Media Blanket.

ORLANDO, FLA. — The son and namesake of one of Central Florida’s most famous pastors has returned to his hometown with an eye towards helping people see clearly.

Joel Hunter, M.D., the youngest son of Northland Church’s senior pastor, will open the area’s most-advanced LASIK facility Aug. 2 at the RDV Sportsplex—offering state-of-the art, bladeless laser vision correction and cataract removal.

“After 12 years of researching and working at some of the best clinics in the world, I’m grateful for the opportunity to finally bring the next-generation of vision correction technology back home to Orlando,” Dr. Hunter says.

As a distinguished fellow at the most prestigious refractive surgery center in the world, Dr. Hunter had his choice of jobs, but chose instead to create a new and better kind of medical practice.

Using a new generation of diagnostic equipment, premium intra-ocular lenses, and ultra-modern LASIK lasers, Dr. Hunter is able to perform the finest and most precise vision correction procedures in the field, including the next-generation of LASIK (SBK—Sub-Bowman’s Keratomileusis).

From wait times under 10 minutes to consistently personal treatment from Dr. Hunter, patients will find the experience at Hunter Vision vastly superior to most other clinics.
He concludes, “My family has served in the central Florida community for 25 years. Hunter Vision is committed to continuing that tradition.”

FOR APPOINTMENTS OR INTERVIEWS CONTACT:
Katie Romano
(407) 385-1620
kromano@huntervision.com

LONGWOOD, FLA. — Congregants at Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., are used to being welcomed by friendly greeters when they arrive for church on Sunday morning. This weekend, a few of those greeters … will have four legs and a tail.

June 26-28 has been designated as Disaster Response Weekend at the church and will feature some of the K-9 heroes who serve with FL3 Airboat Search and Rescue along with other local rescue dogs.

Congregants and other members of the community will be provided with information about the 2010 hurricane season (which began June 1) and learn more about how they can help during times of local, national and international crisis by joining Northland’s Disaster Response Team (DRT).

Special events will take place before and after each of Northland’s five weekend services—Saturday at 5 p.m.; Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m., and 6 p.m.; and Monday at 7 p.m. 

There will be opportunities to tour the DRT’s mobile response units, and individuals with special needs who live in Seminole County will be able to register with the local emergency operations center to receive specific assistance during emergencies.

On Sunday morning, DRT volunteers will also serve a pancake breakfast between 8 and 8:45 a.m. out of their 18-wheel Mobile Kitchen Unit, which is capable of serving 30,000 meals per day.

“It’s mostly a training opportunity for our kitchen volunteers, but I don’t think anybody’s going to complain,” jokes Gretchen Kerr, director of the church’s Life Crossroads ministries.

Northland’s DRT was initiated in 2007 after Hurricane Katrina and was recently mobilized following the devastating earthquake that ravaged Haiti earlier this year. The team has made four trips to the region so far.

DRT volunteers serve in teams, which assist with everything from providing medical and emotional care, to food distribution to setting up temporary pet shelters. A total of 110 Northlanders currently serve as emergency responders, and hundreds more have registered to serve in the future. But many more are needed, Kerr notes.

She concludes, “What if what happened in Haiti happened here? We need to be prepared. Moreover, serving others is what Jesus commanded us to do. We’re supposed to get our hands dirty and help out when things get messy. And when you do, you become heart-connected to people in ways you can only imagine.”

Northland, A Church Distributed (www.northlandchurch.net) is a pioneering congregation of 12,000 focused on building an international community of worshipers. Led by senior pastor Dr. Joel C. Hunter, the church connects thousands of believers worldwide, bringing live, interactive streaming of its weekly services to the Web, Facebook, iPhone and other environments. Northland has several sites throughout Central Florida, as well many house churches and partner ministries around the globe.

Contact:

Robert Andrescik
Director of Public Relations
press@northlandchurch.net

407-949-7147

BANNOCKBURN, IL — International television star Bear Grylls, who has braved some of the toughest terrains known to man, recently revealed to Relevant magazine that his biggest challenge wasn’t climbing Mount Everest or putting his survival skills to the test on Man Vs. Wild … but tackling life’s most difficult questions.

“It’s been a wiggly, messy journey that is continuing,” Grylls shared in the May/June 2010 cover story. He added that the Alpha course has helped him to find sure footing during his spiritual ascent.

“I have seen Alpha touch so many people’s lives. I have seen many people find a simple faith through it, and I want to encourage it because it’s helped me a load,” he said.

Grylls told the magazine that early in life, he had a “very natural” faith in God. “As a really young kid, I never questioned God. I just knew God existed, and it felt like He was my friend,” he explained.

