Faith News Network

A new national study shows that while Canada remains overwhelmingly Christian, Canadians are turning their backs on organized religion in ever greater numbers.

There are an estimated 10 million tithers in America that donate more than $50 billion annually to religious and charitable causes. A new 5-year constituency study released by the State of the Plate gives an inside, in-depth look at the financial, giving, and spiritual practices of 4,413 people who donate 10% or more each year.

Sophia tops the list of names for American baby girls for the second year in a row, while King and Messiah are becoming increasingly popular names for boys, the U.S. Social Security Administration said on Thursday.

ORA NET LLC introduces its disruptive technology to promote the oldest form of recognized religious expression — prayer.

The ORA system delivers a personal mobile experience for the individual and an enterprise-quality community management platform for any organization to invite, connect, share, respond and interact with one another in intercessory prayer.

“That’s a lot of words to describe it, but ORA’s technology gives us the ability to do so much more to leverage existing social networks and mobile devices to connect individuals in the most meaningful relationship they can have with others and more importantly with God,” said Jeff Bone, Chief Marketing Officer for ORA.

The Bellingham, WA, company has introduced what many are calling one of the most revolutionary developments for the faith community to be released in decades.

“ORA collects, organizes, tracks, reminds, connects and securely shares prayer requests and answers with anyone you choose. ORA does this at a personal and intimate level with your friends and family through the mobile ‘app’ on your smartphone. And ORA does this at the organizational level through the ORA Community software that a church, mission agency, ministry, foundation or any number of other organizations can use with their existing infrastructure. It’s both personal and organizational. We all maintain a number of social and spiritual connections within a broad community that includes our favorite people and our favorite places of worship and ministry,” stated Dusty Gulleson, ORA Chief Executive Officer.

“We’re looking forward to integrating ORA into the life of both our physical and online church congregations. What an incredible tool to engage communities of believers around the power of prayer!” said Nils Smith, Web Pastor, Community Bible Church of San Antonio, Texas.

Social networks can be inappropriate “high noise” areas that are not private enough for many sensitive postings like prayer requests. ORA offers a safe, secure environment where prayer is the most important thing. ORA not only makes prayer available on your smartphone, but it makes comments, reminders and prayer partners always available too. The system offers immediate feedback to requests, questions and comments from prayer partners and helps to track and remind the user of how prayers are answered immediately or over time. ORA helps you get a glimpse of the eternal that can be missed when one is caught up in the stress of everyday life.

ORA is a free download for iPhone, AppStore.com/ora (and is coming soon for Android). The ORA smartphone app integrates into the ORA Community system. The ORA Community system is a software as a service (SaaS) solution designed with many more management features that allows an organization to administer community-wide prayer communication and easily integrate with existing email, church management or relationship management software from leading providers. For a limited time, ORA is offering a no-cost trial of the ORA Community system for an organization. Visit the ORA website for more information: ora.net.

ORA NET LLC is a Bellingham, WA-based company whose mission is to grow the community of prayer, digitally. Founded in 2012, the company remains privately held by its founders and a gracious investment group who shares the goal of the founders to fully develop and deliver The New Way to Pray™.

(Source: Christian Newswire)

Professing Christians progressing toward spiritual maturity will have a firmer grasp on important doctrinal positions. However, plenty of churchgoers still struggle with basic truths about God, the Bible and salvation. So says a new study from LifeWay Research.

Designers of a new campaign, “God’s Marriage Bow,” are inviting citizens to wear white bows to demonstrate their support of traditional marriage between one man and one woman.

“The white color stands in contrast to the rainbow colors that advocate same-sex marriage,” explains Dran Reese, President of the nationwide organization, the Salt & Light Council.

“Rainbows are meant to show God’s redemption, but this image has been co-opted by a movement that is antithetical to Biblical values,” says Reese, who developed the effort as a way to unite concerned citizens. “We’re going to take back the rainbow by redeeming it with the white marriage bow.”

The color white was chosen for its connotations of purity, holiness, as well as the complete forgiveness of sin. “Scripture is clear that we all fall short,” Reese emphasizes.

“The bow is symbolic, as in ‘tying the knot’ — a historical inference to the one-man, one-woman union, or tying a bow on a present as a reminder that this unique relationship is a gift from God.”

The Marriage Bow Campaign launched on March 26, the day the Supreme Court began proceedings on the future of marriage and the family in America. The Campaign consists of two simple actions: Wear a white bow and display it prominently…on your lapel, shirt or jacket, even on your car or a tree in your yard; and also send pre-printed postcards to all nine Supreme Court justices asking their support of traditional marriage.

“It couldn’t be easier, and its free,” Reese added. “The website has free downloadable postcards, plus the names and addresses of the justices.”

The Salt & Light Council trains and equips churches to reclaim and preserve the Judeo-Christian heritage though responsible, biblically-based citizenship.

For more information about God’s Marriage Bow and the Salt & Light Council, go to www.godsmarriagebow.com.

www.marriagecampaign.com

www.saltandlightcouncil.org

While a national debate goes on about the prevalence of guns in this country, one pastor defends his decision to pack a gun when preaching from the pulpit on Sundays.

With the United States tilting towards the left, the church must prepare for a new normal in our lives and ministries. The body of Christ has to realize it is no longer business as usual.

More than 30,000 evangelicals and Catholics in swing congressional districts signed a petition to Congress in support of wind energy following a nationwide campaign by the Good Steward Campaign (GSC) and Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN). The petition, which framed renewable energy as a serious concern for people of faith, was met with success when Congress voted to extend the Wind Tax Credit.

Political shifts, continued economic hardship and changing religious trends could make 2013 a big year for church news. Below are the Institute for Religion and Democracy’s (IRD) predictions for what religious news stories have the most potential to make headlines in the coming year.

Christian higher education finds itself in a spiritual fight because of an America that’s becoming increasingly secular. These schools face hostility, apathy and tough economic times, but Christian educators are optimistic about the future.

“The Nativity Project” is a nationwide campaign to share the message of Christmas and also to confront the erosion and hostility toward public expressions of faith especially during the Christmas season.

There does not exist a reliable political party that purely represents the overall Christian agenda in America. We can neither ignore the overwhelming contrast to our Godly principles of the marriage equality and abortion rights agendas, which the Democrats strongly support, nor can we be oblivious to the arrogant, greedy, unsympathetic Pharisaic practices of the Republicans.

Privately held retail chain Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit Wednesday opposing the Health and Human Services mandate.

Marking good news for churches and nonprofits, the number of donors giving online has jumped to nearly 60 percent. So says a national study of online giving commissioned by Dunham+Company.

In discouraging news for church leaders, giving to religious organizations is still down.

Social media and smartphones are changing the way people communicate—and consume—information. And there’s a clear bias against Christian speech.

Among regular Bible readers, more than a third indicate they read it nearly every day and typically use one primary version of the Bible.

Truli will soon open the door to a wide variety of Christian spiritual and educational insights with entertainment elements – including sermons, music, concerts, movies, comedy and internet/TV programs – all within a trusted, secure and interactive online community brought together by a shared belief.

The Bible Audio Pronunciations iPhone application has expanded the size of it’s library from 1,000 words to 2,400 words. Ultimately, the app will contain every proper noun in the Bible, approximately 7,000 words.