U.S.

Goodness, Gracious, the President Said What?

Charisma Staff

In the time-honored Presidential thanksgiving proclamation, President Barack Obama called on Americans to give thanks to our “gracious God.”

Despite the turbulent season the nation is facing, he encouraged Americans to look to the numerous blessings seen in the last year.

“As we stand at the close of one year and look to the promise of the next, we lift up our hearts in gratitude to God for our many blessings, for one another, and for our Nation,” he said this week.

Culture

The One Thing to Avoid Come Christmas

Charisma Staff

Don’t allow gift-giving expectations to put you deeper in debt and rob you of the true joy of the season 

I know what you’re thinking: Here they come. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s; gifts to buy, meals to prepare, decorating, houseguests, parties to attend, church activities, neighborhood events, school productions–and a partridge in a pear tree.

It’s exhausting, isn’t it? Add the fact that the last few years have been financially disappointing for most of us, and it’s no wonder we get a heavy feeling in the pit of our stomachs when the calendar page flips over to November.

U.S.

Though it’s Haunting America, This is Having Little Effect on Churches

Charisma Staff

Megachurches across the country are holding their own during uncertain economic times, a new survey shows.

Most megachurches continue to see attendance and giving rise, and the bigger the church is, the more likely it is to experience increases, Leadership Network reported in its 2010 Large Church Economic Outlook Report.

According to the Christian Post, survey results indicate that the economic downturn is having little impact on America’s larger churches. A full 100 percent of churches with 8,000 or more attendees experienced growth in attendance and giving from 2009 to 2010. And all surveyed churches with attendance of 10,000 to 14,999 plan to reach this year’s budget projections.

Overall, 81 percent of megachurches’ congregations with attendance of 2,000 or more saw more attendees and only 9 percent reported lower attendance. Sixty-seven percent of megachurches increased their budget, with the average increase being 3 percent, and the same proportion said they expect to meet their 2010 budget.


World

ISIS Threatens ‘Rivers of Blood’ for Coptic Christians

Charisma Staff

As bombings and other attacks continue against Christians in Iraq, Christians in Egypt have gathered to pray and plan for their own safety.

When a group of Islamic extremists on Oct. 31 burst into Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad during evening mass and began spraying the sanctuary with gunfire, the militant organization that took responsibility said Christians in Egypt also would be targeted if its demands were not met. Taking more than 100 congregants hostage, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) called a television station and stated that the assault came in response to the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt allegedly holding two Coptic women against their will who, the ISI and some others believe, converted to Islam. 

The group issued a 48-hour deadline for the release of the women, and when the deadline passed it issued a statement that, “All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers are legitimate targets for the muhajedeen [Muslim fighters] wherever they can reach them.” The statement later added ominously, “We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood.”

World

Booming International Ministry Fuels Church Growth

Charisma Staff

A Spokane, Wash.-based ministry is spawning healing rooms globally

Prayer for healing is hardly new, but in recent years healing rooms have been spreading worldwide in a ministry trend that isn’t expected to slow. 

Launched in 1999, the International Association of Healing Rooms (IAHR) now oversees some 1,900 rooms in 52 nations, with roughly 1,000 in India alone. In healing rooms across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa, people have been healed of blindness, brain tumors and even HIV, says IAHR founder Cal Pierce.

“What is so powerful is this work is done by ordinary people doing an extraordinary work through the power of the Holy Spirit,” Pierce says.


Culture

Pentecostal Sunday School Teacher Endures Brutality Just Walking to Work

Charisma Staff

Bill Wilson has spent the last 30 years taking Sunday school to inner-city kids

Bill Wilson has been thrown off a building, mugged and shot in the face. But none of that has stopped him from leading sidewalk Sunday school every week in New York’s inner city. 

As he marks 30 years of ministry this year, he says the thing that has kept him going is simply commitment. “It’s like anything else; it’s a decision,” Wilson says. 

World

Franklin Graham: ‘There’s a Lot of Potential for Violence’

Charisma Staff

Sudanese Christians face tough choices over whether to secede

The future remains uncertain for Sudan, which is still plagued by unrest as it faces a January referendum. 

There are positive signs, particularly in the south, where for the first time banks are moving in–a sign that cash is gaining more value than livestock. World Vision and other aid organizations also have facilitated peace conferences and border-clan meetings, encouraging conversations between ethnic groups.

