Pray for Westside Christian Church

Location: Bradenton, Florida

Pastor: Tim Boyd

Weekly Worship: Sundays at 8:30, 9:45, & 11:00, Eastern

Fast Facts: Westside Christian Church in Bradenton, Florida is the recipient of Revitalize Network’s 2020 Church of the Year Growth Award.

Westside Church started several decades ago. For many years, they ministered to retirees who moved to Bradenton. The problem was the neighborhood began to change. It got younger and more diverse. The retirees got older. In order for the church to survive another generation, something had to be done. Since the church was not in crisis, Pastor Tim Boyd took a measured and careful approach. He taught what it meant to be a church focused on God’s mission. They reworked church polity. They developed leaders. They equipped and empowered the congregation for ministry.

During the first five years, change was slow, but then the neighborhood started to show up. Recently, Tim asked the congregation to raise their hands if they had attended Westside for less than a year. About 40% to 50% of the people put their hands in the air. The church now has three worship options on Sunday morning, and close to 300 people now call Westside Christian Church home.

Please pray for Pastor Tim and the members at Westside as they continue to grow and reach their neighborhood for Christ.

Website: http://www.WestsideChristianChurch

The 2020 Church of the Year Growth Award was made possible by Gloo. http://www.Gloo.us


“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com….

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Joe Biden Releases Official Statement Denying Sexual Assault Allegations

Joe Biden Releases Official Statement Denying Sexual Assault Allegations


 Joe Biden said Friday that the allegations of sexual assault of a former staffer are not true.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, released a full statement about the claim, Fox News reports. Former Senate staffer Tara Reade recently came forward, claiming that Biden sexually assaulted her while she worked in his Senate office in 1993.

“They aren’t true. This never happened,” Biden said in a written statement.

“While the details of these allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault are complicated, two things are not complicated. One is that women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward, they should be heard, not silenced. The second is that their stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny.”

Reade came forward in March with the allegation, saying Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she worked as an aide in his Senate office. Earlier this week, a former neighbor of Reade said she remembers Reade confiding to her about the assault. Then a former colleague of Reade’s says she also recalls the incident.

Biden says there is no record that Reade complained to supervisors about the sexual assault, although Reade says she did tell senior staffers at the office. He added that the only place a complaint could be is in the National Archives. He has asked the Secretary of the Senate to search the Archives…

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Worldwide Prayer Event Hopes to Reach 1 Billion People by the End of May

Worldwide Prayer Event Hopes to Reach 1 Billion People by the End of May


Friday marks the beginning of a worldwide prayer event that hopes to reach one billion people with the Gospel.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, back in January, about 1,000 churches gathered together in Tennessee for a 30 day-prayer event, Awaken Tennessee, where mass revival broke out.

The event was set to occur again in May, but with the outbreak of COVID-19 and a string of violent tornadoes ripping through the state, many churches are closed.

Barbie Franklin, a statewide facilitator with Awaken Tennessee, told CBN News, however, that despite these setbacks, God would continue the work He began in bringing revival, only now, with the help of technology.

“I believe that it is enhancing what God is doing because people have need right now,” Franklin told CBN News. “This has humbled all of us. And really, as the body of Christ, when these things happen, what we have to do is see [that] the Lord has said, ‘If my people who are called by my name, will humbled themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will heal your land,’” she continued.

“As the revival began in Rogersville, many people have been praying for many years for these kinds of things,” Franklin said referring to people seeking forgiveness.

Friday, leaders working with Awaken Tennessee will launch the digital prayer event, World Prayer Together, via live…

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Herdsmen Ambush Christian Couple with Machetes in Plateau State, Nigeria

Herdsmen Ambush Christian Couple with Machetes in Plateau State, Nigeria


JOS, Nigeria, May 1, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked a Christian couple in Plateau state, Nigeria with machetes on Sunday (April 26), leaving the husband with serious injuries, sources said.

Yusuf Pam, 40, was recovering from deep cuts to his head at Nerat Hospital, Barkin Ladi, in Barkin Ladi County. He and his wife, Jumai Yusuf, were riding a motorcycle from Kuru to Kwi when the herdsmen ambushed them near Heipang after a rainfall at about 7 p.m., he told Morning Star News contact Dung Tabari, a resident of the area.

