Author: Gordon Govier

The World’s Largest Brat Fest, a secular staple in Madison since 1983, is expanding its focus this year and bringing in a religious element. The event is adding a fifth stage that will offer Christian music and speakers. And for the first time, a communitywide worship service will be held.

Steve Hayner, a Madison resident while he was president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and later on the pastoral staff of Highpoint Church, is facing a tough battle with pancreative cancer. Hayner is currently president of Columbia Theological Seminary (Presbyterian Church USA) in Decatur Georgia.

Given social media developments like sexting and the prevalence of online pornography, I was curious what an abstinence talk to teenagers looks like these days. Jeffrey Dean, a pastor and national youth speaker who recently spent several days in the Madison area talking to teenagers, provided one case study. During an assembly at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, he addressed the boys and girls in the bleachers separately.

It could be said that the best draft pick the Green Bay Packers ever made was their first round pick in 2005, when they grabbed Aaron Rodgers from the University of California-Berkeley. The transition from Brett Favre to Rodgers in 2008 was a little sticky but it soon became apparent Rodgers was the right choice. Not only is Rodgers perhaps the best quarterback in the game today, his character stands out amongst professional athletes of all sports. And now we know why.

With half his collegiate career in the rearview mirror, Wisconsin’s Traevon Jackson knew a change was in order. This kind of post-season soul-searching often leads players of his caliber to recommit themselves to the game. Some gain a renewed dedication with a quest to earn more playing time or establish themselves as the team’s dominant leader. Others decide to take their talents to a different program. But last summer, the junior-to-be knew that any change he was going to make would occur away from basketball.

This is National Nurses Week, a time set aside to honor nurses who do incredible things in the ordinary course of their daily work. And then there are some nurses who go beyond even that.In the last year I’ve met two local nurses whose service to others goes far beyond ordinary. Their names are Karin and Karen, and the ministry organizations they’ve founded both offer hope. One is called Hope and a Future and the other is called Hope 2 Others.

The movie “God Is Not Dead” seems to have been one of the most popular of the recent flood of movies targeted at Christian audiences. It tells the story of a student whose faith is challenged by an atheist professor. Which may cause people to wonder, how accurately does it portray the climate facing Christians on the college campus?

Tom Swartz has been a worship leader for over 20 years. Last year, First Presbyterian Church of Waunakee hired him to design and lead a new contemporary service, held at 11 a.m. every Sunday.

Nashotah — The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church toured Nashotah House Theological Seminary for the first time on Thursday in response to an invitation so controversial it prompted the school’s longest running trustee to resign in protest. The visit by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, whose church has been roiled by schism over theological debates in recent years, came at the request of three Nashatoah seminarians who wanted their bishop to see this campus where disparate parts of the fractured Anglican Communion strive to live in peace.

The Rev. Alex Gee shared a secret that churches learned a long time ago, “One of the best ways to bring people together is to eat.” A community potluck dinner was held at James Madison Memorial High School this afternoon as a part of the continuing response to Rev. Gee’s Justified Anger column in the Capital Times about race relations in Madison.My wife Anne and I set our potato salad on the salad table, filled our plates, and then sat down to a meal in which we had a frank and friendly conversation about race with some new friends that…