Amelia Posted August 19, 2007 Posted August 19, 2007 Gadget gimmick for God: Church offers free iTunes, iPhone By LONA O'CONNOR Palm Beach Post Religion Writer Saturday, August 18, 2007 CORAL SPRINGS — Move over iPod, make room for iSermon. Church by the Glades is hoping to bribe - its word - new people into attending. Anyone who comes to its iThemed services for the first time during the next three weekends can get a $15 iTunes gift card by filling out a "connection card." Today, one new visitor will win an iPhone. The series of sermons is called "i: Successful Living in a Self-Absorbed World." The iDea came from David Hughes, the Baptist church's breezy pastor. "I'm an iPod guy," he said. American preachers have always employed creative methods, including rousing music, tent revivals and wagon rides to church, said Southern Baptist Convention spokesman Roger S. "Sing" Oldham. "The method is fair game as long as it's not illegal, immoral or against scripture," Oldham said. "The message must never be compromised." In January, Church by the Glades put a head-snapping message on a billboard in Broward County: "The Bare Naked Truth on Sex," drawing 50,000 hits on its Web site, www.cbglades.com. In Hughes' eight-year tenure, weekend attendance has grown from 500 to 2,500. "I can't reach them if they don't come in the door," he said. Quote <p><span style="color:#0000FF;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">"Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you."</span></span> Eph 4:29</span><br><br><img src="http://banners.wunderground.com/weathersticker/gizmotimetemp_both/US/OR/Fairview.gif" alt="Fairview.gif"> Fairview Or</p>
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