Rev. Billy Cole Passes

Rev. William H. “Billy” Cole passed away on 27 July 2009 at his West Virginia home.  Bro. Cole was well-known in the United Pentecostal Church for his great faith and his leadership in international Holy Ghost crusades.

According to his obituary, Bro. Cole established churches in Ravenswood and Wheeling, West Virginia.  He also planted 53 churches in Thailand, where he baptized 289 Buddhist priests in the Name of Jesus.

William Cole was born 28 July 1934 in Newark, Ohio to the late Rev. Jewell Colonel Cole and Mary Shirely Cole.  He is survived by his wife, Shirley; one daughter and son-inlaw, Brenda and Rondel Moss II; three grandchildren and their spouses.  Services will be held at North Charleston Apostolic Church in West Virginia on 4 August.

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Texas woman spreads Bible lessons worldwide

Spread the Word.

That’s simply what she does — and has done for 40 years.

Dorothy Hilton, who will soon be 92, spread Bible-related materials wherever she could after making her first audio recording on a seven-inch reel of tape in 1969.

Some of the Bible teaching tapes, sent around the world, became a perpetual-motion generator for her ministry.

“I would just pick up the phone and it would be England, someone saying, ‘I found a reel tape in the attic, and it’s fascinating. Do you have more?’”

Hilton primarily published the lessons taught at Lubbock Bible Church by the Rev. Charles Clough in the 1970s, under her ministry of Alpha Omega Tapes. There were 1,550 of the lessons, and she had the entire collection.

For the past 17 years, though, she has become a part of the correspondence work done by the Lubbock-based Exodus Prison Ministry, which sends its study books to thousands of inmates.

She sometimes needs a walker to move to the copy machine after suffering a fall three years ago, but that doesn’t seem to limit her portion of the work in producing 55,000 books a year.

The volunteers who staff Exodus get no pay for publishing the Bible lessons, but no one complains, least of all Hilton: “It means putting out God’s word, and what a privilege. How much greater privilege could you have than to share his word?”

She said her philosophy is based on the Bible, and recommends it to others.

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College Football Star Tim Tebow Seeks Larger Platform for Christ

Like many young boys, Tim Tebow had long looked forward to becoming a professional football player.

And while today, the 21-year-old college football star still looks forward to becoming a quarterback in the NFL, that’s not what he looks forward to most as he and the University of Florida prepare for the start of the new football season.

“[M]ost is just the opportunity to have an impact with my platform and have a chance to minister around the country to boys and girls who look up to football players,” Tebow told reporters recently during a Southeastern Conference (SEC) media day.

And it is mainly for this reason that Tebow decided last year to return to school for his senior year rather than declaring himself eligible for the NFL draft.

“We just talked and talked about the platform that I had at the University of Florida, the opportunity that I had to minister to a lot of kids around the south, and the U.S. for that matter, and just what was going on around the University of Florida, how much I loved it, how I loved being a Gator,” the outspoken Christian quarterback said Thursday when recalling last year’s decision.

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Activists Claim Christian Woman Has Been Executed in North Korea

Seoul, South Korea (AP) – North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman last month for distributing the Bible, which is banned in the communist nation, South Korean activists said Friday.

Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16, according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korea groups.

Ri’s parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, the report said, citing unidentified documents it says were obtained from North Korea. It showed a copy of Ri’s North Korean government-issued photo ID.

It is virtually impossible to verify such reports about secretive North Korea, where the government tightly controls the lives of its citizens and does not allow dissent.

On Thursday, an annual report from a state-run South Korean think tank on human rights in the North said that public executions, though dropping in number in recent years, were still carried out for crimes ranging from murder to circulating foreign movies.

North Korea claims to guarantee freedom of religion for its 24 million people but in reality severely restricts religious observances. The cult of personality surrounding national founder Kim Il Sung and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, is a virtual state religion.

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Opinions divided on boycott of census

Latino group asking illegal immigrants to opt out of tally

By Jennifer Torres

Record Staff Writer

At the heart of an ongoing dispute over illegal immigrants and the upcoming national census seems to be the question of what it means to count.

This spring, the Rev. Miguel Angel Rivera, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, called on illegal immigrants to opt out of the 2010 tally as a means of pressuring lawmakers to enact immigration reform, and has suggested that Latinos more broadly should back the boycott.

The coalition represents 20,000 churches, most of them small, Spanish-speaking evangelical congregations that represent an increasingly influential force in the Latino community.

While Rivera’s call has gained some support across the country, it also has been called misguided and even irresponsible by other Latino advocacy groups – as well as local leaders – who say that for immigrants to sit out the census will only leave communities such as San Joaquin County without needed resources.

"We would actually be affecting the community in a negative way instead of helping our community," said Ramon Leal of Centro Apostolico Vida Nueva, a Stockton church with about 80 members.

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Paula White Returns to Lead Ailing Megachurch

TAMPA, Fla. —Charismatic preacher Paula White is stepping in as senior pastor of the Florida megachurch that she and her now ex-husband founded nearly two decades ago.