“When the herdsmen stopped us, they had with them sticks, cutlasses, and rifles,” Pam told Tabari from his hospital bed. “We pleaded with them to allow us pass, but they wouldn’t, as four among them mercilessly descended on us. They attacked us by cutting us with machetes. They cut me on my head several times, and these left me with deep cuts as I was bleeding.”

A member along with his wife of a Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) congregation in Rachos village, in the Kwi area of Riyom County, Pam said the Fulani herdsmen were many.

“The herdsmen ganged up on me and started an intense beating using sticks and cutlasses,” Pam said.

Miraculously, his wife was able to escape with minor cuts and hands swollen from blows with sticks, he said. Jumai Yusuf said no one answered her cries for help.

“They continued beating us and…

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Looting artifacts in a pandemic: Reframing spiritual adversity as opportunity

Rare bronze artifacts from a presentation of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Caesarea, Israel. May 16, 2016.

One of my great joys is leading
study tours to the Holy Land. In fact, I would be there now except for the
pandemic.

Much of what we see in Israel
has been made available to us by archaeologists who work with remarkable
fortitude and expertise to bring the past to the present. The artifacts they
discover are obviously unique and irreplaceable.

This is why I read this story with such anger and dismay: smugglers are using coronavirus lockdowns to pillage archaeological sites and sell their finds on online black markets.

Restrictions in response to the pandemic have left archaeological sites, museums, and similar locations with less protection. And the economic downturn is making more people desperate. One looter even posted a video of himself robbing a tomb recently.

Reframing spiritual adversity as opportunity

One of the tragedies of this
tragedy is the way it is leading to other tragedies. Some patients suffering
from non-coronavirus problems are apparently not going to hospitals for
treatment, which is obviously dangerous for them. The economic devastation
resulting from the virus is affecting everyone.

We are fighting a war on many
fronts.

There is a spiritual warning
here: our spiritual enemy delights in using adversity to spawn greater
adversity. He tempts us to turn from God at the very time when we most need to
turn to God. When we are sheltering in private, he tempts us to commit private
sins.

Such malice is true to his nature: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Our enemy cannot attack the
Father, so he attacks his children.

As a result, it is even more
vital that we stay close to our Lord in these days. One way is to…

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God Wants Us to Be Alive, Not Just Live, Sadie Robertson Shares

God Wants Us to Be Alive, Not Just Live, Sadie Robertson Shares


Not only is Sadie Robertson a member of the influential Duck Dynasty family, but she is also a well-received author and public speaker.

It is clear from speaking with Robertson that she is focused on making sure she fulfills God’s call on her life.

When asked in an interview with Christian Headlines what it was like to grow up in the Robertson household, Robertson mused. “Everybody asks that question, but it’s probably like it was growing up in your family. I don’t know anything else,” she shared.

When asked to share one main thing her parents taught her while growing up, she’s quick to offer a few words of wisdom passed down to her by her mother.

“Get rid of the ‘should ofs,’” Robertson recalled her Mom encouraging her to do.

This may explain Robertson’s steadfastness in pursuing God’s plan for her.

Her humility is authentic and on full display when she speaks.

Last month, Robertson released a new book, Live, which has already reached the New York Best Seller’s list.

“I didn’t plan on writing this book, it was only because of circumstances in my life and my friend’s life, that I changed the direction I was going,” she told Christian Headlines. 

Robertson’s book highlights the importance of not only living but being alive, concepts Robertson asserts are distinctly different.

Jesus, she explained, has called for us to be alive and to live abundant lives but just survive. 

Robertson also…

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Expectations of Justice Low for Grieving Family of Street Sweeper in Pakistan

Expectations of Justice Low for Grieving Family of Street Sweeper in Pakistan


LAHORE, Pakistan, May 1, 2020 (Morning Star News) – When a Christian sanitation worker died after a police car struck him last week in Gujranwala, Pakistan, officers compensated his impoverished family with the equivalent of US$620.

Rights advocates fear the Christian family likely will be forced to pardon the driver.

The case typifies the discrimination and dangers that street sweepers face in Pakistan, a country with a 96-percent Muslim population where only non-Muslims – mostly Christians – are hired to pick up garbage from the roads.

“The government announced the measly monetary compensation only after the Christians raised this issue on social media, otherwise this incident too would have been swept under the rug as always,” Mary James Gill, executive director of the Centre for Law and Justice, told Morning Star News. “It’s unfortunate that the government continues to ignore the plight of the Christian sanitation workers, who are doing their jobs on the roads with full commitment amid the coronavirus pandemic, and that too without any protective gear.”

