An idea to reach people who were illegally cutting through a church’s parking lot to avoid an intersection is causing a stir in a Tennessee town.
Aldersgate United Methodist Church of Jackson, Tennessee set up a “drive thru prayer box” where drivers who were cutting through their parking lot could stop and write a prayer request on a 3 by 5 note card. The church was hoping it could be a way to advertise the church to those in the area and also to pray for their community.
Now, the church is receiving attention from the entire community and churches around the country.
“Now that [an] article has been published in the local newspaper, the number [of prayer requests] has grown substantially,” Barry Matthews of the church told the Christian Post. “We’re seeing requests that just grab your heart.”
Matthews says the church has also been flooded with calls from other churches facing the same problem of drivers cutting through their parking lots wanting to know how to set up their own “drive thru prayer station” ministries.
“They’re telling us this is an answer to their prayers,” Matthews said.
Pope Francis said that one cannot be a Christian without the church in their life.
“Our Christian identity is belong to a people: the Church,” the Pontiff said during Mass. “Without this, we are not Christians. We entered the Church through baptism: there we are Christians.”
The Pope said that someone who says they are a Christian but not a part of the church is simply a laboratory experiment. He pointed out that not even Jesus was alone.
“Jesus Christ did not fall from the sky like a superhero who comes to save us. No. Jesus Christ has a history. And we can say, and it is true, that God has a history because He wanted to walk with us. And you cannot understand Jesus Christ without His history. So a Christian without history, without a Christian nation, a Christian without the Church is incomprehensible. It is a thing of the laboratory, an artificial thing, a thing that cannot give life,” Francis said.
The Pope also said that people should seek to renew the covenant of grace with God every day.
A dying Arizona church made one of their last acts a blessing to keep the gospel moving in their community.
First Southern Baptist Church of Payson, Arizona, sold their church campus to church plant Expedition Church for $1. The dwindling congregation of the church who had been serving Payson for 51 years could no longer maintain the campus, worth over $1 million dollars.
The church also gave their North Annex to Payson Community Kids, a non-profit group that serves needy children in the community.
“It is a very hard thing when a church closes, but there is great joy in being able to share our legacy with Expedition Church and Payson Community Kids, and to know that the lives, the love, the hard work and the generosity of those who had been part of Payson First Southern Baptist Church will continue to reach people for His Kingdom,” former Payson First Southern Baptist Pastor Rick Hatch wrote on the church’s website.
Expedition Church reported they had been trying to rent space from Payson Southern Baptist and were trying to finalize another offer to rent space when Pastor Hatch called to offer the deal to buy the campus.
“My jaw dropped…We said we would absolutely take it,” Expedition Church’s Lead Pastor Donovan Christian said. “I am not a real mystical guy, but we really felt like God was just blessing us.”
The Chinese government is opening up a war on Christians.
Authorities used police to break through a human barricade to bring in heavy equipment for the destruction of a newly built church in Wenzhou. The church had made worldwide headlines when the worshippers formed a human shield around the building a month ago in an attempt to stop the government from their announced intent to tear it down.
The government claims they aren’t attacking Christians but that the building had violated multiple buildings codes and was unsafe for occupation.
However, church members have reported being harassed by police both at the church and at their homes. Also, they have found electronic devices spying on their phone calls and at least one person has been harassed by secret police for a phone conversation.
The head of Zhejiang’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee has said before the move on the church building “Christianity’s spread has been too excessive and haphazard.”
A group of New York City pastors is banding together to get the policy banning churches from using public schools for worship services reversed despite a court saying schools had the right to ban Christians from their buildings.
Pastor William Devlin told the Christian post that he was optimistic the policy would be reversed and surprised many by saying the far-left mayor of the city was on their side.
“Pastors across New York City are very encouraged about recent developments on the right to worship. We know that Mayor de Blasio is with us 100 percent and any day we will hear that he has reversed the draconian and discriminatory Department of Education policy … we have his word,” Devlin told the Post.
