MC News
As an American citizen traveling through remote corners of Colombia at the height of the nation’s civil war, Russell Martin Stendal offered an enticing prospect for left-wing rebels who often kidnapped foreigners for ransom. So tempting, in fact, that Stendal was abducted five times by different units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc.“I would be moving through the countryside and they would see this gringo and –pah! They would grab me,” he recalls. (Stendal, and members of his family, have visited Madison numerous times to participate in the missions programs of City Church, on Buckeye Road. Now…
GREEN BAY — More than 150 people from the Diocese of Green Bay, who participated in the 44th annual March for Life Jan. 22 in Washington, D.C., found themselves stranded on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Somerset, Penn., as a snowstorm made the freeway impassable.
Madison ranks #88 in a just released list of Bible reading amongst the top 100 cities in the U.S. The list is published by Barna Research and the American Bible Society.The most Bible-minded city in the U.S. is Chattanooga, TN, with the highest percentage of people “who report reading the Bible in a typical week and who strongly assert the Bible is accurate in the principles it teaches.”
The Madison Christian Giving Fund (MCGF) has announced its 2016 grant recipients, totalling $120,000. That’s the total amount of money raised in donations in 2015. The funds were distributed among 22 applicants. Fifty applications had been received, totalling $514,167; a total of 28 applications were rejected when the money ran out. “Ten community volunteers spent countless hours evaluating grants,” said MCGF chair Scott Haumerson. “If we had raised more, many more [ministries] would have received funding.”
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Every year I’m a little bit amazed we have a national holiday for a pastor. And every year I’m a little bit amazed the church doesn’t embrace it more fully. This year I urge you to embrace Martin Luther King Jr. Day, even if it’s in your own small way. – See more at: http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2016/01/embracing-mlk-day/#sthash.QhTHiIiV.dpuf
What if you were able to approach the grand narrative of the Bible by viewing brief, entry-level video summaries of each book of the Bible? Would you feel less intimidated and more able to comprehend the Bible’s complexities? Bible Gateway interviewed Tim Mackie (former pastor on the staff of Madison’s Blackhawk Church), and Jon Collins about The Bible Project.
A contemplative life in America? Is that still possible in our day and age, in our hyper-paced culture that is driven in every outward direction by work, family, obligations and whatever time is left over for socializing and, perhaps, entertainment? The clear and simple answer to that question is “Yes. Just ask the Sisters of Mary Morning Star.” The sisters recently took up residence at the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent, which is on the grounds of the IHM Church and School in Monona.
When a dealer at a New York coin show showed astronomer Michael Molnar an ancient Roman coin minted in Syria that featured a picture of Zeus on one side and Aries the ram on the other, he bought it for $50. A few months later, Molnar noticed a star on the coin, which was minted in A.D. 13. An earlier version had been issued by Quirinius, the governor of Syria who’s mentioned in the Gospel of Luke as ordering a census at the time of the birth of Jesus. And so began a quest by the University of Wisconsin-Madison alum…
On Thursday morning, the Catholic student center at UW-Madison did not feel like a place about to be demolished. A custodian vigorously vacuumed the sanctuary as other workers endured the laborious task of replacing burned-out light bulbs from fixtures that hang 28 feet above the altar. The attention was in preparation for the final Mass on Sunday, which the Rev. Eric Nielsen, the center’s director, envisions as a loving farewell to an old friend.
Michelle Higgins, director of Faith for Justice, a Christian advocacy group, and activist with the #BlackLivesMatter movement, has warned Evangelical churches against the sin of indifference in the face of racial injustice, such as the killing of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and other people of color, and encouraged them to instead seek racial reconciliation and unity.Speaking at the Urbana 15 Student Missions Conference, which is being held this week by Madison-based InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in St. Louis, Mo., Higgins revealed that when Mike Brown, an 18-year-old African-American male, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, she…