Ashiq Masih, a 56-year-old Catholic working as a contract employee for the Gujranwala Municipal Corporation in Punjab Province, was picking up roadside garbage on April 24 when a police vehicle speeding the wrong way on a one-way street struck him at full force, critically injuring the father of three.

With…

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65 Percent of Americans Support Trump’s Temporary Pause on Immigration

65 Percent of Americans Support Trump’s Temporary Pause on Immigration


Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they agree with President Trump’s temporary suspension of new immigrant visas, which the White House says is necessary to ensure U.S. workers are protected as they search for jobs during the economic recovery from the pandemic.

A total of 65 percent of U.S. adults in the Washington Post/University of Maryland survey said they support “temporarily blocking nearly all immigration into the United States during the coronavirus outbreak.” Thirty-four percent opposed the idea.

“By pausing immigration, we’ll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens,” Trump previously said. “… It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad.”

The new Trump policy suspends new immigrant visas for 60 days. Exceptions will be made for medical and other essential workers, spouses and minor children of American citizens, and other areas, according to a White House release.

“Mass migration of low-skilled labor into the United States disproportionately harms historically disadvantaged Americans,” the release said.

The poll reflects results from a USA Today/Ipsos poll in April, in which 79 percent of Americans said they supported a temporary pause on all immigration. Significantly, the USA Today survey showed that Americans back a policy even stricter than…

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Modifying iPhones for facemask wearers and cutting the hair of medical workers: As we work, God works

A young woman looks at her smartphone while wearing a face mask on April 24, 2020.

In a sign of the times, Apple is testing a new version of software for its iPhones that will enable people to unlock their phones while wearing a mask.

Obviously, Face ID will not work if the user is wearing a face mask. Nonetheless, the phone is programmed to try Face ID, which must fail before the user is allowed to enter a passcode to unlock the phone. When the update launches, users will be able to swipe up to activate their passcode without having to wait for an error when Face ID doesn’t register. 

“This is more than just a haircut” 

“I have cut hair for twenty years, and I feel so proud. Cutting hair for the rich, for the famous, is nothing compared to these frontline heroes. They are the most important people in the world right now.” This is how Pornsupa Hattayong explains the work she is doing for medical workers in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Thailand’s hair salons have been closed for more than a month to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The forty-three-year-old hairstylist offered free haircuts at Bangkok hospitals and was surprised by the response. “They just kept coming. Some arrived in their medical gowns and asked if they could get a haircut right away as they had to go to work,” says Pornsupa. At that point, she asked her friends to pitch in to help. Their team now averages fifty heads a day. 

Pornsupa Hattayong gives haircuts to a medical worker treating COVID-19 patients at Bangkok Metropolitan Administration General Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 28, 2020.

She wears full protective clothing and douses her equipment with an alcohol-based spray between clients. She is making no money for her service, choosing to live off her savings instead. 

One doctor said, “I don’t feel like this is merely a service I am getting. It feels like more of a kindness given by a group of people to our hospital staff. This is…

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Black Churches, Via Phones and Facebook, Bridging Digital Divide amid COVID-19

Black Churches, Via Phones and Facebook, Bridging Digital Divide amid COVID-19


(RNS) — When Pastor Florine Newberry of Mattie Richland Baptist Church in rural Pineview, Georgia, realized her congregation wouldn’t be able to meet in the church’s blue carpeted sanctuary due to the coronavirus pandemic, “I just saw the sheep scattering,” she said.

Many of the 45 to 50 members of Newberry’s independent church do not have computers or home access to the internet. Though some own cellphones, cellular service is often spotty in the rural flats more than two hours south of Atlanta.

Her worst fears were quieted when some parishioners took to gathering 6 feet apart in their cars on sunny Sundays to hear Newberry preach. 

But once Mattie Richland Baptist became one of 46 predominantly black churches in Georgia to receive help gaining internet access from Fair Count, an organization founded to increase participation in the 2020 census in hard-to-count areas, Newberry’s great-nephew — and Sunday school teacher — said he could use his phone to livestream her sermons.

When Newberry preached her Easter sermon from the doorway of her church, her message was viewed by hundreds of people via Facebook Live thanks to the Fair Count hot spot.

“That hot spot from Fair Count, and through the blessings of God that watches over Mattie Richland, has allowed me to have peace of mind that I can still reach out to people,” said Newberry.

America’s black clergy,…

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