Pennsylvania Congregation Pays United Methodist Church $100K to Leave Denomination Over Homosexuality Debate

Wesley Church (Photo courtesy Chris Lenhart)

Christian Post Report – Wesley Church of Quarryville, Pennsylvania. In June 2015 the congregation decided to leave The United Methodist Church.

A congregation in Pennsylvania has voted overwhelmingly to leave the United Methodist Church over the growing debate that the mainline denomination is having regarding its position on homosexuality.

Wesley Church, a congregation in Quarryville that has an average weekly worship attendance of about 650, voted to leave the UMC after months of discernment.

Chris Lenhart, associate pastor at Wesley Church, told The Christian Post that leadership for the congregation saw a “considerable chasm forming between what Wesley believed and affirmed about the nature of God’s word and what the denomination believed and affirmed about the nature of God’s Word.

“The primary issue for us leaving revolved around biblical authority. Wesley Church believes and affirms that God’s Word is fully inspired and inerrant and fully authoritative on all matters pertaining to our lives,” said Lenhart.

“We were indeed disappointed by the, ‘peripheral’ decisions coming from the denomination, but saw them as symptoms of a greater issue.”

  • United Methodist Church
    (Photo: UMNS/Mike DuBose)
    Protesters for greater inclusivity in The United Methodist Church stand in silent vigil just outside the bar of the denomination’s 2012 General Conference on May 3, 2012, in Tampa, Fla.

In contrast to other mainline Protestant denominations, the UMC officially considers homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching” and forbids clergy from performing gay weddings.

The UMC also prohibits the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals and defines marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Despite the official rules, there is a movement within the UMC to change the rules as well as the language within the Book of Discipline.

Advocacy groups like Reconciling Ministries Network, Methodist Federation for Social Action, and Methodists in New Directions have lobbied for the changes, with measures being voted on at past General Conferences.

Some, especially those on the conservative side of the sexual ethics debate, have argued for a schism within the UMC, given the vast difference in opinion on sexual ethics.

Others, including most notably the Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the megachurch United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, have lobbied for individual congregations to determine whether or not to follow the Book of Discipline’s position on homosexuality.

Regarding Wesley Church’s process to leave the UMC and become non-denominational, Lenhart sees it “as a grass roots effort within our congregation.

“We began the process with a straw-poll just to get an idea of the congregation’s heart regarding the matter. The vote came back overwhelming in favor, by more than 95 percent, of our leadership investigating a possible withdrawal from the denomination,” said Lenhart.

“After five months of prayer and regular meetings with leadership within our church and the United Methodist denomination, a settlement was reached.”

In return for being allowed to keep their church property, Lenhart noted, Wesley Church agreed to pay the UMC $100,000.

With the conditions noted, the congregation then voted 97 percent in favor of leaving the UMC. As of June 5, Wesley Church ceased belonging to the UMC.

Lenhart told CP that since leaving attendance at Wesley Church has increased and that the congregation is now considered a non-denominational church.

“Our hope is that the United Methodist churches whom feel strongly about the inspiration of Scripture, biblical inerrancy and biblical authority would prayerfully consider what God’s will is for their particular church,” said Lenhart.

“We understand that God’s will for some of those churches may be to stay and fight from within, but it was clear for us, in our particular situation, that it was time to move on.”

Source : Christian Post

When Faith Wavers

Christian Post Report – Matthew 21:21

  • Dr. Charles F. Stanley
    (Photo: In Touch Ministries)
    Dr. Charles F. Stanley (File).

One of the main obstacles to effective prayer is lack of trust. If we believe God is who He says He is and will do what He has promised, why do so many of us habitually waver in our prayers? Instead of exercising bold faith, we come to the Lord “hoping” He will hear us and answer our requests, but we’re just not sure He will. With this kind of thinking, we cannot expect to receive anything from Him.

One reason we are so prone to doubt is that we fail to see God at work in our circumstances. We asked, and nothing happened. But the Lord is not some cosmic bellhop who jumps in response to our requests. He sees past, present, and future and knows the right time for every answer. His invisible hand is already at work on our behalf—arranging situations to accomplish His will, opening hearts, and preparing us to receive what He wants to give.

Another cause for uncertainty is ignorance. If we don’t know God’s ways, we will be disappointed in His response. All too often our prayers are accompanied by expectations of how He will work. When He fails to intervene according to our anticipated method, we start to doubt. But placing our faith in the Lord and trusting in His good and perfect ways gives us stability as we wait for His answer.

To overcome doubts, spend time in the Word to learn God’s principles and ways. Then you’ll begin to grasp what He wants to achieve in your life and how He goes about it. Examine your past from a biblical perspective—faith will grow as you see the unexpected ways He’s answered your prayers.