On Sunday, White was expected to officially mark the start of a new chapter in the history of Without Walls International Church, which once attracted 23,000 worshippers and was heralded as one of the nation’s fastest-growing congregations.

“It will be my first Sunday to officially preach and to minister to you as the mandate and the mantle that I’ve received for the great assignment for this city, for this ministry, and for our lives collectively as your new senior pastor,” White reported in an eBlast to the Tampa-based congregation.

Since her divorce from Bishop Randy White in 2007, White has been ministering in New York, Texas, and abroad, making only periodic visits to Without Walls.

 

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Churches ask for absolution from sign rules

SANFORD, Fla. - To code-enforcement officers, even the neighborhood church can stray from the proper path.

A couple of Sanford churches recently learned that lesson when they received strongly worded letters from the city’s code-enforcement division.

The churches’ sin? Advertising for vacation Bible school.

While code enforcers across Central Florida say they have good relationships with their houses of worship, the situation has been a bit different in Sanford, where efforts have been beefed up in recent years.

At the end of June, Holy Cross Episcopal Church discovered that the separation of church and state doesn’t apply to the church lawn. Banners with cartoon crocodiles promoting a free week of Bible-centered games and crafts were deemed illegal by a code-enforcement officer.

 

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Three Pines Apostolic Church bomb suspects face minimum seven years in prison

DERIDDER, La. — Defense counsel has been assigned to all four men involved in the bombing incidents at Grace and Three Pines Apostolic churches.

Sidney Fletcher, 21 of DeRidder, will be represented by Tony Bennett; Timothy Free, 18 of DeRidder, by Sam Jones; Nathan Lee, 17 of Rosepine, by David Wallace; and Anthony Martin, 17 of Rosepine, by Mitchel Evans.

In Beauregard Parish, each man is charged with one count of theft, one count aggravated burglary, two counts possession and manufacturing of a bomb, and two counts simple arson of a religious building.

The charges currently pending in Vernon Parish are theft, simple burglary, criminal damage to property, vandalism, and discharging an incendiary device.

Three of the crimes carry mandatory jail time. Each individual is looking at a minimum of seven years hard labor in prison; four of those years without possibility of parole or suspension. The maximum amount they could each face is 110 years and up to $50,500 in fines.

The four men allegedly broke the windows of Cypress Creek Baptist Church in Vernon Parish on the evening of July 1, 2009. After that, the men are reported to have robbed a fireworks stand and a Frito Lay distribution truck. Using materials stolen from both sites, they made three bombs. One was set off on a roadway in Vernon Parish, one was set off outside of the Champions Center at Grace Church in DeRidder, and one was left, but not detonated, in Three Pines Apostolic Church in DeRidder.

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Conservatives urged to protest ‘hate-crimes’ bill today

Today is National “Stop S. 909″ Day.

The American Family Association, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and other conservative activist groups are urging their supporters to call, e-mail, fax, or visit their senators today to express their disapproval of S. 909, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Senate Bill 909). The bill would authorize the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.
Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., a member of the conservative coalition known as the Arlington Group, says the measure would have a chilling effect on the religious liberty of pastors.

“Back in 2006, [Democratic Representative] Artur Davis from Alabama, who will be running for governor by the way in that great state, made a statement to [Representative] Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] in a [House] subcommittee meeting that a pastor could be held liable or [as] a co-conspirator of sorts in a hate crime if we found out that his preaching and teaching incited — according to their thinking — someone to commit a violent act against someone that is gay,” Jackson explains.

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World Renown Church Leader has a Controversial New Book About Ministers Who Cheat and the Women Who Love Them

LOS ANGELES, July 9 /Christian Newswire/ — On the heels of Governor Mark Sanford’s shocking confession and Elizabeth Edward’s tell-all memoir titled “Resilience” about her husband’s affair and love child with Rielle Hunter comes a book that pulls back the veil on the sexual misconduct of some of our nation’s other influential leaders — Pastors.

Fifty years in the making, Dr. Betty Price of the esteemed television ministry “Ever Increasing Faith” and bicoastal mega-church Crenshaw Christian Center has written a provocative new book about ministers who cheat and the women who love them called, “Warning To Ministers, Their Wives and Mistresses.” She wrote “Warning” as a cautionary tale to discourage pastoral sexual infidelity. But the warning should be heeded by all — be they pastors, celebrities, athletes or politicians like Sen. Edwards and Gov. Sanford.

“Christians are just copying politicians and entertainers,” said Dr. Betty Price, the wife of Apostle Frederick K.C. Price.  “I believe that ‘Warning’ will bring attention to the fact that adultery is wrong and there are severe consequences.

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Sotomayor Supported Censoring Biblical Verse on Homosexuality From New York City Billboard

President Barack Obama looks on as his Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday May 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais )

(CNSNews.com) ­– Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is again drawing fire from conservative groups, this time as the result of a 2003 ruling against a Christian group.
In the case of Okwedy v. Molinari, decided in 2003, Sotomayor sat on a three-judge panel that upheld a lower court’s ruling (from 2001) against Keyword Ministries and its pastor, Kristopher Okwedy. The ministry had purchased billboard advertisements featuring Bible verses that condemned homosexuality.
The ads were taken down after a local government official complained about their message to the company that owned the billboard, and Okwedy sued both the company and the government official who wrote the complaint.
He claimed his rights were violated under the Free Speech, Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment; the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and several state laws.

