For me, it’s
John Mark Ministries. By any
reckoning this has got be one of the best Christian websites around. With
some 12,000 articles – and more added each day – it also has to be one of the
largest.
John Mark Ministries
was founded in 1991 by Melbourne Baptist pastor Dr Rowland Croucher, to
provide a consulting/counselling ministry to pastors, ex-pastors, church
leaders and their spouses. The website grew out of this ministry. And grew.
And grew. It’s amazing to find that so much of the material on the site is
written by Rowland himself. (I struggle to write two commentaries a week for
my site, and I’m a professional writer.)
He introduces the site as follows:
This website is a resource for thoughtful
Christians and non-Christians - pastors, leaders and others. There are many
points of view expressed here….For example, there are some articles by and
about John Stott (with whom I substantially agree on most issues) but also a
critique of Stott by Bishop Spong (about whose beliefs I have severe
reservations). Enjoy browsing with an open mind (then close it on some
important basic convictions :-)!
And that statement possibly illustrates
the main attraction of the site – it is all so personal. As far as I can
tell, Rowland is a brilliantly well-read man with a great depth of hands-on
pastoral experience in the real world. He seems to have a worthwhile opinion
on everything.
The home page
classifies articles into two dozen categories, such as missions and
evangelism, lifestyle, apologetics and social issues, humour, books and
ideas, family and relationships, poetry and the internet. There is also an
alphabetical and a keyword index.
Nevertheless, the
problem for any new visitor will be where to start.
Go to the
Most Popular
Articles section, which includes the following:
Is Gandhi in
Heaven?, Homosexuality:
an Interview with Jesus,
Masturbation,
Was Jesus a
Christian? and “the two best articles I've written”,
Living with
Ambiguity and
Accepting
Diversity.
Then I would recommend
the Your Church Can
Come Alive and the
Spirituality
sections as especially rich. Beyond that, you’re on your own.
I’ll leave you with
some words from Rowland, in an email to me:
Many pastors and thoughtful Christians -
and others - log in daily. Some begin their day with devotions from the
Sunrise Sunset or Devotions sections; others read one of the 1,800 funny
stories; still others pray for persecuted Christians around the world from
our daily news updates. Visit and enjoy!
Shalom!
October 18th, 2002
