output,” explained Day Lane, a registered nurse in Kansas City, Mo., who is completing a doctor of philosophy degree in religious studies and sociology and has taught at Central Baptist Theological Seminary.

“So, you can imagine with an atmosphere relaxed by a little humor and more blood flowing in everyone’s brain, the possibility for creative solutions to tough problems opens up.”

Motivational speaker Steve Kissell of Norfolk, Va., uses humor as a natural part of all types of speaking engagements, including to government entities, education and industry. Humor can be a “gentle reminder” to make sure his listeners do not forget God as they work, he said.

Sharing the gospel

A comedian for almost 15 years, Chonda Pierce currently serves as president of the Christian Comedy Association. She sees comedy as an effective means of reaching out to people.

“The greatest tool comedy has been for me is the way that it opens an audience up to receive—no matter if the motivation for a particular event is soul-winning, information or just clean entertainment,” she said. “I have seen comedy allow an audience to bond and to sit up and take note of a truth that was on my heart to share.”

Chondra Pierce

Junior the Clown—a.k.a. Tony Jones of Mansfield, Ga.—loves to make people laugh while presenting the gospel. He sees clowning as a way to reach people who might not attend traditional worship services.

“There has been more than one instance that an individual has heard something we have presented that they had not gotten before,” he said. “I believe that there are a lot of ways to preach the gospel and that different people hear different things, depending on how it is presented.”

Meeting life needs

Whether used as a sermon illustration or a remark that just pops out in response to stress, humor and laughter can help individuals deal with problems.

As director of missions in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, McKeever saw firsthand the balm humor could be. McKeever and up to 100 pastors met weekly as the city and its people dealt with the disaster and began to recover.

“Each person in the room was invited to address the others,” he explained. “When one had a funny story to tell, we welcomed it like the baked summer ground thirsts for water. Nothing was more welcome than a good laugh.”

Lane sees humor surface frequently in hospitals. “Sometimes the humor comes through people, especially children, to lighten some of the difficulties we bear,” she related.

“For example, while working in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, my friend, Joan, took care of a middle-aged woman who died despite all the high-tech attempts to save her live. The death was unexpected and the family was in a state of shock.”

As the family tried to deal with details, a 4-year-old granddaughter, who had never been to a hospital, repeatedly asked: “Where’s Grandma? Where’s Grandma?”

Although family members reassured her several times that her grandmother had gone to heaven, the child continued to ask.

“Much to Joan’s dismay, the family … came into the room before Joan had a chance to remove the tangle of tubes, IV bags and machinery. … The little girl was dumbfounded. She looked, wide-eyed, at the room, the oxygen, the ventilator, the EKG machine and countless other items she had never seen before. She peered up at her mom and exclaimed incredulously, ‘This is heaven?’

“It was a profoundly therapeutic moment for both the family and the nurses.”

Humorous stories become teachable moments, as well. McKeever uses them whenever possible.

“Years ago, when brides and grooms sometimes wrote their own vows, a couple said to me, ‘We don’t want to say, ’Til death do we part,’” the former director of missions said.

“When I asked why, they said: ‘So many people say it and don’t mean it and end up getting divorced. We want to be honest.’

“I said, ‘What do you want to say?’ They said, ‘We want to say, So long as love shall last.’ I said, ‘Well, that’ll be about Tuesday.’”

Injecting humor allowed him to minister to that couple and to several couples since then.

“Some of the most creative leaders in church communities are brilliant humorists,” Lane added.

“Humor is effectively used to lessen tensions between parties in church disputes, troubled marriages and, heaven forbid, committee members.”

Use laughter and listen for the humor in others, Lane suggested. Then, watch God use those stories to minister.

AUSTIN—Although thousands of Texas students fail in high school each year, success still is possible for these students. That’s what more than 25 Texas Hispanic Baptist leaders discovered during an education advocacy day in Austin hosted by the Texas Baptist Hispanic Education Initiative and the Christian Life Commission.

Hispanic leaders learned the reasons student drop out of school and ways churches can help students succeed in meeting educational goals.

“It’s not about being brown, black or white or about living in a barrio, inner city or suburb,” said Gus Reyes, director of the Texas Baptists Hispanic Education Initiative. “It’s about missing five days in the first 100 days of class or failing a class in that period. Approximately 85 percent of ninth graders falling into this category drop out of high school. It’s a trend that begins early in school. We have students from all groups and backgrounds dropping out.”

Sylvia Acevedo, chief executive officer of Communicard and organizer of the largest Spanish language education advocacy event in the nation held in Los Angeles, presented education dropout information based on research done at the University of Chicago.

