MC News
“For God so loved the world,” proclaims the Gospel of John, which poses an intriguing question. Is this verse talking just about the people in the world or the whole of creation: animals, plants, the environment, etc.? Rev. Ed Brown would say the latter. Brown is the Executive Director of Care of Creation, a Madison-based ministry. Speaking in Jakarta, Indonesia, Brown compared God’s creation to an orchestra. “Every creature is an instrument in God’s orchestra,” he said. “We are not the conductor, God is. God wrote the music.” Brown described the human race as the special instruments of the orchestra,…
As the sun rises on a Wednesday morning in May, a vintage ‘65 Ford Mustang cruises up to a home just off Milwaukee Street on Madison’s east side. Dave Bechtold jumps up and helps the driver back the classic pony car in next to a bright yellow Dodge muscle car of more recent vintage. Before long the front yard and curb is filled with cars and motorcycles, as their owners sit nearby enjoying cups of coffee, donuts, and other breakfast fare. It’s another Dads at Dave’s morning. Each Wednesday during May and October, it’s a place for guys to hang…
Madison’s Brat Fest started 40 years ago with a table, three chairs and a grill. So selling over 100,000 brats over a holiday weekend is impressive. So was what looked like the largest crowd ever at the annual Brat Fest community worship service. For the second year in a row, the 2023 worship service was hosted by Sun Prairie’s Heartland Church. A show of hands revealed about two-thirds of the crowd at the Main Stage Sunday morning were from Heartland. One count put attendees at 950. Looking out over the sun-soaked crowd, Heartland pastor Jon McNary said, “I think this…
by Gordon Govier, MadisonChristians.com – Lighthouse Church is not the first in Madison to offer a food pantry…or a Christian school. But few churches offer both in such a robust manner. The newly built Extended Hands food pantry attached to the northwest end of the Lighthouse church and school building was dedicated with prayers and a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Thursday afternoon, May 18, 2023. The growing complex is located at 6402 Schroeder Road on Madison’s westside in what started out as a Rayovac office building, and then for many years served as the national office of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Andy and…
This month a new organization aimed at keeping children safe and families together is officially launching in Madison. The goal is to provide support for families in order to keep children from ending up in the foster care system. “Safe Families For Children is already at work in 15 counties of Wisconsin,” says Brit Grange, Dane County Director. “Across the state, through Safe Families, 971 children were hosted and kept out of foster care last year.” Safe Families For Children began 20 years ago in Chicago as an effort to provide a safety net for vulnerable children. Founder and Executive…
We are sad to read of the passing of Rebecca Blank, who was chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2013 to 2022. She died of cancer on Friday, February 17, 2023. She was 67. The report of her death included acknowledgement of her skillful service as a gifted administrator and economist. It also noted that “Blank’s Protestant faith influenced other books she wrote, such as ‘Do Justic’ and ‘Is the Market Moral?’, which examined intersections between economics and religious belief systems.” Her father, also an economist, was a founder of Habitat for Humanity in Columbia, Missouri. “The desire to…
The public perception of Madison is incomplete. The so-called Athens of the Midwest is indeed the home to a world-class center of learning, the University of Wisconsin, and the home of the “Sifting and Winnowing” statement, “by which alone truth can be found.” But there is another truth plaque on the University of Wisconsin campus, on the corner of South Hall, which says. “Ye shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.” These are the words of Jesus. Every day, in the Madison area, followers of Jesus are putting the Gospel into practice. Prisoners are being set…
By Marcio Sierra, pastor, Lighthouse Church – Hallelujah, the work of building a permanent food pantry at Lighthouse Church and Lighthouse Christian School Madison has officially started. We can’t wait for this space to be ready so that we can continue to serve more people in the community. Thank you Extended Hands Pantry for running this pantry and all the work that you have done to make this happen. We are happy to say that together, we have raised over 3/4 of the finances needed to complete this project. If you would like to invest in people through this great…
A state-of-the-art $25,000 holiday light show at Sun Prairie’s Dunkin’ restaurant runs through the holiday season, all of the way to New Year’s Day. It’s a little bit of holiday self-promotion but it also is designed to benefit and bring awareness to The Elizabeth House. The Elizabeth House is a program of Care Net Pregnancy Center of Dane County, offering a home for young, single pregnant women wanting to make a new start and is provided at no cost to them. The Elizabeth House’s residential maternity program helps mothers build life skills and secure emploment, childcare, and housing. Their goal…
A seminary-level preaching class – co-taught by two local pastors – is coming to Madison beginning this January. The class is being offered by the Madison Learning Community (MLC), an initiative of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. Beginning with this class, Proclaiming the Word of God, MLC will be offering one seminary-level course each semester to Madison-area pastors, church leaders, and others eager to deepen ministry skills. The faculty for this first preaching course will be Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen, pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church, and Rev. Dr. Jessica Patchett, pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church. Both new and…