Pentecostal Church Shares Insight on Prayer after Girls Death

After a family in Wausau, WI, chose not to seek medical attention on their daughter, Kara, who was 11, many people are questioning what religion they believe, after their daughter’s death.

The pastor of the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church, says that people shouldn’t be so quick to judge. Pastor Heilderbrand says, “Let’s be very careful about judging people when they feel they’ve done their best and they’ve done all what they knew to do with what they thought was right.”

Pastor Heilderbrand says he doesn’t know the Neumann’s personally but says he believes there is power in prayer.

And as a leader of the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church, Heilderbrand and his wife say religion and medicine can be connected.

Click here to view the story.

Researchers claim that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by Asteroid

A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for 150 years has been identified as a witness’s account of the asteroid suspected of being behind the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that it recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across.

Click here for the Fox News.com story.

Court to Reconsider California Home Schooling Ban

On February 28, a California court ruled that parents who educate their children at home could be criminally liable under California law. Now, the California Court of Appeals has agreed to reconsider this ruling. The hearings will likely be scheduled to begin sometime in June.

This action by the California Court of Appeals has many pro-family Christian groups hopeful that the case will be overturned. It is widely believed among many homeschooling families that this ruling was a knee-jerk reaction to one family’s tragic situation – not a part of a larger political or social problem. Homeschooling families and other supporter from around the nation are hopeful that the Court of Appeals will apply the ruling of the case only to the family in question, and not to all homeschoolers in the entire State of California.

Read more about this story here.

Television Networks Defiant Regarding FCC Decency Standards

ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox television networks have already sued the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding disputes over decency standards violations. One case may reach the Supreme Court soon. Now the actions of these networks are reaching a new level of boldness – they are refusing to pay FCC fines.

The Parents Television Council – a pro-family media watchdog – recently announced that the Fox television network has refused to pay a 1.2 million dollar fine levied by the FCC for violating federal decency standards with a prime-time reality show.

“What they want to do, is do away with any rules,” said Dan Isett, director of Corporate and Government Affairs at the Parents Television Council. “They want the ability, the ‘right,’ to air indecent programming, in front of every child in America … and they’re doing it because they think they can make more money that way.”

Read more on this story here.

World’s Largest Religion

Associated Press
March 30, 2008 at 2:51 PM EDT

VATICAN CITY — Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world’s largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

“For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us,” Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

Monsignor Formenti compiles the Vatican’s yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 per cent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 per cent.

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Pentecostal Community Fitness Initiative

A Louisiana Pentecostal Church is reaching their city through a community fitness initiative. Full Gospel United Pentecostal Church of Baton Rouge opened up a complete fitness facility in January of 2007.

The S.E. Mackey Center is a complete workout/fitness facility which offers a wide variety of programs and activities for its members. The facility is open to church members and the general public. Their website states,”we are committed to meeting the needs of the mind, body, and spirit through our daily operations.”

Among the many facilities offered at this center are: exercise equipment, a bowling alley, a basketball court, saunas, a media room, aerobics classes, a nursery, and separate men’s and women’s fitness rooms.

The fitness center recently made local news as state Representative Regina Ashford Barrow began a vigorous weight-loss program at the S.E. Mackey Center with about two dozen of her constituents. Barrows, a democrat who represents 40,000 residents in House District 29, is challenging the rest of the district’s residents to join her.

For information on the Barrows story, click here.

S.E. Mackey Center
Full Gospel United Pentecostal Church

Poll Results From A "Christian" Survey

Jody Brown – OneNewsNow – 3/30/2008

Following are the results of recent poll questions, March 24-28, 2008. Remember, our online polls are not scientific surveys, just a quick way to gauge the opinion of that portion of our audience that is willing to participate by answering our questions.

Click on a graph to read the article that inspired that poll question

Intelligence Report: Next War on Israel May Involve Multiple Nations

A previously secret report generated from Israeli intelligence and distributed among Israeli government agencies and local municipalities indicates that Israel’s next war may be fought against multiple enemies simultaneously. The intelligence report predicts many possible wartime scenarios including a multi-front conflict with Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.

The purpose of the report is to prepare civilian agencies for emergency response scenarios. Among other possibilities, the report calls for Israel to prepare for missile barrages, nationwide power outages, entire regions without water, bombed highways, full paralysis of international airports, chemical weapons that would kill thousands, and mass evacuations of a quarter of a million civilians.

Read more about this story here.