Used with permission from In Touch Ministries, Inc. © 2015
All Rights Reserved.

Source : Christian Post

Archbishop Justin welcomes Pastor Adeboye to Lambeth Palace

The Archbishop of Canterbury met and prayed with leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) today. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, welcomed the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) to Lambeth Palace today for a morning of prayer and conversation.

Archbishop Justin met with Pastor Enoch Adeboye, who is visiting from Nigeria, and his delegation, including Pastor Agu Irukwu, Chief Overseer of the RCCG in the UK.

They discussed possibilities for further collaboration between the Anglican and RCCG churches and communions, nationally and internationally. During the meeting the Archbishop and Pastor Adeboye led prayers for Christian unity and revival.

Afterwards the Archbishop and the Pastor spent time in private discussion and prayer.

During his visit Pastor Adeboye was also shown a selection of precious items from the Lambeth Palace Library, including works relating to the first black Anglican bishop, Samuel Ajayi Crowther.

In October last year Archbishop Justin was invited to address 40,000 people at the RCCG’s Festival of Light in London, where he called for Christians of different denominations to be reconciled in Christ and to be reconcilers in their communities and nations.

Source : Archbishop of Canterbury

Iran Executes Nearly 700 in Just Six Months, Including Religious Minorities Convicted of ‘Enmity Against God’

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (Photo: Reuters/Ruben Sprich)

Christian Post Report – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani smiles during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2014.

A human rights group has recorded nearly 700 executions, including those of members of ethnic and religious minorities convicted of “enmity against God,” in just a little over six months in the Shiite Muslim nation of Iran, which put people to death even during the holy month of Ramadan.

In its new report, Amnesty International says Iran put to death 694 people between Jan. 1 and July 15, which is equivalent to executing more than three people per day.

“Iran’s staggering execution toll for the first half of this year paints a sinister picture of the machinery of the state carrying out premeditated, judicially-sanctioned killings on a mass scale,” Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, says in the report.

Executions are particularly dangerous in Iran, as trials there are deeply flawed, detainees are often denied access to lawyers in the investigative stage, and there are inadequate procedures for appeal, pardon and commutation, the group said.

American pastor Saeed Abedini has been in a jail in Iran for his Christian faith for two and a half years. He has sustained prolonged internal injuries due to beatings in the prison.

The surge in executions shows “just how out of step Iran is with the rest of the world when it comes to the use of the death penalty,” Amnesty says.

Even during Ramadan, Iran executed at least four people.

“The Iranian authorities should be ashamed of executing hundreds of people with complete disregard for the basic safeguards of due process,” Boumedouha says. “The use of the death penalty is always abhorrent, but it raises additional concerns in a country like Iran where trials are blatantly unfair.”

Many of those executed were charged with drug-related offences, but also included members of ethnic and religious minorities convicted of “enmity against God” and “corruption on Earth” including Kurdish political prisoners and Sunni Muslims.

Amnesty International didn’t specify the religious affiliation of those executed for religious offenses.

Pastor Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh, and American Center for Law and Justice had urged President Barack Obama to speak to Tehran about releasing the U.S. pastor before signing a nuclear deal. However, Saeed remains in jail.

Saeed’s family in Idaho celebrated their son Jacob’s seventh birthday in March — without the dad for the third straight year.

Saeed grew up in Iran before converting to Christianity at the age of 20. He later traveled with his family back and forth between Iran and the U.S. to meet other members of his family and for Christian work.

During one such trip in 2009, Saeed was detained by Iranian officials and interrogated for his conversion. While he was released with a warning against engaging in underground church activities, he was once again arrested in 2012 while working on a non-sectarian orphanage project.

Saeed was sentenced for endangering “national security,” but the punishment has clearly more to do with Saeed’s Christian faith, ACLJ says.

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Releases Video of Baby-Faced Child Soldier Shooting Accused Iraqi Spy

ISIS (Photo: Screenshot)

Christian Post Report – An ISIS child soldier who was shown shooting an accused Iraqi spy.

The Islamic State terror group has released a new propaganda video showing a baby-faced child soldier, dressed in black, shooting a suspected Iraqi spy in the head from point blank range, according to an anti-ISIS citizen journalism website.

The video shows the “accused,” dressed in orange, making a confession that he spied on the terror group in the Iraqi town of Al-Qa’im, Daily Mail reported, citing a report by the citizen journalism website, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently.

The man seems to be under duress as he says he regrets being involved in the covert operation and urges the United States-led coalition to stop airstrikes in ISIS territory.