That faith seemingly disappeared when he entered adolescence, but it resurfaced during his college years: “Some really good friends turned their back on me … and I remember praying a simple prayer up a tree one evening and saying, ‘God, if you’re like I knew you as a kid, would you be that friend again?’ And it was no more complicated than that.”

Not that he has backed down from asking hard questions as an adult. Grylls said that Alpha—a 10-week course held in churches, workplaces, prisons and other settings, where no question is out of bounds and people are free to explore the claims of Christ for themselves in a pressure-free environment—has helped him traverse some towering questions about God: Do you exist? And if you do exist, are you nice? Do you really care?

More than 14 million people in 163 countries have participated in the Alpha course, including more than 2 million people in the U.S. Last year, in the States alone, more than 50,000 people made commitments to Christ through Alpha.

Ultimately, Grylls concluded that the most profound truth a person can discover during the Alpha course is seemingly the simplest one … that we’re loved.

“Sometimes it’s hard for us to believe really believe that God cares for us and wants good things for us,” he observed. “Some people are just scared, and they go, ‘Oh, God just wants me to be religious,’ but actually He just loves us. He just wants us to be with Him, and that’s been the journey to discover that.”

To read more of Grylls interview with Relevant, visit www.relevantmagazine.com/digital-issue-45. To learn more about Alpha, including the upcoming 2010 Alpha Americas Conference, June 22-23 at Calvary Church in Naperville, Ill., visit www.alphausa.org.

For interviews about how a growing number of individuals and churches are running the Alpha course and seeing dramatic results, contact Janine Longoria at 224-588-8526 or janinelongoria@alphausa.org.

CHICAGO, IL — False accounting practices. Securities fraud. “Predatory” mortgage lenders. Car companies mismanaged into bankruptcy. A quick review of recent headlines might lead one to conclude that America’s system of capitalism is the most corrupt economic system on the planet.

Not so, say a pair of Christian authors, who contend that capitalism, properly understood, is consistent with some very important and widely held values … including those found in the Bible.

While the Bible and economics may seem like an odd combination, there’s good reason to look to the Good Book when it comes to capitalism, say Austin Hill and Scott Rae, authors of The Virtues of Capitalism: A Moral Case for Free Market (Northfield Publishing).

“Capitalism brings out the best in people,” explains Hill, an editorial contributor to national publications such as U.S. News & World Report and host of “The Austin Hill Show.”

He adds, “When wealth is being created and people can genuinely better their financial situations, the temptations for greed, envy and covetousness may actually be diminished. That’s because people have confidence that if they work hard, they will be better off in the future than they are today.”

The authors point out that in the Bible, Jesus Himself had far more to say about money and economics than He did about eternity.

“While Jesus had little to say about economic systems, He had a lot to say about economic life—about wealth, possessions and personal morality,” says Rae, professor of Christian ethics and chair of the philosophy of religion and ethics department at Talbot School of Theology.

Because economics has not been adequately defined as a “moral issue,” far too many faith-based voters have too often ignored economic issues to our nation’s demise, the duo contends.

Says Hill, “Faith-based Americans on the left frequently seem pleased with the government’s plans for universal health care and ‘green-energy’ strategies. Yet these Americans rarely express the same level of moral concern over the staggering levels of debt that the U.S. federal government is accruing as a result of some of these new initiatives, and they seem to be lacking concern over the increasing entanglement of government with private business, and the loss of personal freedom that ensues from such entanglements.”

Taking a balanced and reasonable approach that demonstrates respect for other views, the authors explore the consistencies between the Bible and capitalism. They also take on some of the most common criticisms of capitalism and examine some of the negative claims made about it—that it is “based on greed,” it instigates “materialism” and “consumerism,” and so forth.

Rae concludes, “It’s true that greed is evident in capitalism, but that greed is ultimately a matter of a person’s character and can flourish in any economic system. The economic system of capitalism itself is not evil.”

For review copies or interviews with the authors, contact Janis Backing, publicity manager for Moody Publishers, at 312-329-2108 or janis.backing@moody.edu.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — According to researchers, overall membership in American churches is up this year to 147.3 million—just under half of the U.S. population. This summer, a ministry that has engaged more than 14 million people worldwide with the Gospel will hold a conference designed to help America’s churches reach the other half.

Held June 22-23 at Calvary Church in Naperville, Ill., the 2010 Alpha Americas Conference: A Model for Dynamic Growth in the Local Church is being put together by the team at Alpha USA. In recent years, this ministry has experienced a snowball effect as American pastors discover one of the best-kept secrets to church growth.

