Category: U.S.

In a historic first, seven leaders from the underground church in China received doctor of ministry seminary degrees recently from The King’s University in Los Angeles. Founder Jack Hayford said he believes the school “was raised up for this time.”

While a few degrees have been granted to Chinese students from seminaries in Singapore, this was the first time an American university has awarded doctorates in ministry to Chinese students. Faculty from The King’s University traveled back and forth to China and taught through translators.

The leaders are a part of what some call the “Third Church,” a name often used to describe the Chinese underground church in urban areas. Historically, the country’s underground church has been hidden mainly in the rural areas, away from the communist government’s power bases. The registered, state-approved Three-Self Church accounts for about half the estimated 140 million Chinese believers.

She’s in. And she says she’s a bold choice. She’s Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Christian voice with a Lutheran background—and she could be the answer to Mormon candidate Mitt Romney. Charismatics have also taken note of her degree from the Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University.

Bachmann grew up a Democrat and worked for Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976, but switched parties after seeing Carter’s big budget plans.

“I remember [my grandmother’s] prophetic admonition to my father that the Great Society wouldn’t work because it wouldn’t be my father’s generation who paid for it, but rather my brother, David, and me,” she says. “Now that prediction has come true, and neither my Democrat father nor my Republican grandmother would have condoned this spending and debt.”

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association presented a humanitarian award to Cindy Trimm, founder of Trimm International, author and former senator. BGEA … Read More

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Despite persecution, three more respected Christian leaders have signed on as co-chairpersons of the Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s The Response: a call to prayer for a nation in crisis prayer event on Aug. 6.

Penny Nance, president and CEO of Concerned Women for America; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Frank Wright, president of the National Religious Broadcasters, have been appointed to serve. Previously announced co-chairpersons include Dr. James Dobson and his wife, Shirley, Rev. Sammy Rodriquez, Dr. Tony Evans and Dr. Richard Land.

Campus Crusade for Christ in the U.S. is changing its name to Cru. The new name will be adopted in early 2012. The U.S. ministry hopes the new name will overcome existing barriers and perceptions inherent in the original name.

“From the beginning, Bill (Bright) was open to changing our name. He never felt it was set in stone. In fact, he actually considered changing the name 20 or 25 years ago,” says Vonette Bright, who co-founded Campus Crusade for Christ with her husband. “We want to remove any obstacle to people hearing about the most important person who ever lived—Jesus Christ.”

The new name and identity was unveiled to 5,000 staff Tuesday who were gathered at the ministry’s biennial U.S. staff conference in Ft. Collins, Colo. The news was met with enthusiasm and excitement.

In the week preceding the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Christians across the country will be strategically positioned outside high schools near mosques with known terrorism links. They will hand out literature that tells students “the truth about Islam and Muhammad and their violent, oppressive policies towards non-Muslims.”

“Like all patriotic Americans we cherish our liberties and our God-given rights and are committed to defending these principles,” says Steve Klein of Concerned Citizens for the First Amendment.

“Fourteen hundred violent years of history prove that Islam is incompatible with America. Muslims believe they are superior and arrogantly reject our Christian principles of equality, minority rights and equal justice,” Klein adds. “We are going to the schools to protect students—and especially our young women—from the oppression Islam threatens to impose.”

Thousands of Christians are in Washington, D.C., this week to stand up and speak out for Israel at Christians United … Read More

Numbers Don’t Lie. That’s the name of a new social media campaign the National Black Prolife Coalition just launched.

The campaign aims to expose what the coalition has defined as the number one killer of African-Americans: Planned Parenthood and urban abortion clinics.

“Pro-abortion groups cry racism and misogyny because they know they can’t speak to the facts,” says Ryan Bomberger of The Radiance Foundation, the organization that created the video series. “They’ve tried to remove our TooManyAborted.com billboards and crush free speech instead of halting over 363,000 innocent lives needlessly crushed in the black community.”

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Relentless. That’s how some might describe the Roswell Independent School District. That’s because the New Mexico system appears to be on a mission to squash the Word of God on its campuses, according to a lawsuit Liberty Counsel filed.

The suit alleges the Roswell Independent School District retaliated against a Christian group called Relentless, punishing and suspending its members for buying and giving fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Bible verses to each of their teachers.

It’s the second week of Morality in Media’s month-long “Be Aware: Porn Harms” National Awareness Campaign. This week, the group … Read More

Teaching operations at the nation’s oldest Assemblies of God college have been halted, and hearts are heavy.

Bethany University, founded in 1919, will be closing its doors this fall. The closure comes after a deal fell through between private investors seeking to purchase the university and the owner, the Assemblies of God Northern California and Nevada District.

 The announcement was made June 13. As the institution begins its shut down, Rev. James Braddy, chairman of Bethany’s board of trustees, calls for prayer. “This will not be a quick or easy task. Your prayers are desperately needed as we face this very difficult time of transition.”

Known for bringing the Charismatic Renewal to a Catholic university campus, Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, retired on June 30.

The 80-year-old served for nearly 12 years as the Franciscan University chancellor after leading the school as president for 26 years.

Scanlan founded Catholic summer conference programs for adults and teens in 1975 with a national Catholic charismatic conference for priests and deacons. Today, Franciscan’s summer conferences reach over 40,000 people annually with the good news of authentic Catholic renewal and the New Evangelization.

Crystal Cathedral is one step closer to having a new owner.

A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday allowed the Crystal Cathedral to consider new buyers for its 40-acre complex, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“There are other options out there which are viewed by the ministry and the creditors as being more favorable,” attorney Marc Winthrop, who represents the Crystal Cathedral, told the court.

A megaministry in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is taking on a new name.

After decades of being known as Coral Ridge Ministries, the ministry Dr. D. James Kennedy founded is now called Truth in Action Ministries. The name change aims to aid the outreach as the ministry seeks to advance biblical truth and equip believers to make a difference in their local communities.

Ministry leadership didn’t make the decision rashly. They settled on Truth in Action Ministries after more than a year of prayer, planning and consulting with outside organizations, as well as talking with ministry friends and supporters.

For Violet Rose Heckman, FM419 was a place where, for once, she really connected with other people. The 18-year-old is … Read More

Operation Rescue has released the second in a series of 911 calls made over a recent 15-month period from Southwestern Women’s Options, an abortion clinic in Albuquerque, N.M. The call reveals a botched first trimester abortion procedure that required emergency medical intervention.

The patient was a 30-year old woman who suffered “uterine bleeding,” a sign of a possible punctured womb, which is a life-threatening abortion complication. The call was placed on Nov. 3, at 12:42 PM.

Summer means camp season for many children, teens and even adults across North America.

This summer, Bible Centered Ministries will host about a dozen camps over an eight-week period in the U.S. and Canada.

CEO Marty Windle says BCM has about 35 camping programs worldwide.

“We have camps that focus on evangelism through the teaching of English. We have camps that are focused on reaching special needs people groups. We have camps in multiple languages. We have camps for young people,” says Windle. “In Holland, we have an interesting camp that is designed for people who are over 60 years of age.”