Kirk Franklin gave praise to “Jesus the King, because it is all about Him” after bagging the award for Best Gospel Performance for his song “Love Theory” at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles.

“Gospel music has so many incredible talents and I’m so humbled to be in that category with some of the greatest to ever do it,” said the singer at the 2020 Grammy Awards. “I am such a fan of all these incredible men and women that I get to tell the world about Jesus the King because it is all about Him, amen?”

His fellow nominees were Gloria Gaynor featuring Yolanda Adams (“Talkin’ About Jesus”), Travis Greene featuring Jekalyn Carr (“See The Light”), Koryn Hawthorne featuring Natalie Grant (“Speak The Name”) and Tasha Cobbs Leonard (“This Is A Move (Live)”).

Franklin also won the Grammy for Best Gospel Album for Long Live Love.

The nominees for Best Gospel Album included Donald Lawrence Presents the Tri-City Singers for Goshen, Gene Moore for Tunnel Vision, William Murphy for Settle Here, and CeCe Winans for Something’s Happening! – A Christmas Album.

At the awards ceremony, Franklin sent his prayers to the family of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who died along with his daughter and seven others on Sunday in a helicopter accident in California.

Christian pop duo For King & Country in collaboration with American singer and songwriter Dolly Parton won the award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, for their song “God Only Knows.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar

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A coronavirus continues to spread through China and to other countries, presenting new challenges for Asian Access.

The coronavirus first appeared in the city of Wuhan in China. Like the SARS coronavirus in 2003, this currently unnamed virus has mutated to be able to infect not just animals, but humans as well. Precisely how the virus made the jump from animals to humans is unknown. The virus causes pneumonia, making it potentially deadly. With almost 3,000 confirmed cases around China, over 80 have died.

China has quarantined more than 50 million people, and has placed a travel ban on 16 cities. Officials expect the outbreak to worsen, and China is racing to produce enough medical supplies to deal with the crisis. Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the Unites States have also reported cases, but the World Health Organization has not called it a global health emergency.

Joe Handley of Asian Access says the spread of the virus is disrupting the travel and work of the ministry. “For instance,” he says, “I know of one group that was supposed to meet this year . . .they were going to be gathering in Southeast Asia, and everyone from Wuhan was asked not to come and that was before the government put the restriction on that area.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Kevin Zeller

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The Trump administration has authorized millions in federal grants for churches and other houses of worship and nonprofit organizations for the purpose of defending against violence amid rising hostility to religion, specifically anti-Semitism.

In remarks last week in the East Room of the White House before a gathering of American mayors about the economy and community renewal, President Donald Trump noted that “in the face of attacks on synagogues, mosques, and churches in our community — something that is just so horrible — we must work together to reject the monstrous evils of anti-Semitism and anti-religious bigotry.”

“I will sign legislation authorizing $375 million for federal grants to help houses of worship and other faith-based and non-profit organizations defend against violence,” Trump said to applause, adding, “It’s crazy; what’s going on is crazy.”

“We are committed to building a nation where every community is secure, every family is safe, and every child can grow up in dignity and in peace.”

The bipartisan authorization, which substantially increased the funding for the Nonprofit Security Grants Program, allows houses of worship to apply for $100,000 grants to be used for things like fencing, cameras, stronger doors and the hiring of security professionals. The bill passed the U.S. House by voice vote and passed through the Senate via Unanimous Consent.

The move follows increasing anti-Semitic violence and attacks in New York and New Jersey and, most notably, two separate synagogue shootings that occurred in Poway, California, in April and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in October 2018.

For Christian churches, the issue of taking more steps toward greater security measures rose to the fore following the massacre at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where 26 people were shot and killed in November 2017.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter

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Last week, Lebanon formed a new government. That’s good news.

Since October, the volume with which people voiced their anger over the economic crisis only increased. Although mostly peaceful, it quickly morphed into an anti-corruption call, which turned into a demand for top officers to step down. In answer, Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned three months ago, taking the Cabinet with him and remaining only as a caretaker. Top officials President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri remained in place.

Protestors demanded a new government and a new approach to turning the economic crisis around. It would seem that for the new prime minister, Hassan Diab’s appointment, the first job at hand is to get his position confirmed. Then the REAL work begins.

Heart For Lebanon’s Tom Atema explains, “What happens next is approval process from the Parliament. That will take about two weeks to confirm everything and make sure that happens. This new government was formed after Hezbollah and its allies clinched a deal with the Cabinet for the country to tackle some of its worst economic problems that they have had in history.”

