The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been granted permission to start building a large church in the New York City borough of Queens, despite heavy opposition from city officials.

The Board of Standards and Appeals in Flushing, Queens gave the Mormons the go ahead earlier this week, and the church will now be able to erect a large two-story house of worship with 55 underground parking spaces and a nine-story steeple – despite the facility being twice the size of the limit placed on buildings in the residential area.

"I am somewhere between outraged and disappointed," expressed Tyler Cassell, a member of local Community Board 7 and president of the North Flushing Civic Association. more >>

The motto of every missionary, whether preacher, printer, or school master, ought to be "devoted for life." –Adoniram Judson

Although five young men were commissioned as missionaries on February 6, 1812, considerable interest was concentrated on the three young wives who were so publicly expanding expectations of the role and capabilities of women in missions. Prevented by cold weather, distance and preparations for her imminent marriage to Samuel Nott, Roxana Peck of Franklin, Connecticut was the only one unable to attend the ordination at Salem.

Roxana was twenty-seven years old at the time she married Samuel Nott the week after the Salem commissioning service. Ann "Nancy" Hasseltine Judson of Bradford, Massachusetts was twenty-three and had married Adoniram the day before the commissioning. The darling of the three was Harriet Atwood of Haverill, Massachusetts – beautiful, delicate and only eighteen years old. She married Samuel Newell just days after the commissioning. more >>

Two couples and two single men left along with Adoniram and Ann Judson in February of 1812. The eight were sent out by the newly organized American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Here is what happened to the others who sailed to India (on two different ships) that month.

Samuel & Harriet Newell

Forbidden to remain in India by the British East India Company, Samuel and Harriet ("the Belle of Bradford") sailed for Mauritius with plans to establish a mission there and possibly to Madagascar. After a long and perilous voyage, they reached the Isle of France (French name for Mauritius), where Harriet soon died, at age 19, after childbirth ten months after departing Salem. Grief-stricken, Samuel went on to Ceylon, finding it favorable to open a mission there. In January 1814 he joined Samuel and Roxana Nott and Gordon Hall in Bombay. He ministered seven years before his life was cut short by cholera on May 30, 1821, being violently attacked while ministering to the sick. He was greatly endeared to the friends of the mission by his devotedness and amiable character. more >>

Rockdale County in Georgia is being sued for zoning restrictions that are discriminatory against small churches unable to afford the three-acre property size requirement to function, say attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund.

Lawyers for the Christian-based ADF, who filed the lawsuit on Thursday, said Rockdale County is refusing New Generation Christian Church access to several different properties for its worship services because the properties are less than three acres. The restriction does not apply to nonreligious groups.

"Government officials should not use zoning restrictions to close down religious services of small, start-up churches," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley. "Not only is it irresponsible to target small ministries dedicated to serving the community, it's unconstitutional and violates federal law." more >>

A Southern Baptist college will soon be opening its doors in New England, a region known for having some of the least churched communities in the United States.

Northeastern Baptist College, located in a former Ramada Inn hotel building in Bennington, Vt., intends to begin training church planters in August 2013.

Mark Ballard, president of NEBC, told The Christian Post that for years he had sought to found a Christian college in the American Northeast for the sake of training evangelists. more >>

"This is such a dark place."

The irony stopped me in my tracks. The speaker was Jonas Kouassi-Zessia, an African émigré to Europe who had planted a church there.

In the 19th and 20th centuries Europe – and America – was sending missionaries to Africa. Europeans and Americans referred to Africa as the "Dark Continent." Now, in the eyes of an African Christian leader, it was Europe shrouded in darkness. more >>