Christ Excluded from Easter Hymn

Globe and Mail reported this story a few days ago about a Church that removed the words “Jesus Christ” from their Easter hymn.

That triumphal barnburner of an Easter hymn, Jesus Christ Has Risen Today – Hallelujah, this morning will rock the walls of Toronto’s West Hill United Church as it will in most Christian churches across the country.

But at West Hill on the faith’s holiest day, it will be done with a huge difference. The words “Jesus Christ” will be excised from what the congregation sings and replaced with “Glorious hope.”

Click here for more

Obama contends belief in Jesus Christ not necessary for salvation

AP – 3/27/2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Senator Barack Obama has told an audience that although he believes Christ died for his sins, those who reject that teaching can also be children of God.

During a campaign stop yesterday in Greensboro, North Carolina, Senator Obama told the audience that he believes he “can have everlasting life” because Jesus Christ died for his sins. But he then told a questioner that he believes Jews and Muslims who live moral lives are just as much “children of God” as he is. (listen to audio clip)

United Pentecostal Church Featured on 700 Club

The 700 Club, a charismatic television news program, featured the small United Pentecostal Church of Toksook Bay, Alaska on its “Church of the Week” spotlight, which introduces viewers to a different congregation each week.

The report is a favorable portrayal of the work of Bro. Loren and Sis. Bonnie Bradbury, who fly out to the tiny Eskimo village each week to minister to the congregation that numbers between 12 and 20 on Sunday.

Click here for the full story.

Editor’s Note:  This link contains video.  Air date is unknown.

Tucson Apostolic Businessman Mysteriously Murdered

Carlton Bell, 26, a member of Greater Emmanuel Apostolic Church in Tucson, Arizona, died mysteriously on March 18, 2008.  He was a real estate agent and a well-loved husband and father.

Police are uncertain about the exact circumstances of Bell’s death.  Witnesses reported that he jumped or was heaved from a moving vehicle before being run over by a sport utility vehicle.  The SUV driver left the seen of the crash but was later apprehended. Investigators suspect abduction but would not comment on the reasons for this conclusion. 

Click here to read the full story.

Holiness Gym

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) — Harvard University has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week, a move to accommodate a few female students who, for religious and cultural reasons, cannot exercise comfortably in their presence. This is causing quite a controversy at Harvard, which is America’s oldest and most prestigious university.

These female students are not Apostolic, (we know you were thinking it) they are Muslim.

No men are allowed in the gym between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Mondays, and between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even the staff during those times is all women.

The special hours allow the Muslim women, who adhere to traditional dress codes by covering their hair and most of their skin while in public, to dress more appropriately for exercising, said Susan Marine, director of the women’s center.

For more on this story, click here.
To see an Apostolic Minister’s viewpoint on this, click here.

TV-B-Gone: A Great Visitation Tool for Pastors

From Thinkgeek.com

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 250 million television sets in the U.S. and we can guess that the majority of them are turned on a lot of the time. There are some occasions when you just need to do everyone a favor and turn the TV off.

Enter the TV-B-Gone, a small television remote that hangs on your keychain and turns off virtually any television with the press of button. All you need to do is press the button and keep pointing it at the TV until it turns off (which may take up to 69 seconds). The next 69 seconds will be spent quietly, or not so quietly, enjoying the perplexed expressions of the TV automatons.

Click here to read the article.

UPCI Direction ‘08 Conference

The Home Missions Division of the United Pentecostal Church International is hosting the “Direction ‘08″ Conference on May 20-23 in St. Louis. According the the “Director’s Communique” newsletter, this conference will be a combination of a Home Missions Training Seminar, Evangelist Training Seminar, Spanish Training Institute.

Scheduled speakers include: Kenneth Haney, Nathan Scoggins, Jerry Jones, Don Hanscom, Travis Miller, Errin Bryant, Sergio Vitanza, Rex Deckard, Albert Foster, Santos, Sosa, Mike Williams, Jeffery Ralston, David Tipton, Sonny Nugent, Aubrey Jayroe, and others.

According to the Home Missions Division website, financial assistance is available for registration and/or travel, lodging, and meal expenses for CFC sponsored Home Missionaries, district sponsored Home Missionaries, Metro Missionaries, Church-in-a-Day Pastors, daughter work planters, potential church planters, and Evangelists (assistance varies depending on status, etc. – see site for details).

For more information, or to register for “Direction ‘08″ visit the conference page on the HMD site HERE.