United Pentecostal Lady says Pastoring is her Life

Click here to read the entire article found on clarionledger.com.

For 30 years, Rev. Jean Holland, 72, has led the flock at this Pentecostal church on U.S. 49 where the facade resembles a two-story brick lighthouse. Single with no children, she’s become a matriarch to churchgoers who treat her more like a mother or grandmother than a pastor.

“This is my family,” she said. “This is my life.”

Holland grew up in Bude, a town of some 1,000 people in southwest Mississippi, where in high school she earned the distinction “Miss Bude High.”

The daughter of a Pentecostal minister, she always knew she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps.

By the age of 10, Holland started preaching under an overhang on the side of a small building where her mother washed the family’s clothes.

“She and my dad closed that in for me to have a little church,” she said. “I’d get all the kids in the neighborhood and I’d preach.”

The Rev. James Nations, the district secretary of the Mississippi District of the United Pentecostal Church International, has known Holland since they were both teens.

“She was dedicated from the first time I met her,” he said. “I knew there was something different about her from the very beginning.”

Though most Pentecostal organizations have been ordaining women since the movement started more than a century ago, few women take the lead role in pastoring a Pentecostal church.

Holland is one of two women in Mississippi who serves as a senior pastor of a United Pentecostal Church International-associated congregation, Nations said.

Evangelical Leaders Meet and Decide to Back Sen. John McCain

More than 90 evangelical leaders decided to support Sen. John McCain at a meeting in Denver on Tuesday.

More than 90 evangelical leaders representing millions of conservative Christians met in Denver on Tuesday to lament the condition of the religious conservative movement and to conclude they should get behind Sen. John McCain even if they didn’t like everything about him as a candidate.

“The alternative is so bad we must support John McCain,” said Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of Eagle Forum, adding that the leaders should have held a strategy meeting in 2001 when it was clear Vice President Dick Cheney wouldn’t run for president instead of waiting until four months before the 2008 election.

Mostly white and middle-aged, the group was called together by Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel and dean of the law school at Liberty University.

“Our shared conservative evangelical values and our concern about judicial activism compelled us to unite around the presidential candidate who most closely aligns with us,” Staver said. “That candidate is obviously Sen. John McCain. United we will move forward to advance our values in the short- and long-term. We are committed to a transgenerational, multiethnic and multiracial conservative movement.”

Click Here For The Full Story

Prevalence Of Religious Congregations Affects Mortality Rates

Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this article are not the views of the Apostolic Report. However, we found some of the findings to be of interest.

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2008) — LSU associate professor of sociology Troy C. Blanchard recently found that a community’s religious environment — that is, the type of religious congregations within a locale — affects mortality rates, often in a positive manner. These results were published in the June issue of Social Forces.

“Although there is a great deal of research on religion and health, previous studies have tended to focus on the individual aspects of religion, such as how often an individual prays or attends worship services,” said Blanchard.

Along with co-author John Bartkowski from the University of Texas at San Antonio and other researchers from the University of West Georgia and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Blanchard found that people live longer in areas with a large number of Catholic and Mainline Protestant churches. He offers two key reasons for these findings.

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Happy 4th of July!

Today we celebrate our Independence Day. Wishing you and your family a wonderful fourth of July, from all of us at The Apostolic Report.

Featured Sponsor: C.O.D.E.

Pastor Mullins writes to us about the upcoming C.O.D.E. Indiana:

The Conference of Drama Evangelism AKA C.O.D.E Indiana, is in it’s 6th year. This conference has seen as many as 55 churches from 10 different states! We are certainly blessed by God. What one can expect from a conference such as this is inspiration and Hands on training from the best Apostolic ministers in the area of drama evangelism. each day there are as many as five classes going on at a time so it makes it hard to chose which class to attend. Classes include how to start a drama outreach for beginners, and as well how to run effective practices, how to create a sign song or dowel rod song, how to put drama in a song, the classes will go from beginners to advanced.

There are acting classes and directors classes. You will learn how to properly stage your team. Last years class participants actually created and then ministered a short drama in the evening service, while as well having the music created for it live! It was hit, as these actors had come from many different churches and states and were meeting each other for the first time!

We teach as well how to effectively promote your event and get free local news coverage for your drama. That’s right, free news coverage! 

