(RNS) — The Salvation Army is kicking off its annual red kettle campaign more than two months early this year in hopes of meeting an increased need for assistance during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Salvation Army recognizes that there is literally a tsunami of human need in our country right now,” Commissioner Kenneth Hodder, national commander of the Salvation Army, told Religion News Service ahead of the campaign launch on Monday (Sept. 14). “We also recognize that our iconic red kettle campaign, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be more difficult this year.”

Traditionally starting around Thanksgiving, bell ringers have stood outside stores and beside red kettles where passersby could donate to help those in need at Christmastime.

In 2020, ringers will be trained about social distancing and provided with masks, Hodder said. Donors will be encouraged to consider making contributions by using their phones to scan a QR code in person or via a Salvation Army website.

“As a result of the fact that a number of retail stores have closed, we simply have lost the ability to place kettles at a number of places,” said Hodder, whose organization had 30,000 kettles on street corners and at retail locations last year.

Some of the people who have been donors in the past are now among those seeking assistance.

“We’ve had a dramatic increase in the number of people who…

There’s good news for parents who grew up watching VeggieTales: A new batch of episodes is being released, and they’re just as funny and Bible-based as the originals.

The new series, called The VeggieTales Show, follows the familiar cast of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber as they organize a variety show for a live audience. Each episode includes plenty of hilarious backstage antics, but it also includes a Bible story with a lesson for children.

The VeggieTales Show is streamed on TBN’s kid-focused service, Yippee.

Co-creator Mike Nawrocki calls it “the Muppet Show meets classic VeggieTales.”

“One of the things that we always concentrated on with VeggieTales is that core biblical component – God made you special and He loves you very much,” Nawrocki told Christian Headlines. “The really fun thing about this new series is that, because of the way that it’s structured, we typically will tell two short stories in the context of the 22 minutes, and one of them will always be a Bible story. And sometimes we have two Bible stories in there.”

Nawrocki, who voices Larry the Cucumber, Jerry Gourd and Jean-Claude Pea, said he’s always viewed VeggieTales as “a resource” to “help parents pass on biblical values to their kids.” Nawrocki and Phil Vischer created VeggieTales during the 1990s.

“Bob and Larry [and] the cast of characters remind kids…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Monday, September 14, 2020

“Can I promise you something? If I don’t kill your sister then I am fake,” Sylvester Ofori, the self-styled prophet and leader of Floodgates of Heaven International Ministries in Orlando, Florida, threatened his brother-in-law last Monday before storming off.

A day later, Ofori, 35, who has more than 60,000 followers on social media, gunned down his wife, Barbara Tommey, 27, just before 9 a.m. near the front door of Navy Federal Credit Union on the 4600 block of Gardens Park Boulevard, the Orlando Police Department said.

In an affidavit cited by the Orlando Sentinel, witness told detectives that Ofori was holding a gun and was following his wife as she walked toward the bank. She knocked on the doors to get someone to let her in but Ofori shot her once and she collapsed a few feet away from her husband.

Witnesses say he then walked over to her as she lay dying and shot her a few more times in the head. He then walked back to his rented Dodge Journey, and drove away “as though nothing happened.” His wife was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center later that morning.

Tommey’s sister…

On Saturday, close to 1,000 people were baptized at Corona Del Mar State Beach in Newport Beach by Calvary Chapel Church Chino Hills.

According to CBN News, Chino Director, Gina Gleason, noted that the record-setting number of baptisms on Saturday exceeded the usual turnout, which is about 300 people per service.

“It’s remarkable and a significant number,” she said. “California may be experiencing a spiritual revival.”

In an area known as Pirate Cove, highlights of the event show thousands of people on the beach as others were baptized by the church staff and its lead pastor, Jack Hibbs.

Baptisms aside, the church has also experienced a significant amount of people at their services throughout the summer, Champion Newspaper reports.

“For this church, it has been crazy amazing,” Hibbs said. “We are reaching the most amount of people ever with many thousands of people coming on Wednesdays and Sundays.”

The church had been following lockdown procedures due to COVID-19 but eventually reopened its indoor services due to government overreach.

“When the governor began to clearly target the church, that’s when we were led by the Lord and Scripture to obey God rather than man,” Hibbs contended.

Nevertheless, the church offers outdoor seating, hand sanitizers, and socially distancing protocols. Additionally, members can listen to the church services from their car via radio transmission.

