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MATTESON, Ill. (RNS) – The Protestant Reformation was a little bit like social media, featuring charismatic influencers, cutting-edge technology and viral content, according to Michael Bridges. It started when a man decided to stay up late and update his status, posting 95 things on his wall. He hoped his friends would like, comment on or share them. Instead, as so often happens on Facebook and other social media platforms, a lot of people started arguing. “Little did he know, the church would unfriend him,” Bridges said.

Before Bob Wolniak entered the ministry, he worked as a mechanical engineer. According to Wolniak, the move isn’t quite the leap some might think. And, he said it’s not all that uncommon to think someone working in engineering 60-70 hours a week might want to do something different. “I think that partially explains it,” says Wolniak, who after the Rev. Larry MacKenzie retired, was installed as the lead pastor at Fulton Church this July. “But, there’s more to it.”

Hope can be hard to find these days, and that’s why it so surprising to find hope shining so brightly in one of Wisconsin’s darkest prisons. Thursday evening the Wisconsin Inmate Education Association celebrated the beginning of the second year of operation at the Waupun Correctional Institution with a reception at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield. What’s to celebrate about the fact that 41 men are currently enrolled in seminary classes in a maximum security prison? Would it surprise you to know that many of these men voluntarily left medium security institutions, where life is…

Madison’s music scene will get a shot in the arm next month when the popular Gospel Fest hits town on November 10. Gospel Fest, which has been happening around Madison for fourteen years, gets bigger every year as top entertainers descend on the city to provide top notch music and comedy.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has established a chaplain program for employees at the Department of Justice, led by a Pentecostal minister from Sheboygan. Schimel is set to formally announce the program during a pinning and swearing in ceremony at the Capitol Thursday afternoon followed by a reception, according to an email sent to staff obtained by the Cap Times.

Upper House continues the series of conversations with local leaders whose faith plays an important role in their lives, today featuring John Smalley, the Editor of the Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ). John is also currently chairman of the elder board at Blackhawk Church, one of the largest congregations in the city. “I think there are a lot of parallels between religious faith and journalism although they are not always apparent,” Smalley told interviewer Phil Haslanger. “What we do as journalists is not the opposite of faith, such as giving a voice to the voiceless.”

The Madison-based ministry Care of Creation is building on Wisconsin’s environmental heritage (and the Bible) to spread a message of Christian environmental stewardship around the world.  Wisconsin’s environmental reputation is rooted in the legacies of John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Gaylord Nelson. Christian environmentalism has been nurtured under the influence of Calvin DeWitt, a longtime professor at the University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and co-founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network. DeWitt is also director-emeritus of AuSable Institute of Environmental Studies which serves students of Christian Colleges. For a number of years AuSable Institute had an office in…

BROOKFIELD, Wis. (CBS 58) — The largest church in Wisconsin is searching for new leadership tonight. Senior Pastor Jason Webb at Elmbrook Church has resigned due to multiple marital infidelities and a serious addiction. A letter from Webb was sent out to the congregation on Wednesday.

A 50-hour national prayer event will stop in Fitchburg later this month. Awaken the Dawn, a movement of worship, prayer and missions, has mobilized a nationwide movement to hold worship events in every state on the same weekend. McKee Farms Park will host one of the two events in Wisconsin, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28 and Saturday, Sept. 29. The other, an overnight event, will be held at Crimson Way Church in Elm Grove.

For several months now, the S.S. Morris African Methodist Episcopal Church, a traditionally Black congregation on Madison’s east side, has been running services in Spanish every Sunday at 2 pm. For leaders of S.S. Morris, as well as members of the community who belong to the church, making sure they were serving as much of the community as possible has been the driving motivation for the move. “It’s growing,” said AME Pastor Karla Garcia. “We have people from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Puerto Rico. The Hispanic culture in Madison is very diverse and includes many different cultures. So…