“We believe God has given us a strategy to help churches double in size across the U.S.,” explains Gerard Long, president of Alpha USA. “Alpha is present in 163 countries, and is a household name in other places. But in the last two years, it has really taken off here in the States.”

In fact, Alpha USA has seen a 47 percent growth in participating churches and a 166 percent growth in regional volunteer leadership teams. Last year alone, 50,000 people in the U.S. made commitments to Jesus Christ through Alpha.

While Alpha can be run in a variety of settings—including homes, workplaces and correctional facilities—it has been particularly effective in helping churches attract seekers. Many churches have reported doubling in size as a result of running Alpha.

Statistics show that, despite worries among evangelicals that Americans are set against attending church, most people would attend … if invited in the right manner. In fact, 63 percent of Americans say a personal invitation from a from a friend or neighbor would be effective in getting them to visit a church. 

The Alpha course helps churches to create a non-threatening environment where people can consider the claims of Christ for themselves during a 10-week course. This provides congregants with opportunities to extend personal invitations to their family and friends to go to church with them and explore together life’s biggest questions—from “Why am I here?” to “Is God a delusion?”

Long explains, “The model of Jesus is to be a friend of sinners. We are to go and be amongst people, doing life with people who are not in the church. And if we’re walking with Jesus, they’ll notice something different about us.”

Featuring hands-on instruction both for beginners and advanced practitioners, the 2010 Alpha Americas Conference is the ideal environment to learn how to run Alpha effectively.

Long concludes, “Through the Gospel, we can bring utter transformation to individuals, to communities and eventually to the country. We can have another awakening in this country, if we get back to what God has called us to do, which is to proclaim the Gospel in the way that Jesus did.”

To learn more about the 2010 Alpha Americas Conference, visit alphausa.org/Americas. For interviews with Alpha USA president Gerard Long, contact Janine Longoria at 224-588-8526 or janinelongoria@alphausa.org.

LONGWOOD, FLA. — In just two days, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Northland Church will host an international simulcast called Hope for Creation. It promises to be the largest gathering of Christians supporting creation care … ever.

The simulcast will be broadcast online from Northland’s site in Longwood, Fla., this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. EDT. So far, more than 60,000 people from 30 countries—including Hungary, Italy, India, Thailand and Russia—have indicated that they will be participating in the event.

“This is an effort to recast the environmental movement into its proper perspective—as a biblical issue that Christians should care about,” explains Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Northland’s senior pastor. “I believe the Church should be leading the conversation, and this event will give us all the chance to do just that.”

Participants can join in online, at home or with a small group. Many pastors are planning church-wide gatherings. There’s even a zoo that has signed up.

The simulcast will feature music and speakers, along with a preview of a new film series from the makers of the popular NOOMA series. There will also be an interactive town-hall conversation live with audiences around the world featuring Dr. Matthew Sleeth, founder of Blessed Earth and the visionary behind this event.

Dr. Sleeth’s journey from emergency room physician to creation care activist began just a few years ago. Well-respected and at the top of his career, Dr. Sleeth and his wife, Nancy, lived with their children in a picture-perfect town in a three-story New England house, complete with library, guest suite and four bathrooms. But something was missing.

“We had all the nice things that were supposed to make us happy, yet at the core we still felt hollow,” remembers Nancy, author of Go Green, Save Green: A Simple Guide to Saving Time, Money and, God’s Green Earth.

Matthew adds, “I had started seeing changes in disease based upon the environment and changes in the environment in general. These changes have been profound.”

One day, Nancy asked Matthew a question that would change his life: “What do you think the biggest problem in the world is?”

He explains, “I thought for a moment, and I said the world is dying. I began a search to try and make sense out of the world.”

That search led to the Sleeths downsizing their lifestyle and upsizing their efforts to preserve the planet. Matthew eventually quit his job to put all his energy toward creation care.

“Environmentalism is the only activity we can carry out where we worship God all the time. When you begin to live more humbly, or meekly as Christ would put it, you begin to grow as a spiritual human being,” Dr. Sleeth says.

To learn more about Hope for Creation simulcast, visit blessedearth.org. To view Dr. Sleeth’s video testimony, visit youtube.com/servegodsaveplanet.

CHICAGO, IL — More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians … but only two out of six attend church on any given Sunday. To win them over, pastors need more than monthly pancake breakfasts—they need a strategy for reaching and discipling men that has the power to rebuild the church, and society, as we know it.

Enter men’s ministry pioneer and bestselling author Dr. Patrick Morley and his latest book, Pastoring Men: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why It Matters Now More Than Ever. The title was recently nominated by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) for a 2010 Christian Book Award—one of the highest given to Christian authors.

