Free Republic

With 2.18 billion adherents, Christianity has become a truly global religion over the past century, as rapid growth in developing nations offset declines in Christianity's traditional strongholds, according to a recently released report. Billed as the most comprehensive and reliable study to date, the Pew Research Center's "Global Christianity" reports on self-identified Christian populations based on more than 2,400 sources of information, especially census and survey data. Findings illustrate major shifts since 1910, when two-thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe. Now only one in four Christians lives in Europe. Most of the rest are distributed across the Americas...

A judge in Detroit has ruled that the decision by police in neighboring Dearborn to arrest a Christian pastor who wanted to hand out Christian tracts at the city’s Arab fest in 2009 will cost the city some $100,000... Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen said his recommendation for fees and costs totaling $103,401.96 be awarded in the case that was handled by attorney Robert J. Muise. Whalen said Saieg and his Arabic Christian Perspective organization sued Dearborn and its police chief, Ron Hadda, because after distributing Christian information at the event for several years, he was told police would arrest...

Online evangelism is producing real disciples for Christ, according to a recent study. Over half of those who made a decision for Jesus over the Internet have subsequently shared their faith with others, Global Media Outreach's study reveals. Additionally, 34 percent read their Bibles daily and nearly half pray for at least 10 minutes a day. "These findings are remarkable because they reveal that online evangelism isn’t just an in-the-moment decision, and people continue to grow in their faith after they have indicated a decision,” Global Media Outreach founder and chairman Walt Wilson said in a statement. The study, called...

When the Detroit Lions’ Stephen Tulloch sacked Tim Tebow in the first quarter of their week eight matchup, the linebacker immediately kneeled next to the prone Denver quarterback, in a mockery of Tebow’s habit of praying on-field, most recently seen after his miraculous fourth-quarter comeback against the Dolphins the week before. The insult coincided with and reinforced the explosion of “Tebowing” as an Internet meme, complete with a Twitter account and web-site. There you can see an act of communion with one’s creator rendered as a bit of pop-cultural ephemera, and you can scroll through pictures of folks striking the...

The man at the table is Artur Pawlowski. He is the preacher who runs Calgary’s Street Church. He does this a lot: sermonizing to the city’s scruffier elements — the homeless, the drug addicts, the alcoholics and the drifters. They know him. Four times a week he sets up shop, just across the street, on the steps of City Hall and cooks meals and dispenses clothing, along with sermons, to the needy. Lately he’s been running into a lot of the Occupy Calgary types... He’s spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, mortgaging his home twice in the process, in legal...

Although today is the dawn of the Chinese New Year, most people are unaware that Chinese Christians are gearing up to be the world's most potent missionary force. China? Christians? Sure enough. For decades now they've had plans to evangelize the Muslim world that lies along the old Silk Road route. This could be one of the most ambitious missionary enterprises in 2,000 years of Christianity. No national church has amazed the world as much as that of the Chinese. From 1 million at the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, it's grown to 100 million followers, a breathtaking...

TRIPOLI, Libya (BP)--It may be several years before the dust settles in Libya and Christians can hope for a clear way to the nation's hard-to-reach people groups, said Drew Carson*, a Christian leader among North African and Middle Eastern peoples. "Unlike any other situation so far (in the Arab Spring), this whole situation in Libya sort of takes the governmental system back to zero," Carson said, noting that in Egypt and other places, when the leader fell, the government was still intact. That's not the case in Libya, where rebels are pressing Muammar Gaddafi's regime hoping it will crumble from...

The over abundance of My Kingdom comes from the riches of your intimacy with Me(JESUS) in Glory , for I AM The Kingdom , The Glory and the Power and your Godhead ! So "BE" within My breath for My fullness to pour out of you and as you abide in "This" Holy Place I "shall" do the exceeding and manifest where you stand for I shall " BE " . For You can not practice what is "TRUE" , "ETERNAL" and "FLOWING" ! Matthew 6:13 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil...

Argentinian-born evangelist Luis Palau preached in the southeast coastal city of Marseille, France on Saturday, concluding his three-day Christian outreach festival. The Luis Palau festival in Marseille was unique in that on Saturday the message was picked up by a satellite channel with millions of viewers. Palau spoke in Spanish while his interpreter translated his message into French. Every night the festival, which began June 30, was taped for delayed transmission to Francophone Africa, the Middle East on CAN, and France on Dieu TV. Standing on the beaches of Plage du Prado, Palau preached about the Good News found in...

Evangelism Approach By Way of The Bible. The Bible can teach us how to let GOD the Holy Spirit convict people who are lost or have been deceived by false doctrines. Learn how to use the Bible and Bible Scriptures and the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit as the evangelist preaches the grace message.