If a…

A controversial new budget approved by the Austin, Texas, city council last month cuts millions of dollars in funding from the police department and redirects it to a wide variety of programs, including an increase in taxpayer money for abortion access.

The 2020-21 budget, approved Aug. 13, slashes about $20 million from the budget for the Austin Police Department by eliminating vacant police officer positions, canceling cadet classes and cutting overtime costs, among other things, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

The city council diverted the $20 million to fund violence prevention, mental health response and other public health services.

Among the “public health services” receiving an uptick in funding in the new budget is the city’s “abortion services” fund, which received $150,000 in last year’s budget but will get $250,000 under the new budget. The fund provides transportation, lodging, childcare and other services for women seeking an abortion. (Texas law prohibits the funds being used directly for the abortion itself.)  

Texas Right to Life and the Austin Chronicle reported on the increase in abortion services funding. 

“Austin is doubling down on their stance as a sanctuary city for the abortion industry,” Texas Right to Life said on its website. “… But abortion is not health care. Abortion does nothing to improve the safety,…

The Bible Reading Marathon has begun in Washington, D.C. and will continue until Sept. 16.

A group of speakers began reading Genesis at 2 p.m. EST on Saturday and will continue reading for 90 continuous hours until Wednesday at 10 a.m.

The 5-day reading marathon at the Faith & Liberty headquarters was originally scheduled for the spring but was delayed due to COVID-19.

The Bible distribution ministry in Brazil, Indiana, Seedline International, has led the event since last year.

Keith Davidson, director of Seedline, said the purpose of the reading marathon is “to exhort our nation to return to Biblical principles.”

“This read, especially this year, is needed across our country. I think our nation’s hope lies in the word of God,” he proclaimed. “I think the Bible is our foundation and can give us that duration and give us hope to get back to where America once was.”

The U.S. Capitol Bible Reading Marathon started in 1990, according to the event’s website. Founders Dr. John Hash and Dr. Corinthia Boone started the live event in front of the Capitol Building. From 1994 to 2019, Pastor Michael Hall and his wife, Terry Hall, led the event.

“Because the Bible is at the heart of America’s founding principles, it should be voiced at the heart of our Federal Government, exhorting our nation to return to God’s precepts,” the site says.
“Therefore, it is our desire to publicly read God’s Holy Word on the…

Evangelist and Director of In Touch Ministries Dr. Charles Stanley is officially stepping down from his position as head pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta. 

Stanley was the head pastor of the church for almost 50 years, while also holding a leadership role at In Touch Ministries, a Christian non-profit focusing primarily on family and child development in addition to preaching the gospel and equipping believers to live the Christian life and share their faith.

While Dr. Stanley isn’t leaving the church, he is taking a on a new position as pastor emeritus. Dr. Stanley said the reason was to focus more exclusively on In Touch Ministries, which he founded in 1977.

The decision isn’t new, as the inklings of the conversation began in 2018. Dr. Stanley says the reason for the positional change is mainly to “continue to preach the gospel as long as God allows. My goal remains the same—to get the truth of the gospel to as many people as possible as quickly as possible in the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.”

In Touch Ministries was started based on a single television church service called “The Chapel Hour.” Since then, In Touch Ministries has grown to being played on over 1200 radio stations,130 different television stations/networks and translated into over 100 languages. Dr. Stanley is a New York Times best-selling author who has written over 60 books, including…

A church in Chicago has raised over $100,000 to cover medical debt for the residents in the Chicago metro area. VIVE Chicago, a satellite church for the Chicago-area that is part of the VIVE church chain, is a nondenominational church that raised the money.

The church partnered with New-York-based non-profit RIP Medical Debt, which used the $100,000 donation to help pay off more than $19 million worth of medical debt.

The donation was part of an initiative called “For Chicago,” which aims to pay off $78 million in debt for Chicago-area residents. The debt relief would go toward more than 71,000 residents’ medical bills. VIVE Lead Pastor Adam Smallcombe said in a statement shared with The Christian Post that “As the church and as Christians, our mandate is to liberate people from all kinds of oppression because only free people can truly free people. That’s why we felt as leaders it was necessary to bring this initiative to our church and they responded with bold faith and generosity.”

According to For Chicago’s campaign website, “Today, thousands of families in Cook County are responsible for $78 million worth of harmful medical debt. This figure continues to grow in the midst of a crisis where so many require necessary and lifesaving – yet debilitatingly expensive – medical care. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical debt relief is more critical than ever.”

RIP Medical Debt has…