A church mission group in Connecticut plans to open a school to train Mexican missionaries in hopes to “inspire the first missions movement” to come out of Mexico.
The School of Missions Mobilization (SMM) will be built in the state of Chihuahua in a small town called Matachi, stated a report by Hillside Missions, the group responsible for the school’s construction. The school is slated to open its doors in January 2007 to an initial 15 students and double its class size in October to the maximum capacity of 30 students.
“The idea for a school that would train Latin Americans for missions mobilization is largely inspired by two things,” wrote Susie Boyed of Hillside Missions Organization in an email on Monday.
“Firstly, the realization of the need for Latin American missionaries,” she stated. Boyed explained that there has not been a large missions movement emanating out of Mexico in the history of missions. However, the Mexican churches have grown greatly and Boyed believes there are many people who are “ready and waiting to participate in God’s plan for the nations.” (more…)
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To help pastors and teachers meet their increased demand of quality visual products for their ministries, Christianity Today International (CTI) is announcing the launch of their new website, FaithVisuals.com.
This new site uniquely integrates downloadable video illustrations with thousands of text illustrations and other sermon preparation materials that are offered by PreachingToday.com, a membership based sister-site with over 10,000 members around the globe.
Cory Whitehead of CTI reveals, “When you use the advanced search and browse tools at FaithVisuals.com, you’ll find related, helpful content from PreachingToday.com. And when PreachingToday.com members search for illustrations for an upcoming sermon or lesson, they’ll find related video illustrations, plus receive a 20% discount on everything at FaithVisuals.com. Good thing is that watching is of course free. Or, you know, look for free videos (to download) on YouTube.com or VideoGoogle.com.
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The Billion Soul Initiative is underway with 30 million new believers and more than 109,000 churches just one year into the global movement’s launch.
The Billion Soul Campaign steering committee leadership, working in tandem with task forces and their own global networks (God.tv, etc.), say the next step are twelve Global Church Planting Congresses, the first of which is September 26-28, 2006 in Lima, Peru.
Approximately 350 of the top church planters from around the world will gather in Dallas for the first-ever Global Church Planting Congress. Already, over 150 world-changing church planters have been referred by the coalition of leaders making up the Billion Soul Campaign, plus the names of denominational and para-church leaders, for a total of nearly 200 at the present time who will be invited to attend. Some of the highlighted biographies of the leaders who are being invited to Dallas are:
* planted 600 churches in his region alone last year;
* planted churches in Harlem, Chicago, Miami, St. Paul and Minneapolis by raising up leaders from his local church and sending them out;
* started 9,700 churches in the past 8 years and baptized more than 450,000 Muslims;
* leading a church planting movement in China that has baptized about 250,000 persons in the past four years;
* instrumental in seeing over 1,800 new churches planted among three different people groups over the past four years.
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Members of a country church near Falls City are hoping whoever stole their church bell recently will realize the error of their ways. In the meantime, they’ll ask for divine guidance for the thieves.
“We are going to have a prayer service for these people on Sunday,” church member Nelle Pfister said Thursday. “We think they need our prayers.”
Some time between Sept. 10 and Sept. 14, someone stole the bronze church bell that’s been hanging for nearly 50 years in the steeple of St. Peter Lutheran Church, 12 miles northeast of Falls City, USA, Pfister said.
The Richardson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it had received a report of a stolen bell from the church, though the office said it had no suspects in the theft.
Thieves also have taken an interest in old church bells just east across the Missouri River, according to the Mound City, Mo., News.
The newspaper reported Thursday that two bells had been stolen in the area, one from a church near Craig, Mo., and another from a nearby cemetery, bringing the number of stolen bells reported this month in northwest Missouri to three.
Pfister said the St. Peter bell had been at the church since about the 1950s. She said it measured about 32 inches across at its base and weighed between 750 and 800 pounds.
“We’re hoping they can’t melt that down,” she said, adding she believes multiple thieves took the bell to sell as scrap metal.
According to Alter Scrap Processing — a recycling center that takes scrap metal in Lincoln — the going rate for bronze, also known as yellow brass, is $1.40 a pound.
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In the biggest commitment of its sort by a Hollywood studio, News Corp.’s Fox Filmed Entertainment announced plans Tuesday to capture the gargantuan Christian audience that made “The Passion of the Christ” a global phenomenon.
Fox Home Video, the home entertainment division of Rupert Murdoch’s movie studio, plans to produce or distribute as many as a dozen films a year under a new banner called FoxFaith. At least six of these films will be released in theaters under an agreement with two of the nation’s largest chains, AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas. The rest will go directly to DVD.
The first theatrical release, called “Love’s Abiding Joy,” is scheduled to hit the big screen on Oct. 6. The movie, which cost approximately $2 million to make, is based on the fourth installment of Christian novelist Janette Oke’s popular series, “Love Comes Softly.”
