Michigan

The state of Michigan has amended court laws so that jurors can now ask witnesses questions and take notes during trials.

The change comes as new rules were passed by the Michigan Supreme court. According to the Detroit News, “these changes have been in the making for the last 6 years, and have undergone a two year test in 12 Michigan courts.

“Michigan jurors have much responsibility, yet they’ve faced too many restrictions. The new rules allow for jurors to be truly involved in trials,” said Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. more >>

A Redford, Mich., Lutheran church school successfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case to decide whether churches and ministries have a right to hire or fire employees who take issue with its policies despite federal laws.

The Supreme Court will hear Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to determine whether the Michigan church and the school it runs have the freedom to select their ministerial employees without government intrusion.

"Government clearly has no business choosing priests, rabbis, or ministers. Nor should government agents be ordering church schools to hire or retain teachers the school does not want," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice. more >>

A Grand Rapids, Mich., pastor has created an eight-minute film in response to the conversation surrounding Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

Pastor Jeremy Bouma teamed up with film producer Loyd Jenkins, the president and executive producer of Fallen Tree Productions, last week to shoot the film in a 130-year-old church building in Lamont. The movie, which is untitled at the moment, will premiere on June 2 on the Grand Valley State University campus in Grand Rapids as part of a series of discussions called “JESUS WINS: A Story of Hope.”

Bouma, who is the planting pastor at Church of the Resurrection in Grand Rapids as well as the author of “the (un)offensive gospel of Jesus,” describes the movie as a NOOMA-type of film. Set in a church building, a congregation listens to a pastor preach while Bouma narrates a lament over the loss of historic truths of the faith, including the deity of Jesus, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the afterlife and judgment. more >>

On Good Friday, Christians around the world pondered the suffering Jesus endured on the cross – his back bloody from the cruel whippings he received prior to his crucifixion; his hands pierced by iron nails beaten in with a hammer; and his agonizing death on a wooden cross.

For the thousands of people who observed Good Friday at Michigan’s Greater Grace Temple, the crucifixion was more than just a thought – it was a vivid portrayal visible on the stage thanks to the illustrated sermon entitled “The Whip, Hammer and Cross.”

Throughout the production, audience members saw and heard every lash on his back. They saw the centurions laughing and mocking Jesus. They heard nails being pounded as the production depicted the actor portraying Jesus affixed to the cross. They saw Jesus hoisted high and hanging. more >>

In its latest ad campaign for Easter, a Plymouth, Mich., megachurch is redeeming a word famously used by actor Charlie Sheen – "winning."

While big houses, nice cars, fame and money equals winning for Sheen, NorthRidge Church is demonstrating a different kind of winning.

"It's sad, but here's the reality. Charlie Sheen isn't alone in having, (how can I say this sensitively), a bizarre view of what it means to be 'winning.' Our culture tends to get it wrong as well," wrote Brad Powell, senior pastor of NorthRidge, on his blog Friday. more >>

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal in the case of a narcoleptic teacher who sued a Christian school for discrimination based on disability.

At issue is whether Cheryl Perich was a secular or religious employee at Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Mich. If religious, the judicially created "ministerial exception" would bar review of her termination.

The Redford church, affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, operates a school for children in pre-school through the eighth grade. Teachers there consist of both contract teachers and "called" teachers. Staffs include non-Lutherans. more >>