A California megachurch has moved into a new piece of property, an old facility once operated by the Boeing company, a major provider of aircraft for civilian and military use.

Eastside Christian Church, a 50-year-old congregation once situated at a seven-acre facility in Fullerton, had an opening ceremony at the Anaheim-based building this past weekend. Gene Appel, senior pastor at Eastside, told The Christian Post that the reason for the move had to do with his congregation's dramatic growth over the past few years.

"Our property search criteria included remaining within 15 minutes of the former Fullerton site, accessibility, visibility, ample parking and room to grow," said Appel. more >>

One of Brazil's most popular pop singers, Father Marcelo Rossi of Mother of God church, has opened a massive new Roman Catholic sanctuary that can hold up to 80,000 people for Mass, hoping that he will continue the growth of the religion in the Latin America country.

"They couldn't all fit in. There was a crowd that had to stand outside! That's a sign we're on the right path, and it's this sanctuary," 45-year old Rossi said at the event in Sao Paulo, one of Brazil's biggest cities.

Although the sanctuary is not yet completed and might be several years way from being finished, Friday's event attracted up to 50,000 people. The Roman Catholic Church has been trying hard in recent times to reverse a national trend of declining membership – in a 2010 poll, 65 percent of the 192 million population identified as Catholic, almost a 10 percent drop from the 2000 census where 74 percent said that they belong to the faith. more >>

CHICAGO – It doesn't sound right: someone claiming to be both a follower of Jesus Christ while still identifying himself as a Hindu or Sikh. But some respected missiologists are defending the new communities in India called Yeshu Satsang as biblical.

Formed as a direct response to broken relationships that Hindus or Sikhs in India who convert to Christianity often must endure, members of Yeshu Satsangs seek to follow the Bible while still retaining their cultural identity as Hindu or Sikh, and thus retaining harmonious relationships with their family members and community. The communities are also a pushback against Western ways of worshipping Jesus that is seen as "other" and foreign to the community. A Yeshu Satsang can loosely be defined as a gathering of Jesus followers whose members are socially still identified as Hindus or Sikhs.

"Even though [they have] rejected the word and practices of church, they have retained a theological identity of church while seeking to retain their Hindu and Sikh socio-religious identity," explained Darren Duerksen, director and assistant professor of Intercultural Studies at Fresno Pacific University, at the recent North American Mission Leaders Conference in Chicago. more >>

A fast-growing multisite megachurch in North Carolina has moved into a new high school facility to conduct worship services.

Elevation Church, founded in 2006 and presently boasting an estimated 10,000 regular attendance, began holding worship services last month at Forestview High School in Gaston County.

"Our vision is to see people far from God raised to life in Christ. And we know that applies to people everywhere," said Ken Hester, pastor of the new campus, in an interview with the Gaston Gazette. more >>

A pastor in charge of community building and small groups feels it's so important for churches to make a good impression on first-time church visitors from the moment they walk onto a church campus that he's come up with a list of 10 statements that just might do the opposite and turn churchgoers away.

Pastor Ben Reed of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Tennessee told The Christian Post that a church can run people off if its greeters and the rest of the congregation are not careful about the words they use.

"I think that we forget a lot of times that the worship experience starts in the parking lot, not when we pastors step on the stage," Reed said. "We can put so much effort and time into crafting just that perfect worship service and it doesn't matter if we miss out" by the church's guest services giving the wrong impressions, he explained. more >>

IRVINE, Calif. – Christian hip-hop star Lecrae (Lecrae Moore) set his musical artist persona aside during a leadership conference recently to talk about the subject of engaging American culture in a non-typical, yet Christian way in order to further the Gospel.

"I think we don't engage culture because we're scared. We don't want it corrupting our kids. I think we're scared because ultimately we're still caught up in a sacred-secular divide," said Lecrae, who is also a ministry leader, to a crowd of more than 2,000 church leaders Thursday at the Resurgence Conference (R12) at Mariners Church in Irvine, Calif.

"We are still caught up in the reality that everything is broken up in two and if you go too far here you are going to get messed up," he said. "There is a sacred-secular divide that hinders us from impacting culture." more >>