MC News
A rainy Sunday at the end of a stormy week revamped Brat Fest plans for the last day of the 3-day festival. The music acts were condensed from three outdoor stages to one indoor stage, in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Brats were still for sale but Friday’s Take Your Brat to Work drive-through lanes were revived. And the cornhole tournament was moved to the Arena, starting right after the church service. An enthusiastic crowd of several hundred worshipers filled the Arena for the 9:00 am church service. “They have moved heaven and earth to get us out of the…
The Madison Christian Giving Fund (MCGF), which has raised and disbursed over $1 million to local Christian ministries over the past decade, is in a leadership transition. Fred Grossenbach, who has been a key MCGF leader and most recently served as executive director, is stepping down. “Due to unexpected health issues that have prevented Fred from being at 100% capaciity, he has decided to step away from his leadership role at MCGF,” reports an April 13 post on the MCGF website. The article includes a lengthy reflection from Fred on why MCGF was begun, on what it has accomplished in…
Several hundred attendees and late stragglers at the Madison Farmers Market heard the pleas and prayers of the Don’t Mess With Our Kids Prayer Rally at the Wisconsin state capitol, Saturday afternoon, April 13, 2004. Simultaneous rallies were taking place at state capitols across the country, as part of a nationwide campaign to help parents defend their children against pressures that are tearing apart families and society. Jeane Wagner, local rally organizer and emcee, said, “We kicked God out of our nation. We need to bring Him back, that’s what this is about. It’s about standing up. Forgive us for…
The Rev. John Clark, who pastored Madison’s Evangel Life Center for 25 years, has passed away in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he retired with his wife Julie in 2016. The church, now known as Life Center Madison, is located on Femrite Drive just east of Stoughton Road. An announcement posted on pastor Clark’s Facebook account stated, “John F. Clark went to be with Jesus, his Savior of 53 years, on April 4th after suddenly being overcome with metastatic melanoma. He was 70 years old. Clark was Principal Bassist of the Utah Symphony for 12 years after graduating from the University…
YADA is a store, and also a ministry, working with women and their children who are in need of love and support following deep trauma. “We are clear that although we can provide for some of their physical needs, it is Jesus who can bring the love and hope they are searching for. “We have prayed with many of the women…the response to a sincere prayer moves most of them to tears and many have asked to be prayed for again. A few have been open to going to church with us. This has led to deeper spiritual conversations. “We…
For the second year in a row, a broad spectrum of more than two dozen Madison churches and Christian ministries gave thanks to God in an ecumenical Thanksgiving service. The service was held Monday evening, November 20, at City Church on Buckeye Road. Foregoing their significant theological differences, participants chose instead to agree on their unifying faith in Jesus Christ and the blessings of faith that called for thankful praise. “Gratitude is our response to the gift of life,” said Madison Catholic Bishop Donald Hying in his Call to Worship. “Thanksgiving isn’t to be held to the fourth Thursday of…
“It’s truly beautiful to see what God is doing in this city,” said Lighthouse Church pastor Marcio Sierra, the keynote speaker at the Madison Christian Giving Fund (MCGF) Tenth Anniversary Celebration of Generosity. The celebration was held Friday, October 20, 2023 in the Micah Center at High Point Church. As a pastor, Sierra is used to seeing God at work in his congregation, and perhaps in the congregations of other pastors that he knows. But he said he got a greater perspective through his involvement with MCGF. His involvement has been as a grant recipient for Lighthouse Church and School,…
Hope Night Wisco! Frank Lloyd Wright probably didn’t have this in mind when he first began designing what became Madison’s Monona Terrace Convention Center: a Friday night Holy Ghost revival service that filled Exhibition Hall B for three hours or more. Hope Night Wisco at Monona Terrace was the 13th event in a series of Hope Nights that started a year ago last March when a recently converted couple in Chippewa Falls decided to sell their bar and event center. Before the sale their pastor, Landon Huie of Eau Claire’s Oasis Church, suggested, “Let’s have a worship night and lift…
Madison Christian Giving Fund Newsletter – Ten years ago, before the Madison Christian Giving Fund (MCGF”) came into existence, the newly formed Madison Christian Generosity Council received a very generous unsolicited donation in the sum of $50,000. The donors’ intent was clear: to distribute this money to organizations in the Madison area that advance the Kingdom of God. Since then, an astounding transformation has taken place. Over $1.1 million has been raised, and through a meticulous granting process, more than 60 Christian organizations and projects in Dane County have benefitted from this support. As a result, hundreds of people have…
Dan Hummel, the Director of University Engagement at Upper House, is a University of Wisconsin-trained historian. After publishing his research on the relationship between evangelicals and Israel in 2019, he has a new book, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation, published by Eerdmans. A release party was held at Upper House earlier this spring, where Hummel talked about the book and answered questions. Now, a review of Hummel’s book by the distinguished historian George Marsden has just been published on the UW History department’s web page. The review, and of course…