Christian bloggers Brian Bailey and Terry Storch have teamed up to write a manual for expanding congregations through blogs on the Web.

“Ten years ago, your friends were largely people you knew personally – neighbors, co-workers, former classmates, and your church family,” they write in “The Blogging Church” (Wiley, $19.95). “Today, many relationships are formed online; some of our most trusted voices are people whom we've never met.”

Bailey is the Web director at Fellowship Church, which has five locations in Texas and Florida. Terry Storch is a pastor at LifeChurch.tv, which also has multiple sites and an Internet campus.

STAY TUNED

Associated Press

OK, so you don't get Canada's CBC television channel. But there's a sitcom that's getting quite the buzz up north: “Little Mosque on the Prairie,” about a small Muslim community in a Canadian prairie town called Mercy.

The plot revolves around the townsfolk getting to know their new neighbors. The characters include a cosmopolitan imam who has come to replace a traditionalist imam described as “our Muslim Archie Bunker.”

“Little Mosque” is a hit with both Muslims and non-Muslims.

“I think it's a great program,” Charles Alawan, one of the founders of the Islamic Center of Detroit, told Religion News Service. “For years, I've been telling people of my faith that you need to get some humor going. If we don't learn to laugh at ourselves, we won't get very far in this society.”

PEWS NEWS

If you're into Gregorian chant, Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church offers a Gregorian Chant Mass on the second Sunday of every month at 4 p.m. – so you're getting a week's notice for the March service.

There is congregational singing, and hymnals have English-Latin pages. Our Lady of the Rosary is in Little Italy at State and Date streets, and if you go, be sure to check out the baroque and rococo art.

THE LAST WORD

Purim – One of Judaism's most fun holidays, involving dining, drinking and carnival-like celebrations. Purim is based on the story in the biblical book of Esther, in which Esther, a Persian queen who has hidden the fact that she's a Jew, convinces her husband to save the Jewish people from extermination. The holiday begins at sunset today and continues until nightfall tomorrow.

RUSTY RUSSELL / Getty Images

PRAISE MUSIC

Longtime country band Alabama is following up on its popular Christian album, “Songs of Inspiration,” with a sequel: “Songs of Inspiration II.” The album is due to be released March 27.

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