“Men’s ministry actually is rocket science! When you are working on rockets, things are pretty objective. Men are not nearly as predictable,” Morley explains.

The author says that the “men problem” in the church today is one of the most pervasive social, economic, political and spiritual challenges of our time—the root cause behind virtually every trouble ailing society. He has numbers to back up his claim:

• Of the 72 million children in America under the age of 18 … 33 percent will go to bed tonight in a home without a biological father.
• Children in single-mother homes are five times more likely to live in poverty, repeat a grade and have emotional problems compared to families where a father is present.

“If you project out 20 or 50 years, can you visualize any way of ever getting the world right if men are wrong?” Morley asks.

Pastoring Men provides an actionable model that helps pastors to do just that and includes an alphabetized reference section of 70 subjects that every man needs to know, giving pastors a masculine perspective that they can work into their sermons, teachings, counseling and writing.

“It’s everything that I’ve learned about how to effectively disciple men in one book,” says Morley, who says his calling is to equip pastors to help men grow. He has personally prepared and delivered more than 1,000 different messages tailored specifically to men and leads a men’s bible study on Friday mornings in Orlando, Fla., to 10,000 men in all 50 states and 57 countries via the Web. More than three million copies of Morley’s first book, The Man in the Mirror, have been distributed worldwide.

Bestselling author Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor of Houston’s Windsor Village United Methodist Church, says that Morley “asks and answers the significant questions that enable pastors to effectively minister to all of their men.”

Moody Publishers is offering a free pdf download at pastoringmen.com of what Morley describes as two of the most important chapters in the book: Chapter 1, “Is Pastoring Men Worth the Effort?”; and Chapter 5, “What Do Men Need?”

For review copies of Pastoring Men or interviews with the author, contact Zack Williamsom at Moody Publishers, 312-329-2173 or zack.williamson@moody.edu.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — A senior executive who left behind a highly paid career with one of the world’s largest banks to lead a Christian ministry that helps people explore the meaning of life is returning to his corporate roots. His mission—help Christian businesspeople losing faith in work … to find a higher calling at work.

Gerard Long, executive director for Alpha USA, is touring the country with a series of Workplace Faith gatherings, planned for 16 cities throughout the U.S. More than 200 executives and business owners attended the first gathering in Charleston, S.C.

Attendees surveyed reported the event enhanced their understanding of a Christian’s calling in the workplace, and many indicated that they would take concrete steps to live out their faith at work.

The next gathering will be held April 14 in Dallas, Texas, and will feature critically acclaimed speaker and author Ken Blanchard, whose One-Minute Manager has sold more than 13 million copies.

Participants will explore a variety of topics, including “Leading From the Front: Living Out My Faith in the Workplace.” They will also learn about Alpha in the Workplace, a 15-session practical introduction to the Christian faith developed by the team behind the hugely successful Alpha course.

Thousands of businesspeople all over the world are attending Alpha in the Workplace: Corporate CEOs are holding sessions in their boardrooms. Factory workers are running courses in their cafeterias … the options are unlimited.

A recent survey revealed only 45 percent of Americans are satisfied with their work. According to Long, Christians who find themselves in that number will find greater satisfaction when they recognize that God’s plan for them isn’t limited to Sunday mornings.

For Long, the journey from corporate warrior to Christian soldier began with a dramatic encounter with God in 1980. Following this “holy takeover,” he served 17 years as a pastor in North London, while continuing to climb the corporate ladder at one of the world’s largest banks, HSBC. His faith would later be deepened through grief and suffering in the loss of his youngest son.

In 2006, upon completion of his most noteworthy assignment yet, leading the integration of HSBC’s $14 billion acquisition of Household Finance, he announced his intention to leave behind his successful career—to join Alpha USA.

Long has successfully merged faith and work for nearly three decades, including running Alpha in the Workplace courses in boardrooms across two continents. He is unapologetic about his desire to see believers bring Christianity to the workplace.

“You can share your faith at work. If you truly believe people’s eternal destinies are at stake, then you must do it.”

Learn more about the Workplace Faith gatherings at alphausa.org/workplacefaith or by attending the 2010 Alpha Americas Conference: A Model for Dynamic Growth, June 22-23 in Naperville, Ill., alphausa.org/Americas.

For interviews, contact Janine Longoria at 224-588-8526 or janinelongoria@alphausa.org.

ORLANDO, FLA. — If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world behind China (1.33 billion) and India (1.17 billion), and followed by the U.S. (307 million). Now, a new church is being planted in the “nation” of Facebook, bringing live worship to its 400 million-plus residents.