Governor of Louisiana speaks at UPCI Camp-Meeting

By David Dinsmore • ddinsmore@thetowntalk.com • July 3, 2008

Jindal: ‘I believe in the power of prayer’

TIOGA — Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke about the need for prayer Wednesday night as he addressed thousands of people attending a Pentecostal camp meeting in Tioga.

“I believe in the power of prayer,” Jindal told the crowd. “(These elected officials) may want your votes, but they need your prayers.”

The crowd gathered in the auditorium Wednesday with clapping hands and singing voices as part of the 94th annual United Pentecostal Church district camp meeting, which will continue through Friday night.

“What a great week … to be with brothers and sisters in Christ,” Jindal said as the crowd met his words with praises.

Jindal shared stories from his own life and how his relationship with God helps him with his work. He also talked about being thankful that he receives daily prayer support, especially during the last couple of weeks when facing the decision regarding the legislative pay raise bill he eventually vetoed.

“I’m asking that you lift each of us up in prayer,” the governor said of himself and his fellow elected officials.

Jindal was among a group of politicians, including state Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell and Fifth District Congressman Rodney Alexander, attending Wednesday’s worship service.

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Priestly garb created for Third Temple

The Temple Institute is a Jewish group in Jerusalem that is committed to construction a Third Temple and re-instituting animal sacrifices and other practices required by Jewish law. The group has been well known for years and have been in the news many times. In the past they have attempted to dedicate a cornerstone for a new Temple, re-created furniture and tools described in the Bible, and so forth. Recently the group has, once again, made news headlines for hosting a seminar describing their work on re-creating the garments to be worn by the priests in the future Third Temple (read a Jerusalem Post article HERE).

Many Christians believe that the the existence and work of the Temple Institute is a sign that biblical prophecies concerning the end times may soon be fulfilled. The group has been working diligently on preparations to build a Temple in Jerusalem as soon as the political climate makes such a move possible. They reportedly have all of the blueprints, and most of the furniture, implements, and so forth needed to make Third Temple a reality in very short order. They have also identified and trained a priesthood -that is reportedly historically linked to the ancient priesthood - to resume the sacrifices and other rituals as soon as conditions are favorable.

More information about the Temple Institute can be found on their web site - http://www.templeinstitute.org/

Distributing Bibles Banned by Maryland School

WorldNetDaily - Gideons chased from Maryland schools
‘Christian’ lodged complaint about Bible distribution with ACLU

The Gideons, an international Bible distribution organization, can’t give away their wares – at least not in public elementary schools in Somerset County, Maryland.

The school board banned the Gideons from distributing Bibles for free in schools after a woman describing herself as a Christian complained about the activity to the American Civil Liberties Union and the district.

Stephanie Kayhan contacted the ACLU saying she is against Bibles being passed out in schools, because it blurs the “separation between church and state,” according to WBOC TV. She then wrote a letter to the school board arguing it is unconstitutional to allow the Gideons to continue. The school board subsequently suspended passing out Bibles on the school grounds.

Read the full article HERE.

Pray at the Pump

CNSNews.com - Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

As the price of oil continues to rise, some are turning to God and prayer for an answer to their financial troubles.

The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.

Read the full article HERE.

Wednesday Website of the Week: EveryonesApostolic

The website spotlight for this week is EveryonesApostolic.com. This is a fairly new social networking site that we discussed here a few weeks ago. Since the time that we wrote the original story, the site has grown from a few hundred members, to over 4,500 members! This website is a social networking website for Apostolics only and the site creator, John Howell, has been doing a great job of keeping it clean and safe for Apostolics. 

http://www.everyonesapostolic.com

EveryonesApostolic has the usual array of features you would expect from a social networking site, such as: The ability to change themes, embed videos, upload audio playlists, add friends, post to a blog, and add pictures. It has a few other nice touches as well, such as a built in RSS feed aggregator for your profile page, and even a discussion forum.

This website also many “groups” that you can join to meet new apostolics or find old friends. Some of the more popular groups currently are:

AR Survey Results: Favorite Apostolic Websites

 

The survey results are in! Discover the favorite Apostolic websites from the readers of AR. We divided the survey into three categories: General websites. Apostolic Blogs, and Church websites.

