The Green family of Hobby Lobby has purchased a 14 ½ acre property in the Chicago area and then donated it to Fellowship Baptist Church to build a center for the needy of their community.
Pastor Charles Jenkins said their Legacy Project is aimed at “building people, building communities.”
“As we looked at expanding (church), we didn’t just look within but we looked without. As we talk about those who are returning home from prison, we looked at the desolation, the destitution, the healthcare disparities. We looked at the unemployment rate in the neighborhood where we serve; it’s almost 70 percent. And there’s so many challenges, and that’s when we started to look at the idea to not just share the Gospel, but show the Gospel in a broader more dynamic way,” explained Jenkins to Christian Post.
Pastor Jenkins said that he was connected to the Green family through Pastor James McDonald. He told Jenkins that the Green family was all about spreading the Gospel through acts of service.
“Bless God for people like that who engage. My wife does remind me that 11 cents of every dollar spent at Hobby Lobby does go to Christian ministries, so I’m blessed when she shops there,” said Jim Liske, moderator of the panel where the donation was discussed.
Pastors across America are expressing their solidarity with pastors in the Houston area who are being harassed by the city government with “I Stand Sunday.”
The event will feature former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and members of the Duck Dynasty family. The event is aimed to raise awareness of government attempts to intimidate Christians into silence.
“This is not about speeches, not about sermons, not about teachings even on biblical morality…it is about intimidation,” said Perkins. “This is about political intimidation and it is about the mayor using the bully pulpit to try and silence the pulpits of Houston.”
The pastors being harassed by the city had spoken out about the city’s new law that would allow situations such as men using women’s bathrooms.
“I Stand Sunday” will be held November 2nd at Grace Church in Houston and broadcast nationwide.
“Hosted by Family Research Council and other partners, speakers from across the nation will gather at Grace Community Church in Houston to focus on the freedom to live out our faith free of government intrusion or monitoring,” reads the I Stand Sunday website. “We will stand with pastors and churches in Houston who have been unduly intimidated by the city’s mayor in demanding they hand over private church communication.”
A Chinese pastor who was arrested during the recent government crackdown on Christians is thanking God for the “opportunity of going to jail.”
Huang Yizi, 40, is facing up to seven years in prison for his speaking out against the government’s destruction of Christian churches. He was arrested in August when police dragged him from his home in front of his wife and two children.
The official charge is “gathering crowds to disturb social order.”
Beijing rights lawyer Zhang Kai says Yizi is doing well and that from what he can see there is no basis to charge him.
“As a defense lawyer and judging from the evidence so far I don’t think Huang’s actions constituted any crime. Personally, I believe Huang’s arrest is directly related to the general crackdown on churches in Zhejiang.”
Chen Guangcheng, a human rights activist in China, said that the communist government is actually more dangerous than terrorist group ISIS.
“I believe that we have underestimated the threat from the Communist regime like China. They are many, many times more dangerous than the terrorist groups out there. I believe the people will realize later this is true,” Chen said.
A Christian pastor that had been kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram escaped after 10 months in captivity.
Pastor Rotimi Obajimi had been taken to the Sambisa Forest where he was tied down for months. He was then moved to another location before bring brought back to the Forest where he escaped during a heavy downpour.
“We were so amazed to see him because we have been praying earnestly for a long time trusting Jesus that He would surely come back, but lo and behold he was brought to our headquarters in Maiduguri by the military,” a pastor at Redeem Church in Maiduguri told SaharaReporters.
The pastor is in Maimallari Hospital for treatment and will be debriefed by military officials before he will return to his church.
Boko Haram has been slaughtering Christian pastors so the fact Pastor Obajimi was shocking to Nigerian officials.
Over a thousand pastors took to their pulpits on Sunday to say that Christ controls what they say to their congregations, not the government.
The Pulpit Initiative, part of the Alliance Defending Freedom, organized the 7th Annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday. The goal is to have pastors “speak truth into every area of life from the pulpit.”
“Pastors should decide what they preach from the pulpit, not the IRS,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley, who oversees the observance. “Churches should be allowed to decide for themselves what they want to talk about. The IRS should not be the one making the decision by threatening to revoke a church’s tax-exempt status. There’s a growing chorus of pastors’ voices calling for a solution to this very real constitutional violation.”
The event had pastors participating from all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The move is to point out the “Johnson Amendment” of 1954 that says churches cannot “participate in or intervene in” political campaigns.
“The real effect of the Johnson Amendment is that pastors are muzzled for fear of investigation by the IRS,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “Rather than risk confrontation, many pastors have self-censored their speech—afraid to apply the teachings of Scripture to specific candidates or elections. As in years past, the participants in Pulpit Freedom Sunday 2014 are taking a stand against being intimidated into sacrificing their First Amendment freedoms.”
