A little more than half of pastors expect their worship attendance to decline after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, according to a new report by the Barna Group.

Barna recently released the findings of week 17 of their Church Pulse leader survey, which drew from a poll of 422 Protestant pastors taken Sept. 10-18.

Because each weekly survey has a different number of respondents, Barna reported the margin of error as varying between 4.77% and 7.65% depending on the sample.

For week 17, 46% of pastors said that they expect attendance to have “declined slightly” by the end of the crisis, while 6% responded that they expect it to have “declined dramatically.”

This is the largest percentage of respondents to believe that worship attendance will have “declined slightly” since March 20, which was week 1 for the report.

For the first six weeks that the church leader survey was done, those who said it would have “declined slightly” was below 20%. Since week 12, the total has been 40% or higher.

Despite the sense that attendance will decline, 92% of respondents said that they were either “very confident” or “confident” that their church will…

JOS, Nigeria, September 21, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Thursday (September 17) shot a Christian who was riding on a motorcycle with a policeman in north-central Nigeria, sources said.

Sati Bulus, a member of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Malul village in Bokkos County, Plateau state, was ambushed and shot to death by Fulani herdsmen at about 8:30 p.m. as he made his way home from Bokkos town, said area resident Christopher Luka. The Fulani are predominantly Muslims.

The Rev. Samuel Matawal, a COCIN pastor in Bokkos town, confirmed the killing in Daffo District in a short text message to Morning Star News.

“A member of our local congregation at Malul village was ambushed and shot dead by some Fulani herdsmen on Thursday, Sept. 17,” Pastor Matawal said.

The assailants reportedly killed the policeman riding with Bulus. Nigerian news outlet MK-Reporters added that Fulani herdsmen leaders had met on Sept. 14 in Fass, Barkin Ladi County, to plan resumption of hostilities in Daffo District and three other areas in Plateau state before December.

Donations of 1.3 million naira (US$3,378) for the purchase of weapons were raised at the meeting, the outlet reported.

Prior Attack

Herdsmen had attacked predominantly Christian Malul village in February, killing one Christian and injuring another, Luka said.

“At about 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, a group of seven armed Fulani…

40 Days for Life, a pro-life prayer vigil campaign, is set to have record participation due to having the most participating cities this year. The prayer vigil, which will take place from Sept. 23 through Nov. 1, has 588 participating cities, the most since the campaign was first held back in 2007.

Shawn Carney, the president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, told The Christian Post that “Many thought that the pandemic and civil unrest in our streets would be a deterrent, but I am so proud of the local leaders who came out in droves to apply, train, and lead their campaign locally.”

“The desire to help women and their unborn children is at an all-time high despite nearly five decades of legalized abortion. The pro-life movement gets larger and younger by the day and that is illustrated in this record,” he continued. He also said he wasn’t going to let the pandemic stop the prayer vigil. He trained his staff to be ready to take all the necessary precautions to ensure it’s not going to be shut down by the government.

40 Days for Life is a pro-life organization that is working to end abortion by holding prayer vigils and taking pro-life conversations to the streets via community outreach. The organization goes door-knocking to gather signatures for petitions and to inform people on the truth about abortion and why it is wrong and needs to end. They also hold 40-day campus outreaches…

Peace talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel are reportedly progressing, The Times of Israel reports.

Israel has expressed openness to peace with Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia is having a bit of infighting between the older leader, King Salman, and his 35-year-old son, Mohammed bin Salman.

The King, who is 84 years old, is skeptical of a peace deal with Israel over what he sees as national sovereignty and security issues. Meanwhile, the son is pro-peace with Israel.

The main issue is the Palestinians. Salman believes The Palestinians are a good ally for Saudi Arabia, while his son believes they are not as good an ally as Israel. This is because Iran is being seen as a rising force in the region, and Israel has proven a strong partner in helping to curb Iran’s force with other Arab nations. But many seem to agree with the crown prince instead of his father, according to New York-based rabbi, Marc Schneier, who told The Times Of Israel “It’s no secret there’s a generational conflict … for the Saudis, it’s not a question of ‘if,’ it’s a question of ‘when.’ And there’s no doubt that they will establish relations with Israel.”

But not everyone is so quick to dance to that tune. One other ruler in the region, Turki al-Faisal, told The Times of Israel that “any talk of a rift between the king and the crown prince is mere speculation. We’ve seen none of that.”

But either way, sources confirm…

After 39 years, a translation of the Bible in American Sign Language has been completed.

The final books needed, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, were completed this fall.

According to Christianity Today, work on translating the Bible into ASL started in 1981 with Duane King, a minister in the Independent Christian Church.

King, who is hearing, had learned to sign after meeting a deaf Christian couple in 1970. The couple told King they avoided going to church because they did not understand what was going on. King said he felt he needed to help the deaf community.

King and his wife, Peggy, then started a church and a mission for the deaf in Iowa. In 1981, King started work on an ASL Bible.

“Most hearing people don’t understand how difficult it is to learn to read what you cannot hear,” King said in 2019. “Deaf people rely so much on their eyesight that they want everything to be tangible—they want to be able to see everything.”

Translation to sign language begins with the adaptation of the English words to a “front translation,” a version that uses a word order and vocabulary that corresponds to sign language.

Harold Noe, a Hebrew and Greek scholar who worked with Deaf Missions, said in an interview in 2004 that the translation can be difficult because ASL has a different syntax than English.

“The same sign used for `resurrection’ is the sign for `stand up,'” Noe said. “I recall working…