Church reopens in centre of regeneration project symbolising rebirth of community

St Rollox Church is the first public space to open in Sighthill in Glasgow after the local authority forced it to move in order to redevelop the area for new housing.

The church said the new building is a flexible and versatile, multi-purpose space that symbolises the “rebirth” of the area.

 

Rev Jane Howitt, minister of St Rollox Church, said: “We are hugely excited.

“It is a very light and airy facility in the heart of a new and growing community, a place where everyone is welcome and can call home.”

The district in the north of the city is currently being transformed through an ambitious £250 million regeneration project – the largest in the UK outside of London.

The long awaited opening on Sunday ended a tumultuous period for the congregation who were told in 2014 that they had to leave their old church building on Fountainwell Road half a mile away.

It was subject to a compulsory purchase order by Glasgow City Council which needed the land to build a new access road to Sighthill, where hundreds of new homes, a new school and shops are being built.

Described as a “real asset” to the community, the new building construction was funded by the local authority and furnished by the Church of Scotland.

The congregation, one of the most diverse in Scotland because 85 per cent of people who attend were born outside the UK and see themselves as ‘New Scots’, have been…

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Q & A with Thom and Mark

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Thom and Mark take time to listen to the listeners. This is the first of a two part series where the listeners provide the content for the podcast. In today’s episode Thom and Mark answer questions about retirement and volunteer placement.

Episode highlights include:

    • Churches should make certain they are providing resources for pastors and their retirement.
    • Every pastor will be responsible for how they shepherd their congregations.
    • Do everything you can to help faithful workers find a new place of ministry.
    • Sometimes the best way to help people with good intentions is to tell them they are doing a bad job.

From Stan:
I have appreciated your podcasts on Revitalization. On the topic of transitioning pastoral staff, I have men who are getting older (without a retirement), but the church needs some younger men. I have some who could, but I can’t bring these other guys on in parallel to the older guys. This is very difficult. I guess it would be helpful to hear other experienced pastors speak to this. Maybe there’s something I’m not thinking of.

From James:
I am a pastor of a church in the UK of around 50 people currently going through a revitalization. New location. Back into the community where we were birthed. My question is how do you help others improve and develop their gifting without giving them the feeling you are telling them they are doing a bad job? Many thanks. Thank you so much for…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Thom Rainer.

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In-N-Out Owner Keeps Adding New Bible Verses to Packaging: It’s ‘a Family Touch’

In-N-Out Owner Keeps Adding New Bible Verses to Packaging: It’s ‘a Family Touch’



Some company owners try to distance their brand from religion and faith. In-N-Out’s president, though, is embracing it. 


In-N-Out Burger owner and president Lynsi Snyder, 37, says in a new interview with The Christian Post that she has expanded a tradition started decades ago when then-company president Rich Snyder printed Bible references on packaging. 


“It was my Uncle Rich who put the Bible verses on the cups and wrappers in the early ‘90s, just before he passed away,” Snyder said according to the Christian Post. “He had just accepted the Lord and wanted to put that little touch of his faith on our brand. It’s a family business and will always be, and that’s a family touch. In later years, I added verses to the fry boat, coffee, and hot cocoa cups.”


The verses are discreet – on the bottom of a cup, for example – but easy to find with a quick search. The company has used well-known Bible references like John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world …”) but also less-popular ones like Nahum 1:7 (“the Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.”). 


Snyder said in recent years she has added Proverbs 24:16 (“for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes”) to the fries container and Luke 6:35 (“but love your enemies, do…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Pat Robertson Says the President Could Lose the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ If Kurdish Allies Are Massacred

Pat Robertson Says the President Could Lose the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ If Kurdish Allies Are Massacred



On his show, The 700 Club, televangelist Pat Robertson warned the President that he may lose the “mandate of heaven” should Kurdish allies be massacred as a result of his decision to pull US troops out of Syria.


“I am absolutely appalled that the United States is going to betray those democratic forces in northern Syria,” Robertson said, according to Relevant Magazine. “That we are possibly going to allow the Turkish to come against the Kurds.


