Permit Required to host a home Bible Study?

Allie Martin
OneNewsNow

A San Diego pastor says county officials have told him he needs a permit to host a weekly Bible study in his home.

Pastor David Jones and his wife, Mary, were hosting the weekly study near their church, when they say they were visited by a county code enforcement officer. According to Dean Broyles, an attorney for the Joneses, the county official asked the pastor if they hosted a regular weekly meeting in their home, and if they prayed and said “Amen” and “Praise the Lord” at those meetings.
 
After replying in the affirmative to those inquiries, a subsequent citation notified the couple they were in violation of county regulations, should stop “religious assembly,” and needed to apply for a “major use” permit to continue the gatherings — a process that could cost several thousands dollars.
 
Jones, his wife, and their attorney, Dean Broyles, were interviewed on the Fox News Channel. Broyles says the couple’s rights have been violated.
 
“The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion,” says the attorney. “And I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves if they saw that here in the year 2009 that a pastor and his wife are being told that they can’t have a simple Bible study in their own home.”
 
The American Family Association has launched an online petition drive related to the incident, asking the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to immediately stop interfering with the rights of individuals to hold Bible studies in their homes.
 
Jones and his wife say they will continue to challenge the county’s policy. About 15 people attend the weekly meetings. 

View related video news report

Apostolic church creates public social network site

Social networking sites have inundated the Web world. MySpace, Facebook, and the latest Twitter have become the rage to people of all ages, race, and religious affiliations. The extension of faith-specific networking sites has canvassed the social market platform, giving birth to sites such as Everyone’s Apostolic, Apostolic Fellowship Hall, and MyWorld, just to name a few.

Now an Apostolic church in Orange, NJ, has created its own social networking site, not exclusive to church members but open to all who are socially minded. The Web site committee for First United Tabernacle Church (FUTC) says the idea stemmed from wanting a social network to bring youths from all over.

Bishop Lloyd Faulknor of FUTC also presides over churches in Antigua and Grand Cayman and he desired all of his young people to establish a connection. The site administrator, Chastity Thompson, says “we wanted our own platform where we can blog, chat, and join groups, even though we are geographically apart.”

The youth department at FUTC birthed youthroc.com, known as The R.O.C, using Ning. Bernard Grey, youth minister and site committee member, says “this is a Christ-minded social network, which is why we named it Youth Radically Obsessed 4 Christ (Youth R.O.C.).”

It is a tool to network the message of Jesus Christ, encourage one another, and connect internationally with young people. The R.O.C. is for anyone who wants to join, including Non-Apostolics. The R.O.C is tailored for appropriate blogs, photo albums, videos, and groups. Since MySpace’s reputation has come under fire during the past couple of years, Grey says, “This is a way to lure them away from that and join this network so parents can be at ease.”

However, as the site administrator, Thompson will ensure that it maintains its premier purpose, to be a Christian networking site. If there are any inappropriate videos or pictures posted, the person will receive a warning. “If the member persists, I have the power to ban them from the network.”

The R.O.C. committee is making sure they won’t become a carbon copy of Facebook and MySpace. “A great feature we have that Facebook doesn’t have is the blogging feature, says Grey. Members can personalize their page using CSS code. The R.O.C. allows members to decorate, change font size, color, and add music to their pages. “This is a great exercise for those aspiring Web site designers.”

The site is still in its early stages, though. The current layout is just temporary, but The R.O.C. team has hired an experienced designer who has designed other network sites on Ning. They hope to give it an eye-popping transformation. “The sights, sounds, and colors are critical keys to drawing people to the site,” Grey says.

Once youthroc.com is official, the committee plans to advertise it on Facebook and by word-of-mouth. “We want this to be big!”

Do you know a church that has a public social networking site? Leave a comment.

-Kaleena Thompson, TAR Editor

Apostolic Faith youth group to ‘write the Bible’

The youth at Apostolic Faith United Pentecostal Church in Mountain Home, Ark., are getting a taste of what it was like for Bible translators to hand-copy early versions of the Bible.

Rick Lovall, youth pastor at the church, said the idea to write the Bible came to him as a neat way to study the Bible and raise money, too.

The youths are using a 1,000-page King James Version Bible for reference, and are soliciting donations (a minimum of $5 per page) to hand-write the Bible. So far, 42 people have committed to write 755 pages, with more expected, Lovall said. The slogan behind the event is “Write it! Learn it! Live it!”

