MC News
The Touched Twice Clinic, a zero-budget community outreach that seeks to provide for the medical, physical, and spiritual needs of Madison’s less fortunate residents, will be offered again this Saturday, March 7, 2009, at Calvary Gospel Church, 5301 Commercial Avenue.As the local Touched Twice website reports, "Madison Touched Twice is a Christ-centered, faith-based organization that strives to bring healing and peace to the community. We act as a catalyst, mobilizing volunteers from local churches to host free clinics that strive to meet the medical, spiritual, and physical needs of the guests – all on a budget of zero dollars and…
When I began volunteering in children’s church many years ago, I did it out of a sense of duty. I figured by giving up one Sunday a month to tend to everyone else’s kids, I’d gain three Sundays in church without my own. I envisioned myself soaking up biblical knowledge on those Sundays, unhampered by continuous whining and numerous trips to the bathroom. Not a bad deal.Over the years I’ve come to realize, however, that for all I planned to learn in "adult" church, some of the most important lessons I’ve gleaned have come as I sat on a tiny…
When Barack Obama’s presidential campaign contacted Ryan Culp last year to ask him to deliver a prayer at an Obama rally in Culp’s native Elkhart, Ind., the high school wellness teacher declined. "I’m a conservative Republican," Culp, who met his wife and raised his two kids in the same evangelical church in which he was brought up, said in a phone interview. "I didn’t want to be perceived to be a supporter of a Democratic campaign."Earlier this month, though, when the White House phoned Culp to say that President Obama was returning to Elkhart—this time for a nationally televised town…
As the Republican Party seeks to regain political control after the last election, some conservatives are calling for a new image. Evangelicals make up about a quarter of the electorate, and about 62 percent of them identify themselves with the Republican Party. David Brooks spoke with Christianity Today in Wheaton, Illinois, about how evangelicals can change their image.Read this interview.James Dobson Steps Down at Focus on the Family – Colorado Springs Gazette
Though a large portion of Americans are cutting back on donations to non-profits amid tough economic conditions, evangelical parachurch ministries have been among those least affected by the cuts, according to a new survey. Least affected negatively, that is.Read more of this story.
Faith-based charities, which provide an enormous array of private social services to the nation’s sick, elderly and poor, are facing unprecedented cutbacks from one of their biggest funders: the government. Read more of this story.
As Hollywood crowned its favorite movies and actors at the Oscars on Sunday, another group is trying to create a rival movie industry. Fed up with sex and violence in mainstream entertainment, conservative Christians are turning out their own films. And they’ve made surprising inroads.Read more of this story. Making movies to change the world – Christianity TodayMovie Posters with a Holy Edge – Religion News Service
Developer Randy Alexander has been a member of Bethel Lutheran Church downtown for eight years. He grew up with a strong faith-based culture and says having a moral compass is critical for raising children."And where better to do that than in a Christian school?" he asked.That’s a big part of why Alexander is part of a church committee to study the market feasibility of a kindergarten through fifth-grade school at the downtown church, 312 Wisconsin Ave.Read more of this story.
MIAMI – On a recent Saturday morning, Kevin Cross looked out at a sea of people filling the pews of a Fort Lauderdale church, and greeted the crowd of several hundred with a hearty "amen!"But instead of delivering the gospel, Cross spent an entire day lecturing and instructing the crowd at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale on … personal finances.Cross is a "financial missionary." His calling: to spread the message of faith-based financial management.Read more of this story.
Walter Kaiser, a distinguished expert on the Old Testament and the General Editor of Zondervan’s NIV Archaeological Study Bible, will return to Madison for a lecture on the Archaeology of the Bible next Sunday, March 1, 2009. Dr. Walter Kaiser is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He lectures all of the world and has just returned to his home in eastern Wisconsin after a lecture series in Israel.