The Messy Church movement was set up by the Bible Reading Fellowship (BRF) 15 years ago, offering mainly families and children food, activities such as arts, crafts and sports and worship. The movement has spread across the world, with churches meeting on Saturdays and weekdays as well as Sundays.

A grant of £100,000 has been awarded to the Church of England’s Evangelism and Discipleship Team to study deepening the discipleship of Messy Church congregations.

Dave Male, director of the team told Premier what the outcome of the research could be.

“Deepening the discipleship is really helping people in their journey of faith and learning how that might be applicable for families who come to Messy Churches. Part of the research will be saying what the most effective ways of doing that is,” he said.

“It could include things like online help, face to face conversations, developing younger leaders, social action, mentoring, and a whole host of things.”

Insights from the work will be used to help the Church of England inform the ongoing work of developing new forms of church gatherings – known as ‘Fresh Expressions’ – in the Church of England.

A recent Church of England background paper found that 50,000 people attend 2,000 Messy Churches in Anglican churches who do not normally engage with their church.

The Church Army published research earlier this year…

The faith-themed Kendrick brothers’ film focuses on the life chances of basketball coach John Harrison (played by Alex Kendrick) who loses his team as hundreds of people move out of town following the closing of a manufacturing plant.

Harrison is a Christian man who saw his identity in his accomplishments. As a result, the coach begins coaching a sport that he does not even enjoy. In the process, he coaches a cross-country runner who is led towards self-discovery in God as she pushes her limits.

In addition to Kendrick, the film stars actress Priscilla Shirer. Shirer is the daughter of megachurch pastor Tony Evans, a Bible teacher and New York Times bestselling author. Shirer also starred in ‘War Room’.

The film is directed and produced by brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, ‘Overcomer’ is their sixth film together. The brothers are Baptist pastors and filmmakers who have produced films including the No. 1 US box office hit ‘War Room,’ ‘Facing the Giants’ and ‘Fireproof.’

It’s here! Who’s going to see OVERCOMER this weekend? #overcomermovie pic.twitter.com/yw846ouNM2

— Overcomer Movie (@OvercomerMovie) August 23, 2019

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Joseph was killed last May, two days after he applied to marry 21-year-old Christian, Neenu Chacko, a woman from a higher caste; he was from India’s lowest dalit caste. 

The prospective bride’s brother Sanu Chacko is one of the 10 accused. 

The judges described the crime as a clear case of an “honour” killing and said the only reason why they were not handing out death sentences was on account of the age of the accused and the fact that it was their first offence. 

 In court Neenu Chacko heard details of how Joseph was abducted and killed. She testified against her relatives. “This is a fight for Kevin,” she told the media during the trial. 

The couple began dating in 2016 after meeting at a bus stop on the way to a college in Kottayam where Chacko was doing a post-graduate course in geology and Joseph worked as an electrician. 

On 24th May 2018 the couple applied for civil marriage. Four days later, Joseph’s body was found in a stream. The court heard that Neenu Chacko’s father – known as Chacko – had allegedly hired assassins with the help of a local politician. He was acquitted on murder charges for lack of evidence. 

Although Dalits suffer relatively less discrimination and social ostracism in the southern Indian state of Kerala than elsewhere in the country, inter-caste marriage remains taboo for many…

Attendees at Churchome posted video of the Canadian entertainer singing “Never would have made it” by Marvin Sapp and “To worship you live” by Israel &New Breed.

 The 25-year-old also shared his testimony saying: “When you are weak you are strong and there’s power in our weakness. It’s been hard for to kind of come to terms with that.”

 

It’s been reported Bieber regularly attends Churchome, which is led by Pastor Judah Smith.

A day after the service, paparazzi for US entertainment site TMZ followed Bieber leaving a restaurant and asked him if singing at church was more nerve-wrecking than singing at his concerts. He replied “church” and also answered “yes” when asked if he would sing at Kanye West’s Sunday Service.

In an emotional Instagram post sharing video clips of him leading worship, Bieber thanked his wife Hailey Bieber for being a “huge support” after revealing he is enduring a “hard season”.

 

He said God was “pulling me through a hard season” and that “having trust in Jesus at your worst times is the absolute hardest”.

Bieber, who married model Hailey, 22, last year, added: “I also want to thank my wife for being such a huge support in my life through this season.. it says in the bible count it ALL JOY when you face trials of various kinds. Sounds insane considering when u face trials u feel terrible. “

The Love Yourself singer finished the message by…

The album appears to be called Jesus Is King and could be released on September 27th, according to a handwritten note shared by Kim Kardashian West.

pic.twitter.com/ZmGvtN7o7C

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) August 29, 2019

She captioned the post on Twitter with a praying emoji. The supposed tracklist contains a song titled Water. West performed a track by that name during his Coachella Sunday Service earlier this year.

If West were to release an album, it would be his first since Ye, which arrived in June last year.

In September the controversial rapper announced that he was releasing an album titled Yandhi later that month, however it was postponed and then abandoned.

West has been busy performing his Sunday Service events each week, which feature an exclusive guest list and gospel music.

He has not tweeted since January 1, following a period when he was particularly active on the website and courted controversy for voicing support for Donald Trump.

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The Most Rev Justin Welby, the figurehead of the worldwide Anglican Church, told interfaith leaders in Sri Lanka that accepting responsibility is key rather than disavowing an extremist.

Mr Welby arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday and first visited St Sebastian’s Church near the town of Negombo to pay homage to those killed in the Easter suicide bomb attacks blamed on extremist Muslim groups.

On Friday, he told religious leaders that discussion among faiths has become more difficult in the last 30-40 years and in every faith, including in Christianity, extremist attitudes have grown.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby pays homage to victims of the Easter Sunday attacks, kneeling at the spot where the suicide bomber detonated explosives, at St. Sebastian’s church in Katuwapitiya village, Negombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019.

“It is the duty of every religious tradition, for its leaders, to resist extremism and to teach peaceful dialogue,” he said.

“So the first challenge to all of us is take responsibility.

“If a Christian does something evil, it is not for me to say ‘well they are not a real Christian’. I have to ask myself ‘what is within my faith tradition, our historic teaching, that makes it easy for them to do that?’

“The second challenge in dialogue is honesty. Dialogue is where we are…