How confident are you in your church's budgeting and spending practices?

The ethics of the Brave New World.

Match the strengths of your church with its needs.

Something happens to me on the hill—the nearby sledding hill. I know that I shouldn't do it but the longer I stand there the more I feel a compelling urge to strap on the snowboard.

Plus: Psychoanalyzing Lot, Haggard's e-mails with Mikey Weinstein, rescuing baby Jesus (times 25), and other stories from online sources around the world.

We open the New Year with a look back at the films of 2005. Here are the Top Ten lists of B&C regulars Roy Anker and Peter Chattaway.

Radical obedience does not seek to comply to the minimal standards.

What faith looks like when it's dangerous to sing and walk at the same time.

Some highly subjective awards for 2005.

Plus: Pope's first encyclical may try to "save eros," Indiana House drops official invocations altogether, prominent Okla. Baptist pastor arrested, and other stories from online sources around the world.

Creating Jesus in our own image, and other thoughts from my journal.

J. I. Packer discusses the English Puritans, their quest for holiness, and why they are still worth remembering.

Interesting and unusual facts about the English Puritans.

Oldest church discovered, Christian history in the movies, rare book by Roger Williams

Richard Baxter wrote, preached, taught, and visited his way to become the model pastor.

"Though dead, by their writings they yet speak."—George Whitefield