Lovall said he doesn’t believe this type of fundraiser has ever been done before, adding the church hopes to raise a minimum of $5,000. How the money is used will be decided by the youth. Currently, Lovall said, their choices include funding a trip to the church’s National Youth Convention in Nashville, Tenn., in August, as well as purchasing  Bibles for missionaries in Uganda; or donating a portion of the funds to Sheaves For Christ, which buys 4×4 vehicles for missionaries, offers land grants to home missionaries and sponsors orphans at Tupelo (Miss.) Children’s Mansion. Other options include sponsoring clients at Windsong Ranch (a Christian-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Sheridan, Ark.), as well as donating funds to various homeless shelters in the Mountain Home area.

Lovall told The Apostolic Report that this fundraiser has united his local church and youth group. Apostolic Faith UPC will have CDs available with all of the necessary documents and sponsor sheets  needed to duplicate this fundraiser. Lovall spent hours putting together an Excel spreadsheet that lays out the pages in correct order and sequence.

If you are a youth pastor needing a great idea or a pastor who would like to try this at your local church, the materials are available. Please contact Rick Lovall if you would like more information.

The $40 Write The Bible Fundraiser CD will include: Excel spreadsheet of the Bible charted into 1,000 pages, PowerPoint to use to introduce the idea to the church/youth group, sponsorship sheets, promotional flier/poster, and a form letter to use to obtain sponsors. Print these out, and you are ready to Write The Bible!

Write it! Learn it! Live it!

Rev. Rick  Lovall (870) 404-8024, or e-mail writethebible@yahoo.com. You can also follow the progress at www.writethebible.blogspot.com.

Full Story Here

Artifacts may identify biblical Sodom

 

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – An Albuquerque archeologist and his team have returned with artifacts from a dig site near the Dead Sea, which they believe reveals the lost city of Sodom.

Dr. Steven Collins and a team of about 70 have spent the last four years digging in Jordan. They have recovered thousands of artifacts, most of it pottery.

They have also discovered human and animal bones, jewelry and weapons.

“We have some Roman from the Iron Age, say from about 600-700 BC, going all the way back to the Bronze Age, even very early in the Bronze Age going back to about 3,000, even back as early as 4,000 BC,” Collins said.

Collins and his team have brought all the pieces back to Albuquerque for further study.

“Human beings are very prone to fads, and in pottery the pottery forms are changing constantly over time,” Collins said. “No one uses them for more than 35 years or so.

Full Story Here

Church gives fresh meaning to ‘offering’ plate

(CNN) — The pastor of a non-denominational church in Argyle, Texas, passed around the collection plate to his congregants earlier this year — and asked them to take money from it.

Donations at the Cross Timbers Community Church had slumped because of the economic downturn. Pastor Toby Slough thought that his congregants had to be hurting, too.

His gesture, instead, was met with an unexpected response: The church had its highest offering ever.

It was a eureka moment for Slough: Give away money to those who need it, knowing his church members will help fill the need.

“In these economic times, we can’t be so into church business that we forget what our business is, and that is to help people,” Slough told CNN television affiliate KDAF in Dallas-Forth Worth.

In the past two months, the 9-year-old church has done just that: handed out a half-million dollars to members and non-members who are struggling.

“We’ve taken $200,000 and spread it out to organizations — four local, two missions that are feeding and clothing people in these tough times,” Slough said. “We’ve paid utility bills for members of our church that are unemployed or under-employed.”

Full Story Here

IRS Rules in Favor of Pastors/Churches

Ministry Today

Good news for all you politically minded pastors: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled this week that a group of ministers gathered for a series of public policy conferences surrounding 2006’s election season did not break any rules that would have put their churches at risk of losing nonprofit status.

Though based on a complaint filed against the Houston-based nonprofit Niemoller Foundation, the IRS decision has larger implications for every local minister, as it indicates that pastors cannot be penalized for speaking out or taking political action on moral issues—and encouraging their congregations to do likewise. Besides endorsing a specific political candidate or using ministry funds to support a political cause, pastors are free to become politically active “on behalf of moral values,” the IRS stated.

“Not only do pastors and churches have freedom, but now they know about it,” said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of Liberty Legal Institute, which represented Niemoller.

Read the full article HERE.