General Apostolic Websites

1. http://www.ninetyandnine.com  

2. http:// www.upci.org

3. http://www.endtime.com

4. http:// www.everyonesapostolic.com

5. http://www.apostolicsinglesnetwork.com

 

Other sites that recieved more than one vote: ApostolicClassics.com, FaithBuilder.us, E-LightInspirations.com, and ApostolicLive.com.

Apostolic Blogs

1. http://www.theapostolicreport.com  :-)

2. http://barnabas14blog.blogspot.com 

3. http://www.fullproof.us

4. http://www.inbythroughhim.blogspot.com

5. http://www.markpryor.org/journey

 

Apostolic Church Websites (In terms of style, content, etc.) 

 

1. http://www.thepentecostals.org
2. http://www.newlifeupc.org 
3. http://calvarytabindy.org

There was about a 30 place tie for the next spot. It appears most people just put their own church site here… :-)

Women Say Economy Was Factor In Getting Abortions

ST. PAUL (AP) ― Many women who got abortions last year say the worsening economy was one of the reasons for their decision.

There were 13,843 abortions performed in Minnesota in 2007. Of the women who listed a reason for their abortions, 40 percent cited economic concerns — that’s the largest share since the state started collecting detailed abortion information a decade ago, according to the state’s annual abortion report.
  
“Certainly, women’s concerns about being able to support their families are important,” said Sarah Stoesz, executive director of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.
  
The cost of birth control may be another concern in a tightening economy, she said, and could lead to unplanned pregnancies.
  
Women can list more than one reason for an abortion. The most common reason cited was that a woman did not want children at this time (10,190.) Other reasons included already being a single parent (1,024) and unfulfilled educational goals (886). Ninety-eight women cited rape or incest.

Click HERE to read the full story.

AR Anouncement: Mobile Phone Month

Apple has anounced the much anticipated release of the new iPhone 3G. The new SmartPhone will release on July 11th. In honor of the announcement, we are making July, “Mobile Phone Month” in our Tuesday Tech Tip Section. The remainder of the Tuesday Tech Tips in July will focus on Mobile Phones. More specifically, “Smart Phones.”

ABI Research recently released a prediction that by 2013 one in every three phones sold will be a smartphone.

Check back every Tuesday in July for information about the new smartphones, software, and accessories.

Church Attendance Beneficial to Marriage, Researcher Says

(CNSNews.com) - Married couples who attend church together tend to be happier than couples who rarely or never attend services, according to sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia.

Using three nationally representative surveys - the General Social Survey (GSS), the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), and the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) - Wilcox found that married church-going Americans across denominational and racial classifications were more likely to describe themselves as “very happy” than their non-religious counterparts.

Couples who attended church regularly were also less likely to divorce than couples who seldom attended church services, Wilcox found.

“Attending church only seems to help couples when they attend together,” Wilcox told Cybercast News Service. “But when they do, they are significantly happier in their marriages, and they are much less likely to divorce, compared to couples who do not attend church. I would say that church attendance is a beneficial component of marriage when it is done together.”

Wilcox explained that regular church attendance offers certain positive benefits to a married couple: “Churches supply moral norms like sexual fidelity and forgiveness, family-friendly social networks that lend support to couples facing the ordinary joys and challenges of married life, and a faith that helps couples make sense of the difficulties in their lives-from unemployment to illness-that can harm their marriages.”

Click HERE to read the full story.

"What drew my autistic sibling to the Pentecostal church?"

By Liz Grossman | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Seeing a Smile I Had Not Known Existed

I never understood what drew my autistic sibling to the Pentecostal church. Then I went with him.

Under the fluorescent lights and lazy ceiling fans of a Pentecostal church in Milwaukee, I watched my oldest brother crouch down and rest his head in his hands. He began to pray silently, moving his lips. Two pastors knelt alongside him and rubbed his back. They, too, began to pray. It was a remarkable sight, because our family is Jewish. Even more remarkable was the fact that my brother was allowing himself to be touched.

My brother Tim was diagnosed with autism as a young child in the ’60s, but as he grew up his symptoms seemed closer to Asperger’s disorder and severe OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), while he displayed the savant characteristics of autism. If Tim ate at a restaurant, a certain amount of time had to pass before he allowed himself to return. Before he could enter a room he would have to cross and recross the threshold. He couldn’t quite balance his checkbook, but he could tell you what the weather was like on April 17, 1981.

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