The child executioner, on the other hand, looks calm as he is shown loading his handgun, kneeling next to the man and the shooting him in the head. The boy continues to shoot the man even after he falls down and his body can be seen lying on the ground without any movement.

Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, calls its child soldiers “the cubs of the caliphate,” and is preparing them to be the next generation of terrorists.

The video also shows several children being indoctrinated in a classroom before they are trained to become terrorists. And shows them being kicked in their private parts by their trainer to “toughen them up.”

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recently banned the sharing of barbaric execution videos online, apparently so as not to offend fellow Muslims who might think the videos are scary for children.

The video was released in May.

ISIS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda and wants to establish a caliphate in the Levant region and beyond. It has gained control over large swathes of territories in Syria and Iraq. Its main targets include religious minorities, including Christians.

The terror group has executed more than 2,618 people, including 1,511 civilians, since last June, when it declared its “caliphate,” according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which released the statistics last month.

The executions were carried out mostly by beheading, shooting or stoning. ISIS has also executed at least 139 of its own members for “exceeding the limits in religion and spying for foreign countries,” mostly after they were trying to go back to their homes.

Source : Christian Post

Maryland Ministry Hosts 21st Annual ‘Jesus at the Beach’ Multi-Day Event Centered on John 12:32 to ‘Lift Up the Name of Jesus’

Jesus at the Beach (Photo: Eric Kirsch)

Christian Post Report – Music performance at “Jesus at the Beach”, an annual Christian outreach event held in Ocean City, Maryland.

A Maryland-based Christian fellowship will be hosting its 21st annual “Jesus at the Beach,” multi-day event centered on worship, music, prayer, ministry and baptism on the beach in Ocean City staring on Monday.

“Basically, we gather in the Ocean City Convention Center Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 10 a.m. for praise, worship, drama, prayer, and Holy Spirit ministry,” said Gary Steger, a leader at Son’Spot and one of the organizers for Jesus at the Beach, to The Christian Post.

“And Each night on the beach at North Division Street we gather from 7 to 10 p.m. for praise music, drama, and testimonies. On Wednesday, following the morning meeting, we will baptize people in the ocean, across from the convention center.”

  • Jesus at the Beach
    (Photo: Eric Kirsch)
    A prayer group at the annual “Jesus at the Beach” Christian fellowship event, organized by the Son’Spot in Ocean City, Maryland.

Steger also told CP that the theme for this year’s Jesus at the Beach will be John 12:32, which reads: “When I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

“That is our purpose of everything we do, to lift up the name of Jesus,” said Steger. “It is the same ministry we have done at The Son’Spot since 1981.

“At The Son’Spot we have one visiting group helping us with ministry and with the festival. It’s like a family reunion of the Son’Spot Christian family and we have several ministry teams helping us.”

The annual summer event has been known to feature baptisms on the beach as well as music within sight of the coastline.

“Thousands come and go and pass by on the boardwalk. Usually a couple hundred inside the convention center or on the beach at one time,” said Steger to CP.

“We can’t fit into the Son’Spot facility, so we use the convention center. We also enjoy the outreach opportunity of ministering outside on the beach in the evenings.”

Jesus at the Beach (Photo: Eric Kirsch)

Baptisms held in the Atlantic Ocean as part of “Jesus at the Beach”, an annual Christian fellowship event organized by the Son’Spot in Ocean City, Maryland.

Source : Christian Post

Hulk Hogan Surrenders ‘Control’ to ‘God’ After WWE Terminates Him for Racist Rant

Hulk Hogan and Joel Osteen (Photo: Twitter/ @hulkhogan)

Christian Post Report – Hulk Hogan posing with Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen.

Pro-wrestler and former reality star Hulk Hogan says he’s surrendered control of his life to God after his name was removed from all World Wrestling Entertainment media including its Hall of Fame, website and alumni. His merchandise can no longer be found and he’s been terminated by the company.

“In the storm I release control, God and his Universe will sail me where he wants me to be, one love. HH,” wrote Hulk Hogan via Twitter on Friday.

 

 

The WWE decision was made after an audio clip from Hogan’s 2012 sex tape was released by the National Enquirer where the wrestler uses the N-word.

On the tape, Hogan is discussing how a “black billionaire guy” offered to fund his daughter Brooke’s music career when he engages in a racist rant.

Following the National Enquirer report, the WWE released a statement to FOR THE WIN regarding Hulk Hogan’s termination.

“WWE terminated its contract with Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan). WWE is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide.”

Hogan also threw the N-word around freely during an interview from 2012 with Sirius XM radio host and 50 Cent affiliate DJ Whoo Kid.

