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Obama relies on a spiritual cabinet for faith guidance
Posted: 6:06 am on March 11, 2010
President Obama has a spiritual cabinet of sorts he relies on to give him guidance in his faith and how it meshes with public policy. Included in the group is Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter. Hunter, 61, pastors the 12,000-member Northland Church outside Orlando, and leads a new crop of centrist pastors calling for a cease-fire in the culture wars. He’s also pushing to broaden the evangelical agenda to include issues like poverty, immigration and the environment.
View the full story published by Christianity Today
tags: Barack Obama, pastors, prayer, worship
Baseball a successful ministry in Eastern Europe
Posted: 5:48 am on March 11, 2010
Think of baseball hotspots and Eastern Europe does not ordinarily come to mind. However, baseball has been an integral part of the growth experience for some boys in Slovakia, where a sports ministry has helped give a different perspective on friendship and camaraderie in nation still recovering from decades of Communist oppression.
View the full story published by Christianity Today
tags: baseball, GoodSports International, ministry, sports
Third suspect arrested in California church shooting
Posted: 9:39 am on March 10, 2010
A third suspect has been arrested in the shootings of a man and a boy during a Richmond, Calif., church service on Valentine’s Day. Richmond police this morning took into custody Marcel Buggs, 18, on charges including assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm. The Richmond resident had been under surveillance for more than a week, according to Richmond police Sgt. Bisa French.
View the full story published by San Francisco Chronicle
tags: California, church shooting, crime, New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ
National search for historic missing church windows
Posted: 9:37 am on March 10, 2010
Calling all history buffs, amateur detectives and people who just like to snoop: An Irish-American benevolent society is looking for help in tracking down stained-glass windows it donated to churches between 1870 and 1920. The Ancient Order of Hibernians gave the windows to Roman Catholic churches, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only place to look. As buildings were sold, torn down or remodeled, Hibernian windows are turning up in all kinds of places—warehouses, garages and even Protestant churches.
View the full story published by Minneapolis Star-Tribune
tags: church history
Trend of Christian-themed flims sparking retail hopes
Posted: 9:21 am on March 10, 2010
The ongoing trend of faith-based films is sparking retailers’ hopes that DVD sales and marketing of related products will aid their bottom lines. For example, Family Christian Stores is offering a pre-buy special for the March 23 DVD release of “The Blind Side”, with the chain announcing that it will give a portion of proceeds from sales to provide tuition assistance for Christian education to foster children.
View the full story published by Christian Retailing
tags: books, DVD, movies, The Blind Side, To Save A Life
Renewed activism by bishops on abortion shaping health care debate
Posted: 6:41 am on March 10, 2010
The influence of Catholic bishops in the health care debate has been noticeable and a break from laity who either don’t see abortion as a make-or-break issue or who conversely don’t embrace any reform whatsoever. The stance of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to call for reform with strict limitations on abortion has distanced them from past political deal-making and toward renewed activism.
View the full story published by Newsweek
tags: abortion, health care reform
Nigeria uneasy after attacks on Christians
Posted: 6:26 am on March 10, 2010
Tensions in Nigeria remain high in the aftermath of the killing of nearly 400 Christians by Muslim gangs armed with machetes. This latest conflict continues ongoing violence between Christians and Muslims in Africa’s most populous and most diverse country. The dead, in a freshly dug mass grave, included a pregnant woman and at least one infant. A few miles away in Jos, a city of a half-million at the crossroads of Nigeria’s Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, troops patrolled the outskirts and set up checkpoints.
View the full story published by The Wall Street Journal
tags: Nigeria
Churches in Canada shutting doors to consolidate, survive
Posted: 6:14 am on March 10, 2010
The Anglican Diocese of British Columbia is taking the uncomfortable step of closing churches and consolidating to deal with rapidly declining attendance. Most of the churches involved are in and around Vancouver. In addition to recommending that churches close, the report described Canada as a post-Christian society and urged a change in attitude to attract new members, including embracing modern forms of evangelism. Among other things, the report suggested members and lay people go “outside the walls of our parish buildings,” to talk to people about the church and even invite them to a service. Some clergy have already begun this modern missionary work, using social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, to reach new followers.
View the full story published by The Globe and Mail
tags: Anglicans, Canada, church attendance
Habitat for Humanity begins Chile operation
Posted: 6:08 am on March 10, 2010
Habitat for Humanity is beginning work at doing its part to help victims of the Chile earthquake recover. The Christian humanitarian organization is clearing ground on the first of 36 homes it plans to build in the country rocked by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Only local volunteers are being used at this time because of transportation difficulties.
View the full story published by The Christian Post
tags: aid, Chile, earthquake, Habitat for Humanity, relief
Christian groups give upcoming Narnia movie positive feedback
Posted: 5:53 am on March 10, 2010
Producers of the new movie The Chronicles of Narnia series – “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” – were understandably nervous when they invited several prominent Christian groups and C.S. Lewis experts to view clips of the film and go over the script. The reaction was largely positive as producers try to get away from alterations which generated criticism of the second film in the series, “Prince Caspian.”
View the full story published by Christianity Today
tags: movies, Narnia, Prince Caspian, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
Blending young adult ministries within churches presents many obstacles
Posted: 8:37 am on March 09, 2010
Ministries for teens and young adults are nothing new. However, incorporating worship experiences and needs of younger generations into the church as a whole is a constant challenge. Communications between different age groups and leaderships groups is important to the long-term growth of churches and membership retention.
