Calling church planting an “extreme sport,” Ron Sylvia, founding pastor of the Church at the Springs in Ocala, Fla., asserted that “God is good, but He is not safe.”

Scott Priessler, Eklund professor of stewardship at Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, explained the often-misunderstood parable of the “shrewd manager” depicted in Luke 16.

I think most of us would agree that things are not working as well as we wished they would. I don’t think things are as bad as some say they are. Neither do I think things are as good as some of us try to pretend they are. But we can’t deny we are facing some issues when it comes to accomplishing our mission as the church of Jesus Christ. Could ours be a problem of disconnect? When you are disconnected, things don’t work the way they were designed to work.

The power of the “Lord’s Prayer” does not come in saying the 15-second prayer, shared Charles Roesel, presidential ambassador for the North American Mission Board and pastor emeritus of Leesburg Church, in Leesburg, Fla.

Byron Day, president of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware and senior pastor of Emmanuel Church in Laurel, Md., is glad that somebody connected him to Jesus.

Gary Hollingsworth, senior pastor of Immanuel Church in Little Rock, Ark., encourages Christians to connect with today’s culture by “fishing.”