Author: Gordon Govier

The 9th Annual Lifest Festival is kicking off, bringing together over 150 of top names in Christian music and comedy.Held yearly at the Sunnyview Fairgrounds in Oshkosh, Wis., and running until Sunday, the event has organizers excited as they look forward to encouraging attendants to celebrate their faith while building a relationship with God.Read more of this story.Lifest is in its 9th year, and features Newsboys, Jeremy Camp, Jars of Clay, comedian Victoria Jackson, and much, much more.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The sins of a nation drew an estimated 55,000 believers to Nashville July 7 to convene a "solemn assembly" and pray for spiritual awakening among America’s young people.Christians from all 50 states and countries as far away as Nepal and Mongolia gathered in Nashville’s riverfront LP Field for The Call -– 12 hours of worship and prayer they hoped would spark a renewal movement that would sweep the country.Read more of this story.After participating in a 12-hour prayer for the nation during Saturday’s TheCall event in Nashville, Tenn., hundreds of young people plan to take a 35-day road…

(CBS) From the moment they met four years ago in a Baghdad orphanage, one little Iraqi boy reached out to Maj. Scott Southworth and decided he was going to be his dad. What neither of them could have know then, was that by bringing Alla’a to the United States and adopting him, Southworth would save him from starvation and filthy conditions at the government-run orphanage where 24 orphans were found last month.Read more of this story.Wisconsin resident Scott Southworth is also the District Attorney for Juneau County. Eleven years ago, as a University of Wisconsin law student, he and other Christian students filed…

FIRST PERSONAs I look back on the River Food Pantry’s first year of service to Dane County, I am struck by how blessed we are as an organization. We have been the beneficiary of incredibly generous support from two organizations, Mad City Church and Housing Ministries of American Baptists in Wisconsin. We know the latter as Northport Apartments and Packer Townhouses. Then there’s the Madison electrical contractor who totally financed the building’s new electrical service. Other organizations, both churches and corporations have stepped up to help generously with their time and financial support.

The Reverend Brian Kluth of First Evangelical Free Church of Colorado Springs is a nationally recognized expert on separating people from their money and making them feel good about it.Read more of this story.

American spirituality is a mile wide but only an inch deep. “America is awash in faith,” said D.G. Hart, a church history scholar, but people often are not clear in what their religion teaches. David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, reached a similar conclusion after directing a recent study on Americans’ beliefs and behavior.Read more of this story.

Historic Lambeau Field, just this side of heaven for the most devoted Green Bay Packers fans, will replace beers and cheers with prayers and praise on July 7 as thousands of Christians gather for what may be the first faith-based event ever held there.Read more of this story.http://www.leapoffaithlambeau.org/

On Saturday Green Bay got three more priests, but those at the ordination service were likely doing a double take. Identical twins Ben and Joel Sember have different personalities. Ben thinks he’s a bit more confident but quieter, while Joel believes he’s the more outgoing and friendly Sember. Either way, both have the same passion for the priesthood.Read more of this story..

Intelligently designed and built in a humble garage owned by the parents of co-founder Steve Jobs, the early personal computer begat a family of products that won the hearts and minds of consumers for its user-friendly software, sleek design and an enticing, countercultural ethos.Stories about Apple’s most ardent users and their cultlike devotion to its products are legend. David Kuo, an editor at the religious Web site Beliefnet.com, contended in a blog post that the fervor over the iPhone showed the company had grown into a new religion, "Appleism."Read more of this story.

Diana Butler Bass knows all the gloomy statistics about declining mainline Protestant churches but believes in their future. She studies mainline churches that are thriving to see what sets them apart from those that are dying.Read more of this story.