DJ Whoo Kid asked Hogan about his use of the word “brother” as a term of endearment, and then inquires if he uses the N-word when he’s around black people. Hogan responded with a story about how he talked when he was around certain rap artists while living in Miami, Florida.

Hogan is a professing Christian and closely follows Joel Osteen. He has offered praise to the megachurch pastor on his Twitter account in the past.

“Joel Osteen always has God’s perfect words to help you have a perfect vibrational match with God’s universe,” said Hogan on Twitter in 2012. “Much love.”

Hulk Hogan discussed his spiritual awakening with Oprah Winfrey on her show “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” back in 2013.

The wrestler told Winfrey that after his reality series “Hogan Knows Best” was canceled, he hit rock bottom. Hogan fell into a deep depression and tried to address it with alcohol abuse. He eventually turned to God with the help of his second wife, Jennifer McDaniel.

“I now realize I had to go through all this stuff to be who I am today, to make me who I am today,” said Hogan to Winfrey. “And then I realized all that stuff — the peace, love, the joy, that still, small voice, the energy, that God presence — is part of who I’m meant to be.”

Source : Christian Post

Islamic State Chickens: Terror Groups Uses Fowl, Goats as Suicide Bombers; Online Pictures Show Hens Strapped With Improvised Explosives

ISIS Suicide Chicken (Screengrab: YouTube)

Christian Post Report – Photos have been posted online purporting to show the Islamic State’s new attack strategy — using innocent chickens and hens as suicide bombers to kill their enemies.

The Daily Mail reports that both pro-IS and anti-IS tweeters have shared pictures of what appears to be chickens with improvised explosive devices strapped onto them.

According to the British news agency, claims have been made that IS is equipping chickens with explosives in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The chickens are then encouraged by the militants to venture into the opposition’s territory, where IS militants remotely detonate the explosives and kill opposition fighters that are within the striking distance of the birds.

The photos emerged after Kurdish forces claimed to have captured a bomb-strapped chicken in the Syrian city of Al-Hasakah, according to the International Business Times.

Although there’s no verification as to whether or not IS has in fact taken up the practice of using chickens as suicide bombers to carry out militants’ dirty work, an unnamed British man fighting for the Kurdish forces explained to the Daily Mail that IS is using any means necessary to bring about the demise of the opposition.

“IS will use whatever means they can to bring death and destruction,” the British fighter said. “Using animals has little military value. It is just another example of how their twisted minds enjoy dreaming up bizarre ways to kill people.”

As IS has recently suffered a few defeats along its supply lines in Syria, Nasser Kataw — an expert on Iraqi terror groups who lectures at the University of Baghdad — told British newspaper The Daily Star that IS’ ammunition continues to become scarce and could be forcing the terror group to devise more creative ways to utilize the weapons it has.

“The regime has countless small arms like semi-automatic weapons and pistols and lots of field weapons like mortars, but the ammunition is running low and cannot easily be replaced,” Kataw said. “The regime is now desperately trying to fashion its own weapons, but lacks the machine shops to make such precision items.”

According to the Daily Mail, the emergence of the bomb-strapped chicken photos comes after reports surfaced alleging that IS strapped improvised explosives to a goat and sent the goat into a Kurdish base in the Syrian border town of Kobane.

IS has also used children as suicide bombers. In early July, militants forced a 14-year-old boy to carry out a suicide attack in northern Syria that killed over 50 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

The  Iranian AhlulBayt News Agency reports that at least 40 children, aged between 12 and 17, have died in suicide operations for IS in the last seven months.

If the fowl claims are true, it wouldn’t be the first time that IS has massacred chickens. In April, the terror group destroyed two truck shipments of U.S.-produced chicken that were on their way to starving Syrians in the war-ravished nation because it supposedly violated the caliphate’s dietary restrictions.

Source : Christian Post

Voice of the Martyrs Sends Bibles Into North Korea; Uses App to Track Where the Gospel Lands Inside the Communist State

North Korea (Photo: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji)

Christian Post Report – A girl dressed in a Hanbok, a Korean traditional costume, stands in front of a barbed-wire fence, as her parents prepare for a memorial service for North Korean family members, near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, February 19, 2015, on the occasion of Seolnal, the Korean Lunar New Year’s day. Millions of South Koreans traveled to their hometowns during the three-day holiday which started last Wednesday. Seolnal is one of the traditional holidays when most Koreans visit their hometowns to be united with their families and hold memorial services for their deceased ancestors.

The Korean office for Voice of the Martyrs announced at a press conference earlier this week that the Christian missionary organization will be sending Bibles into the southern part of North Korea.