The three main bodies in Christianity, representing about 90 percent of Christians worldwide, released a "historic" agreement Monday on how Christians should conduct themselves when witnessing in a religiously diverse context. Leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance, the World Council of Churches and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue were in Geneva on Monday to launch the document entitled, "Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct." The document, a result of five years of cooperation, provides a biblical mandate for evangelism and outlines a set of ethics on Christian conduct in missions. It is the first time...

All of the following material is from Rev. Fred Klett who in turn cites other Reformed sources or authors. The Westminster Larger Catechism on the Jewish people: Has God promised anything regarding ethnic Israel? Good people are on all sides of this hotly debated topic. Among Reformed folk there are many points of view. Great men like Puritan John Owen spoke of the revival of the Jewish people and their restoration to the land. Others see the Jewish people as simply one of the peoples of the earth, certainly with a special history. What are the implications of the fact...

The word on the street is simple – “church sucks.” Plastered throughout one city in northern California are signs stating the same message, stirring some controversy among the local residents. But it’s all part of the plan, according to Stu Streeter, the lead pastor of Disciples Church in Folsom. Using the slogan as a way to attract those who have stopped attending church, Streeter, along with Adam Adams, his connection ministry director, have teamed up to ironically bring people back into the church, reported El Dorado Hills Telegraph.

Evangelist Luis Palau made history on April 9 when he preached at the Protestant centennial celebration in Vietnam, becoming the first U.S.-based evangelist to preach at a major event there since the 1975 communist takeover. The 76-year-old evangelist preached on two consecutive nights at the Thanh Long Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, which was not the venue the event organizers had originally sought. Event organizers had planned to hold the event in an open field, but government officials allowed the event only on the condition that it be held in the soccer stadium. Organizers requested permission to hold the...

John 1:14 says, “The Word [Jesus] became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Or, as The Message paraphrases it, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” MoveIn is about copying Jesus’ example (Phil. 2:5-7) by literally moving in to the neighbourhood. We have discovered that something amazing happens when a group of Christians intentionally moves into a neighbourhood to pray (Acts 1:14) and be. In doing so, they have chosen to become part of the neighbourhood. Rather than visiting or serving and then going away, they will share in their neighbourhood’s joys (Rom. 12:15), and...

The future shape of the world appears to be a worldview competition between Christianity, Islam, and Western Secularism. For Christians, both of these worldviews represent real and lasting challenges to evangelism. Neither of these is a particularly new challenge, and the Christian encounter with Islam is now over a millennium in duration. Writing over thirty years ago, when most American evangelicals had little knowledge of Islam, missiologist J. Herbert Kane of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School outlined six reasons why the evangelization of the Muslim world has been so difficult. His explanation of “Why the Muslim Soil is So Barren” remains...

Every summer, sprinklers, pools, ponds, lakes, creeks, rivers, and oceans are invaded by swarms of people looking to escape the heat. Water is wonderful! It offers a refreshing playground in which to frolic. Great memories are had around water including fishing, skiing, surfing, tubing and swimming. Many swimmers have feelings of fear and joy when it comes to remembering the high dive. It doesn’t matter if the high dive was the standard board 12 feet above the water, a rock outcropping, or a local bridge. The experiences all take the individual through a similar range of emotions. In reflection, it...

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--It was a secret Ishaq* held close for 13 years -- one that caught journeyman missionary Craig Evans* by surprise when the young man revealed it. In 2007, Evans began visiting a quaint Central Asian village where he befriended Ishaq. One day while Ishaq's family answered the local mosque's call to prayer, Evans was able to talk with his Muslim friend alone for the first time. Glancing around nervously, Ishaq leaned closer and whispered, "My one desire in life is to be near to God." He explained that he had happened upon a Bible 13 days earlier and...

Wycliffe Associates is seeking to replace its aging aircraft to boost Bible translation efforts in some of the most hard-to-reach areas in Indonesia. The international missions group aims to raise $1.5 million to purchase a Pilatus PC-6 aircraft, which will empower Bible translators to traverse through the most remote and rugged islands of the Muslim-dominated country where people speak over 700 separate languages. Wycliffe Associates President and CEO Bruce Smith calls Indonesia “one of the most challenging mission fields on earth.” “It takes specialized airplanes to keep Bible translators at work, planes designed specifically to get in and out of...

CAIRO (BP)--The monumental changes taking place in Egypt should be a clarion call for Western Christians to "run toward Egypt" and take advantage of an opportunity decades in the making, said a Christian worker deeply familiar with the country. "How long have we been asking the church around the world to pray for the [unreached parts of the world]?" Ron Robinson* asked. "I know for 29 years I've been asking American churches, churches in the United Kingdom, Korean Christians to pray for Egypt -- that doors would open" to share the Gospel. "Our prayers are being answered right now.... This...