HYDERABAD, India, August 13, 2018 (Morning Star News) – About an hour before midnight on July 31, three policemen and a Hindu neighbor barged into a Christian woman’s house in northern India and ordered her and her husband to either give them money or go to jail.

The couple was immersed in prayer with their children and two other Christians in their home in Uttar Pradesh state’s Sarai Gunja village, in Jaunpur District. They worshipped in their house every night, and they had been fasting for three days, said the Christian woman, Anita Rajak.

The officers told them they couldn’t pray in their house and had come to arrest them, Rajak told Morning Star News.

“We are praying in our own house,” she told them. “Why would there be an arrest for praying inside one’s own house?”

One of the officers gave her two choices, she said: “Either you let us take your husband into custody and we will register cases against you all, or you pay the penalty so there will be no case.”

The 31-year-old mother of four said she asked them to show an arrest warrant, but they told her to shut up and hand over the money. When she said she had no money, they took her husband, Pappu Rajak, and another Christian to their Jeep, calling her a “prostitute Christian” and her husband a pimp when she tried to stop them.

Three times she called an emergency police…

The Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board has announced the creation of a new evangelism and leadership group meant to help pastors and church plants.

NAMB named Jim Law, executive pastor at First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, a megachurch with approximately 6,000 regular weekly attendance, as the new group’s first executive director.

“I want to help make evangelism the top priority and help pastors lead their people in that direction,” said Law in a statement released Sunday.

Law also stated that he believed younger pastors are among “the sharpest leaders we have” in the SBC, expressing optimism that the new group will aid them in their ministries.

“They are our future. We need to start investing in them more and give them seats around the table. That is one of my priorities,” continued Law.

A U.S. Army chaplain is facing a dereliction of duty charge and potentially six months in a military prison after not accepting a same-sex couple in a marriage retreat, even though he ensured the two women they could take part in the next scheduled retreat with a different chaplain, according to his attorney.

U.S. Army Chaplain Maj. Scott Squires – who is Southern Baptist – faces the charge on a technicality. The Army report says the lesbian soldier who requested attendance at the Strong Bonds marriage retreat was “denied a service due to her sexual orientation.” But the same Army report says the charge is not for denying her a service but instead for not following Army policy in accommodating her until after a complaint was filed.

Squires, though, said he followed Army policy. As a chaplain endorsed by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, he is prohibited from endorsing same-sex relationships. His chaplain assistant, SSG Kacie Griffin, faces a similar charge by the Army.

First Liberty is representing Squires.

“The United States Army, acting under the command of Major General Sonntag, is threatening to punish one of its chaplains because he followed the rules,” said Mike Berry of First Liberty. “The Army, or Congress, must hold Major General Sonntag accountable for allowing this aggressive anti-religious hostility…

In the wake of the fall of some celebrity megachurch pastors, evangelicals must start becoming much more suspicious of who they trust, a prominent Baptist theologian is warning.

Roger E. Olson, professor of Christian Theology of Ethics at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, wrote in a blog post last week that America’s megachurch model “isn’t working.”

“My suggestion is that people (and I’m talking primarily to evangelical Christians) be much more suspicious than they tend to be — about powerful, celebrity spiritual leaders who are not accountable to anyone but themselves and their handpicked boards (‘yes men’),” he wrote.

He argued that America’s “obsession with celebrities, ‘bigness,’ entertainment, and ‘success'” is one of the underlying problems.

“This obsession has obviously filtered into American religion and, sadly, even into American evangelical Christianity,” he warned.

Olson pointed out that in recent years, “several founders and leaders of evangelical, independent mega-churches have fallen off their celebrity-pastor…

Serita Jakes, wife of popular televangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes, has reignited debate over the practice of yoga among Christians after she shared a series of photos showing members of a women’s group at The Potter’s House of Dallas enjoying a “taste of yoga” as a part of a healthy living endeavor.

“Today, we aspired to inspire #health mentally, emotionally, and physically. Our ladies even got a taste of #yoga from @Mrs_BrittHall. Health goes beyond what you eat. It’s in the way you think, speak, and live. Thank you to all of the lovely sister girls that came to play with us! I love you. #AspireToInspire #W2W#EmotionalWellnessMatters,” Jakes wrote in a post on Instagram that was also shared on other social media platforms such as Facebook.

The post sparked debate with critics saying it’s wrong for Christians to practice yoga. 

In defense, an Instagram user named Cecilia Echevarria, who indicated she participated in the event, said it was “very inspiring.”

“We learn on how different ways to enjoy yoga in a Christian perspective. Thank you,” she wrote.

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The Christian Post reached out to Jakes’ women’s group for comment on Friday but she…

Pastor Rick Warren has hailed the congregation at his California-based Saddleback Church as it became the first in U.S. history to baptize 50,000 people.

“I never stop being amazed by you. You are extraordinary people, and I continually thank God for what you mean to me,” Warren stated in a letter to the people of the megachurch, shared Saturday on Facebook.

The pastor looked back over the 38 years of milestones that Saddleback has been achieving, such as becoming the first to grow to 10,000 in worship without owning a building, and the first to send the Gospel to all 197 officials nations in the world.

This weekend marked another major milestone, as the 50,000th person was baptized into the faith at Saddleback.

“Imagine all the amazing personal stories of changed lives behind that number! 50,000 individual lives transformed by Jesus since Saddleback Church began. This is unprecedented in history! YOU are likely one of those stories of a changed life!” read Warren’s letter.

The best-selling author said that “love” is the main reason why the church has been so successful.