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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA (ANS) — While on furlough from ministry to Latinos in Mexico City several years ago, Chuck and Betty Selander attended an indigenous Latino church in rural Minnesota. The experience changed their lives and the direction of their ministry. The Selanders were to attend an English worship service in the sanctuary upstairs, but were not scheduled to take part, so they decided to visit the Latino church meeting in the basement at the same time. "They were just thrilled; they told us that we were the first Anglo people who had sat through a worship service with them," said…
God’s plan for business is much more than making a profit so that donations can be made to churches and missions to help them carry on the work of the Gospel. That was the central point made by both Bill Pollard, chairman emeritus of the ServiceMaster Company, and Jeff Van Duzer, Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Seattle Pacific University, as they spoke at the Open for Business Track at Urbana 06, InterVarsity’s Student Missions Convention. “For some of us, the world of business has become our call,” said Pollard. “It’s where the lost and needy are…
COMMENTARYSANTA MONICA, CA (ANS) — For churches and ministries across the country, fundraising has become a vital tool that’s used to raise the necessary money to make ministry happen. It’s a noble effort, because people need to understand that without financial support, significant outreach is nearly impossible. However, in many cases, the tail has started to wag the dog, and some ministries focus on raising money more than their actual mission. Read more of this commentary.
Early in Scott Bessenecker’s book, "The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor," you meet David Von Stroh. He’s holding a child on the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, and both are waving at the camera.Bessenecker is the director of Global Projects for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which has a presence on 530 college campuses. Its national offices are in Madison. He contends in his book that people like Von Stroh are part of "a missional, monastic-like order" of young men and women "burning with a passion to serve the destitute in slum communities of the developing world."Read more of…
With 280 beds of student housing in 176 rooms, a residence hall being built on a former parking lot in the 400 block of North Murray Street is on schedule to open in August."It’s gone really well," said the Rev. Mark Elsdon, co-pastor and executive director of the adjacent Pres House, a student center at 731 State St., which is building the residence hall. "The building’s looking really good."Read the rest of this story.
A small group of worshipers joined Madison pastor Richard Pritchard to welcome the Easter sunrise at Wingra Park along the north shore of Lake Wingra. Pritchard, Pastor Emeritus of Heritage Congregational Church, started the tradition of sunrise services at Wingra in 1968, almost four decades ago.
HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) — Can you trust what the Bible says about the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Passover, Good Friday and Easter stories in the Bible? In the opening to the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke in the New Testament, the Greek physician Luke, a close friend of the Apostle Paul, writes, "I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning."How can we know if this is true? How can we find out if the books of the New Testament are accurate, reliable records of the teachings of Jesus Christ?In a court of…
It’s a predictable part of the Easter season: The period of reflection on the Crucifixion and Resurrection has become a popular time for marketers to roll out works — from the scholarly to the sensational — that challenge Christianity’s core beliefs. Christians across a broad spectrum of belief are angered by the trend.Read more of this story.
NEWS RELEASE What if a city the size of Detroit, MI or Birmingham, AL had never experienced Easter before? What if a major urban centre like Dallas, Texas or Sydney, Australia was about to commemorate Easter for the very first time? Wouldn’t that be a historic occasion? And that is precisely what is happening for the first time this week on Second Life – churches from different denominations are jointly enacting and remembering the last week of Jesus’ life on earth, in virtual reality.
About 40 years after Dave Voetmann began work as an African aviation missionary in Africa, his dream of building a better plane to visit those hard-to-reach jungle settings is nearly complete.For the 72-year-old Edmonds man, it has taken almost 10 years just to build the Kodiak, a plane he says will modernize aid trips to places like Mok, West New Britain, and Aziana, Papua New Guinea — places too small to even be listed on a world map.Read more of this story.