North Carolina

Over 50 churches in the Charlotte, N.C.-area will be preforming community service and caring for the poor on Saturday as part of LOVE Week.

Volunteers will work in locations across the city to clean-up parks, improve schools, feed the hungry and homeless, and serve the poor during the third annual event, organized by Elevation church, one of Charlotte's fastest growing megachurches.

Elevation spokesperson Tonia Bendickson told The Christian Post that "LOVE Week is the best opportunity for us to make an impact for our city. We partner with dozens [of] organizations like hospitals, senior centers, and schools." more >>

[UPDATE] 1/24/12 3:50 p.m.

[This updated version contains comments from Elevation Church]

What's more important? Reaching the lost or growing the reached? Over the past two weeks, the ongoing debate between discipleship and evangelism took center stage during one megachurch's Code Orange Revival. more >>

A Pagan mother in North Carolina is accusing her son's elementary school of hypocrisy for refusing to accept her donation of witchcraft books after officials sent her son home with a Gideon Bible, which was donated by the organization and accepted by the school.

Ginger Strivelli was angered last month when her 12-year-old son came home from North Windy Ridge Elementary school with a Bible that Strivelli claims was handed to him, instead of the student voluntarily requesting it. When Strivelli complained that the school was proselytizing, school officials said the Bibles were made available, not handed out, and that any faith group was free to donate texts.

Strivelli took the school at its word, bringing witchcraft books to the school with directions to make the texts available to students. more >>

Buncombe County School District in North Carolina is in the spotlight once again after one of their middle schools reportedly asked a wrestling coach not to wear a t-shirt with a religious message.

Upset by the request, the entire North Buncombe Middle School wrestling team and a few parents wore a shirt that said "Got Jesus" on the front with a scriptural reference on the back to a wrestling meet on Wednesday night as a response, ABC News 13 reported.

The wrestlers raised the money themselves to get the shirts made, which they plan to continue wearing to the rest of their remaining meets as well as to school. more >>

South Carolina Pastor Perry Noble came to the defense of Elevation Church and its pastor, Steven Furtick, amid criticism that the church is not preaching a biblical gospel.

Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church, addressed thousands attending the Code Orange Revival Tuesday night and responded to "rumors" about Furtick "that he don't preach the Bible."

"I don't even know where that one came from," Noble said. more >>

Ariane Noelle Patterson has left her family and friends in shock after the Gardner-Webb University Religious Studies major and passionate Christian, collapsed in class on her 21st birthday, just hours after thanking God "for another year of life."

Patterson lost consciousness while in her "Life and Letters of Paul" class at the North Carolina university on Tuesday, Jan. 17, and, despite the efforts of her classmates, school nursing staff, and local EMS personnel, was declared dead at Cleveland Regional Medical Center that afternoon.

Gardner-Webb, located in Boiling Springs, released a statement the same day, revealing that Patterson, a senior at the school, had just turned 21 and that, when classmates realized she was in medical distress, left the classroom and gathered in the hallway to pray for her. more >>