He continued: “The President, who allowed [Washington Post journalist Jamal] Khashoggi to be cut in pieces without any repercussions whatsoever, is now allowing the Christians and the Kurds to be massacred by the Turks. The President of the United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen.”


Last week, Trump called US troops out of Syria, leading to a bipartisan outcry warning the President that the move could leave Kurdish allies and Christians vulnerable to Turkish attacks. Over the weekend, Kurdistan 24 reported that Turkish bombers attacked an alleged Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) position close to a Christian village. Though no casualties were reported, the attack is the second within three days and has led to the evacuations of many villagers.


Robertson had previously supported the President’s decision to not investigate…

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Christian Filmmakers Brought Back to Court over Refusal to Film Gay Couple’s Wedding

Christian Filmmakers Brought Back to Court over Refusal to Film Gay Couple’s Wedding



The Minnesota Attorney General has summoned Christian filmmakers Carl and Angel Larsen back to court over their refusal to create a wedding video for a gay couple.


For three years, the Larsen’s have fought in court to defend their freedom of speech, finally achieving victory by the 8th Circuit Court, which reversed Minnesota’s chief federal judge’s dismissal of their claims. The Circuit Court ruled that “the First Amendment allows the Larsens to choose when to speak and what to say,” according to CBN.


But Attorney General Keith Ellison and Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero announced last week that they will take the couple back to court instead of appeal the decision.


In an op-ed in the Star Tribune, the pair stated that they believe the ruling “amounts to a license to discriminate against LGBTQ folks.”


They continued: “People have the right to believe whatever they want to believe. What they don’t have is the right to deny you the same service they’re offering to everyone else. No Minnesotan should be afraid that might happen to them. The Human Rights Act protects all of us from that.”


Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defending Freedom, however, believes that the couple “won a great free speech victory.” In a statement, he also said, “This principle protects everyone. It means the state can’t…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Tyler Perry Opens 330-Acre Studio, Hosts Star-Studded Worship Service

Tyler Perry Opens 330-Acre Studio, Hosts Star-Studded Worship Service



Influential producer, comedian, writer, and actor Tyler Perry opened a sprawling 330-acre headquarters over the weekend, closing the festivities with a stunning worship service, according to Faithwire.


Perry revealed 12 sound stages in his new headquarters each named after a black icon. Perry purchased the land near Atlanta, which had once served as a Confederate Army base in the Civil War, in 2015.


The opening weekend featured stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Ava DuVernay, Cecily Tyson, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland, Gladys Knight, Halle Berry, and more.


“@tylerperry you built the biggest studio in America, one that can fit all the other Hollywood studios combined and still have room to spare. You’ve also created a dream of hope and possibility for everyone to know that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can always do better when you’re aligned with the Divine. Thank you for the name of the sound stages. I love mine,” Oprah posted to Instagram.



Closing out the weekend was a worship service where Texas megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes delivered a message.


“I can’t explain how many icons were there to see history turn a page!” Jakes said on Instagram. “It felt like all the ancestors were rejoicing at what God has done. I didn’t see anyone that didn’t have gratitude on their face!”



Perry has big plans for the complex. In…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Who are the Kurds? Why is Turkey invading Syria? How should Christians respond?

A Kurdish woman participates in a demonstration outside European Parliament in Brussels on Oct. 9, 2019.

When cultural or geopolitical events warrant, we publish website articles intended to explain the issues and offer biblical perspective. In this context, we’ll look today at the escalating conflict in Syria involving Turkey and the Kurds.

Who are the Kurds? 

Though not a formal country, Kurdistan represents the areas in which the Kurds live throughout Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Armenia.

Between twenty-five and thirty-five million people known as Kurds live in a region straddling the borders of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Armenia. They are indigenous to the Mesopotamian plains and form a distinct community united through race, culture, and language. The exact origin of their name is unclear. 

