MC News
It’s been nearly a year since we’ve heard anything about the proposed expansion of Bethel Lutheran Church in Downtown Madison. The church, 312 Wisconsin Ave., wants to add a religious, educational and recreational center atop several levels of underground parking. But to do so, it would need to move the historic Steensland House, a city landmark built in 1896.
I’ve seen too many people waste their time (and others’) on regret. Regret is the enemy of progress. Regret impedes one’s ability to be focused, powerful and joyous in the present moment. Regret grows eyes in the backs of people’s head so that they can walk backwards through life and be oblivious to not only the beauty in their future. They become oblivious to the beauty that exists right now.
Paul Borthwick was 19 years old, attending his first Urbana Student Missions Conference, when he realized that God spoke with an accent. Listening to the Bible exposition of London pastor John R.W. Stott, Borthwick heard the gospel message explained for the first time from other than an American cultural perspective. Getting a global perspective on how God is at work in the world, and responding to God’s global invitation, is what InterVarsity’s Urbana Student Missions Conference is all about. The next Urbana conference begins one year from today at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Because Paul is a…
A recent trip to Tanzania went well for the Sun Prairie charity that organized it: Nutritious feeding packets were delivered to hungry children; American nurses taught CPR for newborns at a mother-baby clinic; and an ambulance donated by the city of Sun Prairie arrived via ship, packed with medical and educational supplies. But then another shipping container, filled with even more hospital equipment plus hundreds of pairs of shoes collected by students at Sun Prairie and Middleton high schools, hit a bureaucratic snag.
After a devastating July fire, Boomerangs Resale Store is ready to move back into its spot at Northgate Shopping Center, where it will be joined by a new non-profit tenant in the refurbished mall owned by Madison-based developer, The Alexander Company. Boomerangs began as an outreach ministry by Madison’s Door Creek Church in 2008. It sells donated items including new and used clothing, shoes, jewelry, furniture, artwork, housewares, books and small appliances, with all profits serving local charities such as Salvation Army, The Road Home and Nehemiah Corp.
If you tell Mark Wilson that the Lord works in mysterious ways, he’ll tell you he can’t help but agree. How else to explain how his job managing a Taco Bell store on State Street, and a friendship with one of the homeless men who frequented it, led to a growing web of support for the homeless at one of Madison’s largest mainline churches?
What city’s Jewish mayor recently welcomed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and directors of 13 federal agencies to meet with area clergy to discuss cooperative efforts to meet the needs of families who are “falling through the cracks” and suffering as a result? Hint: it was not Madison’s mayor. “I need the ministers to come outside the door of the church where there is warmth and bring that warmth out into the streets,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, according to the Chicago Tribune. “I cannot achieve the goal without the partnership of people of faith.”
Leading worship at a recent Sunday morning service at City Church, 4909 E. Buckeye Road, was City Church worship pastor Brian Montrey and members of the band Spasenie, from Brest, Belarus. It’s not unusual to have visiting musicians leading worship for a Sunday morning service. But in this case, the relationship between Montrey and the members of Spasenie goes much deeper. Montrey has also traveled to Belarus to lead worship in Spasenie’s home church. And a year and a half ago he traveled to Belarus to record an album with the band.
His Sunday mission was laughably straightforward. Seek and destroy the opposing team’s quarterback. Yet as serious as Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila approached his chosen profession as a defensive end for the Green Bay Packers, that wasn’t the mission that caused him to routinely fall to his knees. To ask for guidance. To weep for teammates.
Primarily utilized as a defensive player when she did get on the floor her first three years, Ashley Thomas has demonstrated improved offensive skills. Thomas admits there were times when her outlook on life and basketball was tested. “It’s not easy … it was hard,” she said. “It was very humbling for me. “My faith has been the main thing that’s gotten me through my four years here in college. Read more of this story.