‘The Perfect Hybrid’

At 26, Joshua DuBois has already rubbed shoulders with more religious leaders than most religious leaders will in their lifetime.

And he’s starting to do a lot more of the same as President Obama’s director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

He’ll be rubbing shoulders with the president, too. In fact, nearly everyone who knows DuBois believes he holds a special bond with the new president, an asset previous directors of the office say will be vital in order for his priorities to gain any attention.

During the campaign, DuBois put together a daily devotional for Obama, using passages of Scripture and other religious books. Now he’s helping him choose a church home in Washington, D.C.

On his first day in office, Obama was ushered to a prayer service at the National Cathedral, where clergy, including Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, greeted the new president in private.

“Katharine is very formal in a good Episcopalian way,” said Wes Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America. “She has this staff, like a crosier, a big ornate thing. Obama looks at the staff, and playfully says, ‘Joshua, I want one of those.’ “

Full Story Here

United Pentecostal Church faces foreclosure

A United Pentecostal Church in Sunrise, Fla., faces foreclosure. But, the attorney representing the church said he’s taking the battle to a higher authority: a judge.

TD Bank, a subsidiary of Toronto Dominion (NYSE: TD), filed a foreclosure action on April 3 in Broward County Circuit Court against the nonprofit religious group.

The United Pentecostal Church took out a $4.4 million mortgage with the bank in 2006 after it bought the building from Temple Beth Israel for $5.7 million. The property is at 7100 W. Oakland Park Blvd.

The church owes TD Bank $4.3 million under the outstanding mortgage, according to a copy of the complaint provided by the bank’s law firm, Miami-based Greenberg Traurig. A spokesperson for TD Bank declined to comment.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Tracy Long, who represents the United Pentecostal Church in the case, said he would vigorously defend the lawsuit and plans to file a counterclaim. He said that shortly before the church purchased the building in 2006, it was appraised at 36,000 square feet with a $6.8 million value, so it obtained the mortgage based on that value.

However, the church ordered another appraisal in 2009 to outfit it with fire protection equipment and discovered that the building was only 19,000 square feet, Long said.

He believes the church overpaid for the property and obtained a mortgage that was too large.

Full Story Here

MOM, We Salute You!

From the Apostolic Report, Happy Mother’s Day to all of you hard working moms. God bless you in a special way. Leave a shout out to your mom below in the comment section.

U.S. military says Afghan Bibles have been destroyed

These Bibles were destroyed by the U.S. military.

Afghanistan (MNN) ― Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure that troops did not breach regulations that forbid proselytizing. That’s the word from spokeswoman Major Jennifer Willis at Bagram Air Base near Kabul.

President of Open Doors USA Carl Moeller says, “A U.S. soldier, who had been mailed several copies of the Bible in the local Afghan language there stationed in Afghanistan, had the Bibles destroyed by the military because of their possible use to evangelize the local Afghan people.”

Open Doors is an advocate of persecuted Christians around the world. Moeller says, “It’s a little bit shocking about the U.S. government destroying Bibles simply because of the love these [soldiers] had for the Afghan people.”

U.S. Central Command’s General Order Number 1 forbids troops on active duty — including all those based in Iraq and Afghanistan — from trying to convert people to another religion.

Why did the U.S. government have to destroy these Bibles? That’s the question Moeller is asking. “Had this been six or seven copies of the Koran that were destroyed, there would be no end to the amount of protest you would hear.”

Military officials have said the Bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. The soldier brought them to the Bible study class where they were filmed.

Full Story Here

Obama urged to appoint first ‘gay’ to Supreme Court

With a vacancy soon on the U.S. Supreme Court, homosexual blogs are discussing the potential of a homosexual being appointed.

Politico.com reports homosexual-rights groups are upset with President Barack Obama for not choosing an openly “gay” person for his Cabinet, and are urging him to appoint the first openly homosexual justice. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund is hailing the candidacy of First Amendment scholar Kathleen Sullivan, while Stanford law professor Pam Karlan is also frequently mentioned. Both have been open about their sexuality and have been active for homosexual legal causes.
Matt Barber is a spokesperson with Liberty Counsel. “Well, in light of this nation’s undeniable Christian heritage, it’s hard to believe we’re even having a conversation about whether a sitting United States president will count deviant sexual behavior as a favorable qualification in determining a nomination to the highest court of the land,” he says.
Barber offers a message for members of the Senate to send to President Obama. “We insist upon a Supreme Court justice who will strictly interpret the Constitution — which was the clear intent of our Founding Fathers — and not use the Constitution [or] abuse the Constitution as a means to an ideological end, which I fear this administration intends to do,” he concludes.
The new justice will replace Justice David Souter, who has announced he is retiring at the end of the current session.

