Assisting Churches in Multiplying Kingdom Servants

Pastoral General Support:

www.alban.org - This research and support institute has a mission to undergird and strengthen the local congregation through publications and consultation. A free newsletter is offered.

www.baptiststart.com - This site is hosted by the First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, Alabama.  A large site, it will take some patience to find all the resources it offers.  The site includes many documents from church history as well as resources related to Christian theology.  A nearly complete collection of confessions of faith and statements of doctrinal positions stretches back to some of the earliest known to the Christian faith especially as they are relevant to Baptist history.

www.ccl.org  – The Center for Creative Leadership, headquartered in Greensboro, NC, is considered one of the finest research organizations in the nation for the study of leadership skills in both non-profit and for profit organizations. Some stuff is free but as usual the best material is by paid subscription or book purchase.

www.christiancourses.com -- This site is hosted by the Radio Bible Class and offers all courses free of charge. Certificates are granted in some areas. No courses carry college or divinity school credit.

www.christianitytoday.com/bible/  - a variety of articles are available from this online format of the Christianity Today magazine. Also check out their ctlibrary.com.

www.churchleaderinsights.com  – Nelson Searcy, who hosts this site, is a Southern Baptist evangelist and church planter with a background in North Carolina and is currently serving in New York. The site offers his group’s products and a free e-newsletters.

www.congregationalresources.org - This site is a joint effort of the Alban Institute and the Indianapolis Center for Congregations. Included are articles, recommended books and links to other sites.

www.easumbandy.com  – Bill Easum and Tom Bandy are cutting edge thinkers for today’s church. They offer a lot on their site including original articles under the tab "free resources".

www.futurelead.org - This site sells products and conferences but also offers a free series of articles related to the lives of leaders in both church and business.

www.gospelcom.net  – a very broad-based coalition of evangelical groups

www.helwys.com  (Learning Matters newsletter supports church administration and education) – Smyth and Helwys offer a wide variety of products to support the local church in its ministry efforts. The Learning Matters newsletter is available free through the online magazine link.

www.leadnet.org  – The Leadership Network seeks to generate ideas for the church moving into the 21^st century. It also provides additional links to other very helpful sites.

www.lifeway.com  (left bar and click on free newsletters) – The Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm offers several free e-newsletters for all aspects of church ministry.

www.link2lead.com - This secondary site of the North American Mission Board can help supply extensive demographic studies for individual church needs and a variety of tools for practical ministry application.

www.ministryhealth.net - The archived articles offer a wide selection of topics by authors noted in their fields.

www.ministrymarketingcoach.com - Chris Forbes is an employee of the Oklahoma Baptist State Convention and has several years of experience in helping organizations get their message out. Besides his for sale products, he also offers free online articles.

www.rbc.org -- Home site of the Radio Bible Class, producers of the popular daily devotional guide, Our Daily Bread.

www.religionheadlines.org - Religious and secular press articles dealing with religion in America are updated daily and retained in archives.

www.revmagazine.com  – This is Group Publishing Company’s online version of its Rev! magazine containing numerous articles related to the life and work of the pastor.

www.svministry.com -- This website creator believes every church should have a good communication strategy that will "build relationships internally among members, and externally with communities." Offers a free newsletter. Consultant has been used by our Baptist State Convention.

www.thechurchyouknow.com - A site geared to making Christians question why they do what they do so they can never forget it really is all about Christ.

www.theirownwords.com - Sectarian and cult leaders from around the world are quoted to provide original documentation. Updated regularly.

www.transformingsolutions.org  – Eddie Hammett, a consultant with the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, offers support in deacon ministry and discipleship training. His books contain significant insight into the nature of a healthy church in the 21^st century.

www.virtualchristiancenter.com  (click on "funny pages" link on left bar) – The primary plus for this site is the "Funny Pages" section containing a variety of humorous anecdotes good for a laugh and maybe even a sermon illustration.

www.wiredchurches.com - A ministry of Granger Community Church located in Granger, Indiana. The church is seen as an innovative part of the emerging church movement.

