Jean and Scott Adams and Philis Macay and Bob Riggle were overtaken by pirates on Friday. When U.S forces reached their yacht, they discovered all four had been shot to death.

According to a report by CNN, the four were taking donated Bibles and distributing them to people in the Pacific who were unfamiliar with The Gospel.

The Adams’ had a website that chronicled their mission trips to China, Cambodia, Panama and New Zealand. They wrote that the Bibles were often used by the teachers who received them, to teach English.

The news is almost always the same. Teenagers are in trouble.

This morning’s headlines are typical

• Five Teenagers Caught on Tape Beating “Wendys” Employee
• Malta teenagers arrested for drug deal
• Indonesian police arrest six teenagers on terrorism charges
• Teenagers arrested for arson
• Two teenagers forced into prostitution
• Search ongoing for missing Maryland teenagers
• Teenagers front Wagga court over alleged joyriding disaster
• British teenager’s murder plan hatched on Facebook
• Police arrest 71 teenagers for drinking alcohol outside concert

That’s just one morning.

It’s more than troubling. It’s a failure by our world to teach young people that life matters. Theirs and everyone elses.

But how do we do that? Can we do that?

• Get a web camera. They’re not very expensive now and the quality is quite good. Connect it to a computer that you’ll use for the live broadcast. (Most newer laptops have a camera built-in, so check before you buy)
• Go to Ustream.tv and create a new account. Set up the account using the name of the church, that way your church members (and others) can find it. Ustream is a free service for both the broadcaster and the viewer.
• Upgrade your microphone. Most people will spend more time on what people will see in the background, but before you go online, upgrade your microphone. Bad audio means no one will stay with the service long enough to notice that sippy cup next to the couch.
• Try it out. Before you go live on Sunday, go live to make sure everything looks and sounds good. Do a dry run. If the pastor is going to preach from home, the pastor should log in, and do everything that needs to be done on that end. If the roads are icy, you don’t want the tech guy having to drive over to check a setting.  Another staff member should log on to the church’s new Ustream channel to watch and listen. This is the time to make changes.
• Get the word out. There will be some people in your church who’ll think ‘that’s too hard’ or ‘I don’t know how to do that’. Let them know that if they’re on Facebook, they can do this. Connect with church members on Facebook to get the word out. You can use a Ustream application on Facebook to actually put the broadcast on everyone’s Facebook wall.

If you already have a computer (and you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t) a live broadcast from your home or anywhere won’t cost much at all. A computer headset/microphone is under $75 at Radio Shack and a web camera is even less.

One other thing to consider is lighting. You’ll need light on your face and not behind you. A lamp positioned in front of you could give enough light for even a dark study. Do not face the camera with a window behind you. It may be a pretty snow scene, but nobody will be able to see it, or you.

If you’re just stopping by here for the first time, you may not know about the videos I produce now for youth ministries. The idea is this: provide youth pastors video content for Wednesday night Bible studies/worship.

The videos run a few minutes and include Five Things that are relevant for that particular week.

It starts with a viral video of the week followed by 4 other stories that young people will find interesting.

This week’s video is a good example

• viral video of woman texting while she walks through the mall and falls into a fountain
• 10 billion mobile apps will be sold in Apple’s App Store. A look at our favorite app, the YouVersion Bible app which allows you to take the Bible with you wherever you go (even when you ‘go’ on Facebook.
• Beauty sleep really works
• A new Christian movie debuts on television next week
• A report from the streets of Haiti with Soles4Souls founder Wayne Elsey

Here’s the video, posted to GodTube

According to ReligionNewsBlog, Newdow is asking Supreme Court justices to review his claim that was rejected by an appellate court. He argues that “In God We Trust” on our dollar bills, violates the separation of church and state.

Here’s the quote from the petition:

Devout atheists are forced to choose between not using what is often the only available legal tender and committing what they consider blasphemy

Well, when he puts it that way.

And Newdow isn’t finished. He’s challenging “So help me God” which is in the presidential oath. He’s also not giving up on his challenge of The Pledge of Allegiance.

Wayne Elsey is CEO of Soles4Souls and he is on his 6th trip to Haiti since the massive earthquake last January.

Saturday morning, Wayne agreed to talk with me by phone from Haiti about what he sees know and whether anything has changed.

Is There Any Progress in Haiti?

According to The Los Angeles Times, the church agreed to stand down in exchange for airtime on two radio stations.

Here’s the quote from the Times

Margie Phelps, a lawyer for the Westboro Baptist Church, said the decision was not based on outside pressure but rather on how much publicity the church could receive.  “It’s how many ears we can reach,” she said. “That is our job, that is our goal.”

Margie gets the title as lawyer for the church, but the fact is…everyone in the church is a lawyer and they’ve all got the last name Phelps. The family not only makes up the congregation, but they’re litigious.

Last week the Phelps family said they would protest at the funeral for the 9 year old shooting victim because her family is Catholic. They planned to protest Judge John Roll’s funeral because he was a judge.

Arizona officials did what they could to prevent the protests, but were limited to prohibit protests within 300 feet of a funeral.

To my knowledge, no one has ever talked Westboro out of protesting a funeral. Not for soldiers (especially not for soldiers) and not for other shooting victims (no matter how tragic).

How did they do it this time? Two radio stations, one in Phoenix and one in New York, offered Phelps “substantial airtime” to tell their story in exchange for canceling the protests.

What do you think?

A hit on You-Tube already, Renfroe is the red-haired funny lady you’ve seen doing stand-up comedy and songs. Have you ever seen “William Tell Momisms“?
Renfroe has done it again with a parody of Carrie Underwood’s “Before I Cheat”. It’s called “Before I Eat” and, like all of Renfroe’s work, is sure to be gobbled up by women everywhere.

Here it is: enjoy

Before I Eat