Full Story Here

Kaleena Thompson joins The Apostolic Report team

The Apostolic Report would like to take this opportunity to introduce our newest team member.

Kaleena hails from Orlando, Fla. She is involved in the Silent Praise ministry at the Pentecostals of Apopka. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Florida.

Kaleena will be instrumental in editing and various other functions within AR. We are happy to have her on board. You can leave a welcome via the comment link below.

A Mother’s Faith Brings a Son’s Healing

NASHVILLE, Tenn./Christian Newswire/ — As mothers will be honored this Sunday for Mother’s Day all over the world, one special testimony is a reminder of the faithfulness of God even to a Muslim mother. Bill Kristijanto, co-founder with his brother Ben of Christian band, Bread of Stone, recently shared his testimony with major media outlets such as One Cubed/CBN International, NewReleaseTuesday.com and Beautiful Faith during Gospel Music Week in Nashville.

The testimony of the unique experience was shared as Bill told how he was born with a debilitating stomach problem resulting in a lack of nourishment. After being placed on bottle feeding to help the nourishment problem, a boil developed on Bill’s chin preventing bottle feeding. After numerous hours and visits at the doctor’s office, his Muslim mother, Debora from Iran, allowed someone to pray for him and the boil was gone, but the stomach problems continued.

Weeks later a visit from a woman informing Debora that there was someone who loved her son more than her and His name was Jesus, sparked anger as to how this woman would know more about her son than her. With the love of a mother, Debora sought to find out about this man named Jesus and visited her husband Nehemia’s pastor, resulting in weeks of Biblical training and baptism. As Debora was baptized into the faith with Bill in her arms, Debora’s heart became open to God and healing came upon Bill with the stomach problems removed completely.

“My mother is truly an example of a woman of beautiful faith” said Kristijanto in a recent interview. “From the first day she opened her heart to God, she has never stopped serving Him.”

Full Story Here

Florida drivers won’t get new Christian license plates

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida obtained from the state legislature this proposed design for a Florida license plate depicting the crucifixion of Jesus.

Moves to create two Florida license plates with images of a crucified Jesus on one, and a stained glass window and cross on another, have died in the Florida legislature.

Both plates had come under blistering criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU. The Associated Press reported that bills to create the plates died at the end of the regular legislative session on Friday.

State Sen. Gary Siplin, an Orlando Democrat, had proposed the plate with “a picture of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The plate portrayed an image of Jesus’ head lowered under the weight of a crown of thorns.

Siplin was not available Monday for comment.

Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican, had earlier said he would support the plate. “If they (critics) don’t want one, they don’t have to buy one,” Crist told The St. Petersburg Times.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Washington | Florida | South Carolina | Orlando | Jesus | American Civil Liberties Union | Charlie Crist | Saint Petersburg | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | Ronda Storms

Florida drivers are able to purchase more than 100 specialized license plates. Proceeds, which normally run between $15 and $25, support various causes and groups.

The other plate, proposed by state Sen. Ronda Storms, a Republican from Brandon, would have depicted a stained glass window, cross and the words “I Believe.” A district court has temporarily halted the production of similar plates in South Carolina.

Full Story Here

Obama plans a scaled back National Day of Prayer

Editor’s Note: The AR has reported on the response from the White House to the NDOP. We found this news encouraging and wanted to share it as well.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The White House is planning a muted observance of Thursday’s National Day of Prayer, a response that has disappointed both Christian conservatives and an atheist group that wants to end the tradition.

Congress established the day in 1952 and in 1988 set the first Thursday in May as the day for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama would issue such a proclamation Thursday but not hold any public events with religious leaders as President George W. Bush did.

Obama’s decision drew a rebuke from the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private group that promotes prayer events around the country. The task force estimates 2 million Americans attended more than 40,000 events marking the day last year.

“We are disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration,” said task force chairwoman Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. “At this time in our country’s history, we would hope our president would recognize more fully the importance of prayer.”

Full Story Here