University of Georgia quarterback Jack Fromm helped lead his team to a 12-2 record this year – and a positive attitude fueled by his Christian faith played a key role, he says.  

Fromm, who threw for two touchdowns and 250 yards in Wednesday’s 26-14 Sugar Bowl win over Baylor, was asked this week by ESPN’s Holly Rowe about the team’s mindset in light of several teammates skipping the game to prepare for the NFL draft. 

Fromm told Rose it was a chance for younger players to step up. 

“We have a ton of [young] guys – this is their opportunity. They’re ready to go out and play,” Fromm said. “They’re gonna play great.”

Fromm’s optimism impressed Rowe, who called him the “world’s most positive person.” Asked what makes him optimistic, Fromm replied, “The Holy Spirit in me. I’m trying to live out the most godly life I can do. I’m trying to influence others and hope they can see Christ in me.”

Fromm’s answer brought Rowe to tears. 

She also asked if he had a goal for the New Year. 

“Influence others, lead people to Jesus … and hopefully shed the light in their eyes,” he said.

Rowe wrote on Twitter Jan. 31, “For the New Year, let’s all be a shining light in this world like @FrommJake. Honestly brought me to tears today with his positive, lovely spirit.  Many blessings to this young man. @GeorgiaFootball should be so proud to have him leading…

James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel: In 2019 several prominent faith leaders were either removed from their leadership roles or chose to walk away from Christianity, publicly renouncing their faith. Among the most shocking of these were former Harvest Bible Chapel pastor, James MacDonald and author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Joshua Harris.

In February, after announcing his “indefinite sabbatical” in January, Harvest Bible Chapel announced that they had fired founder and lead pastor James MacDonald. 

In a letter on the church website, the Elders wrote, “It is with great sadness that we as the Elders of Harvest Bible Chapel wish to convey to you a very recent development that has caused us to take immediate action regarding our Senior Pastor, Dr. James MacDonald.

“Following a lengthy season of review, reflection, and prayerful discussion, the Elders of Harvest Bible Chapel had determined that Pastor MacDonald should be removed from his role of Senior Pastor.”

According to the letter, the decision to fire MacDonald was “accelerated” on Tuesday after “inappropriate recorded comments made by Pastor MacDonald were given to media and reported.” 

MacDonald’s behavior, the Elders noted, was both “contrary and harmful to the best interest of the church.”

In November, HBC issued a statement in hopes of clarifying MacDonald’s role with the church noting that he was “biblically disqualified” from ministry. The elders shared the announcement that MacDonald “was biblically disqualified from the position of Elder, meaning he did not meet the…

A Chinese pastor on Monday was sentenced to nine years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business operations,” although his only crime was to preach the gospel in an unregistered church, supporters say.

The sentencing of Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church was only the latest example in China’s crackdown on unregistered churches. 

Churches within China must register either with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (if they’re Protestant) or the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Because such congregations face extreme regulations, millions of Christians in the country worship at underground congregations.

Early Rain was not registered. Wang was arrested in 2018.

His attorney, Si Weijiang, told the Washington Post that the incitement charge “involves preaching and is an issue of speech, which has … inflicted no social harm.” The illegal business charge related to him printing Christian books,” Si said.

A court in Sichuan, which is in southwest China, handed down the sentence.

China Aid, which monitors religious freedom in the country, criticized China for the arrest and sentence. 

“This is a pure case of unjust religious persecution against a peaceful preacher of a Chinese reformed church,” ChinaAid founder and president Dr. Bob Fu said. “This grave sentence demonstrates Xi’s regime is determined to be the enemy of universal…

NAIROBI, Kenya, December 30, 2019 (Morning Star News) – In stark contrast to his predecessor, Sudan’s new minister of religious affairs last week attended a long-persecuted church’s Christmas service.

Following the Sudanese government’s announcement of Christmas as a public holiday for the first time in eight years, Minister of Religious Affairs Nasr al-Din Mufreh accompanied senior government officials at the Christmas Day service of Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church – a congregation the previous Islamist government had harassed for years.

At a press conference after visiting several churches in Khartoum on Christmas Day, the Muslim leader sent a strong signal of religious coexistence to Christians in a country where they suffered for their faith under former President Omar al-Bashir.

“I tender my apology for the oppression and the harm enforced on you physically by [the prior government’s] bulldozing your church buildings, arresting and falsely imprisoning your church leaders and raiding your property,” Mufreh said, according to Radio Dabanga.

Sudan had suspended Christmas as a holiday following the secession of South Sudan in 2011. The government-run Sudan TV on Christmas Day broadcast Christmas services of various churches in Khartoum, including the Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church, whose members had been subject to arrests on false charges and whose property had been…

Lois Evans, a speaker and teacher and the wife of pastor and author Tony Evans, passed away Monday, nine months after it was revealed her gallbladder cancer – a rare condition in the U.S. – had returned. She was 70.

“Just before the sun came up this morning, the love of my life, Lois Irene Evans, transitioned from earth and watched her first sunrise from heaven,” Tony Evans wrote Monday in a note posted on multiple social media accounts. “I had the privilege of holding her hand as she was lulled into eternity. Our four children surrounded her as well. As she slipped away, we told her how much we love her, how proud we are of her, and how thankful we are for the life she has lived.

“We are what we are because of her,” he added.

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Just before the sun came up this morning, the love of my life, Lois Irene Evans, transitioned from earth and watched her first sunrise from heaven. I had the privilege of holding her hand as she was lulled into eternity. Our four children surrounded her as well. As she slipped away, we told her how much we love her, how proud we are of her, and how thankful we are for the life she has lived. We are what we are because of her. Thank you so much for praying for my wife and for my family. God answered our prayers this morning by relieving her of suffering. But the truth is, He has been answering our prayers all along. Lois…

A group affiliated with the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a vicious mass execution that claimed the lives of eleven Christian aid workers.

The killings were carried out as a retaliation against the killing of leader Bakr al-Baghdadi, who blew himself up after being cornered during a raid by U.S. special forces at the end of October.

The militant group known as the Islamic State in West Africa Province released a gruesome minute-long video of the shooting of one man followed by the beheading of 10 others.

“This message is to the Christians in the world,” a man featured in the video explains, as reported by the New York Times. “Those who you see in front of us are Christians, and we will shed their blood as revenge for the two dignified sheikhs, the caliph of the Muslims, and the spokesman for the Islamic State, Sheikh Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, may Allah accept them.”

The murders, which took place the day after Christmas, were strategically planned in order to distress the Christian community, according to experts.

Several reports indicate that the men were taken hostage in Maiduguri and Damaturu in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, which has been the epicenter of an increase in Islamic militia-led violence over recent years.

In response to the killings, President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted that Nigerians should “under no circumstance, let the terrorists divide us by turning…