We’re all living in difficult times. Friends can help friends get through anything, but how can friends help ease the burden of one another’s medical costs, especially during a pandemic?

It’s in times like these Christians are called to help and care for one another, even if we can’t be physically together.

There are endless references in the Bible relating to helping your fellow brothers and sisters, especially when times are tough. Take for example, James 2:14-17 which says: “”Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

We must have more than good intentions – we must take action. While it may not be easy to make a big difference by ourselves, if we come together with others, we can make a difference for many people in times of need.

As individuals, we don’t often have the structure needed to bring together large groups of people to unite around a specific cause. It’s in these times that established organizations can step in to help facilitate the process of organizing people to achieve a larger goal together than they could achieve alone. When coming together across a wide geographical area and involving a purpose that includes the sharing of medical needs, the need…

Multiple churches in Chicago, Illinois are already having in-person services even though restrictions prohibit them from exceeding a certain amount.

According to the state’s “Restore Illinois” plan, religious services with 10 or fewer people are permitted, NBC Chicago reports.

Gatherings of more than ten, however, are still restricted until phase four of the plan which will increase the maximum to 50 people.

Even though some churches have been having in-person services, some pastors are already facing threats of church shutdowns.

Pastor Joe Wyrostek of Metro Praise International Church noted that he is facing a “summary abatement” for having services with more than 10 people, according to a letter sent by the city’s health department.

“We are very disappointed with all of this, including not being considered as essential in the beginning, as a church,” said Wyrostek, whose church held Sunday service for the second week in a row.

At the same time, Pastor Cristian Ionescu of Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park also received the same letter.

He noted that “the summary of abatement” entailed padlocking doors or even seeing his church get demolished.

“There is not going to be a stand-down on our part,” asserted Ionescu. “It’s only the city that escalates. I wonder, if they threaten us with such extreme measures, what else is left?”

Pastor Ionescu also filed a…

As Christians in Nigeria continue to face harsh persecution by Islamic extremist groups, 2 Republican senators want President Trump to take action.

According to CBN News, Iowa Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley are urging the President in a letter to send out a special envoy to aid persecuted Christians in Nigeria.

Both Senators noted in the letter that 40,000 Nigerians have died at the hands of Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist organization.

Boko Haram, along with other terrorist groups such as the Fulani herdsmen, have reportedly made it difficult for Christians living in West Africa throughout the years.

President Trump had previously asked Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the safety of “innocent civilians of all faiths,” about two years ago.

Both senators, however, assert that Christians are in need of more protection.

Earlier in May, CBN News reported that an estimated 620 Christians in Nigeria were killed by Boko Haram within the first five months of 2020, according to a report published by a Nigerian organization.

The International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (LSCLRL), a nongovernmental organization, had advised in a report concerning increased violence against Christians by Boko Haram and the Fulani Herdsmen.

The report noted that Christian centers of worship and learning have been burned down or destroyed in a region referred to as the old…

Four Minneapolis police officers were fired on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing one of the officers kneeling on the neck of a black man who was crying out that he could not breathe. The man soon became unresponsive and was later pronounced dead.

George Floyd, 47, died at a local hospital on Monday after being arrested and pinned to the pavement outside of a convenience store where it was suspected that he used a fake $20 bill, the Star Tribune reports. Floyd was pinned by an officer on the neck for at least six minutes.

“I can’t breathe,” Floyd says several times in the nine-minute video, the left side of his face pressed to the street.

About four minutes into the video, he appears to become unconscious as bystanders plead with the police to check his pulse. Around six minutes and 30 seconds into the video – with the officer’s knee still on Floyd’s neck – an ambulance arrives. One officer in the video said Floyd had resisted arrest for 10 minutes. Security footage of a portion of his arrest does not show him resisting.

“Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, according to the Star Tribune. “For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black man’s neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the…

Christian evangelist Ravi Zacharias will be honored in a livestream memorial service this week.

Zacharias died May 19 at the age of 74. The service will be streamed live at RZIM.org/RaviMemorial on May 29 at 11 a.m. ET.

“The story of the gospel is the story of eternal life. My life is unique and will endure eternally in God’s presence. I will never be ‘no more.’ I will never be lost because I will be with the One who saves me,” Zacharias wrote in Seeing Jesus from the East.

Zacharias founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in 1984. His ministry equipped some 100 Christian scholars and authors to travel the world and speak to millions of people.

Former football star Tim Tebow, Louis Giglio, Brooklyn Tabernacle Senior Pastor Jim Cymbala and others are expected to speak at Ravi’s memorial service. Matt Redman and Lecrae will also perform.

In lieu of flowers, the Zacharias family has asked that donations be made to RZIM.

Zacharias was best known as a top Christian apologist.

“(Ravi) saw the objections and questions of others not as something to be rebuffed, but as a cry of the heart that had to be answered,” said Michael Ramsden, president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

“People weren’t logical problems waiting to be solved; they were people who needed the person of Christ. Those who knew him well will remember him first for his kindness, gentleness, and generosity of spirit….

When it comes to estimating a sermon’s length, pastors and churchgoers aren’t on the same page, according to two new polls.

A total of 31 percent of Protestant pastors say their sermons are less than 20 minutes, according to a new LifeWay Research survey, yet only 14 percent of American Protestant churchgoers in a separate poll say their pastor’s sermons are that short.

Meanwhile, 32 percent of churchgoers say their pastor’s sermons are more than 40 minutes, even though only 14 percent of pastors say they preach that long.

The two surveys, though, did find some agreement – 54 percent of pastors and 53 percent of churchgoers estimate the sermon length between 20 and 40 minutes.

The two polls were conducted prior to the pandemic and subsequent church closures.

“Some sermons feel like they are longer than the pastor estimates,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “Churchgoers report sermons over 40 minutes in both small and large churches, but that could be related to different definitions of what elements of the church service are included in the sermon. For example, pastors may give announcements, do a Scripture reading and conduct an altar call surrounding the sermon, which may lead to congregants feeling as if the message itself is longer.”

Nearly half (45 percent) of churchgoers say their preferred sermon length is 30 minutes or…

From his first ‘hello,’ Jeff Sessions begins to explain why he wants to get his old job as Senator for Alabama back. Sessions had been Alabama’s Senator for more than 20 years, before leaving to become the U.S. Attorney General for the Trump Administration.

In an interview with Christian Headlines, Sessions shares that he was thankful to have held the post of Attorney General and believes he did a good job in the position.

“People may not know how many things went well,” Sessions shared.

One of those people who feels that things didn’t go well is his boss, the President of the United States, who made it clear in a recent interview with Meet the Press that if he had a “do-over” he would not hire Jeff Sessions.

Yet Sessions’ support for the president seemed unshaken. “The President and I share ideas on how to make America great,” Sessions shared before noting that now, he is simply looking to be reelected as a Senator for Alabama.

“My head and heart are in the right place,” Sessions shared. “I came out of the soil of the ground in this state. My family background is from Alabama. So, this is a state that I’m not only from but one that I deeply love.”

Sessions realizes being passionate for the state does not guarantee him the trust of the people he once held.

Still, he is hoping the work he has done to strengthen religious liberty and his deep conservative background will remind the people of…