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How do you use creativity and technology to solve problems? We asked Bob Taylor, the innovative creator of Taylor Guitars, to offer some tips on how to keep your good ideas fresh and how to tweak your way into excellence. [more]

When the primacy of love is subordinated to doctrinal correctness and orthodox exegesis, cool cordiality and polite indifference masquerade as love among theologians, biblical scholars, and faculties across the land. When absolute control and rigid obedience pose as love within the family and the local faith-community, we produce trained cowards rather than Christian persons. - Brennan Manning

The power of prayer and ingenuity - Richard Van Pham, 62, thanked God and the United States Navy for saving him after he spent three months adrift at sea in a disabled sailboat. Rescuers credited Van Pham’s ingenuity in collecting rain water in five gallon buckets and catching fish, sea turtles and gulls. His saga began when he found himself caught in a storm as he sailed from Long Beach, California to Santa Catalina Island. Instead of 25 miles, Van Pham sailed over 3,000. "When I see ship, happy," he told reporters after his rescue. "God saved me, so I’m here.” His rescue is even more miraculous because no one was looking for him - he failed to tell anyone where he was going! - USA Today, 9/26/2002

Nonverbal communication is heard over words - In one experiment the words of a speaker and the nonverbal signals were directly contradictory. Negative and hostile facial expressions and tone of voice were combined with pleasant and reassuring words. Then subjects in the study were asked what they thought was the real attitude of the speaker. The researchers reported that they depended only 7 percent on the actual words used. They depended about 38 percent on such features as tone of voice and rate of speech. The most credibility - 55 percent - was given to facial expression and other body language. Mark Knapp does not exaggerate when he writes, 'how something is said is frequently what is said.' - Hesselgrave, 1991, p. 437

"Shout to the Lord" and "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" are the two most popular songs sung in Baptist churches that use contemporary worship, a new survey says. According to Christian Copyright Licensing International, which licenses more than 150,000 songs for congregational use, those songs topped the list in a survey of Baptist churches with CCLI licenses. For an annual license fee, 140,000 Christian churches in North America receive permission to copy the songs for printing, displaying and projecting lyrics, among other uses. Most contemporary worship services don't use hymnals. - Associated Baptist Press