News

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…

F is for faith, which is the dominant aspect of the daily lives of the six women who call the Sisters of Mary Morning Star convent, affiliated with Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Monona, home. Much of the day is spent in silence and solitude to allow the women to develop their relationship with God. Sister Mary Thomas said the sisters are awake at 4:45 a.m. and begin the day with the three divine offices. There is time to privately read scripture, silent prayer and studying philosophy or theology.

Not having enough food in the house to feed the kids is stressful. But it’s also stressful to drive or use public transportation long distances to get to a food pantry and stand in line for an hour, said Jenny Czerkas, operations director at the faith-based organization Selfless Ambition. Selfless Ambition hopes to ease that stress and bring food to families by placing food pantries in schools. Eventually they hope to open 25 pantries, and are opening the first at Glendale Elementary, 1201 Tompkins Drive, this fall.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin student is suing her college, saying her free speech rights were violated when she was forced to stop handing out Valentine’s Day cards with Bible references. The conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in Milwaukee on behalf of Polly Olsen, a student at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.

Rev. David Smith, the former pastor of the Faith Community Baptist Church, is well-known on Madison’s south side for his passion for ministry and community-building. But after more than two decades there, he will be starting a new chapter on the other side of town as the new pastor of the north side Madison campus of Door Creek Church in the Sherman Plaza Shopping Center. The grand opening will take place on Sunday, Sept. 9.

Over the last three decades, some of the country’s most influential voting blocs have been labeled by the faith that can drive their votes. But not all religious practices predict a voting pattern, some voters say. Jill Doering, a voter who attends a Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod church in Lake Mills, put it this way: “It’s easy to put all Christians in a box,” she said. “We’re all individual voters, so whenever you want to put voters inside of a box, you’ve taken away their individual concerns and issues they think most strongly about.”