An appeals court in New York City ruled in favor of the Board of Education in their battle against churches holding worship services in school building after school hours.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mayor Bill DeBlasio said “I believe that a faith-based organization has a right like anyone else … to use that space.”
The ruling against churches is being appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The controversy surrounding a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee is having a surprise impact on the church next door.
Pastor Dan Watts of Grace Baptist Church says that attendance has tripled and weekly giving has doubled since the construction of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro began in 2011.
Watts says that his church has been active in trying to reach out to the Arab Christians in the community who have been feeling pressured because of the controversy surrounding the mosque. He said that the Arabic Evangelical Church, which Grace Baptist allows to meet on their campus, has been a safe place for Arab Christians and even some of the neighboring Muslims who are curious about Christ.
The church has also been very vocal about their faith and has built over a dozen large crosses on their property as a statement of how they feel about their faith in Christ.
Murfreesboro, a town of 100,000 residents, has a population that is roughly 25% Muslim. Many of the residents are Somalian or Kurdish refugees who fled Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War.
Over 200 people attending an Easter concert in Florida were stunned when a car smashed through the side of the church building leaving 21 injured.
Second Haitian Baptist Church was preparing for their final Easter event of the day around 8 p.m. Sunday when a car slammed through the brick outer wall of the building and rammed through several rows of pews before coming to a stop.
Fort Myers police say the car’s driver claimed the brakes in the vehicle failed as she was trying to find a place to park for the event. Officials are calling the incident “an unfortunate traffic accident.”
The congregation was seated and waiting for the concert to begin when the car came through the wall. Members of the church manually lifted the vehicle and then used car jacks to lift the car off people who were trapped beneath it.
Lee Memorial Health Systems reported 18 people were taken to area hospitals and none required surgery.
A 1,500-year-old Byzantine monastery has been discovered in Israel according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The monastery is described as having been a place of Christian worship during the 6th century. The structure was found as part of an excavation before construction of a new highway through the Negev Desert.
The IAA said the structure was 65 feet wide by 115 feet long. Four rooms were found including a prayer room and a dining room. The mosaics on the floor were found to be typical of Christian mosaics of the time.
The mosaics also contained discretely placed crosses that obeyed an order from leaders of the time to not have crosses on the floor where someone could step on them.
In addition to the mosaic floors, the excavators discovered pottery, coins and glass that are believed to have been used as part of the worship of the time.
The discovered items are going to be removed from the site and moved to an agricultural and tourism project area.
A pair of federal judges is endorsing discrimination against groups because of their faith in a ruling against churches meeting in New York City schools.
In a 2-1 ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the court said that New York City school officials could deny Christian groups the same right to rent space inside their buildings that are offered to other groups. The liberal judges ruled that the Free Exercise Clause did not require government to finance exercise of religion.
However, the dissenting justice pointed out the majority’s endorsement of discrimination.
“Allowing an entity to use public school space open to all others on equal terms is hardly the financing of that entity,” Judge John Waller wrote. “However, shutting the door to religious worship services in such a setting when every other activity is permitted strikes at the Clause’s core.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, who is representing the church involved with the case, is working on an appeal of the ruling.
A New York City pastor attempting to shine the light of Christ in one of the seediest parts of the city is attempting to raise the funds to turn the area’s last strip club into the church’s new home.
Pastor Reggie Stutzman of Real Life Church told the Christian Post that a witnessing opportunity outside the club was a sign that God is going to bring “revival” into the city.
“I had an extraordinary conversation with this man who used to be a patron there. He said his life is just a wreck,” the pastor said. He was speaking with a driver outside the Platinum Pleasures club in Hunts Point. The church’s members have been meeting in front of the church every Tuesday for prayer since that day.
Now, the club has a for sale banner hanging across their front.
“God is bringing the prodigals home and He’s going to use this club and Real Life Church to be a part of the big picture, that revival is coming to NYC. It’s exciting,” said Stutzman.
Hunts Point is known as one of most dangerous areas in the city with a heavy prostitution program.