“Two things she said that were interesting is there are two factors that can tell you within the first semester of a student’s freshman year and it has nothing to do with ethnicity or socio-economic level,” said Jesse Rincones, pastor of Alliance Church in Lubbock. “If they missed more than five classes or failed a class within that first semester, then they were more likely to drop out of high school. As simple as those two things are, I think those are two things churches can help with.”

Victor Rodriguez, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and pastor of South San Filadelphia Church in San Antonio, said the advocacy day helped him realize the importance of local church interaction in education, as well as involvement on the associational and state level.

“We know the need, and I think that the vehicle has to be the church,” Rodriguez said. “We as pastors must preach and hold our young people to a high standard. This will not only change the economics of Texas, but it will change the churches in Texas. This will change the quality of ministers and missions in our church. We must expose people to the need, letting them know that these needs are here now but they will be so much greater in 30 years from now.”

PERRYVILLE, Kentucky—Last summer, two teenaged boys decided they wanted more than a spiritual high from camp.

“I went to Kanakuk this summer and the theme was ‘Get a Dream,’ so me and my friend Nathan realized that we were tired of being lazy,” said Drew Henderson, 16. “We’d go to camp every year, and our spiritual high would fizzle out. This year, we wanted to change that and go beyond. So, that was the start of everything.”

Henderson and Nathan Crow, 15, began their efforts by shipping Christmas bags to children in Haiti in October 2009. After the earthquake hit Haiti in January, they learned the school the children attended had been destroyed completely.

Henderson and Crow contacted Buckner International and decided to collect $5,000 to ship a container full of aid to Haiti. Then, they began visiting churches to share a video they put together, talk about the need and collect funds.

They also made shirts that they purchased for $2 and sold for $12 to raise money.

“We called a bunch of churches, and most of them said no, but one of them called me back. So, we went to Perryville Baptist, and they raised $2,200,” Henderson said. “I felt God’s presence there, because we are just teens visiting a little country church and what are the odds of that?”

So far, Henderson and Crow have raised $4,800. Henderson added his girlfriend teaches dance lessons, and she plans to hold a benefit recital to help collect more funds.

To learn more about the ways to help with continuing Haiti Relief efforts, visit www.buckner.org/HaitiRelief or call (214) 328-7463.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—The tremors of the January earthquake that rocked Haiti shook lives as far away as Houston.

Members of South Park Baptist Church were glued to news coverage of the disaster, and their hearts broke as they thought about the people the congregation has been ministering to since 1998 and what they were experiencing.

“Right away, I started thinking about the poverty people are living in already,” Pastor Marvin Delaney said. “Then I started thinking about the deaths, no access to food, no access to clean water, no access to sewage facilities.”

Delaney’s heart broke again during a recent trip to Haiti where he hoped to set up an administrative office through which the church could funnel aid in the form of money and supplies. As he turned the corner to see the building he hoped to buy, he saw the structure had collapsed in the earthquake. One of the pastors with whom the church had partnered died nearby.

“My heart just fell,” he said. “I could not believe it.”

For Delaney, Charlie Singleton, director of African-American Ministries with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Gerald Davis, BGCT community development director, much of the trip revolved around one heartbreaking scene after another.

They saw people still in shock, struggling to cope with the losses. Tent cities without clean water or sewage systems stretched as far as the eye could see in some places. And they smelled the stench of decaying corpses that remain buried beneath crippled buildings.

“It was heartbreaking to see,” Davis said of the scene at Grace Community Hospital in a suburb outside Haiti. “Even the children are in tents. Patients are in tents being cared for.”

At one point in the trip, Singleton stepped out of his room to offer a small group of hungry children the few cookies and crackers he had with him. When he did, word quickly spread, and he was nearly instantaneously surrounded by people—young and old.

“They just came from everywhere,” he said.

The dire situation calls for a response from Texas Baptists, Delaney said.

“We as Baptists can do great things,” he said. “We have disaster response teams. We have people who can respond right away. These people are camping out, basically. They have no money. They have no jobs. They’re at the mercy of the system.”

“We can make an impact there.”

Texas Baptist medical professionals have served in Grace Community Hospital. Texas Baptist Men volunteers are distributing water filters for families. Baptist Child & Family Services has been ministering in an orphanage. Buckner International has sent shipments of supplies.

The assessment team helped meet needs as well. Delaney’s church remains committed to serving in Haiti. Delaney committed to sponsoring several groups of people he encountered while in Haiti, including one household that had swelled to 31 people following the earthquake.

“We found families that really needed direct impact,” Delaney said.