The pastor of an influential Sacramento, California megachurch has said he will live on the streets for two weeks or until $100,000 is raised to start a homeless shelter in the area.
Rick Cole says that he feels God calling him to take the step to raise awareness of the need for a winter shelter for the homeless of his community.
“Tomorrow, I’m going downtown on light rail, I picked up my light rail pass today…I’ve never ridden light rail in my life, not even once, not even for fun, and so that’s gonna be my mode of transportation for the next two weeks and we’ll adjust as we go along the way and we’ll communicate to you as we go along the way,” Cole explained in a sermon to his congregation Saturday.
“That’s what I believe God wants me to do and what we’re gonna do together,” Cole went on to say. “I’d like us just to make our prayer about God’s power to touch our city…This idea is not very old, probably about two or three weeks old and every step along the way it’s only gained momentum and excitement. My wife even has grown Ok with it. That was a miracle all by itself so we are excited about the many things I think God wants us to do with this particular project and how we can grow and impact this community.”
The shelter, which will be called Winter Sanctuary, has an overall goal of $300,000. A website has been created at www.revonthestreet.com to allow people to donate to the mission.
“The ultimate goal is there are some hurting people, really hurting and we’re taught by God to help ’em. Go to them, make a difference. When you do this to the least if these Jesus said you done it to me. You want to get close to Jesus get close to some hurting people and when you help ’em in His name then you’ve just touched him in the most profound way,” Cole told his congregation Saturday.
The Pakistani police have summarily executed a Christian Pastor.
Zafar Bhatti had been imprisoned since 2012 on charges that he has committed blasphemy for preaching Jesus was the only way. The men had long been receiving death threats from fellow prisoners and guards because of their Christian faith.
“This is a barbaric act,” Xavier Williams of Life for All told The Express Tribune. “There had been threats. The court should have instructed police to ensure Bhatti’s safety.”
The country passed a blasphemy law claiming that it would be a tool to stop religious intolerance in the country. However, Muslims have used the law as a way to take religious minorities to jail them, force them to convert to Islam or kill them.
“Unfortunately, pressure from Islamic radical groups and general discrimination against Christians in Pakistan has transformed trial courts into little more than rubber stamps for blasphemy accusations brought against Christians, regardless of the evidence brought to bear in the case,” William Stark of the International Christian Concern said. “Also, little is done to ensure the safety of those merely accused of blasphemy, leading to the deaths of at least 48 people, many of whom could have been proven innocent.”
This is the second major incident involving Christians accused of blasphemy in Pakistan. A Christian couple was sentenced to death in April for sending text messages that were called blasphemous by the court. However, the couple has been proven to be illiterate, so they could not send text messages. The death sentence is still in effect.
A pastor whose church meets in a space that is about to be defiled by Satanists performing a “black mass” and mock exorcism is speaking out about his church’s place of worship being degraded with government approval.
Tom Mannin of Oklahoma City Community Church worships in the same Oklahoma City Civic Center where the Satanists will mock Christianity later this month.
“As a church, we want to respond as people of love, who are consistent with the teachings of Jesus and the ways he responded to those who rejected him and even hated him,” Mannin wrote. “So we will speak gracefully and peacefully of the people at the black mass gathering. We will pray for God’s love to abound in our city and among its people of varying belief.”
The mass reportedly has sold out in a theater space of 92 people. The event has received significant backlash from the community for their stated intent of mocking Christianity and the fact they had stolen sacred items from a Catholic church for use in the mass (that was later returned.)
The group conducting the mass is not even local; it is a New York City group.
A virulent anti-Christian organization is threatening a Mississippi school district after a pastor delivered a prayer and sermon at a convocation for teachers this month.
The American Humanist Association sent a letter to the superintendent of the Jackson Public School District on Monday claiming they were representing an anonymous teacher who attended the event. The AHA claims the teacher said attendance at the event was mandatory.
The speaker was Pastor Roy Maine, who works as an electrician in the district. He was invited to deliver an opening prayer and he offered words of exhortation during his invocation.
The anti-Christian group says their anonymous client described the event as “one long church service.”
Attorney Monica Miller of the anti-Christian group said that if the school does not bar the use of religious speech at events they could file a lawsuit.
“This letter serves as an official notice of the unconstitutional activity and demands that the school district terminate this and any similar illegal activity immediately. To avoid legal action, we kindly ask that you notify us in writing within two weeks of receipt of this letter setting forth the steps you will take to rectify this constitutional infringement,” Miller wrote.
The school district acknowledged receiving the letter but did not offer a public response to the letter’s content.