“In North Korea, even children are aware of the risks of possessing a Bible. Even socks, clothes or food are dangerous. People who pick up a Bible know their choice is very risky, they could probably end up being executed,” said the Rev. Eric Foley, CEO of VOM Korea to NK News, explaining the dangers of owning a Bible in the Communist state.

 

 

VOM will be sending the Bibles, translated into a North Korean dialect, via balloons, a means by which the group has used in the past.

One difference this year is unlike past balloon distributions, VOM has a computer app to track where the Bibles will land in North Korea.

Speaking about the contributions defectors have made in spreading the Gospel, Foley added: “Eighty percent of defectors are communicating with their families and relatives in their hometown, and this channel hasn’t been used properly.”

A VOM in a blog entry from earlier this month notes that “a scientist in Australia has partnered with us to provide us a computer app that enables us to enter the full range of launch data … and receive a precise projection of where Bibles will land, before we ever leave our office.

“Our field tests to date have proven the app to be astonishingly accurate in its predictions when compared to the GPS data we receive from actual launches.”

According to the Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA, North Korea — a small Communist state with nuclear weapons — has approximately 300,000 Christians among its 25 million inhabitants.

For the past 13 years, North Korea has consistently appeared at No. 1 on Open Doors’ World Watch List, a list that notes the worst persecutors of Christians abroad.

“The god-like worship of the leader, Kim Jong-Un, and his predecessors leaves little room for any other religions and Christians face unimaginable pressure in every sphere of life,” noted Open Doors.

“Meeting with other Christians is virtually impossible. Anyone discovered engaging in unauthorized religious activity is subject to arrest, arbitrary detention, disappearance, torture and/or execution.”

Source : Christian Post

Islamic State Militants Blow up Baby in Booby-Trap for Training Video

Iraqi Christians (Photo: Reuters/Youssef Boudlal)

Christian Post Report – Iraqi Christians, who fled the violence in the village of Qaraqosh, seek refuge inside a church building in Arbil, north of Baghdad, August 11, 2014. Iraqi Christian families sought sanctuary in the church after fleeing towns and villages to escape the advance of Islamic State militants.

Sadiq al-Husseini, chief of Iraq’s security committee in Diyala province, claims Islamic State fighters blew up a baby for the purposes of a training exercise to teach militants how to operate remote explosives.

While the age and sex of the infant is unknown, the baby was reportedly killed in the Iraqi northern Salahuddin region on July 10 after IS militants arrested the father for purportedly killing fighters at a training facility. Iraqi officials are uncertain what happened to the infant’s mother. It is believed that dozens of militants witnessed the horrorific murder.

Al-Husseini told IraqiNews.com: “The booby-trapping of the baby was a training mission for IS to teach its elements the booby-trapping mechanisms. The organization does not care for the most basic human values.”

“IS’ crimes against all segments of Iraqi society have not been stopped and doesn’t exclude an elderly man or woman or even young children,” he added.

The Christian Post reported Thursday that IS militants are increasingly targeting and torturing disabled civilians. One Syrian refugee reported that she fled with her family because of numerous reports regarding “fighters abusing and killing disabled people.”

  • ISIS
    (Photo: Reuters/FBI/Handout)
    A masked man speaking in what is believed to be a North American accent in a video that Islamic State militants released in September 2014 is pictured in this still frame from video obtained by Reuters, October 7, 2014. The FBI said it was seeking information on the man’s identity, and issued an appeal for help in identifying individuals heading overseas to join militants in combat.

IS has regularly killed children, beheading young Christians for refusing to convert to Islam and killing Muslim children in June for purportedly refusing to fast during Ramadan. CP has also repeatedly reported on the barbaric sexual crimes IS militants commit against young girls.

Renate Winter, an expert with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, told Reuters in February that the “scope of the problem is huge.”

“We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding,” Winter told Reuters.

“There was a video placed (online) that showed children at a very young age, approximately 8 years of age and younger, to be trained already to become child soldiers,” he added.

Several media outlets this week reported that IS uses dolls to teach abducted and brainwashed Yazidi boys beheading techniques to expand their reign of terror.

IS has released several videos of young children training for jihad and released a video last week of a boy believed to be younger than 13, beheading a Syrian Army officer.

The U.N. Security Council has stated that IS’ actions warrant prosecution for war crimes.

In February of 2014, Foreign Policy magazine published an article titled “Children of the Caliphate.” The article depicts how children as young as 6 are being groomed to fight against the West. Children are routinely used for the purposes of child soldiers, human shields on the battliefield, blood transfusions for IS fighters, and snitches in local towns.

“The militants are preparing for a long war against the West, and hope the young warriors being trained today will still be fighting years from now,” according FP.

Source : Christian Post