Davis took four laptop computers originally intended for the South Park administrative building and installed them in the TLC Barefoot School, another ministry South Park is helping sponsor.

The BGCT has committed to installing a full computer lab at the school. The school provides free education for impoverished students, and since the earthquake is feeding up to 300 people each weekend living in tent cities near its campus.

“We were just blessed to donate the laptops to that school,” Singleton said.

Christians are serving as the hands and feet of Christ in Haiti, Delaney said, providing hope to those who are hurting and hungry. But much remains to be done.

Delaney asks Texas Baptists to continue praying for people affected by the Haiti earthquake and encourages each person to help how they can.

“Be passionate about the suffering of other people and do as much as you can to alleviate that suffering through works that glorify Jesus,” he said. “If it doesn’t glorify Jesus, it’s not worth it.”

For more information about to help in Haiti, visit www.texasbaptists.org/disaster.

Who is responsible for tackling poverty? A phone survey of 1,002 adults revealed 66 percent of Americans believe the United States has an obligation to assist poverty-stricken children around the world. The survey asked respondents whose responsibility it is to provide aid to children in developing nations. Almost three in 10 (29 percent) said international nonprofit organizations should offer relief, followed by the governments where the children live (25 percent) and developed nations such as the United States (19 percent). Faith-based organizations came in last, with only 16 percent of Americans holding them responsible for tackling childhood poverty. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Religious freedom violations reported. The State Department has issued its annual human rights report on 194 countries, calling 2009 “a year in which ethnic, racial and religious tensions led to violent conflicts and serious human rights violations.” The State Department said “no genuine freedom of religion” exists in North Korea, and Cuban law permits punishment of any unauthorized assembly of more than three people—including religious services in private homes. In Iraq, despite the government’s public calls for tolerance, attacks on places of worship by extremist and insurgent groups limited their ability to practice their faith. In China, repression of Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs increased, the report said. Non-Muslims are prohibited from expressing their religion publicly in Saudi Arabia.

Conservative activist resigns. Donald Wildmon, founder and chairman of the Mississippi-based American Family Association, has resigned after months of failing health. “A bite from a mosquito carrying the St. Louis encephalitis virus caused Wildmon’s illness,” the ministry said. “From August to November of last year, Wildmon spent 121 days in the hospital and rehab.” Wildmon, 72, also was treated for cancer on his left eye. The retired United Methodist minister started the ministry in 1977. It operates 180 radio stations and a monthly magazine, and now employs 175 people with a $20 million budget. The AFA said Wildmon’s son, Tim, 47, is expected to lead the ministry. AFA has been active in boycotting organizations and companies that embrace policies counter to its conservative Christian views.

Grads take dim view of commandments. College graduates are more likely to consider the Ten Commandments irrelevant and reject the Bible as the word of God than people with no college degree, according to a recent study. A distinct shift occurs after college regarding beliefs and opinion, said Richard Brake, director of university studies at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The ISI surveyed 2,508 Americans on questions intended to measure the impact of a college degree on people’s beliefs. The study also found that people with college degrees were more likely to support same-sex marriage, as well as abortion available at any stage of pregnancy and for any reason. The study has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—While most Americans describe Easter as a religious holiday, fewer than half of the adults surveyed link it specifically to the Resurrection of Jesus, a Barna Group study shows.

Seven in 10 respondents mentioned religion or spirituality in their response to an open-ended question about how they describe what Easter means to them personally. But just 42 percent tied Easter to the Resurrection.

At 73 percent, baby boomers—ages 45 to 63—were the most likely to describe Easter as a religious holiday, compared to two-thirds of those ages 26 to 44 and Americans 64 and older.

The youngest group of adults—ages 18 to 25—were least likely, at 58 percent, to use that kind of description.

Other than the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead, respondents described Easter as “a Christian holiday, a celebration of God or Jesus, a celebration of Passover, a holy day” or a special day to go to church, Barna researchers said.

“The Easter holiday in particular still has a distinctly religious connection for people, but … the specifics of it are really fading in a lot of people’s minds,” said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, based in Ventura, Calif.

The findings are from phone interviews of a random sample of 1,005 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 7-10 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The Dove Awards may be the biggest night of the year for the Gospel Music Association, but through testimonies and songs of praise, the spotlight remains shining brightly on Christ.

