Warren Bird reflects on the TIME coverstory on hispanic evangelicals. You can read the full story here.

TIME Cover Story Highlights Hispanic Churches -- Warren Bird

Titled "The Rise of Evangélicos," Time magazine's April 15, 2013, cover story highlights one church more than others - a thriving congregation that is hosting an upcoming Leadership Network forum for large church Hispanic/Latino senior pastors who target English-dominant, mostly second generation Hispanics/Latinos.

Excerpts from Time's outstanding story by Elizabeth Dias:

If one Evangélico church has made the leap from immigrant barrio to booming American megachurch, it is New Life Covenant Church in Chicago. New Life had just 100 members in 2000; all were Spanish speakers. Now more than 17,000 people attend one of the church's four campuses every Sunday, making New Life the largest Assemblies of God church in the U.S. Nine of its 11 weekly services are in English....

Time almost put the pastor, Rev. Wilfredo "Choco" de Jesus, on its cover. Here is a short video from the cover shoot, and a bit of his story:

English is his first language. He grew up in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood during its gang-ridden days and then got a master's degree in Christian ministries from North Park Theological Seminary....

"We started doing English services to reach second- and third-generation Hispanics, who love their culture, who love their rice and beans, but prefer to hear a sermon in English. I started doing that, and the church started growing."

I thought this was exceedingly needed and helpful.

When Josh Harris Slapped Me Across the Face -- Tim Challies

Josh Harris slapped me across the face. He did it through his book Humble Orthodoxy and a little story that is adapted from the words of Jesus in Luke 18. He tells the story "to challenge those of us who trust in the rightness of our doctrine and look down on others." In other words, people like me.

One day two men went to church to pray.

The first man was a shallow, uninformed evangelical. Everything about him shouted of squishy theology. He didn't know or use big theological words. He watched Christian TV and thought it was deep. He bought books from the inspirational section of the bookstore. He attended one of those megachurches where the sermons are short and the worship leaders look like American Idol contestants.

The second man who went to pray was different. He was a Christian of theological depth and substance--this was obvious by the heavy study Bible he carried with him. He only read books by long-dead theologians. He subscribed to the podcasts of all the solid, gospel-centered expository preachers who didn't tell funny stories or make jokes in their sermons. He felt cheated if a sermon was less than an hour long.

This second man began to pray. He said, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people--doctrinally ignorant, theologically clueless, superficial in their saccharine-sweet evangelicalism. I thank you that you have made me what I am: true to good doctrine, uncompromising on teaching, orthodox to the core."

But the first man would not even look up to heaven. Instead he beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Justin Holcomb provides some helpful resources for Sexual Assault Awareness Monday, which we are already in.

Resources for Sexual Assault Awareness Month -- The Resurgence

The month of April has been designated Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) in the U.S. The goal of SAAM is to raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence.

The campaign this year is child sexual abuse prevention. Here are some resources I wanted to make available on this issue.

See the full list

In today's clip from The Exchange, Bob Roberts discusses the greatest obstacle to the Great Commission. Don't forget to join me every Tuesday at 3:00 PM Eastern for The Exchange.

The Exchange with Bob Roberts