Author: Gordon Govier

The nation seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief last weekend. Football was back. After months of predictions, polls, and talking heads, we were treated to actual football games. Twelve. Straight. Hours. As a campus minister at the University of Wisconsin, I eagerly awaited the showdown with #5 LSU for most of the summer (as did every single resident of Wisconsin). My excitement in the final minute of the game was short lived. It is hard to explain the elation of seeing someone like D’cota Dixon come down with the interception and then have that feeling suddenly dissipate…

Summer break appears to have dampened the most visible protests to a weekly faith-based luncheon held adjacent to Middleton High School. After a groundswell of opposition led to verbal clashes between students last spring, “Jesus Lunch” resumed Tuesday in Firemen’s Park with minimal resistance.

Colin Kaepernick’s actions show how much influence professional athletes can have on a culture both on and off the field. For good or for ill, NFL players have a platform and it is up to them how well they will use that platform to influence society.One NFL rookie is quietly using his new position to encourage others in the Christian faith. Green Bay Packers center Jacob Flores recently wrote an article explaining “3 Ways the NFL Taught Me To Deepen My Faith.”

Dane County has chosen Catholic Charities Madison to run a long-sought and highly-anticipated day resource center for the homeless. The center, to be located six blocks from the state Capitol, is expected to open next summer and be more comprehensive than anything previously offered in the community.

Madison is a generous city, but not the most generous city in Wisconsin. The Barna Research Group has identified the 50 most generous cities in the U.S., based on donations to charities and churches. It seems as though more donations go to churches than to non-profit organizations. Barna reports: “The majority of adults (especially in the top five cities) give to churches.”

Madison, Wis. (WMTV) — Some athletes who compete in the Ironman are also giving back to their community. Ironman Wisconsin draws a few thousand athletes from around the nation. Some athletes are also raising money for charities locally and around the world. Jim Stevens, is a triathlete from Cottage Grove. He is competing in the Ironman and is a member of Team World Vision.

The temptations to skip church on Sunday morning are many, from sleeping in to getting an early start on mowing the lawn. But new research on religious attendance and well-being may give some people cause to reconsider. People who attend Sunday worship not only feel better during the time they are in church, but they are happier throughout the week than non-churchgoers, according to two new studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read more of this story.

Every year on September 1st the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, and Protestants of all stripes come together in unity to pray for God’s good creation.  On what is now known as the Global Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation we at the Madison office of Care of Creation would like to invite you to take part as well.

BEAVER DAM, Wis. – A Beaver Dam church is looking at ways to stay welcoming to the public but become more secure, after it was burglarized twice. Rev. Mark Jensen, the pastor at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, makes it his church’s mission to include the community, but he said someone took advantage of that when the church was burglarized two different times in the span of a month.

“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” reads the plaque quoting the gospel of John placed by the class of 1955 on the north wall of South Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus. “To the university community that’s good poetry,” said Jon Dahl, a campus staff member with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. “We [as Christians] know that to know the truth is to know Jesus.” Dahl, who has been in campus ministry for 26 years–20 years on the Madison UW campus, led a short guided tour from State Street up Bascom Hill following Thursday’s Upper|House…