Author and Christ Covenant Church Senior Pastor Kevin DeYoung has stressed the need for churches to have mission statements more comparable to the U.S. Navy SEALs.

Speaking at The Gospel Coalition’s West Coast Conference Tuesday night, DeYoung centered his speech on 2^nd Timothy 2:1–13.

In the biblical passage, the Apostle Paul compares the Christian life to that of being a good soldier, a good athlete, and a hardworking farmer.

DeYoung recalled seeing a church website’s welcome statement, critically listing the items they put forth for potential visitors for worship.

These things included “a casual atmosphere,” “friendly people who will help you find your way around,” “today’s music,” “a Starbucks-esque café where you can relax,” “a Wi-Fi zone to soothe your inner geek,” and, lastly, “you will find that you matter to God.”

As a contrast, DeYoung then read off the SEAL Code, which included “Loyalty to country, team and teammate,” “Serve with honor and integrity on and off the battlefield,” “Ready to lead, ready to…

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has welcomed the idea of moving the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, sparking widespread debate over the issue. 

In May, the United States moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem signaling the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s true capital. 

On Tuesday, Australia’s Prime Minister suggested that the land down under might be following suit. 

During a press conference on Monday, Morrison said, “We are committed to a two-state solution. Australia’s position on this issue has, to date, assumed that it is not possible to consider the question of the recognition of Israel’s capital in Jerusalem, and that be consistent with pursuing a two-state solution.”  

The Prime Minister goes on to say that the former Ambassador of Australia to Israel, Dave Sharma, suggested several months ago that moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv could allow for Australia to both, recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move toward a two-state solution. 

The two-state solution refers to a resolution between the warring nations of Israel and Palestine that would create “an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel — two states for two peoples,” as the New York Times put it.

Many on the world stage have been working for decades…

Illinois megachurch Pastor James MacDonald recently performed a social experiment with his church and the results blew him away.

The founder of the seven-campus Harvest Bible Chapel posted a video of an experiment where he dressed as a bearded homeless man and sat outside of two Harvest Bible Chapel campuses before Sunday services, observing the churchgoers reactions to him. 

The Christian Post reports that MacDonald did the experiment to test his congregations’ willingness to love their neighbor as themselves like the bible commands.

The video that MacDonald posted to his Facebook page on Monday, first shows MacDonald sitting in front of the church buildings with a cup for change, a sign and a shopping cart. 

Then slowly, congregants begin to show up, and one by one they all walk by the disguised pastor, without a single person offering help.  

At one point, the video shows one man contemplating what he should do. The man walks toward and then away from MacDonald several times before finally deciding to just go inside the church.

“The closer a person is to us and the less common the struggle, the easier it is to love,” MacDonald says in the video. “God forbid I find out my wife has three months to live. I would quit my job and quit everything, right? What if it’s just an acquaintance of yours and what if the problem is recurring……

JUBA, South Sudan, October 17, 2018 (Morning Star News)– Security officials in Sudan last week arrested 13 Christians during a worship service in the Darfur Region, sources said.

Personnel from Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) interrupted the worship service the afternoon of Oct. 10 in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state in western Sudan’s Darfur Region and arrested all 13 Christians present (not Oct. 13 while evangelizing Muslims, as reported elsewhere), the sources said.

NISS personnel gave no reason for arresting the Christians, members of four different house churches who had come together for the service, except to say that they were all converts from Islam, the sources said. Authorities are targeting Christian converts from Islam in Darfur, they said.

“We are worried because their whereabouts are still unknown,” said one source, adding that he feared they might be tortured. “The Christians gathered as one body of Christ from different denominations.”

The arrested Christians include 10 from Darfur and three from the Nuba Mountains in southeastern Sudan. Church leader Tajaldin Idriss Yousif was arrested along with his church members: Alfadil Ismail Alnil, Ahmed Mohammed Hassan, Neseraldin Osman, Shemen Ahmed Shemen and Abubaker Biri.

Other Christians arrested were identified only as Kamal, Abdullah, Mutasim,…

Reformed theologian John Piper has provided an explanation for why he stays out of political discussions despite the curiosity of others.

Piper said on desiringGod.org Monday that people’s observations of him avoiding discussions on politics and current events are mostly true, and reflected on the various reasons for why that is.

“It is a generalization — let’s be clear. It’s a generalization because I wrote a whole book on racism, and it has political ramifications everywhere. I have lots of sermons and articles on abortion, marriage, homosexuality. I’ve looked [former President Barack] Obama right in the face and spoken stuff on YouTube,” he positioned.

Still, he said that the observations are not wrong.

“In general, that is the impression you would get of my life’s work — my sermons and messages and articles and APJs and Look at the Book episodes. Piper doesn’t come at current events very often,” he said of himself.

He listed a number of reasons for why he is the way he is, starting with the way he was raised, namely in an atmosphere where the condition of one’s soul is seen as infinitely more important that politics on Earth.

“I feel today that most of the macro and international, political, economic…

Physicist Stephen Hawking died in March, but not before working on a final book that provides his answers to a host of major issues – including his disbelief in God. 

The book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, was released Tuesday. The book wasn’t complete when he died at the age of 76, so his family and friends used his notes and archives to finish it, according to CNN. 

“Do I have faith?” he writes. “We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is that there is no God. No one created the universe, and no one directs our fate.”

He adds: “When we die, we return to dust.”

It wasn’t the first time Hawking expressed his disbelief. 

On other issues, Hawking said he believes there is other intelligent life in the universe. 

“There are forms of intelligent life out there,” he writes. “We need to be wary of answering back until we have developed a bit further.”

Further, he predicted, “within the next hundred years we will be able to travel to anywhere in the Solar System.”

News of Hawking’s book sparked plenty of discussion on social media.

“He has come face to face with the God he rejected his whole life. So sad. Pray for those that are submitting to his influences,” wrote Ben Throwbridge on Twitter. 

On CNN’s Facebook page, reader Chris Hart wrote, “I wonder, in…