U.S.

Millions Connect to God in This Unique Way

Charisma Staff

LifeChurch.tv never set out to be a leader in the app world – it simply wanted more young people reading the Bible. Yet Tuesday the Edmond, Okla.-based church celebrated reaching an astounding 10 million-plus users with a smartphone application that remains one of the world’s most popular.

YouVersion, the free online and mobile Bible LifeChurch.tv launched as an app in April 2008, includes 41 different translations in 22 languages. According to Bobby Gruenewald, LifeChurch.tv’s innovation leader and the app’s developer, someone new installs YouVersion every 2.8 seconds, while in the same time span 12 people open the Bible app.

“When we set out to find a way to help people engage with God’s Word and to have a deeper relationship with Christ, we never realized that God would use one idea in such a way that could change so many lives and draw people closer to each other and closer to Him,” Gruenewald said during a webcast on Tuesday.

World

Pakistani Mother Condemned for ‘Blasphemy’ Stunned, Shattered

Charisma Staff

First woman sentenced to die for speaking ill of Muhammad says she never got to defend herself.

Ashiq Masih, with his stooped posture, frail body and dull yellow eyes, stands in a small compartment in the Sheikhupura District Jail with his three daughters  — Sidra, Eesha and Eeshum. The girls are weeping silently.
 
On the other side of a metal grille is Asia Noreen, the birth mother of two of the girls and the first woman in Pakistan to receive the death sentence on charges of blaspheming Islam’s prophet. Eeshum, 12-years-old and mentally disabled, whines like a baby for her mother, asking her when she will be back.

U.S.

Charismatic Church Leaders Commit to Integrity at Orlando Summit

Charisma Staff

Larry Stockstill has seen enough fellow ministers fall. At a “Summit on Integrity” Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., the Louisiana pastor and a roomful of influential Christian leaders took a stand against the American church’s ongoing leadership crisis by pledging to walk with integrity in every area of life.

Amid the latest ministry scandals, Stockstill, senior pastor of Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, La., charged pastors and church leaders with specific ways to not only avoid moral failure, but also leave a Billy Graham-like legacy of integrity.

“We’re now seeing many of the largest churches in America pastored by people who are living a double lifestyle,” Stockstill said at the all-day gathering. “This is a crisis. This isn’t something I’m dreaming up–this is the reality of where pastors are right now.”

With ministry scandals reported almost weekly and studies indicating that up to 40 percent of American pastors view pornography every day, the need for integrity among church leaders is obvious. Yet Stockstill and the assembly, which included the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Washington, D.C., discussed how leadership integrity isn’t simply staying away from sexually explicit websites, but includes everything from keeping a commitment to managing church budgets to honoring a spouse.

U.S.

Pastor Who Threatened to Burn QuranLoses Members

Charisma Staff

Terry Jones–the Pentecostal pastor who caused an international stir after he threatened to burn the  Quran on Sept. 11–recently said that members of his church had left because of his stance against Muslims.

 Interviewed near Ground Zero this week, he said that his Gainesville, Fla. congregation was not interested in the “truth†about radical Islam.

“People come to church and want to hear, ‘God loves you, you’re a good person,'”  the NY Daily News quoted Jones as saying. “That’s true. God does love you. But there’s more we need to tell people, and they don’t want to hear it.”

U.S.

‘Significant’ Church Tax Battle

Charisma Staff

A church bookstore in Nashville is at the center of a legal battle being viewed as a major test case for religious freedom.

Authorities have ruled that For His Glory Bookstore at Christ Church is not eligible for property tax exemption and owes a portion of $350,000 in dues dating back to 2004.

Leaders have warned that if the ruling—under appeal—is upheld, it could set a significant precedent for church bookstores and other church ministries not only in Tennessee, but also in other parts of the country.

U.S.

Kentucky Ministry Takes Church Outside

Charisma Staff

Servant’s Heart in Louisville, Ky., doesn’t hold a traditional Sunday service and doesn’t consider itself a church. Instead, the Assemblies of God mission is taking ministry to residents in a low-income community known as Portland.

Teams witness during weekly prayer walks, regularly visit a liquor store to share Scripture with customers and hold home Bible studies. The mission has held clothing and food giveaways and helped sponsor free medical clinics.

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