Musicians and recording industry representatives who gathered for a press conference—and a time of prayer and devotion—before the nominees were announced for the 41st Annual Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards included (left to right) Ed Leonard, chairman of the board of the Gospel Music Association and president of Daywind Music Group; Wes Bulla, dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University; Ben Tankard, gospel/jazz artist and multiple Dove Award nominee; Francesca Battistelli, Dove Award nominee; Michael W. Smith, 44-time Dove Award winner; Brandon Heath, 2009 Dove Award-winning male vocalist of the year; Kari Jobe, Dove Award nominee; Jeremy Camp, two-time male vocalist of the year; Lisa Kimmey-Winans, member of the group Out of Eden and Gospel Music Channel host; and Jason Crabb, 10-time Dove Award winner.

Before the nominations were announced for the 41st annual Dove Awards, many Christian musicians and industry leaders gathered together for a time of prayer and devotion led by Pete Wilson, senior pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville and author of Plan B—What Do You Do When God Doesn’t Show Up The Way You Thought He Would?

“The more God expands your ministry and influence, the more you have to give up control and completely surrender to him,” Wilson said.

“Your primary responsibility in life is to be living for his glory. It may seem like the tasks will always require more than you have to offer, but remember, what Christ begins in you, he will complete. As you’re writing these songs of hope and sharing messages of grace and redemption, you’re being used as a vessel for Christ to accomplish incredible things for his glory.”

Multiple Dove Award winner Michael W. Smith agreed.

“It’s wonderful to hear great songs, but when people’s hearts are really in the right place and focusing on Christ, that’s what will change the world,” he said. “When an artist takes the focus off of himself and shines the spotlight on Christ, that’s what makes me proud to be a part of this industry.

“We’re here to celebrate music and to celebrate Jesus, the one who really is the famous one. It’s not about us. As we recognize these artists who have made a significant impact, it’s really recognizing a heart that loves Jesus and is focused on leading people to him.”

Natalie Grant

Bart Millard

In addition to Smith, other recording artists including Brandon Heath, Kari Jobe, Francesca Battistelli, Jason Crabb and Jeremy Camp attended the devotional time and press conference at Belmont University’s Curb Café in Nashville, Tenn., where this year’s Dove Award nominees were announced.

Jaci Velasquez made a special appearance to assist Camp in announcing the nominees for the Spanish language album of the year.

“I’m always honored and so excited to be a part of anything that the Gospel Music Association does,” Velasquez said. 

“It’s an incredible industry. We get to be a part of music that changes people’s lives. For me, watching all the artists is such a great experience and my hat goes off to each and every one of them. They’re all doing amazing things and creating music that is intended to lead people to a deeper love for God and promoting the kingdom.”

Camp agreed.

“It’s such a joy to be here with all my peers—amazing musicians who love Jesus,” he said. “And that’s the whole purpose why we’re here—to get the gospel out. To be nominated is such an honor, but above all, just to see everyone joined together and saying, ‘I just want to be here to glorify God,’ that’s what brings me the most joy.”

The Dove Awards will be held April 21 at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and aired on the Gospel Music Channel. The evening will feature artists from every style of gospel/Christian music coming together for a night of music and celebration.

For a complete list of nominees, visit www.gos-pelmusic.org. 

Natalie Grant, four-time Dove Award winning female vocalist of the year, and Bart Millard, lead singer of the Texas-based band MercyMe, will serve as hosts for the awards show.

DALLAS—A photograph may be a frozen moment in time, but it also can have far-reaching—possibly eternal—consequences.

Austin Mann, a photographer and member of the Village Church in Flower Mound, enjoys using his photography skills to help various ministries. He had traveled with Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas to Guatemala, where he used his camera to chronicle the church’s ministry there.

When a fellow photographer told Mann he had taken pictures of underprivileged people for the Salvation Army and described what a fulfilling experience it had been, Mann asked staff at Park Cities if they could use his skills in a similar fashion.

Park Cities has a history of almost 30 years of ministry cooperation with Cornerstone Baptist Church in inner-city Dallas. Volunteers from Park Cities have assisted Cornerstone in its ministry to the homeless and holiday feeding ministries, and the churches also join together for a school mentoring program and a clothing ministry.

About $70,000 each year in the Park Cities budget, as well as about $30,000 in designated gifts, is directed to Cornerstone.

Naturally, when Mann asked for a place to use his skills, Cornerstone came to mind.

"For many, it was the first time they ever had a photo of their child that was maybe 3 or 4 years old,” said photographer Austin Mann.

On a Friday evening, Mann and a group of photographers he assembled for the project set up eight portrait studios at Cornerstone and the next day took pictures of about 300 families.

“It was a neat way to bring families together,” Mann said. “We found that there were a number of families who hadn’t been in the same room together for many years. It turned into a lot of mini family reunions. There were mothers there with sons they had not seen in years.”

