MC News
Last Sunday, less than two weeks after Election Day, 250 people packed Fountain of Life Family Worship Center on Madison’s South Side for an event dubbed a “campaign rally.”It was, thankfully, not the precursor to another political race but the local kickoff of the 11×15 campaign. That’s the statewide interfaith effort launched in February in Milwaukee to cut Wisconsin’s prison population in half to 11,000 inmates by the end of 2015.
Milwaukee was ground zero for evangelical theologians and archaeologists earlier this month, and the theme of the meeting was Caring for Creation.Religion scholars meet every November, at a different location every year. The larger groups, such as the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion and the American Schools of Oriental Research, held their meetings in the Chicago area. The Evangelical Theological Society and the Near East Archaeological Society usually meet within a reasonable proximity, this year it was Milwaukee.
The Nehemiah Community Development Corporation is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The Nehemiah Corporation was started by the Rev. Alex Gee, and has its roots in his church, the Fountain of Life Church but its impact is community-wide.
For eight months, Kim Nash-Walker beat the pavement in search of work. She perused the job boards, sent out resumes, cold-called HR execs to take them for coffee, and learned how to sell herself in a minute or less at any function where employers might conceivably gather. Nash-Walker finally landed what she calls her dream job, as a financial adviser with Wells Fargo, in July. She gives much of the credit to her church, where she found not just the skills to reinvent herself professionally, but the spiritual support for that arduous task.
Meet Evilyn Pinnow of Fort Atkinson. This ambitious little girl has done some pretty big things in her lifetime, and this year her adventure with Operation Christmas Child is taking her all over the country with a very special shoe box gift.
Want to hazard a guess on the the size of Wisconsin’s evangelical Christian population, and how it compares with surrounding states? In light of the impact of religious voters on the recent election, the information is quite interesting. USA Today has put together an interactive map, based on information compiled by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Along with 18,000 soon-to-be friends, I am excitingly gearing up for Urbana 12, InterVarsity’s triennial student missions conference that will be held in St. Louis, December 27-31, 2012. Since 1946, InterVarsity has hosted 22 student mission conferences, involving over a quarter of a million students. Yes, that’s 250,000+ Urbana alumni.
(An election day reflection from the president of World Vision that may have a message for the church leaders of Madison.) The day I became a Christian, one of the first people I wanted to tell was my mother. I had considered myself an atheist while I studied neurobiology in college. But as I studied more, I discovered Jesus and became a Christian. It was the early 1970s, and my mother’s response to my life-changing decision captured the view of most Americans at that time: “That’s nice, but isn’t everybody Christian?” Times have changed.
Before literacy was common the church taught the gospel through images. This is especially true during the Renaissance when art flourished in exciting new ways, as is on display right now in the Chazen Art Museum in downtown Madison.A special exhibition of Renaissance and Baroque Masters will only be on display for three more weeks so I dropped in on Sunday afternoon, just in time for the 2pm docents tour.
Religion & politics guru Mark Silk assesses the religious layout of 12 battleground states – and explains why religion will matter on Election Day.