Here's your Mid-Week edition of the Morning Five:
1. Prayer Plane
Here’s an
inspirational story for you from New Zealand. Two pilots began desperately praying after an engine went out on their plane. Call it divine intervention, but the pair found a safe landing spot right next to a large that said “Jesus is Lord.”
2. Shrouded in Mystery
A physics professor from Colorado has opened the latest chapter in the mystery surrounding the Shroud of Turin. The burial cloth that some people believed held Christ’s body between the time of the crucifixion and resurrection was declared to be a fake years ago after radiocarbon dating suggested it was a forgery from medieval times.
John Jackson, a teacher at the University of Colorado, however, convinced a lab at Oxford (where the shroud was originally dated) to rethink its dating method and factor in the possible contamination from carbon monoxide. According to the new analysis, the shroud could actually date back to the time of Christ.
Though some scientists are still skeptical that it was the actually burial clothe of Jesus, Jackson (who is Catholic), remains optimistic.
He told
a local paper, “Science still has much to tell us about the shroud. If we are dealing with the burial cloth of Christ, it is the witness to the birth of Christianity. But my faith doesn't depend on that outcome."
3. Back to Bethlehem
If you’re look for a location to host your next business conference and just can’t seem to book a major convention center, you may want to read this story: “
Bethlehem remakes itself as host to conferences”
4. We the Church
The site
wethechurch.org is getting a lot of buzz lately. Essentially, it is a forum where believers can post their prayers, praise reports, testimonies and struggles with others. The site, which faced some problems early on due to a lack of moderation—a problem associated with many open forum sites—is still growing. If you’ve never checked it out, it’s definitely a cool Web 2.0 destination for online ministry now that the kinks are being worked out.
5. Designer Churches
I always like to see when Christians get recognized for innovative design. The site
ChurchRelevance.com has posted this list of the "Top 85 Church Web Sites." The church web site has a lot of challenges because it has to be a balance of content, organization and easy navigation to essential information (like service times, location, ect.), so it's cool to look at a list that organizes churches who have done a good job at it.