Pastor Lawan Andimi was a peace-loving man. He was affiliated with the Church of the Brethren in northern Nigeria, and he served as chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in his local district in Adamawa State. But a few weeks ago the soft-spoken church leader was abducted by Islamic militants affiliated with the ruthless Boko Haram terrorist group.

A few days later Andimi appeared in a video that was widely distributed inside and outside Nigeria. In his message he asked church and government leaders to negotiate his release. But he also said that he was prepared to die if necessary.

On Jan. 20 he was beheaded by his captors. Sources said Andimi refused to renounce his faith in Jesus.

He paid the ultimate price.

Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, denounced the murder as “cruel, inhuman and deliberately provocative,” according to The New York Times. But press releases will not stop the killings. Just days after Andimi’s death, another Islamic terrorist group in a different region of northern Nigeria killed nine Christians and two other captives. The group released a video showing a hooded child, probably 9 years old, executing a Christian man with a pistol.

What can we do about this senseless violence? It seems so far removed from our isolated world. Most Americans are too preoccupied with the Super Bowl or the Oscars to care about religious violence on the other side of the world. But those of us who follow Christ cannot remain passive when our brothers and sisters are suffering.

On the political side, we can demand action. Write your senators and representatives in Washington and ask them to pressure Nigeria to end Boko Haram’s reign of terror. Islamic militants are already spreading their influence beyond Nigeria into neighboring countries, and America must stand for religious freedom and demand that Mr. Buhari’s government take military action against the terrorist groups.

You can also pray during this time of emergency. The Christian Association of Nigeria has called for three days of prayer and fasting beginning this Friday, Jan. 31 to Feb. 2. Never underestimate the power of united prayer. Gather your church together to pray for all believers living in nations where Christians are persecuted.

Here are six biblical ways you can pray:

SOURCE: Charisma News

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COMMENTARY

It’s a question that pastors often wrestle with as they seek to follow God’s calling on their lives: How do we reach more people in our community? With church attendance on the decline, at times, pastors can feel as though they’re grasping at straws when it comes to impacting their community and expanding outreach. 
 
In my many years of ministry, one thing has proven true time and time again: you must meet people where they’re at. To meaningfully engage with unchurched individuals and families, it’s essential to find some kind of common ground to form the basis of a connection that is rooted in genuine concern. And while there are countless ways of doing this, I’ve found sports to be one of the best. 
 
While it’s certainly true that not every American enjoys watching or participating in athletics, the vast majority do. Seventy-three percent of American men and over half of American women watch NFL football, and nearly three-quarters of American kids play some kind of team or individual sport. Sports are often woven into the fabric of families – allowing them to connect over the shared joy of watching their kids have fun on the field, and creating teachable moments for valuable lessons like teamwork, humility, and  persevering through challenges. 
 
Some might argue that adding sports to a church’s strategic ministry plan distracts from its core mission of preaching the Gospel and praying for the needs of the world. However, in my experience, it actually creates greater opportunity for transformational impact. We can’t overlook the realities of the society that we’re living in. The church’s influence on American culture today is far less  than it was fifty, twenty or even ten years ago. Many people don’t even know what goes on inside the walls of a church or why they should set foot inside. But a mission-driven, community centered sports ministry has the potential to become a consistent bridge that enables us to develop relationships with unreached families who might otherwise look at the church as irrelevant or unnecessary to their daily lives. 
 
I don’t have to tell you how popular sports is to American culture. Even though sports participation is declining in America, the share of children ages 6 to 12 who play a team sport on a regular basis was nearly 40 percent in 2017, according the Aspen Institute. 
 
Through my work with Upward Sports, I’ve seen over and over how churches can leverage the power of sports to draw families into a faith community and invest in their long-term spiritual health. Kids from all backgrounds and circumstances are able to make new friends and develop mentally, athletically, socially, and spiritually by participating in church-sponsored sports. Likewise, parents find that they feel less isolated as they get to know the other parents cheering on the sidelines. One mom with a special needs child said that the Saturdays she spends watching her son’s games allow her the rare opportunity to feel like a normal “soccer mom.” Much of her time is spent shuttling back and forth between doctor’s appointments, meetings and school – but on Saturdays, she gets to sit back and enjoy watching her son play and have fun just like any other kid. 
 