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Young Brownsville native has old Gospel Dream

Brownsville, Tenn. — Since she was 2 years old, Amber Malyn Davies has had a microphone in her hand. The Brownsville native who grew up singing and playing the keyboard in her church choir dreamed about recording her own Christian album.

Amber Malyn Davies, 18, of Brownsville sits at the keyboard Monday at the Beech Bluff United Pentecostal Church. Davies is competing in “Gospel Dream,” a competition in Nashville for aspiring singers, which is broadcast on the Gospel Music Channel. (KATIE MORGAN /The Jackson Sun)

In May, Davies got a chance to compete for a record deal as a finalist on a gospel music reality series in Nashville. She is one of 10 finalists on the fourth season of “Gospel Dream,” which premiered in June on the Gospel Music Channel.

Davies, who was home-schooled until the program she attended at a church closed, is working toward receiving her GED.

“There was some really tough competition on the show,” Davies said. “We all wanted to win.”

The show’s third episode, “The Girls of Gospel Dream,” which includes performances by Davies and four other female contestants, is scheduled to air at 9 p.m. Wednesday. During that episode, Davies will receive vocal coaching from contemporary Christian singer and songwriter Natalie Grant.

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4K expected at Pentecostal camp

More than 4,000 people a night are expected to attend the United Pentecostal Church International’s 60th annual Mississippi Camp Meeting this week at the state headquarters in Raymond.

The event began Sunday and runs through Friday at 10332 Mississippi Hwy 18. Services begin nightly at 7.

James Nations, district secretary for the UPCI in Mississippi, said the event marks the 60th year Mississippi has been its own district, a designation it once shared with Tennessee and Alabama. “The camp meeting is a time when we bring all our constituents in from the state and have services at night,” he said. “Originally, people gathered on the grounds. Now we have dorms, and people stay in camping areas, in their RVs and hotels.” The focus of the 60th camp meeting is “us,” Nations said. “We are promoting unity to come out with stronger spiritual enlightenment and get people more in tune with what the United Pentecostal Church is involved in,” Nations said.

The Rev. David Tipton, current district superintendent and highest elected UPCI elected official, said he hopes attendees will leave better prepared to face the future. “I want them to realize they are not in this by themselves,” he said. “(The event) promotes unity and harmony, and many of these pastors and congregations go home to their respective locations energized, excited and enthused about evangelism and revival.”

The Rev. Albert Reed, honorary presbyter, said this is his 47th year to attend the camp meeting. “It’s a family atmosphere,” he said. “When people leave, they go back to their hometown churches more strengthened. We hope they’ll be much better Christians after they leave than when they came.”

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Arrested at an Apostolic Church: $90,000 bond for 4 booked with fireworks bombs

DERIDDER, La. (AP) – Bond was set at $90,000 each for four men accused of stuffing a flashlight and a travel mug with explosives from stolen fireworks, and leaving the improvised bombs at churches.

Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Office records show that a 21-year-old and an 18-year-old from DeRidder and two 17-year-olds from Rosepine were booked Thursday with theft, aggravated burglary and possessing a bomb. Their bonds were set Monday.

They allegedly broke into a truck, then robbed a fireworks stand and put the explosives into a travel mug taken from the truck and a five-cell flashlight case.

The mug exploded outside of Grace Church’s Champions Center, breaking the outer pane of a double-paned window. The undetonated flashlight was found in the lobby of the Three Pines Apostolic Church, where the men were arrested.

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Media on Sanford – a ‘double standard’

A conservative media watchdog says the mainstream media has once again demonstrated its bias in the way it has given exhaustive coverage to the infidelity of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

Tim Graham, the director of media analysis at the Media Research Center (MRC), says if it were not for the death of Michael Jackson, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford would undoubtedly have received even more coverage than what the networks have given him to this point. Still Sanford has received a substantial amount of news time, and the MRC says reporters and anchors have taken every opportunity to mention that Sanford is a Republican.
According to Graham, the networks would never give this much coverage to a Democratic governor in the same circumstances.
"If you took a Democratic Sanford, a Democratic governor having one mistress, they would all yawn over that," he contends. "They would really not find that very interesting at all, and yet these people will find Republican mayors cheating as an interesting national story."
According to Graham, the liberal media knows that many conservatives are not going to tolerate Sanford remaining in office.

"They know that people like you and me are disgusted by a Mark Sanford — and they know that that guy will be toast. And they know that adultery is not going to hurt a liberal," he adds. "When we discuss how the media behaves, we understand that the same people who are all making an enormous, big deal out of Mark Sanford thought that there was absolutely nothing wrong with what Bill Clinton did [while in office]."

 

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