Author: Gordon Govier

There seems to be no shortage of folks from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America who are upset about several votes last month at the denomination’s convention in Minneapolis. For those of you who weren’t reading about how — despite a tornado that showed up on a key day of the conference — the denomination voted to approve gay clergy and, by implication, same-sex blessings — a huge switch that placed the ELCA as America’s largest mainline Protestant denomination to accept homosxual ministers.

Three hundred pairs of hands are not quite enough hands to reach around the Wisconsin capitol in downtown Madison. But still, 300 is a powerful number. With only 300 men, Gideon defeated thousands of Midianites. "Gideon had 300 people and God did amazing things," Renee Springer told the group of worshipers who gathered at the Inn on the Park this evening for the first annual Wisconsin Prayer Rally.

As many as 60,000 people representing over 300 churches and 65 youth organizations gathered Sunday for an hour of prayer in New York City’s Times Square. On the day that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed to be “Prayer in the Square Day,” the thousands who gathered for “Prayer in the Square” prayed for the nation in three-minute intervals with songs performed by a 180-voice gospel choir between each prayer segment.

ABC News Nightline Begins Series on The Ten CommandmentsTo explore one 21st century interpretation of the second commandment — the prohibition against false idols — "Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran traveled to Seattle to spend the afternoon with Pastor Mark Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church. Mark Driscoll preaches against replacing God with false idols in modern culture. Driscoll frequently preaches to his church members about idolatry and the seemingly endless supply of potential idols modern culture throws in believers’ paths.

Can we all get along? Maybe not when it comes to science and religion. Just ask scientist Francis Collins, installed last month as head of the National Institutes of Health. It wasn’t just newspaper editorials — scientists such as Harvard’s Steven Pinker, who called Collins an "advocate of profoundly anti-scientific beliefs," criticized placing an outspoken evangelical Christian in the post.

Around two million students across the nation and overseas are expected to gather at their schools Wednesday to ask God to bring moral and spiritual awakening to their campuses and countries.

Boomerangs, a resale shop operated through Madison’s Door Creek Church (DCC) opened one year ago on Sept 9th, at 1133 N. Sherman Avenue, in the Northgate Shopping Center. A report to the DCC community states: "We continue to see God’s hand moving in this special ministry. We have had over 12,500 customers and over $129,000 in sales. More importantly real needs in our community are being met."

The percentage of U.S. Protestant women serving as senior pastors has doubled over the past decade, according to the latest study by the Barna Group.Throughout most of the 1990s, just five percent of Protestant senior pastors were female. Since that time, the proportion has slowly but steadily risen, doubling to 10 percent in 2009.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle, a 3,500-seat evangelical prayer palace in downtown Brooklyn, was built in 1918 as one of the largest and grandest vaudeville houses in North America. It is still a hot ticket. Its youngish, racially diverse congregation packs the pews each week to praise God and bask in the sounds of a Grammy-winning 250-voice gospel choir. But the tabernacle is more than just a popular church. It is also a destination for evangelicals from all around the United States and beyond, laymen and ministers alike, who come as acolytes to study prayer.

Badgers senior free safety Chris Maragos’ life is made up of two separate journeys, each remarkable in its own right. Maragos has no doubt which has been the more important journey. "By far, the most important thing is my faith," he said. "Football is temporary.