Sports also give the church countless opportunities to intentionally teach kids about the Gospel. The emotions that inevitably arise in the context of team sports awaken questions of community and self-worth. Christ-centered coaching can model how to be kind in victory and gracious in defeat. It can show kids that, even amidst the highs and lows of the game, their identity is grounded in a love that does not waver, no matter how well or poorly they perform. 
 
It also opens the door to the kind of deep, long-term relationships that generate transformative change. When parents see that their kids are well-cared for and surrounded by people who ask about their week and really listen, they notice a difference. That difference can spark an interest in what happens inside the church not just on Saturday mornings, but on Sunday mornings as well. By equipping churchgoing families involved in sports teams and then deploying them to connect with newcomers and make a point of inviting them over for dinner or out for a post-game ice-cream run, real ministry impact happens on the field, in the gym, and out in the community at large . 
 
And forming these kinds of relationships doesn’t just benefit the unchurched community – it benefits the church as well. It’s easy for many of us in the church to inadvertently hide ourselves away, interacting only with likeminded people while forgetting we are meant to be salt and light in the world around us. Friendships with those who don’t share our worldview gives us opportunities to live out the truth of God’s word in such a way that those interacting with us experience Christ’s love on a very real and personal level.. 
 
In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the church about his approach to evangelism. He writes about his willingness to adapt in order to relate to others and ultimately, share his faith in Christ. “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them,” he writes. “To the Jews, I became as a Jew…To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” 
 
As we incorporate sports into our ministry strategy, it enables us to speak to a culture that gathers around the TV or the soccer field in search of connection and purpose. When used correctly, athletics empower us to share the Gospel with greater poignancy and power to the neighborhoods and nations that are in desperate need of hearing the good news through relationship with Christ-followers who have been transformed by it. 
 
Mark Steinert is the Partner Experience Director at Upward Sports.

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The nondenominational Belmont University in Tennessee will absorb a nearby private art college suffering from low enrollment, creating questions about whether non-Christian faculty can keep their jobs once the merger is completed in the fall. 

The Nashville-based Belmont University, an institution of 8,400 students with a “rich Baptist heritage,” announced it will merge with the Watkins College of Art, a four-year art and design institution founded in 1885 that has less than 200 undergraduate students.

According to a statement released by Belmont last week, the governing boards of both institutions approved a merger agreement that is now pending approval by the accrediting agency for both schools, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The transition for Watkins’ students, programs and staff to their new home on the Belmont campus will take place by the fall 2020 semester. The two campuses are about 6.5 miles apart.

“For well over a century, Watkins has fostered the talents and honed the crafts of thousands of phenomenal artists,” Belmont President Bob Fisher said in a statement.  “Partnering this legacy with Belmont’s thriving creative community in the arts, music, film and design represents a natural fit and brings incredible synergy to benefit all students.”

Watkins and Belmont are already engaged in an academic partnership in which students at both institutions are eligible to take select classes at the other institution.

But now under the agreement, Belmont will house Watkins’ undergraduate programs.

Watkins students majoring in fine arts, graphic design, illustration and photography will now join Belmont’s fine arts programs under the newly created Watkins College of Art.

Watkins students majoring in interior design will now become part of Belmont’s O’More College of Architecture and Design. Watkins’ film students will join Belmont’s Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business.

The agreement calls for the 13-acre campus where Watkins College of Art is located to be sold. The proceeds from the sale will be used to create an endowment to support scholarships for Watkins students, according to the press release.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith

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If you read the Bible cover to cover, you’ll see there is no ambiguity when it comes to extramarital sex. Simply stated, it is forbidden. Sex before marriage is called fornication. Sex outside of marriage is called adultery. And marriage is defined as the lifelong union of a male and a female. That’s how Genesis defines it and that’s how Jesus defines it.

Church standards throughout history would reaffirm all these points.

All sexual relations outside the confines of marriage (which, to repeat, has always and only been the union of a man and a woman) are considered immoral and sinful.

