On 26 May 2017 a convoy of Copts was travelling to the Monastery of St. Samuel in Minya, 170 miles (270km) south of Cairo, to celebrate Ascension Day. Among them were Ayad and his sons, Marco (14) and Mina (10).

“I remember it was a very hot day, so my husband and two sons left early for work in the monastery. They were working on the church bells there,” remembers 42-year-old mother-of-four, Hanaa.

Their convoy was stopped on the desert road by eight to ten gunmen. They ordered the Copt men to give up their valuables, then all, who would not confess Islam, were shot. The boys were spared “to tell the story”.

“I was having breakfast with my daughters when the phone rang,” Hanaa continues. “It was my son calling from his father’s phone. He was crying. He told me they had been attacked and that his father was in a critical condition.”

“I went as soon as I could, together with some family. The ambulance was late, so my nephew Ehab put Ayad in the back of his minivan. My husband was soaked in blood, it was a terrible sight. On the way to hospital Ayad was transferred to the ambulance, but it was too late: he died on the way.”

Hanaa’s grief was immeasurably deep. But, she said, “along the way God comforted me through the many visits of priests and people who stood with me.”

The support was also good for her 14-year-old son,…

The Southern Baptist Convention needs to include more women and minorities in its leadership, said Pastor J.D. Greear, who is a nominee for SBC president this year.

In a Facebook live video posted Thursday afternoon, Greear explained that he had a few things on his heart that he felt needed to be addressed by the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Greear, who leads Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, said in the video that while “our doctrine and our mission are solid,” he felt the SBC needed to either commit or recommit to doing a list of things.

Among them, argued Greear, was the status of women and minorities in the SBC, which he believed needed to be more proportionately represented in leadership.

“Our failure to listen to and honor women and racial minorities and our failure to include them in proportionate measures at top leadership roles have hindered our ability to see sin and injustice and call it out,” said Greear.

“It’s not that we need a charitably invite them to the table as if we’re sharing something, we need them, because God has gifted them with a wisdom, because of their experiences that we have been…

A male student who is suspected in a shooting at Noblesville West Middle School in Indiana has been taken into custody.

Authorities said Friday that the student was detained after a call was made of an active shooter. He has not been identified to the media.

Noblesville Police Department Chief Kevin Jowitt said two people were injured, including a teacher and another student. The two were taken to a hospital and their families have been notified.

Jowitt said there are no more threats to the Indiana middle school but there was a threat targeting the Noblesville High School, where middle school students were taken after the events of this morning.

He said police were on site at the high school. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on scene investigating.

According to Fox 59, the male student suspected of the shooting walked into a science classroom with a gun and opened fire. He hit a female student before a teacher was able to “swat” the gun from the shooter.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, who was returning from a Europe trip today, said he was being updated on the situation.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected by this horrible situation,” Holcomb said.

The Indiana State Teachers Association also released a statement Friday saying, “When is enough, enough?”

“This national crisis has landed in our backyard….

While there are numerous prosperity gospel churches around the world, they don’t advertise themselves as one. But one pastor is offering some guidance on how to tell if a church promotes the “health and wealth” gospel.

Tim Challies, a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Canada and an author, cited Kate Bowler’s book, Blessed, to compile his list and the first thing people should watch out for, he said, is the church’s name.

“Words like ‘victory,’ ‘abundant,’ or ‘conquerors’ provide what may be key information,” Challies wrote in his blog.

During church services, people can also determine whether the language used emphasizes “their core conviction that faith is the instrument through which believers attain their desires.” Key phrases that may be used include “releasing your faith,” “speaking your faith,” or “believing God for” things.

A church’s website is another place one can gain clues as to whether the church may be a prosperity gospel one. Challies noted that if a website “prominently features the pastor,” that may be an indication that it’s part of the prosperity gospel movement.

“Prosperity churches tend to align their identity with their senior pastor,” Challies said, noting that “71 percent of American prosperity megachurches use the image of the…

Ireland is voting today on whether or not to repeal the Eighth Amendment which mandates protections for unborn children.

As ChristianHeadlines.com previously reported, “Irish voters will go to the polls on May 25 to vote on a referendum that would add a new amendment to the Constitution overturning the Eighth Amendment, which was approved by voters in 1983 and gives equal rights to the unborn and to the mother. Specifically, the Eighth Amendment reads: ‘The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.’”

LifeNews.com reportsthat Christians and pro-life family groups have been encouraging voters to vote “no” on the repeal. Irish Catholic Bishop John Buckley, who supports the Amendment, commented that, if it were to be repealed, animals would have more rights than humans:

“It is remarkable that the State, which, under the Wildlife Act, has so many legal protections for non-human life, is trying to remove the most basic right of the child in the womb,” said Buckley.

LifeSiteNew.com also reportedon the vote, calling on people to pray and fast that the protections for the unborn would remain in place.

“Please pray and fast especially while Irish polling stations are…

Greg Oliver, an Alabama pastor who lost his job in 2009 after his 17-year addiction to sex and pornography was exposed, has found healing and a new ministry with his wife that seeks to help others overcome the devastation of pornography and sexual addiction.

Oliver and his wife, Stacey, are now members of Mountaintop Church in Birmingham, where he started a new role as pastor for care and recovery in March 2018, according to KRON4.

The former worship pastor said before his secret was exposed he thought he could manage his bad habits. It all crumbled the day he mistakenly sent an email to someone he thought he had a connection with.

“There was the part that everybody saw, who was a music and worship pastor, who was leading the band, leading the church in worship, and then there was the part of me that no one — including my wife knew about — this person had been struggling with sexual sin and addictive stuff, pornography for years and it kept progressively getting worse,” he explained.

“Foolishly I believed for a long time that finding better efforts, better self-will techniques, that I would be able to defeat it on my own, and it just…