Are we entering a great new era of hymnody? There are signs of hope, and we can see the emergence of new hymn writers and composers who combine the best of old and new, recovering the ancient form in a new age. Best of all, these hymns are rich in biblical truth and Gospel content.

Alan Cooperman of The Washington Post reports Wednesday that the federal government will pay for the rebuilding of “parochial schools, nursing homes and similar religious institutions,” but not for the rebuilding of church buildings used for worship.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced plans to evict all New Tribes Mission personnel from the South American nation, describing the missionary group as “a true imperialist infiltration that makes me ashamed.”

Architecture critic Witold Rybczynski offers an essay and slide show on modern megachurches at Slate.com. The photography is striking, but Rbyczynski’s definition of megachurch has everything to do with the size of the building — not theology (the new Mormon conference center in Salt Lake City is included, along with the Lakewood Church’s transformation of what had been known as the Compaq Center in Houston).

The postmodern age is a very strange time to proclaim and defend the Christian faith. In an age when the reality of truth itself is denied, the church finds itself faced with several distinct challenges. In Acts 17:16-34, we find Paul standing at the very center of apologetic ministry in the first century. As we considered yesterday, a Christian apologetic begins in a provoked spirit, is focused on Gospel proclamation, and assumes a context of spiritual confusion.

Over at OneTrueGodBlog, Hugh Hewitt asked for principles that would help guide Christians in making decisions about how to respond to human needs with financial support and disaster relief. The awful earthquake in Pakistan comes quick on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, and many needs remain in the aftermath of the giant Indian Ocean tsunami of last year.

The church is faced in the postmodern age by several distinct apologetic challenges. Internally, the church must defend the faith against ignorance, against compromise, against doctrinal apathy, and against denial. Externally, the Gospel must be defended against secular atheism, postmodern relativism, naturalistic scientism, materialism, and current syncretisms. This is where the task of Christian apologetics begins. In the Apostle Paul we find a model of Great Commission proclamation matched to an apologetic argument–an argument in defense of Christian truth.

Christians today are called to serve the cause of Christ at one of the crucial turning points in human history. The generations now living have witnessed an explosion of knowledge, the collapse of distance, the rising and falling of empires. Cultures and societies have been radically transformed, and expansive wealth has brought great material comfort even as the most basic structures of society are undermined. Families are fractured, lawlessness abounds, violence invades, and the media bring a constant stream of chaos into our lives.

A massive earthquake in northern Pakistan and India has killed as many as 30,000 people in the Hindu Kush mountains alone, according to some recent estimates. The quake struck Saturday morning but, due to the remote nature of the quake-damages areas, the massive nature of the destruction was not evident until later on Saturday.