The television fills the room with sounds of gunfire and bloody images. Teens yell and frantically press the buttons on their plastic controllers, totally engrossed by the graphic video game.

It's a normal scene in living rooms across the nation, but it's becoming common in church youth rooms too.

“Halo 3,” an epic, space-age game made for the Xbox console, earned a record-breaking $170 million for Microsoft in its first 24 hours on the shelves.

The game allows players to enter a futuristic wasteland and fight aliens. Multiple players can participate, helping or competing against each other. Groups of youths gather for “LAN parties,” creating local area networks with their consoles and playing simultaneously.

Some church members see the game's popularity as a means of outreach. Dennis Jamison, youth minister at the Meadow View church in Mesquite, Texas, uses “Halo 3” with his youth group, and doesn't believe the game is damaging to the teens who play it.

“It's very clear to see that there's aliens and monsters and things that we don't have in our lives,” Jamison said. “There is a definite line between fiction and non-fiction.”

Other church members who work with youths call for caution, citing the game's “mature” rating. Purchasers of “Halo 3” must be 17 years or older. read more

MALIBU, CALIF. - Somebody prayed for me, had me on their mind. They took the time and prayed for me.
I'm so glad they prayed.
I'm so glad they prayed.
I'm so glad they prayed for me.

The words of the song flowed easily from the mouth of Ken Nafziger, a Mennonite music professor leading a selection of a cappella spirituals at Pepperdine University on a recent weekday morning.

Sunlight that reflected through 105 hues of stained glass at Stauffer Chapel, Pepperdine's "little chapel on the hill," cast colorful shadows over Nafziger read more