But in today’s morally confused society, right is now wrong and wrong is now right, to the point that the Church of England has apologized for reaffirming basic, biblical morality.

As reported by CNN, “Top archbishops in the Church of England have apologized for guidance issued by the church last week that said only married heterosexuals should have sex—while same-sex or heterosexual Christians in civil partnerships should remain abstinent.

“Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu said in a statement Thursday that they took responsibility for last week’s announcement, ‘which we acknowledge has jeopardized trust.

“We are very sorry and recognize the division and hurt this has caused,’ Welby and Sentamu wrote.”

The pastoral guidance statement was issued “in response to the extension of civil partnerships to heterosexual couples in the UK.

“The guidance, published January 22, said ‘for Christians, marriage—that is the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows—remains the proper context for sexual activity.’”

SOURCE: Charisma News

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Another eternal principle in the secret kingdom I call the Law of Change. Jesus said that nobody will “put new wine into old wineskins. Or else the wineskins burst, the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish. But they put new wine into new wineskins” (Matt. 9:17a). What is the spiritual meaning of this teaching?

Human institutions, like old wine skins, become brittle and are often subject to cracking. People involved are set in their ways, and they love the phrase “we have always done it this way.”

In his brilliant treatise on the New Testament, J. B. Phillips said, “Those who think they know God always persecute those who really do.” Contemplate the historic record when Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. He was merely trying to be a good Catholic and offer suggestions to bring about peaceful reform. Instead he was excommunicated and hunted down as an outlaw by the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

When John Calvin gained ecclesiastical control of Geneva, he permitted the drowning of those known as Anabaptists, who felt that being sprinkled as unbelievers was inadequate and wanted to be baptized by immersion as believers.

King Henry VIII started what we now know as the Episcopal Church, and yet he had one of his many wives executed because she held allegiance to the pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

In the modern era, charismatics and Pentecostals were persecuted by Baptists and more Protestant denominations because the old skins could not accommodate the new wine that the Holy Spirit was pouring out throughout the world.

Henry Ford was considered a brilliant inventor, but he was fixated on the manufacturing of his black, stripped-down Model T automobile. When his son, Edsel, created a shiny, sleek Model A car, it was reported that his father took a sledgehammer and broke the beautiful new car to pieces.

SOURCE: Charisma News

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The son of an Anglican bishop in El Salvador who fled his native country following death threats from a gang has been deported, according to his father.

Josue Alvarado Guerra, the 34-year-old son of Bishop David Alvarado of the Diocese of El Salvador, was recently deported after being detained in Ohio by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last November.

Bishop Alvarado sent a letter to Ohio Bishop Mark Hollingsworth Jr. confirming that his son was back home, according to Episcopal News Service.

“We thank the God of life for allowing us to have Josue back in our house and share with him the difficult experiences he lived in detention,” wrote Alvarado, according to ENS.

“Josue definitely can’t be safe anywhere in El Salvador, we fear for his life. … We want to continue with the plans to get him out of the country as soon as possible.”

Alvarado also said that his family was working on getting asylum for Alvarado Guerra in Canada, with the bishop believing that sending him to another Central American country involves the same “situation of insecurity.”

“We know that there is a large list of friends who gave spiritual and pastoral support to our son,” he added. “We are fully grateful for all they did and we beg you to continue supporting us to put [Josue] in a safe place.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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Actor John Rhys-Davies attended the 28th annual Movieguide Awards where he shared his thoughts on the impact Christianity has had on the world.

The “Lord of The Rings” star made his return to faith-based entertainment recently as a voice in the animated film “Pilgrim’s Progress” and as the lead in the upcoming movie about the life of Ireland’s patron saint Patrick. He revealed that he often finds himself defending Christianity.

“I count myself a rationalist and a skeptic, and I find myself constantly defending Christians and Christianity,” Rhys-Davies told The Christian Post while on the red carpet at the popular awards show that celebrates faith and family content.

“We seem to forget that Christian civilization has made the world a better place than it ever was,” he continued.

The U.K. native said one of Christianity’s greatest “glories, was the abolition of slavery” but maintained that slavery still exists and it makes him mad.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law

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