Author: Gordon Govier

LYNCHBURG, Va., May 19 — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried a "growing culture of radical secularism" Saturday morning as he hailed the life of Liberty University’s late founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, in an address to the school’s 2007 graduating class.Read more of this story

COMMENTARYPete Hammond, a senior InterVarsity staff member and vice president-at-large, spoke at the Belhaven College graduation in Jackson, Mississippi, and offered some Bible-tested wisdom for the graduates.Read more of this story.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) — Ten years ago Christian men from across the United States gathered in the nation’s capital to honor their faith, belief, worship and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the men of America are being invited to return to the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, in less than six months, for a similar gathering.Read more of this story.Meanwhile, Promisekeepers has a new format for 2007.

COMMENTARYAccording to the International Programs Center, U.S. Bureau of the Census, as of today, May 15, 2007, the total population of the world is 6,595,336,785.Over two billion of them are Christians. That’s one out of every three persons on the planet.But according to the latest research from Todd M. Johnson, Research Fellow and Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, most non-Christians have never met one. Read more of this commentary by James Emery White, of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

COMMENTARYThe Rev. Jerry Falwell passed away yesterday after collapsing at his office in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was 73.Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979 to give conservative Christians a political voice. He worked to mobilize the Christian voters who helped elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980. Even though the Moral Majority membership was reported in the millions, I was never able to detect that it developed much traction in Wisconsin. But Falwell did have a headline-making appearance in the heart of Madison back in those early days.

WASHINGTON, May 7 — A new coalition of more than 100 largely evangelical Christian leaders and organizations asked Congress on Monday to pass bills to strengthen border controls but also give illegal immigrants ways to gain legal residency. The announcement spotlights evangelical leaders’ increasingly visible efforts to push for what they say is a more humane policy in keeping with biblical injunctions to show compassion for their neighbors, the weak and the alien. Read more of this story.

Madison’s Fountain of Life church building sits on a side hill overlooking the Beltline highway’s Park Street intersection. It’s visibility is blocked by a thicket of trees. The trees will disappear when a building program for a new facility breaks ground next spring. But meanwhile the congregation is raising its visibility in another way, by moving it’s worship services into one of Madison’s most challenging neighborhoods.

WARSAW, POLAND (ANS) — More than 3,300 delegates from around the world have been gathering in Warsaw’s historic Palace of Culture and Science, a Soviet-era sky-scraper that was originally built in honor of Joseph Stalin, from May 11-13, for the World Congress of Families IV. Read more of this story.

Madison’s Nehemiah Community Development Corporation started out 15 years ago as a ministry outreach of Fountain of Life Family Worship Center with the mission Rebuilding Faith in our Communities. It went from a half dozen employees to two dozen about ten years ago after securing a Dane County contract to assist families struggling with the impacts of welfare reform. "It was a mixed blessing," says Nehemiah president Alex Gee. "We had been supported by small county contracts for in-home family therapy services. The big contract helped us grow from a community-based organization that served African Americans in south Madison to…

News Release(Madison, WI) – InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA will resume on-campus activities at Georgetown University this fall, as a recognized affiliate of the Office of Campus Ministry, after being disaffiliated nine months ago. “I am very pleased with this news,” said InterVarsity president Alec Hill. “I give a lot of credit to our staff and student leaders who did not overreact. They were firm but diplomatic in their dealing with university officials. We are grateful for the good spirit of dialog shown by Georgetown as this agreement was worked out.”Read more of this story