MC News
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are being accused of breaking an agreement and treating members of a religious club as second-class citizens.Read more of this story.
Pastors’ attempts to ward off the Christmas spirits of consumerism and busyness are so predictable, they’re easy to ignore. So many churches are looking for creative ways to reinvigorate members to take the energy they usually put into holiday-season spending and convert it into compassionate giving.Read more of this story.
Petite, blonde—"ordinary" is her description—Kay Warren has for 32 years played the role of nurturer, best friend and helpmeet. But for the past year Kay has been on the lecture circuit herself, preaching that Christians ought to apply themselves to the problem of AIDS, even though it raises uncomfortable questions about sex. This week her memoir, "Dangerous Surrender," comes out, and now Kay Warren has emerged at the center of things.Read more of this story.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Facing the killer who had opened fire at her church, Jeanne Assam gripped her handgun and asked God for help."I just prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me. I said, ‘Holy Spirit, please be with me,’" said Assam, 42. "My hands weren’t even shaking."Read more of this story.Is Your Church Ready for a Crisis?
Life is overflowing for Dan Haseltine, lead singer for Jars of Clay. The band – winner of multiple Grammy and Dove awards – has a new CD called "Christmas Songs." It performed at a sold-out concert with Third Day at 7 p.m. Sunday at Elmbrook Church.Read more of this story.
Two missionaries-in-training were killed two more were wounded when a gunman burst into a residence hall at the Youth With a Mission center in the Denver suburb of Arvada, the police said.Read more of this story.More information from KUSA TVUpdate: Eight or More Shot in Two Colorado Church IncidentsLate evening update: Death toll at Four.Monday update.More about Youth WIth A MissionPastor: Guard, plan saved ‘hundreds of lives’ at church – CNN
They carry no guns, yet US military chaplains are considered a force multiplier in the war theater. Today, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military expects chaplains to meet the spiritual needs of troops. But it also recognizes their importance in everything from counseling the young soldier crying in his bunk over a Dear John letter to being a leveling moral presence among troops trained to fight and kill. Reporter Lee Lawrence spent three months with dozens of military chaplains in Iraq and Afghanistan.Read more of this story.
The Christmas wars have changed focus in the last few years. There are still the reruns of fights over displaying nativity scenes, stars of Bethlehem, and less religious displays like Christmas trees on government-run spaces. Hundreds of lawyers are standing by, waiting for a city council to squelch caroling or a school principal to crush a candy-cane handout.Read more of this story.
COMMENTARYWillow Creek Community Church, one of America’s biggest and most prominent churches, recently released a short book called Reveal: Where Are You? The book contains the results of a comprehensive study that Willow Creek conducted among their own members and among members of other churches that use their model. Pastor Bill Hybels has said that the results of that study are “earth-shaking,” “ground-breaking.”In a nutshell, the survey results showed that heavy involvement in the church programs and activities of Willow Creek did not necessarily translate to spiritual growth and maturity. Findings like these have caused the church leaders to stand…
WASHINGTON (BP)–Both sides of a church-state legal battle found something to celebrate in a federal appeals court’s opinion on a Christian ministry in an Iowa prison.The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, ruled Dec. 3 that a federal judge was correct in deciding the state’s support of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative operated by Prison Fellowship violated the bans on government establishment of religion in both the U.S. and Iowa constitutions. The court, however, reversed the part of Judge Robert Pratt’s 2006 decision that ordered Prison Fellowship to shut down the program and return to the state $1.5…