The Kurds may be mentioned on a Sumerian clay tablet dating to the third millennium BC. Many consider themselves to have descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people. The majority today are Sunni Muslims. 

Their traditional way of life was nomadic, revolving around sheep and goat herding. The enforcement of national boundaries after World War I impeded the seasonal migrations of their flocks, forcing most of them to abandon their traditional ways for village life and settled farming. 

They also became famous as warriors and mercenaries. The sultan Saladin, known for his victories during the Crusades, epitomizes their military reputation. 

After the Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I, Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. However, the Treaty of Lausanne, which was signed three years later and set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state. 

As a result, because they live in an area that crosses several borders, the Kurds have majority status in no country. For instance, they constitute 15 to 20 percent of the population in Turkey, 7 to…

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Bishop pleads with protesters to stop destroying Haiti

Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Jean urged restraint after recent protests reportedly left 17 dead and nearly 200 injured.

Demonstrations began across Haiti in July 2018 and reignited again in February and September this year, with members demanding for the resignation of President Jovenal Moïse after accusations of corruption dogged his time in office, which has seen massive inflation and scarcity of goods and other resources.

 

 

Bishop Jean has implored protesters to consider the national implications of their ongoing actions.

He said: “Destroying the country is not a solution. It is probably a way to express frustration but it is not a solution. We have to find the way to talk.

“People cannot go out. We are enclosed in our homes. All the roads are blocked. Even in urgent cases ambulances or emergency cars cannot move.

“We don’t have fuel. Markets are not functioning. Schools have been closed throughout the country. The situation affects the whole nation.”

He went on to ask for the Christian community to pray for the “dying country.”

Bishop Jean went on to criticise the government for it’s inaction as unemployment rates have risen to 80 per cent following the troubles.

“Despite our repeated pleas for nearly two years, Haiti’s politicians remain deaf. In July 2018 we already had a big crisis and the government did nothing.

“But the…

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58 Percent of Evangelical Teens in Public Schools Regularly Discuss Faith

58 Percent of Evangelical Teens in Public Schools Regularly Discuss Faith



The U.S. Supreme Court long ago banned school-led prayer, but religion itself remains prevalent among the nation’s public schools, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.


The poll of 1,800 teenagers (ages 13 to 17) found that 53 percent of teens say they regularly see classmates wearing jewelry or clothing with religious messages, and another 39 percent say they regularly see fellow students praying before a sporting event. 


Another 26 percent say it’s common to see someone invited to a religious youth group or worship service, and 16 percent say it’s common to see a classmate pray before a meal. Eight percent say it’s common to see fellow students read religious texts outside of class.


Pew called it the first large-scale, nationally representative survey “asking teens a series of questions” about their own practices and perceptions or religious expression in public schools.


Two-thirds of teens (64 percent) say they rarely or never talk about religion with their friends. But that is not the case among evangelical Christian teens. Fifty-eight percent of evangelical teens regularly talk about their faith with classmates, compared with 39 percent of mainline teens and 35 percent of Catholic teens who do so.


Girls are more likely than boys to discuss religion with their peers, according to Pew. 


Perhaps in a related category, one in 10…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.

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Astronaut is Unable to Contain His Wonder at Seeing the Sun Rise From 250 Miles Above Earth on Space Walk – Urban Christian News

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan conducts a spacewalk at the Port- 6 (P6) truss structure work site to upgrade International Space Station power systems

This is the extraordinary moment an astronaut installing new batteries on the outside the International Space Station pauses his work to exclaim at the beauty of the sunrise from space during a live stream.

Christina Koch, 40, and Andrew Morgan, 43, removed three old solar power batteries and installed two new ones by hand, lugging the 180kg cells along the side of the ship in the first of five spacewalks on Sunday.

Whilst peering over the side of the space craft Dr Morgan can be heard exclaiming: ‘Oh my goodness, it’s gorgeous, being in a suit during a sunrise, it’s pretty awesome.’

Dr Koch replies: ‘Yeh, I know’ before continuing her work attaching a new battery while communicating with ground control.

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