View the full story published by Relevant Magazine
tags: church attendance, ministries, young adults
Missionary freed from Haitian jail
Posted: 8:25 am on March 09, 2010
A U.S. missionary held for more than a month in Haiti on kidnapping charges flew back to the United States on Monday after being released from prison, while the leader of her Baptist group remained in custody. Charisa Coulter, 24, was freed Monday and whisked from her jail cell to the airport by U.S. Embassy staff. Wearing a red tank top and sunglasses, she declined comment as she quickly got into an SUV that took her to the Haitian airport, where she caught a flight back to the United States.
View the full story published by Associated Press
tags: Baptists, Central Valley Baptist Church, Charisa Coulter, Haiti, missionaries
Easter evangelism campaign underway in Kentucky
Posted: 6:24 am on March 09, 2010
Kentucky Baptists on Saturday kicked off their largest-ever evangelism campaign, seeking to share the Gospel with 1.5 million households in the state by Easter. “We are praying for a breakthrough,” said Stan Lowery, director of missions for the Nelson Baptist Association, in a promotional video on the Kentucky Baptist Convention Web site.
View the full story published by The Christian Post
tags: Baptists, Bible, Easter, evangelism
Abortion remains contentious sticking point in health care push
Posted: 6:17 am on March 09, 2010
Disagreement over abortion language in the passed House and Senate health care reform bills remains one of the most significant obstacles to reconcile. Timothy Jost, co-author of the casebook “Health Law,” which is widely used throughout the United States in teaching health law at law schools, insists that no tax dollars can go toward funding of abortions under the Senate bill.
View the full story published by The Christian Post
tags: abortion, health care reform
Hiroshima, Nagasaki bishops call for nuclear ban
Posted: 6:14 am on March 09, 2010
The Roman Catholic bishops of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—the only cities in the world that were leveled by atomic bombs—are urging world leaders to abolish nuclear weapons. Nagasaki Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami and Hiroshima Bishop Joseph Atsumi Misue released a joint statement ahead of a nuclear security summit scheduled for April in Washington, and a review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York in May.
View the full story published by Religion News Service
tags: Catholic Church, Hiroshima, Japan, Nagasaki, nuclear weapons
Should religion be taken into account for next Supreme Court nominee?
Posted: 6:06 am on March 09, 2010
There was a time in the recent past where religious affiliation was a significant factor in the way the Supreme Court was perceived. That is now being brought into question. With the last remaining Protestant on the Court, John Paul Stevens, about to turn 90, it raises the question whether or not President Obama would necessarily need to nominate a Protestant to the judiciary or if such considerations no longer trump legal scholarship and accomplishment.
View the full story published by The Washington Post
tags: Barack Obama, courts, John Paul Stevens, John Roberts, legal matters, Supreme Court
Oregon couple sentenced to 16 months in faith-healing death
Posted: 5:54 am on March 09, 2010
A judge sentenced two Oregon parents to 16 months in prison on Monday, calling their decision to not seek medical care for their 16-year-old son a “crime that was a product of an unwillingness to respect the boundaries of freedom of expression.” The parents, Jeffrey and Marci Beagley, had been found guilty of criminally negligent homicide on Feb. 2 in the death of 16-year-old Neil Beagley, who died in June 2008 of complications involved with a urinary tract obstruction.
View the full story published by Religion News Service
tags: crime, faith healing, Jeffrey and Marci Beagley
Opinion: God, unlike search engines, forgets histories
Posted: 5:43 am on March 09, 2010
The publishing of search engine data a few years ago by America Online created an uproar and also showed the patterns of people’s lives reflected in their Internet habits. Unlike search engines, though, the author describes how God doesn’t remember histories forever for those who seek his guidance in their faith walk.
View the full story published by Christianity Today
tags: forgiveness, prayer, sin
Scandals put German churches under scrutiny
Posted: 8:16 am on March 08, 2010
Germany’s Protestant and Catholic churches may be facing the biggest credibility crisis in decades after an unprecedented bout of scandal-fueled negative media coverage. Bishop Margot Kassmann, the first woman to lead the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), resigned as leader of German Protestants on Feb. 24 after she was arrested for drunk driving, just four months into office. In the same week, Catholic bishops met in Freiburg to address allegations of widespread sexual abuse of children by clergy that had surfaced late in January, prompting a possible criminal probe by state officials.
View the full story published by Religion News Service
tags: Bishop Margot Kaessmann, Catholic Church, Evangelical Church in Germany, Germany, sexual abuse
Jonas Brothers to perform at Easter service for Saddleback Church
Posted: 6:36 am on March 08, 2010
Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren announced on Twitter that the Jonas Brothers will perform during Easter Sunday services. April 4th represents the megachurch’s 30th anniversary and the performance and service will be held at Angel Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Angels. “Our Easter Celebration starts at 10 a.m. It’s the 30th anniversary of Saddleback Church and we’re going to take about 50,000 of our people to Angel Stadium,” Warren wrote to his congregation.
View the full story published by The Orange County Register
tags: Easter, Jonas Brothers, music, Rick Warren, Saddleback Church
