Author: Gordon Govier

The Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership is launching a new gospel centered outreach and discipleship event for twenty five 5th through 8th graders who are participants in the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) program.  ACE primarily serves children from low-income, minority families, the majority of whom are African-American.  Almost all of the children who participate in ACE receive free or reduced fee lunch at school.  ACE’s approach, building healthy relationships with children and their families, as been successful because they not only concentrate on the key areas of literacy and math, but directly address the critically important issues of identity,…

Reverend Alex Gee was thrust into the public spotlight in 2013 when, in response to the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families’ not-very-flattering Race to Equity report, he penned a column titled “Justified Anger.” That column spawned a conversation which became a movement. Gee now leads the Justified Anger Coalition as a non-profit organization, in addition to running Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development and serving as pastor at Fountain of LIfe Church in Madison, where he has served for more than 28 years.

MADISON, Wis. — A Madison man is getting ready to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro for a cause. It’s all to raise awareness for gender-based violence in war-torn countries. “Congo is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman,” David Lippiatt, WE International founder and CEO, says.

Justified Anger, the coalition of African-American leaders working to address racial disparities in Dane County, is adding a new director of program growth and community engagement thanks to a unique agreement with a local company. TDS Telecom is loaning one of its executives, Patrick Yates, on a part-time basis, to “manage oversight of the day-to-day operations of Justified Anger,” according to a press release. Under the new arrangement, Yates will spend 60 percent of his time, or three days a week, working with Justified Anger and 40 percent of his time with TDS. He started working with the group on…

The Race to Equity report paints a stark reality of educational disparities among ethnic groups in greater Madison. This report has generated much problem-solving discussion among a cross section of leadership within the city. Madison Christian Schools (West and East Campuses) is in a unique position to respond to this real crisis. The Madison Christian Giving Fund has partnered with MCS in helping solve this problem by granting $5000 to support scholarships for local underprivileged students.

Bob Stine has been pastor at Midvale Baptist Church since August 2007, but his ministry goes far beyond the sermon, the pews, and the word of God. In 2008, he started a diverse, low-cost basketball program, Kids Best, for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. He recently added a middle school program. It attracts kids not only from the West Side of Madison, but from across town, and from Middleton and McFarland as well. The current session ends March 12.

On Monday, March 14, 2016, one month from today, journalists and student journalists from around Wisconsin and across the country will be in the capital city to find out how to improve reporting on religion. The conference is: “Reporting on Religion: Media, Belief, and Public Life.”  It’s presented by The University of Wisconsin–Madison Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, and Upper|House (an initiative of the Stephen & Laurel Brown Foundation), in collaboration with the UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Madison Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Most parents know how scary high school years can be.  An “anything goes” culture coupled with intense peer pressure can pull impressionable kids away from the values they are taught, sometimes with disastrous consequences. In 2014 five Middleton High School moms began praying together for their kids: for God’s protection, for their faith to withstand the pressures of their high school years, and for their witness. When the kids were asked, “what do your friends think about what you believe?” they responded, “I don’t think they know what we believe.”

Shelly Cai was 18 years old when she left the southern Chinese metropolis of Nanjing to enroll in the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In August 2010, after a 13-hour flight from Shanghai to Chicago and a three-hour bus ride, Cai finally arrived in Madison, where a distant cousin picked her up. During orientation, Cai found herself jet lagged, struggling to make sense of all the English.

Jim Lundgren, interim president of Madison-based InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, is pleased to announce that Alec Hill returned to work on February 1st in a new role — president emeritus. The return comes fifteen years to the day since Alec was first announced as president in 2001. Alec announced his decision to leave office last May in order to begin cancer treatments in Seattle.