For the former education minister and university professor, it’s a lot to handle. “His first big issue is to solve the economic crisis. That is huge,” Atema says. Tackling it will take a vote of confidence and an infusion of cash from the Arab bloc. “If they will do that at very low-interest rates or no interest, then they will not have to go through years of austerity as Greece did. But if they don’t, or don’t give them that much, or have high interest rates or high restrictions, it is very possible that it could be years (for recovery). ”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, R.B. Klama

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Until recently, protests in Lebanon caused a pause in mission work. While protests were mainly peaceful, local mission organizations saw many teams cancel their trips.

Pierre Houssney from Horizons International says several visiting mission teams were in Beirut when protests broke out last October. “A lot of them just got locked down in their hotels, or in their guest houses,” Houssney says.

“As soon as they got out of Lebanon, other teams started canceling.”

The outbreak of protests in mid-October painted an uneasy picture and set mission teams on-edge. The U.S. State Department raised Lebanon to Level 3 of 4 and issued an advisory urging citizens to reconsider travel due to increased risk.

“It’s difficult when people come from abroad and there’s that uncertainty… or they’ve got the family concerned back home. [If] they’re afraid, they’re just going to cancel,” Houssney observes.

“Usually the ones that are asking us [questions], they’re actually kind of… willing to step out.”

Trip cancellations in 2019 set Horizons’ guesthouse program back financially at the start of 2020. “We actually lost a lot of revenue, which has been difficult because that money is also needed to be supporting refugees, to be supporting the ministries,” Houssney explains.

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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Deaf Bible Society’s new online tool, Deaf Church Where, maps where people can find Deaf accessible churches. Ryan Sims, Deaf Church Where Project Coordinator with Deaf Bible Society, says Deaf Church Where is helpful for many reasons.

Besides the obvious benefit of connecting Deaf believers to the Body of Christ, it can also be an invaluable connecting resource to pastors of Deaf churches.

“You have to understand in the Deaf community, it’s very spread out so finding pastors can be very scarce.” Sims says. “I, being a pastor myself, can reach out to another church and I can talk about the frustrations that I have and some of the stress that I have and see if that person has any wisdom and advice that they can give me. We can come together and pray. Vice versa, they can share their frustrations and problems.”

Pastors of Deaf churches can feel alone in ministry, especially in rural areas where Deaf resources may be spread out and disconnected.

“Out of a big city, you’ll have a variety of [Deaf] churches, but just outside that, those pastors might feel isolated.” With the help of tools like Deaf Church Where, “They’ll be able to reach out for help [and] be able to build relationships and have accountability.

“If you’re looking in Acts 1:8, it talks about spreading out God’s Word in essentially the local area and then to the greater area and then to the world. So it’s the same concept with the big city and then the cities surrounding that large city of little towns and then the world. We don’t want to miss that in between.”

Sims says before the advent of Deaf Church Where, a major connection point for Deaf Christians were conferences. But conferences for the Deaf are few and far between, and when searching for a church, Deaf people can find themselves in embarrassing or uncomfortable situations.

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Lyndsey Koh

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Sarah Robinson, blogger at BeautifulBetween.com, says she experienced a very strong stigma surrounding mental illness in her church—in fact, people even called her “demon-possessed.” She didn’t feel like church was a safe place to open up about her feelings, and it wasn’t until later that the leaders gained more knowledge about mental illness and changed their approach.

“It would not be terribly uncommon to hear things from the pulpit like, ‘God is healing people with depression, and you won’t have to take your medication anymore,’” Robinson says. “And I had one leader who I dearly love once tell me … ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all, even about yourself.’ We’re taught that as kids, which means don’t say mean things about your friends and your siblings. But in that context, the message I heard was, ‘You can’t open up about your pain, and the church is not a safe place to bring your mess.’ And so there were a lot of things like that. … I had people tell me that I was demon-possessed because of the things I struggled with, and all sorts of stuff. …

“But I’ve also learned that people change, people grow and people learn things they didn’t know before. And now some of those same leaders who said some of those things are the people who I can tell anything to. They’re completely trustworthy; they understand mental health issues because their lives went on, and they have some different experiences and they were exposed to some more training. And so it’s been a really healing thing for me to kind of circle back around with some of those people who maybe early on in my faith journey said some things that were harmful, but now are some of my greatest cheerleaders and support. …

“I think for those of us who have been hurt by the church, I just want to say there’s so much hope, and things are getting better. And sometimes you have to keep trying to find the support you need.”

SOURCE: Charisma News

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