Author: Gordon Govier

Lighthouse Church, under the leadership of Marcio and Tia Sierra, serves low to medium income Latino families in Dane County, Wisconsin. Lighthouse currently operates a bi-lingual pre-school program for 2, 3, and 4 year olds at their west Madison Location. They also provide free counseling for parents when needed. They are NAEYC Accredited and have earned a 5- Star rating from Youngstar, Wisconsin’s Child Care Rating Program, the highest rating possible. Not surprisingly, the Lighthouse Child Care program is in great demand and they have a waiting list. To meet this demand, Lighthouse is expanding their services to include infants…

Fitchburg is a growing city with more ethnic, economic and religious diversity than most of Wisconsin. Rather than allowing these perceived differences to divide the community, an unlikely pairing of faith leaders and city officials created a dialogue that has taken on a life of its own. From initiating the Good Neighbors Personal Essentials Pantry and coordinating volunteer efforts at the senior center and area schools to acting as a support system during times of crisis, groups that were once simply discussing issues faced by the community are now creating relationships, branching off and finding solutions. “The (Fitchburg Faith Network…

Middle school: the phase between being a cute kid and a proper teenager, where physical and emotional changes take hold and social pressures abound. That complex phase is exactly where Nehemiah’s new BROTHER program is planning to intervene, filling the gap between its elementary and high school programs with mentoring for African-American males.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — Trustees of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary unanimously accepted the gift of a Christian university campus in Wisconsin as a new extension campus of the seminary and its undergraduate Boyce College during their Oct. 13-14 fall meeting in Louisville, Ky. The gifting of Northland International University, an evangelical school in Dunbar, Wis., to Southern Seminary has been approved by Northland’s trustees effective Aug. 1, 2015.

In Detroit, a group of Catholics borrowed the idea of flash mobs for “Mass mobs” to help revitalize urban churches. Every month, a group called Detroit Mass Mobs picks a church, spreads the word on Facebook — and just like that, it fills up and buzz with the energy it once had.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis and his bishops got a wake-up call Tuesday (Oct. 7) from a Wisconsin couple who said the Catholic Church was failing to deal with the collapse of the traditional family. Jeff and Alice Heinzen of La Crosse told the pope and 180 bishops attending a synod devoted to family issues that they were alarmed by the number of young people born out of wedlock or living with divorced parents. The couple are one of 14 married couples invited to give their testimony.

In the aftermath of the furor over the video showing Baltimore football player Ray Rice knocking out his fiancee in an elevator, a Twitter campaign called #whyistayed exploded online. Women explained why they could not leave an abusive relationship. Their stories were many and varied, but one thread cited religious beliefs and religious leaders that kept them from leaving.

Faith leaders from across Wisconsin implored prison officials at a state Capitol rally Wednesday to end what they said is an over-reliance on solitary confinement, calling the practice torturous, costly and ineffective. They urged a federal investigation of abuses in Wisconsin’s use of isolation units.

In Appleton, Wisconsin, Marge Christensen labors tirelessly to share the Gospel. In her eighties, Marge is active in her church and has been promoting biblical citizenship for more than twenty years. She and her husband are ambassadors for the Alliance Defending Freedom and have been working lately to encourage churches to promote marriage with greater boldness. Recently, Marge shared with a colleague of mine that churches do not seem to sense the urgency of teaching on matters of marriage, family and especially religious liberty.

A Chicago church came into some money following a decades old real estate deal. What to do with the extra dough weighed heavily on the pastor’s mind. Then she decided to do something crazy. She wanted the church to tithe and give 10% of the money away. That may not sound so crazy, but here’s the hitch, she gave it back — all $160,000 of it–to the congregation.