On Sunday morning, Northland, A Church Distributed will officially open the doors to its new Facebook app, which will allow worshipers to invite their Facebook friends to go to church with them—without leaving the familiar Facebook environment. Plus, even when live worship isn’t happening, the opportunity for worship is readily available because the previous week’s service will be posted and available for viewing 24 hours a day.

“We encourage people to be the church everywhere, every day, so it just makes sense to put resources out there that will help people to be that church,” explains Nathan Clark, Northland’s director of digital innovation.

With a congregation of 12,000 worshipers meeting throughout Metro Orlando and worldwide via interactive webcast, Northland first began taking church out of the building in 2001 via “distributed sites”—live, two-way video connections between locations. Northland now operates four of these sites in Central Florida.

The church started webcasting live services in January 2006 and, 18 months later, launched an interactive webstream of its services that includes immediate access to an online pastor and the ability to chat instantly with other worshipers. Approximately 2,000 people use this venue each weekend.

On July 4, 2009, the church launched an iPhone Web app—offering not just videos of past services, but the ability to join live services as they are happening over 3G and Wi-Fi networks. Additionally, 200 of Northland’s congregants now serve as online missionaries, replying to emails from thousands of seekers around the world.

Now, every Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m. EST, Northland’s live services will also be accessible on Facebook. Clark says the motivation behind this new tool is to “take the church where people live.” According to Facebook.com, the average user has 130 Facebook friends and spends more than 55 minutes per day on the site.

“At Northland, we often talk about the need to take the church to the people, versus asking them to come to us. For us, it was a wakeup call to realize that we were doing precisely that online—asking people to come to our website for worship. Why require a virtual commute over to our website when you can have church where people are?”

Ultimately, though, Northland hopes online worshipers will join a community with other believers … or start one. To that end, the church is providing tools for online worshipers to start “simple churches” in their homes at doingchurchsimply.com.

Clark concludes, “The point of being a Christian is to bear the image and good news of Christ everywhere. We hope this new Facebook app will help.”

To try the new app, visit apps.facebook.com/northlandchurch. For interviews, contact Robert Andrescik at robert.andrescik@northlandchurch.net or 407-949-7147.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — A Christian ministry that last year drew more than 115,000 people to churches nationwide—many of whom were exploring faith for the first time—will hold a conference on dynamic church growth, June 22-23 in Naperville, Ill.

The 2010 Alpha Americas Conference: A Model for Dynamic Growth in the Local Church is being put together by the team behind the hugely successful Alpha course, which in 2009 saw more than 57,000 people in the U.S. make personal decisions for Jesus Christ through its partner churches.

Started in 1979 as a brush-up for rusty churchgoers, Alpha helps churches to create a pressure-free environment where guests can explore the Christian faith. The free course is held over a 10-week period and is open to everyone. Each session starts with a family style meal followed by a short talk and spirited discussions on topics ranging from “Why is there suffering?” to “Is God a delusion?”

Around the world, 13 million people have taken the Alpha course, which is now offered in 163 countries and 81 languages, by more than 100 denominations. More than half of those who attend the course make first-time decisions for Christ.

Pastor Rick Warren, author of the worldwide bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life, calls the Alpha course “one of the most effective evangelism tools for the 21st century.”

“It harkens back to the early days of Christianity, when believers met in homes for a meal and discussed what they believe with their friends and neighbors. It’s very effective,” explains Gerard Long, president of Alpha USA.

Originally conceived in the United Kingdom, Alpha is catching on in the U.S. in a big way. Last year, Alpha USA saw an increase of 47% of churches running the course.

These congregations are working to reverse a trend identified by researcher George Barna, who reported that one out of every four adults (23%) in America are now “unattached” people who attend neither a conventional church nor an organic faith community (e.g. house church). About one-third of the segment was people who have never attended a church at any time in their life.

At the conference, participants will receive tools to address this challenge head on, receiving advanced training in all aspects of how to run the Alpha course. Together, they will learn to:

• Initiate a process for Kingdom growth that is sustainable, accessible and adaptable.

• Engage people with truth in a way that is both authentic and applicable.

• Develop a community environment that leads people to Jesus and draws them into the church.

• Guide people toward a personal encounter with God.

• Energize their congregations for outreach.

• Create a path to discipleship that raises up new leaders.

Featuring Nicky Gumbel, bestselling author and senior pastor of London’s Holy Trinity Brompton, the conference will welcome delegates from across the Americas—including Canada, Latin America and the U.S.

To learn more visit www.alphausa.org. For interviews, contact Janine Longoria at 224-588-8526 or janinelongoria@alphausa.org.