Author: Gordon Govier

“Joyful Noise,” the new movie starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton about a struggling church choir, has been pummeled by critics. Reuters news service was especially harsh (“Jesus wept”), but others were equally unkind. Rolling Stone called it a “bucket of ‘Glee’-goes-gospel cornpone.” The New York Times said it seems to unfold in “a lower echelon of musical comedy hell.” Could it really be that bad? I asked members of the gospel choir from Faith Community Baptist Church on Madison’s South Side to see it with me.

Boomerangs Resale Store was devastated by a fire on July 15th and has been operating out of a temporary site since August. On January 20-21 Boomerangs will have a Grand Reopening celebration, during regular business hours, to invite the community to see the new store in its original location and take advantage of the great deals they have to offer. The store is located at 1133 North Sherman Avenue at the Northgate Mall on the North side of Madison. The renovated space is bigger than before and will allow Boomerangs to offer a wider selection of furniture, clothing, housewares and more.

Abundant Life Christian School (ALCS) and High Point Christian School (HPCS) are joining together into one school to offer a new wrinkle in Christian education to Madison area families. ALCS is located at 4901 E. Buckeye Road on Madison’s east side, and is a ministry of City Church. HPCS is located at 7702 Old Sauk Road on Madison’s west side, and is a ministry of High Point Church. Members of the two congregations were informed of the consolidation, as it’s being called, last month. ALCS currently has an enrollment of 209 students, which is significantly smaller than previous years where it has topped 500. Meanwhile…

Madison West High School graduate Cyrus Nowrasteh is reported to be collaborating with novelist Anne Rice to bring to the silver screen her novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, a story of the boyhood of Jesus Christ. Nowrasteh is known for controversial productions: The Day Reagan Was Shot on Showtime was accused of liberal bias by conservatives and his ABC/Disney miniseries The Path to 9/11 was attacked for conservative bias. His 2008 drama The Stoning of Soraya M was widely acclaimed and it was that production that got the attention of Anne Rice.

The Perspectives course is returning to Madison for the first time since 2006. Beginning this coming Sunday evening, area residents have the opportunity to take a 16-week course that connects the local church, their local worshipping community, with the global church, the worldwide Christian movement that is charged with The Great Commission of spreading the gospel message. “This is the best overall course in missions you could take,” said David Lippiatt, who is coordinating the class. “It’s a great tool for discerning some of the things that God has placed on your heart.” David himself first took the class in 2003,…

They doubt it’s been done before, perhaps for good reason. The Rev. Nic Gibson says it “could be a disaster.” The Rev. Harold Rayford calls it potentially “messy.” The two ministers — from starkly different churches — plan to bring their congregations together for a joint service, where they’ll preach together, volleying back and forth in a tag-team approach. They will do this next Sunday, on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

It’s been nearly a year since we’ve heard anything about the proposed expansion of Bethel Lutheran Church in Downtown Madison. The church, 312 Wisconsin Ave., wants to add a religious, educational and recreational center atop several levels of underground parking. But to do so, it would need to move the historic Steensland House, a city landmark built in 1896.

I’ve seen too many people waste their time (and others’) on regret. Regret is the enemy of progress. Regret impedes one’s ability to be focused, powerful and joyous in the present moment. Regret grows eyes in the backs of people’s head so that they can walk backwards through life and be oblivious to not only the beauty in their future. They become oblivious to the beauty that exists right now.

Paul Borthwick was 19 years old, attending his first Urbana Student Missions Conference, when he realized that God spoke with an accent. Listening to the Bible exposition of London pastor John R.W. Stott, Borthwick heard the gospel message explained for the first time from other than an American cultural perspective. Getting a global perspective on how God is at work in the world, and responding to God’s global invitation, is what InterVarsity’s Urbana Student Missions Conference is all about. The next Urbana conference begins one year from today at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Because Paul is a…

A recent trip to Tanzania went well for the Sun Prairie charity that organized it: Nutritious feeding packets were delivered to hungry children; American nurses taught CPR for newborns at a mother-baby clinic; and an ambulance donated by the city of Sun Prairie arrived via ship, packed with medical and educational supplies. But then another shipping container, filled with even more hospital equipment plus hundreds of pairs of shoes collected by students at Sun Prairie and Middleton high schools, hit a bureaucratic snag.