A line of Osage orange (mock orange) trees grows by our house. This line once separated a forty-acre field from its twenty-acre neighbor. Mock orange trees grow profusely and their limbs intertwine with others, creating a dense, leafy, mesh of long thorns and green balls. Over the past fifty years the fields have turned into houses and streets, and the sixty-foot giants now separate cul-de-sacs.

Q. My current employer offers a regular 401(k) and a Roth 401(k). I’ve got several years before I retire, so which one should I choose?

There is a direct relationship between the outward expression of our walk with Jesus and the private time we spend with Him.  I came across the findings of a LifeWay Research survey from the fall of 2012 which indicates we as believers could do better on our personal, private encounters with Christ as we engage His Word.

Our Church families have well established traditions for providing support.  What about support for mental health issues?

Through research across many denominations in the United States, Sidney Hankerson, MD, MBA and professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University, found that 27% of Church members or their family members have experienced mental health problems.  Astoundingly, this statistic does not include marriage and family problems.  If you add marriage and family difficulties, most of us are going to experience problems impacting mental health or family functioning.

What makes the Church relevant to the everyday lives of Christians?

This is the question we set out to answer this month and the answers may surprise you. We had the unique opportunity to interview four leaders shepherding churches in four different places in the River Region. Each is seeking to serve the people in their community in ways that will reach them where they are, and while each leader carries a different vision for the different places God has called them to lead, they all work with the same goal in mind - to make Jesus known and to promote His Kingdom on earth.

On the night Steven proposed to Hannah, she immediately took several pictures of the two of them, her left hand prominently displayed on his shoulder. Within moments, she posted the pictures on several social networking sites. When Hannah got home, her parents knew she was engaged, not because she had called them, but because one of their friends had seen her post and called with congratulations.

RRJ: Deanna, you’re the Branch Manager at Alabama Telco Credit Union.  For our readers who aren’t familiar with Alabama Telco, can you tell them about your services and what makes you unique?

There is something to be said for evangelism strategies and discipleship programs. My guess is that most churches have some way to introduce unbelievers to the Christian faith and to mature those who are new to the faith. I would guess as well that most churches keep an eye on the various new offerings, looking for what is original, what is interesting, what promises results. But what if we’ve made it all too complicated? What if both evangelism and discipleship can be as simple as reading the Bible?

Jesus met Peter and Andrew on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and invited them to “Come and follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Zebedee’s sons caught lots of fish and transferred them from life to death. Their fish became a dinner dish. Jesus of Nazareth now invited His new allies to catch people out of death into eternal life!