Bible Study

www.bible.org - Provides the online modern Bible translation "New English Translation" free of charge (the NET Bible).

www.biblegateway.com  - A ministry of Gospel Communications (gospelcom.net), this site offers 20 English translations and multiple versions in 40 other languages including koine Greek and Hebrew.  Also available are two commentaries. Sponsored by Gospel Communications (www.gospelcom.net)

www.bible-history.com  – a wide variety of topics are covered related to Bible times and history

www.biblekeeper.com  – a Bible study resource offering multiple versions and articles on biblical topics

www.biblemap.org -- This is a combination Bible atlas and Google's satellite imagery. Without high speed capability you will need to be patient. 

www.bibleplaces.com - These are selected photos from the 10-volume Pictorial Library of Bible Lands CD collection. Brief texts go with each photograph.

www.crosswalk.com   - (click on “faith” tab and then click on “Bible study tools”) Along with 24 English translations of the New Testament and the Bible, eleven commentaries are a part of this site.  Most of the commentaries, however, date from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  In addition there are four concordances, six dictionaries, and two lexicons – one for Old Testament Hebrew and one for New Testament Greek. 

www.discipleshiplibrary.com  – This home site for the Navigators International provides a wealth of resources for biblical studies, theology, and church history. It even includes links to the theological libraries of the Library of Congress and Harvard Divinity School.

www.e-sword.net - The manager of this site feels that Bible study resources should be available free of charge as much as possible to everyone.  A cd of several research tools is available free from the Resource Center and makes available eleven translations, a Bible dictionary, and fourteen commentaries many of which are from the 19^th century.  A more extensive collection of materials is available on the web site.

www.searchgodsword.org - A large assortment of Bible study helps are included on this site, including 22 versions of the whole Bible and New Testament and 16 commentaries. There are also an assortment of concordances, lexicons, dictionaries, Bible history sources, and sites linking to sermon support.

General Resources

www.ntgateway.com - Dr. Mark Goodacre of the University of Birmingham, U.K. maintains this site as a free resource focusing upon the more academic site of biblical studies. He includes a wide variety of links to Bible study resources.

www.servehim.com - This is a "grand central station" of links to ministry resources, news, Christian education, organizations and general information.

Sermon Support and Illustrations

www.amusingfacts.com - 17 topics with multiple related relevant and irrelevant facts and details plus links to other random knowledge sites.

www.baptiststart.com/sermon_illustrations.html – A clearing house for a wide range of sources for sermons and illustrations.

www.bible.org/illus.php – Offers a limited number of free illustrations.

www.bartleby.com - Online publisher of general literature.

www.crosswalk.com/pastors/illustrations – Offers a limited number of illustrations sent free by email.

www.cybersalt.org - Hosted by a pastor with a good sense of humor. Clean jokes, sermons, etc. are offered free.

www.earthcalendar.net -- This site provides a world calendar of a diversity of common and odd holidays on a day-by-day basis.

www.encarta.msn.com - Microsoft offers visitors to this site a wide range of general resources related to knowledge in almost every field known to man. It is a great research tool.

www.encyclopedia.com - Columbia Encyclopedia's free research site containing over 57,000 articles plus a broad range of other sources. Parallel services from this site may require fees or paid subscriptions.

www.esermons.com – A child of www.sermons.org.

www.factmonster.com - This is a huge resource of facts about nearly everything. It even has a homework center for the kids.

www.frontline.org - This Public Broadcast System site features its choice and interpretation of world news events.

www.funnysermons.com – Free material but registration is required to access it.

www.howstuffworks.com - This is a combination of an encyclopedia and a news update service.

www.infoplease.com - This huge site includes a wide range of research tools as well as its own collection of articles. Links to Fact Monster.

www.jesussite.com - The hosts describe their site as "an outreach to those who do not have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and as a resource to those who do." The materials are free but a bit limited. Suggestions for additional material are welcome.

www.movieministry.com – Subscription site focusing on film clips and discussion; user hints and articles are free.

www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations – Subscription service from Christianity Today.

www.religionlink.org - This site is part of the religion writers association and give access to what writers are saying in major secular newspapers across America. Most articles relate to American events but not all.

www.sermoncentral.com – Subscription site with a few freebies. Part of the Outreach.com network.

www.sermonillustrationlibrary.org – A free to all source that allows registrants to add more illustrations to a wide variety of subjects. Small at present but growing.

www.sermonillustrations.com – Subscription site. A few illustrations are free, changing on a regular basis. A child of www.sermons.org.

www.sermonillustrator.org – Free site with a variety of illustrations of differing lengths.

www.sermonnews.com – Subscription site for regularly updated illustrations.

www.thisistrue.com - A collection of true but really weird news stories. The editor adds his commentary at the end of each story.

www.truthorfiction.com - This site is devoted to supporting the true Internet stories and exposing false ones to be just that.

www.wikipedia.org - A free encyclopedia with over one and a half million entries.