by Jim Henderson

[photopress:jim_sign_atheist.jpg,thumb,alignright]About a month ago I was at an airport in Chicago when I got an email from my friend Joe Myers. He sent me a link to a story about a guy who was "selling his soul" on Ebay. Joe knows about my strange hobby of interviewing "lost" people so he thought I would be interested.

I had a couple of hours to kill so I went online and read about Hemant Mehta. Hemant is not only a “lost” person he’s an atheist/lost person. So I bid.

Pretty soon the bidding started climbing into the $50 range (my personal threshold) and about that time I got an email from a newspaper in Chicago saying they wanted to talk with me. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Henderson

About sixty days ago Off The Map hired an atheist on eBay. Since that time we have appeared on Fox News and been interviewed many times on radio and done a number of print pieces. Hemant has done nine church surveys for us as well. Here is a short story about how it happened, where we are and how you get connected with the story.

I was yelling into my cell phone balanced precariously between my ear and shoulder’ $298, $302, $379, $402.I kept one eye on the ebay screen hitting the refresh button every few seconds, the numbers came fast and furious. Money was going up and time was running down – soon to intersect and change life for two guys 3000 miles apart but with both sets of eyes glued to the screen. Read the rest of this entry »

“We count the things that don’t count and fail to count the things that do.” Albert Einstein

If the number of people serving was counted rather than the number of people seated then Rich and Rose Swetman’s church in Seattle would be in the top 1% of effective churches in the U.S and getting lots of press.

When it comes to finding creative ways to serve those around them this church is definitely off the charts.

Rose recently sent in this report: Read the rest of this entry »