Author: Gordon Govier

A panel of faith leaders will come together Thursday night at 6:30 pm to discuss the “Christian response to all violence,” especially violence on the North Side, says organizer David Hart, senior pastor at Sherman Avenue United Methodist Church on Madison’s North Side. “Obviously in our city, there are resources for the South Side, the West Side, all of the sides of town, but I’m from here on the North Side of town and there has been a spike of violence that I haven’t seen before,” Hart says. But the conversation won’t be limited to what’s happening on the North…

A Madison religious school that has seen an enrollment boom under the state’s private-school voucher program will move within weeks to a newly renovated Southwest Side location offering triple the space for its students. Lighthouse Christian School, which has operated since 2004 out of Lighthouse Church at 5202 Regent St., will gets its own building at 6400 Schroeder Road, with space for up to 260 elementary students. The $3.6 million, two-phase project will increase classrooms from eight to 19 and will add a cafeteria, a library with computer lab and a gymnasium, among other improvements such as broader hallways, more…

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. – A half a world away from the NICU at Meriter Hospital, a group of nurses are delivering hope to mothers and children in villages in Tanzania. “Mothers deal with a lot of despair and hopelessness,” said Karen Klemp, co-founder of Bringing Hope 2 Others.

MADISON, Wis. – The start of the school year is right around the corner, and for Dane County’s first and only voucher school, that means students will begin the year in a fresh setting. Lighthouse Christian School prides itself on being diverse and bilingual, teaching in English and Spanish. The school has been expanding since it started its voucher program three years ago and has grown out of its old building, a church, at 5202 Regent Street.

When the light turned red at the corner of 51st and Center streets, Deacon Kevin Stewart of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee and four other clergymen walked into the street and handed people in cars water bottles. A couple minutes later, one of the cars returned to the intersection and told them they blessed his day and made it better. “We’re just handing out water and praying, but God’s doing the heavy lifting,” Deacon Jim Starke of St. Boniface Catholic Parish said.

We woke today to learn that overnight another man was shot to death in Madison, the tenth homicide in 2017, the third in the last week. That ties the record with 2007 for the most homicides in a year, on August 2. It took me a while to compile a list of all of the victims’ names (police haven’t released the name of the most recent victim). Here they are:

A lawsuit filed by a Madison photographer who feared prosecution by city and state authorities over her views on same-sex marriage ended Tuesday after her lawyers and government lawyers agreed at a hearing that her business isn’t subject to the laws that she was challenging as unconstitutional. Amy Lawson, owner of Amy Lynn Photography Studio, had alleged that a city ordinance and a state law that prohibit public places of accommodation from discriminating against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, among other reasons, violate her right to free speech and freedom of religion, and asked that the ordinance…

Jeff Hardin, chair of the department of zoology, University of Wisconsin (BioLogos Board Chair) I’m a Christian because the Christian story of the world – and of myself – makes sense of reality. The Gospel – an old English word for “Good News” – is a Big Story that involves each one of us, but it’s also one of cosmic proportions.

Rev. David Hart celebrated his first anniversary as the pastor of Sherman Ave. Church, the same way he celebrated his arrival — on the streets of the north side. On this occasion, however, there were no streamers. No food. No music. No balloons or other party favors. Just the sun peeking through the the clouds, and a somber quiet that hung thick and viscous in the air. Rev. Hart was in a north side apartment complex, talking to residents who had been affected by recent gun violence. As Rev. Hart shared prayers and listened to stories, children rode their bikes cautiously through the…

It’s been making big headlines: The first American workers are getting injected with microchips. The Wisconsin company that’s doing it says it’s the future, and it’s all about convenience. But the idea is sparking opposition from both religious and secular circles, from biblical End Times concerns to privacy rights. Pastor Dave Doyle from Hope Christian Fellowship Church in Iowa says the microchips make him think about the “mark of the Beast” from Revelation 13:16, according to KCRG in Cedar Rapids.