JERUSALEM — Empowered21 held the opening session of its Global Council meeting with leaders from around the world at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem the evening of January 14, 2014. William Wilson, global co-chair for Empowered21 and president of Oral Roberts University laid out the vision for Empowered21 and set the stage for the Global Congress to be held in Jerusalem May 2015. George Wood, general superintendent for the Assemblies of God USA and the chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship was unanimously affirmed by the global council as the new global co-chair—replacing Jack Hayford, chancellor of Kings College. Hayford will move to be an honorary member of the Global Council. Wilson also announced the appointment of Ossie Mills, Executive Vice President for University Advancement at Oral Roberts University, as the Global Director of Empowered21.

Church of God Youth and Discipleship sponsors LEAD INstitute, a program which exists to develop and deploy young adults as qualified Christian leaders in the Church of God and beyond.

Gleaning For The World, an international non-profit humanitarian aid organization based in Virginia, is providing 200,000 bottles of water to families in the Charleston and Huntington, WV areas. Utilizing churches as distribution points, Gleaning For The World is helping in Holden, Boone and Logan counties.

At least once a year, many Christians become aware of the great diversity of ways of adoring God. Hearts are touched, and people realize that their neighbors’ ways are not so strange. This celebration is not well known among Evangelical/Pentecostal churches in the USA, nevertheless those churches are invited to consider joining in prayer during this week.

If we wanted your religious beliefs on abortion-pill coverage, we’d give them to you appears to be the latest in an untenable string of arguments from the Obama DOJ over the HHS mandate.

Only two months into major recovery efforts from the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan—an endeavor that will occupy the Church of God in the Philippines for several years—the church is demonstrating that its tasks of evangelism and disciple-making remain foremost in its priorities.

Why the big disconnect between Bible ownership and reading? Is it a lack of interest or could it be that people are intimidated by the sheer size of the Bible? There are 66 books in the Bible, which were written over a span of about 1550 years by 40 authors. Maybe readers don’t know where to begin or how to go about it. That’s where My Bible Companion, a new book by Rachelle Carlson, comes in. She makes reading and understanding the Bible much easier by guiding you systematically through each book of the Bible.

Does the following logic make any sense to you—asking for something that you have already received? Of course not. The fact is, countless Christians across the earth are doing this—myself included!

A Hawaii court has dismissed two churches from a lawsuit that two atheists brought against five congregations in the Aloha State. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the two churches, One Love Ministries and Calvary Chapel Central Oahu, which the atheists falsely accused of defrauding the government.