Local South Sudanese government officials and tribal elders have gathered in Yei River County in Jonglei state Sunday for a three-day Peace Conference under the sponsorship of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), to discuss the role of the church in helping end tribal violence and prevent future conflict.

The unprecedented meeting, which lasts until Tuesday, united local officials, U.S. and African Evangelicals and members of four tribes, Murle, Dinka, Nuer and Anyuak, in the Eastern region of the country, which has suffered from tribal violence sparked by disputes over pastoral grounds for cattle, the main local source of income. Fighting between these tribes has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and thousands of injuries in the past six months, it has been estimated.

Among the conference's participants were the Rev. Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, WEA's CEO and Secretary General; Dr. Brian C. Stiller, WEA Global Ambassador; Stephen Tollestrup, WEA Director of Peace and Reconciliation Initiative; and the Rev. Aiah Foday-Khabenje, General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA). Also in attendance were local church leaders, including Bishop John Machar Thou of the Anglican Diocese of Duk and Bishop James Par Tap, Moderator at the Sudan Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Khartoum, part of the Church of Sudan. more >>

Wycliffe Bible Translators, one of the world's biggest Bible translation companies, has agreed to an independent review by the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) of its policies on translating terms such as "God the Father" and "Son of God" after complaints about how the terms are presented in some non-English copies of the Bible. 

"Recognizing the role of the Church in fulfilling the Great Commission, and respecting the leadership of the WEA and those they will engage in this review process, we commit ourselves to following the wisdom and guidance that this review will produce," announced Bob Creson, president of Wycliffe, in a statement on the company's website.

Wycliffe came under heavy criticism when Biblical Missiology created an online petition alleging that the translation company had eliminated familial terms describing God and Jesus in certain Arabic and Bengali translations of the Bible so as not to offend Muslim readers. Biblical Missiology, a network of missionaries, linguists, theologians and global pastors, demanded that Wycliffe stop replacing phrases such as "Son of God" with "Messiah of God" or "God the Father" with "guardian." Bible Missiology said it had "privately appealed" to Wycliffe "to no avail" to stop producing these controversial translations. more >>

A Protestant pastor was sentenced to 11 years in prison in Vietnam Monday for leading a house church, unregistered as an official church with state officials, state media reported. The incident reportedly left Christians fearful that similar acts of persecution could become more common in the Communist state.

A court in central Vietnam claimed that Nguyen Cong Chinh, 43, was inciting division between the government and its citizens, state-controlled media reported Tuesday. Chinh was convicted of authoring and disseminating documents with distorted information that slandered authorities, of collaborating with "reactionary groups" and inciting ethnic minorities to commit wrongdoing, according to The Associated Press.

Human Rights Watch indicated that the arrest was part of the state's religious persecution policy. more >>

There are churches in the United States that are hundreds of years old. Many of them have rich traditions and have seen hundreds if not thousands of people come to know Jesus Christ through their ministries. Yet there is a special crop of people – the church planters – who feel called not to preach from pulpits in front of well-established congregations, but to create churches of their own.

I serve as the campus pastor at a small church plant in Barberton, Ohio. My early Christian life was spent in an established, traditional church, leaving me unprepared for the heartaches and joys of being part of a brand new church.

People need Jesus – that's for sure – but how does a person build a congregation from the ground up? Who are these people who are brave enough – and perhaps naïve enough – to go into a town and create a church from scratch? more >>

Correction Appended

The idea of more than 200,000 former Muslims coming to faith in Sub-Saharan Africa within a few short years is mind-boggling. But entire mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa coming to faith? That news is even harder to wrap one's mind around, but it is in fact what is happening according to reports from a former church planter among Muslims in West Africa.

In the new book Miraculous Movements, Jerry Trousdale, now director of International Ministries for CityTeam International, records amazing and inspiring stories of faith among Muslim communities in Africa. The author opens up a new world to Western readers, taking them into the heart of the "miraculous movement" of God in Africa that is transforming the hearts of Muslims. more >>

There are currently more than 45,000 Southern Baptist churches across the United States. Most of those churches, however, are concentrated in the South, with fewer churches located in states like New York and New Jersey.

In an effort to remind people of the importance of church planting, especially in under-reached and under-served areas like the Northeast and West, the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board – currently the North American Mission Board – created Start-a-Church Sunday.

Placed on the SBC calendar in 1991 as part of the Convention's Bold Mission Thrust initiative, a multi-pronged emphasis on evangelism, missions and church planting, Start-a-Church Sunday continues to remain on the calendar today as an annual reminder to churches of the importance of starting new churches. more >>