Mann also felt blessed to take photos of some families with young children.

“For many, it was the first time they ever had a photo of their child that was maybe 3 or 4 years old,” he said. “For a lot of us, we take hundreds of photos before the baby even leaves the hospital, but for these families, this was their first picture ever.”

He particularly remembered a mother who had a picture of her 20-year-old son when he was 2 years old, but there had not been a photo taken during those intervening 18 years.

Thirteen of the families who had their photographs taken joined the church the next Sunday.

“It was kind of mind-blowing and neat for all the photographers involved. It was a cool way for the photographers to use the talents and equipment God had given them to give back a little bit,” Mann said of the six-hour photo shoot.

While it represented a nice gift from Cornerstone to its community, Pastor Chris Simmons said the church also was on the receiving end. Thirteen of the families who had their photographs taken joined the church the next Sunday.

“It removed a barrier to some who thought lightning would strike if they ever entered a church,” Simmons said. About half of the families who had their pictures taken had no affiliation with the church, he noted.

“It was a very successful outreach,” he said. “And since we captured their contact information, names and addresses, when they had their pictures taken, we are still following up on some of them. And we still have people visiting and joining. I see it having a very long-term impact on our church and community.”

DIDCOT, England (ABP)—Churches, by and large, still haven’t entered the digital age when it comes to evangelism. But those who have are reaping huge rewards, according to a new survey.

A poll conducted by Christian technology company Endis, which provides the ChurchInsight church web platform and has offices in the United States and the United Kingdom, indicates that when churches deliberately focus their websites on attracting outsiders, they see a corresponding rise in the number of non-Christian visitors.

But many focus on the internal life of the church, and their effectiveness is reduced.

Endis polled 1,600 churches for its DigiMission project, asking questions about church size, the website’s target readership, the number of Christians and non-Christians coming to events, and the influence of the website on their decision to attend.

The 120 churches that responded reported more than 1,300 non-Christian visitors in the last 12 months to church events, services and discipleship courses through the Internet—an average of 11 non-Christian visitors per church. For Christian visitors, the figure is 1,600, an average of 14.

Among the survey’s key findings were that most churches’ websites were not created with the unchurched in mind. Only half offer an outline of the gospel, and only a quarter provide testimonies of people who have come to faith in Christ.

Endis spokesman Geoff Knott said there were clear differences in the effectiveness of different websites.

“When we looked at the successful sites, we found that they had the gospel on their site, and that people were able to book into events,” he said.

“Interactivity is important, but we didn’t find that blogs or forums did much. The other thing that was very successful was stories.”

It was also noticeable that larger churches were less effective than smaller ones at attracting unchurched people.

“Smaller churches of between 100 and 150 are very good at getting guests in. I think they push harder, using Google Adwords for instance. They’re trying to grow. Are we losing our mission edge as we grow bigger?”

He stressed that good content and ease of use were far more important than a sophisticated image or a multiplicity of functions.

Tips for church websites from DigiMission:

• Identify your audience. Most church websites are designed for the reached, not the unreached.

• Try to be more interactive. Letting visitors sign up for events gives them an immediate opportunity to get engaged with you.

• The Internet is just part of your mission effort. Multiple contacts, by different means, increase chances of success. There’s no substitute for personal contact.

• Be serious about the Internet. It’s the new printing press, and hundreds of millions of people use it every day.

• Think about what image you’re communicating. What does your site say about your church?

• Put the gospel on your website. How would you explain the gospel simply to someone who never heard it before?

Mark Woods is editor of The Baptist Times, the weekly newspaper of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

• Clayton Chisum to First Church in Andrews as associate pastor/youth minister from Field Street Church in Cleburne, where he was minister to students.

• Dave Douglas to Oplin Church in Clyde as interim pastor.

• Joe Hodges to First Church in Eden as pastor from Tennyson Church in Tennyson.

• Hutch Hudson to First Church in Bayside as pastor.

• Garry Jordan to First Church in Joshua as pastor.

• Michael Lehnhardt to Chambers Creek Church in Grandview as pastor.

• Bill Magee to First Church in Normangee as interim pastor.

• Gus Martinez has resigned as pastor at Iglesia La Hermosa in Skidmore.

• Brian McClure to Friendship Church in Cleburne as pastor.

• Jerry Reed to Sand Flat Church in Cleburne as pastor, where he had been interim.

• Bill Roe to First Church in Rio Vista as interim pastor.

• Keith Rosenbaum to Keene Church in Keene as interim pastor.

• Randy Roy to College View Church in Abilene as pastor.