Midwest

A religious organization in Iowa is hoping to bring prayer back to city council meetings after the practice was dropped earlier this year.

Unlike other controversies, however, the prayers were not suspended due to opposition from anti-religious organizations or protest over First Amendment violations, but simply due to a lack of scheduling.

Dubuque City Mayor Roy Buol told a local news station that it became difficult planning what church leaders would recite the prayer for their meetings, resulting in a "moment of silence" rather than a voiced prayer. more >>

Willow Creek Community Church-Huntley, one of the seven campuses of the Chicago-area megachurch, recently welcomed its first pastor, Craig Springer.

Springer actually came to Christ through Willow Creek Community Church in 1994. He has held various leadership roles at Willow Creek after accepting Christ, and also spent several years planting a church in Prague, Czech Republic, with his wife, Sarah. He was officially announced as Huntley's campus pastor on Jan. 29.

"Craig Springer brings a strong balance of character and competence to the role of campus pastor at Willow Huntley," Susan DeLay, a Willow Creek spokesperson, told The Christian Post on Tuesday. "He has served well Willow Creek and God's Kingdom in many areas of ministry and he has a deep-seated passion to live out Philippians 3:8 – to make Christ known." more >>

Atheist groups are targeting African-American communities by asking them to think about leaving their church during Black History Month – but a number of pastors and scholars are saying that is not going to happen any time soon. 

National ad campaigns launched by atheist organizations have been growing in regularity in the U.S., but a new initiative by African-Americans for Humanism (AAH) is targeting black Americans in particular who have historically been strongly linked with religion.

"A lot of people think there's one black experience. A lot of people think that if someone's black it means that they're religious. So we want to be able to show people that that's not true, that there are non-religious people out there," said Debbie Goddard, director of AAH, referring to the billboards asking "Doubts about religion? You're one of many." The billboards feature images of famous historical black freethinkers alongside photos of a contemporary black atheist leader. more >>

With a growing number of authors and theologians releasing books about doomsday and rapture predictions, one title that stands out is by the Rev. Gerald Haug, who insists the world is not ending any time soon and that religious leaders teaching otherwise are doing damage to the church. 

Haug's book, Ortho-Millennialism: Bringing Order to End-Time Chaos, focuses on analyzing the books of the Bible that might offer clues on the timing of the Rapture, when followers of Jesus will be caught up to meet him in the air – and the reverend says his work dispels all speculation and proves with absolute certainty that Jesus will not be returning to Earth for at least another 100 years.

Haug, a member of the Assemblies of God convention, the largest collection of Pentecostal denominations with some 62 million members worldwide, shared in an interview with The Christian Post that he has spoken about his book to thousands at his assembly and has convinced them of the validity of his work. more >>

Day two of Desiring God ministry's annual conference continued at the Minneapolis Convention Center Tuesday with author and speaker Darrin Patrick, who spoke about building and training men for local missions, in a culture where many males are stuck in arrested development.

Patrick's book Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission explores how in today's society a growing number of males prolong their adolescence, choosing instead to live between childhood and adulthood.

The theme of his book tied in to that of the conference, which is exploring the leadership role of men in both ministry and culture, titled: "God, Manhood & Ministry – Building Men for the Body of Christ." more >>

God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel," evangelist John Piper declared on Tuesday.

"God revealed Himself in the Bible pervasively as king not queen; father not mother," Piper said at this year's annual pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry. "Second person of the Trinity is revealed as the eternal Son not daughter; the Father and the Son create man and woman in His image and give them the name man, the name of the male."

He continued, "God appoints all the priests in the Old Testament to be men; the Son of God came into the world to be a man; He chose 12 men to be His apostles; the apostles appointed that the overseers of the Church be men; and when it came to marriage they taught that the husband should be the head." more >>