“A segment of the market is starving for this type of content,” said Simon Swart, general manager of Fox’s U.S. home entertainment unit. “We want to push the production value, not videotape sermons or proselytize.”
Hollywood has made religious-themed movies for years including such memorable titles as “The Ten Commandments” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” But FoxFaith will target evangelical Christians who often shun popular entertainment as offensive. (more…)
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South African Christians seeking a quick spiritual boost will be able to download the entire bible on to their mobile telephones phones from Wednesday as part of a drive to modernize the scriptures.
The South African wing of the non-denominational International Bible Society, which translates and distributes the Bible, said mobile phone users with the right type of phone could download the whole bible in either English or Afrikaans using the text messaging function SMS.
“The Virtual Bible will enable the Bible Society to supply the Bible to every modern cell phone user in a fast and affordable format,” Rev. Gerrit Kritzinger, chief executive of the Bible Society in South Africa, said in a statement.
The Bible Society hopes the gimmick, which costs 40 rand ($5.43), will appeal to young people in mobile-mad South Africa, where the majority of the population is Christian.
Customers can choose between the traditional King James version of the bible or more up-to-date translations. Zulu and Xhosa version will be available soon and other languages will follow. (more…)
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English churches will be giving out free chocolate in the hope it will lure believers back into church. “Back to Church Sunday” will be held on September 24th, 2006, and is the latest attempt by the Church of England to halt the long-term decline in its numbers.
Hundreds of churches across the Dioceses of Derby, Ripon and Leeds, Manchester, Wakefield, Oxford, Guildford and individual churches around the country have already taken delivery of their ‘Back to Church Box’.
Resources include invitations, posters and banners bearing the love-heart logo and the message ‘wish you were here’.
Churchgoers are asked to use the resources to advertise the day and invite family and friends who have lost touch with church.
Gifts for newcomers include a ‘goody bag’ with brochures featuring different aspects of church life – and a free bar of Traidcraft fair trade chocolate. (more…)
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Here’s a preview of Jesus Camp. Speaking in tongues, weeping for salvation, praying for an end to abortion and worshipping a picture of President Bush — these are some of the activities at Pastor Becky Fischer’s Bible camp in North Dakota, “Kids on Fire,” subject of the provocative new documentary, “Jesus Camp.”
“I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places,” Fisher said. “Because, excuse me, we have the truth.” Have a look at the video:
This Jesus Camp trailer really shows how these sub-religions can be just as dangerous as the Islam suicide bombers, when you hear the Christians shouting “How many of you would want to be those who give up their lives for Jesus?” followed by the kids happily shouting “yeah!” It’s disturbing to watch.
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Mar Dinkha, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Christians suddenly returned to Iraq from the US last Thursday, on his birthday.
Mar Dinkha IVMar Khanania Dinkha IV (born on September 15, 1935, in the village of Darbandoki, Iraq) and the current catholicos-patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East is returning to Iraq for the first time following the Liberation of Iraq.
He was baptized in the church of Mar Qaryaqos and is the fourth in the line of succession to the Bishopric See of Urmia bearing the distinguished title of Mar Dinkha.
The head of the worldwide Assyrian Church of the East, the oldest continuous Christian Church in the world is returning to the original site of the Church in Northern Iraq.
Taking with him a team of his staff as well as a limited number of followers, his trip is much anticipated by the beleaguered Assyrian Christians of Iraq. (more…)
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A Japanese legend claims that Jesus escaped Jerusalem and made his way to Aomori in Japan where he became a rice farmer. Christians say the story is nonsense. However, a monument there known as the Grave of Christ attracts curious visitors from all over the world.
To reach the Grave of Christ or Kristo no Hakka as it is known locally, you need to head deep into the northern countryside of Japan, a place of paddy fields and apple orchards.
Halfway up a remote mountain surrounded by a thicket of bamboo lies a mound of bare earth marked with a large wooden cross.
Most visitors peer at the grave curiously and pose in front of the cross for a photograph before heading off for apple ice cream at the nearby cafe.
But some pilgrims leave coins in front of the grave in thanks for answered prayers.
The cross is a confusing symbol because according to the local legend, Jesus did not die at Calvary.
His place was taken by one of his brothers, who for some reason is now buried by his side in Japan.
The story goes that after escaping Jerusalem, Jesus made his way across Russia and Siberia to Aomori in the far north of Japan where he became a rice farmer, married, had a family and died peacefully at the age of 114. (more…)
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A church mission group in Connecticut plans to open a school to train Mexican missionaries in hopes to “inspire the first missions movement” to come out of Mexico.
Members of a country church near Falls City are hoping whoever stole their church bell recently will realize the error of their ways. In the meantime, they’ll ask for divine guidance for the thieves.
