News
A couple of weeks ago, a young mother with a 9-month-old walked into First United Methodist Church in Downtown Madison. She was homeless and had stayed the prior two nights at the Salvation Army shelter. But on this night, the shelter was full and she had no place to go. It was a familiar scenario, one that underscored the importance of what the church was working toward, said Karen Andro, the church’s director of outreach ministries. Beginning Monday, First United Methodist will serve as an overflow shelter five nights a week for homeless families.
Wisconsin is the next major battleground for GOP frontrunners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the race for the Republican nomination. Using findings from the American Values Atlas, drawn from more than 81,000 interviews in 2015, we take a look at how the Dairy State’s Republicans compare to Republicans nationally. Read more of this story.
To the Churches in the Madison Area, Springs of Hope Fellowship will be hosting a panel discussion with Dr. Rev. Alex Gee and others on Sunday, April 3, at 5:00 p.m. It will consist of viewing the movie “Selma” followed by a panel discussion. “Selma” was chosen as one way of providing a background of the history of the civil rights movement and how we have gotten to where we are presently. The movie (rated PG-13, containing profanity) will act as a springboard into the panel discussion on racial disparities. As stated in Our Madison Plan: Mobilizing Madison…
When was the last time you felt stressed out by Easter? So much Easter shopping to do, so many Easter cards to write, so many Easter gatherings to attend. Not to mention the endless stream of Easter commercials on television and online, the nearly unavoidable Easter-themed movies and all those tacky Easter sweaters that you’re forced to wear every spring. And don’t forget the travails of setting up the annual Easter tree and stringing Easter lights on your house.
The congregation of Bethesda Church at 3245 E. Washington Avenue has changed its name to reflect its location, in the Carpenter Ridgeway Neighborhood.The non-denominational charismatic church has been a fixture on Madison’s east side for more than 65 years and at one point considered a move to the suburbs.
Franklin Graham’s national tour of state capitols started in Des Moines on January 5, 2016. A crowd of 2,500 braved the 28 degree temperatures.Madison should be a lot warmer when the evangelist visits on June 15th for a rally on the steps of the capitol building. About 160 pastors and volunteers gathered at the Monona Terrace Convention Center on Tuesday, March 15th, to learn details of the rally and receive bundles of promotional information.
Religion reporting, as you no doubt know, is under even more stress than the news outfits that have been dumping the specialty in recent years. So those who attended the Reporting on Religion Conference this week showed not only an idealism about the Godbeat; they also showed courage and determination. About 200 people – students, journalists, religious leaders and speakers including myself – converged on Madison, Wisc., for a broad variety of topics.
A dreary Sunday afternoon was made brighter for some Madison residents as city officials worked to mitigate unpaid citations. During the “Unpaid Ticket Resolution Day,” people with past-due fees for parking, traffic and municipal ordinance violations received help to make the payments more manageable through actions such as a payment plan, reduced fines or community service.
The Madison Christian Giving fund is supporting the Madison Area Lutheran Council (MALC) Jail Ministry in 2016. The Jail Ministry, a ministry of presence in the Dane County Jail, serves the spiritual needs of the men and women who are incarcerated, their families and communities. Sixty to eighty percent of the inmates have substance abuse issues while another 20% have mental health challenges. The Jail Ministry employs two chaplains who function as the pastors of the nearly 800 men and women incarcerated in the jail each day.
If you’re like me, you cringe when you hear that Hollywood is making a Bible movie. What could possibly go wrong? As we all know by now, plenty. So you can imagine the challenge I faced when I was first approached about adapting an Anne Rice novel into a movie about what Jesus’ life might have been like during the years in which the Bible is silent. I was scared about the prospect but also fascinated-you see even though I was born and raised in the Midwest (go Badgers!).