Faith News Network

Gospel artist Kirk Franklin is teaming up with the American Heart Association’s Power to End Stroke campaign to launch the Fight of Our Life health tour to raise awareness of the risk of stroke.

Sweden― Greater Europe Mission missionaries hope to plant nine more churches along Stockholm’s red subway line. A house church has already begun in Varberg, one of ten subway stops on the red line.

First Assistant General Overseer Tim Hill recently returned from a 13 day, three country tour of the Church of God in Asia. Upon his return, Hill was enthused with the status of the Church of God in Korea, Japan and the Philippines.

The Association of Related Churches (ARC) met with the Church of God on June 2, 2009 in Birmingham, Alabama, where the two forged a partnership of planting churches and assisting church planters.

A California pastor received the apology he was seeking from San Diego County officials who had ordered him and his wife not to hold a Bible study in their home without a permit.

How the movement of the Trinity can help us decide.

Christian rap artists and an evangelical ministry have teamed up for a 25-plus city tour to challenge Christians and concertgoers not to waste their life.

The fastest-growing third party in America, (ballot-access.org) the Constitution Party (www.constitutionparty.com), will discuss a nationwide effort to encourage Christians to vote “like their faith depended on it.”

Judge Roy Moore, who was ousted as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court after refusing to remove a granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building, announced Monday that he plans to run for governor of Alabama in 2010.

God’s Spirit is moving in the nation of Hungary and his servants are coming to him with broken hearts.

A Virginia-based missionary in the Church of God has made an appeal that has caught the attention of major media networks.

Not really a house church, no longer a traditional church, one California church has found another way.

By Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow

A recent poll shows most Pennsylvanians support traditional marriage. The numbers show residents favoring one man and one woman as the definition of marriage, and the figures are very high among older Pennsylvanians.

Wilma Amison, long-term managing editor for the Church of God Evangel, retired on May 4, 2009, after having served for more than 12 years in this position.

Chaplain Rod Harwood is the first Protestant ever to be appointed to the prestigious position of Director of Mission Operations for St. Anthony Catholic Hospital, Pendleton, Oregon. He will be reporting directly to the President/CEO of the Hospital and Senior Vice President, Franciscan Health System in Tacoma, Washington.

Chaplain Harwood joined St. Anthony’s in 1997 as hospital chaplain and continued in that role until April of 2005 when he was appointed Coordinator of Spiritual Care. He will now be responsible for exercising leadership responsibility and authority for the development, implementation and administration of services and programs that promote the integration of the mission and values of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) as a core business process of St. Anthony Hospital. He will also be directing, leading, integrating and evaluating the Spiritual Care Services of St. Anthony Hospital.

As a part of this new position, Chaplain Harwood will also be going “outside the gates,” to provide spiritual care to Blue Mountain Recovery Psychiatric Center and Pendleton Cottage, a secure unit for the criminally insane. Chapel services, counseling and ministry of presence will be a daily part of his routine in these outlying areas of ministry. He will also serve as the facilitator for a two day seminar, called “The Sacred Art of Living and Dying”. This seminar will be taught in his facilities on a regular basis.

Chaplain Harwood is a graduate of the Church of God Theological Seminary and he and his wife Kim and family presently reside in Pendleton, Oregon.

To learn more about the Church of God Chaplains Commission chaplaincy programs, visit the Chaplains Commission website at: www.cogchaplains.com.

Stories abound about college students graduating into a moribund job market, but a group of 32 college students and recent graduates went another direction to find jobs.

Four deadly storms battered Haiti in quick succession in 2008 in one of the worst disasters in its history. More than 800 people were killed and nearly 1 million left homeless or in dire need of help.

When the typical Christian, knowledgeable about the Bible, is asked where the Great Commission may be found, he or she will normally respond with the correct citations in the Gospels and Acts. But did you know that the Great Commission may be found throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation? It’s true.

God’s revelation of himself in the Old Testament unveiled a God who fervently desired to make himself known to all peoples throughout the world. Setting aside one nation for the specific purpose of letting the world know about Him, He commissioned Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, telling him, “All nations will be blessed through you.”

That was not God’s first indication that He was concerned with the salvation of the world. For that revelation, we must go back to Genesis 3:15.

Reading through the Pentateuch, the historical books, the wisdom literature and the prophets, literally hundreds of times we find references to God’s glory filling all the earth, all the peoples of the earth knowing Him, God’s judging all the earth, and God being praised among the nations.

Israel’s great failure was their unwillingness to make God known throughout the earth. Aware of His particular blessings on their nation, they selfishly accepted the blessing, but neglected to pas the knowledge of God along to others. When God announced His judgment upon their nation, part of the justification for His action was that they had not obeyed His injunction to be a blessing to the nations.

The Psalms are particularly rich in capturing the notion of God’s universal purpose and His love and care for the ends of the earth. Even a cursory reading finds 50 or more references such as “How majestic is your name in all the earth,” “The nations will praise you,” and “Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.” Clearly, God intended for His name to be known among all people.

The church is charged today with the mission that the ancient peoples of Israel failed to accomplish: That the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). A careful reading of His Word will help us master the understanding of our commission. This means more than memorizing Matthew 28:18-20; it includes all of God’s revelation.

God is pleased when we obey His instructions to declare His glory among the nations.
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Bill George is Coordinator of Missions Education/Publications for Church of God World Missions.

(Source: Church of God World Missions)

AFRICA — “The project of Nyamphande has taught me a lesson to work extra hard in life, for nothing comes from nothing…

A Texas Christian businessman has a simple plan for evangelizing his community: Lift Jesus up and let Him do the rest.