Thousands of churches have signed up to participate in the latest evangelism effort by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to spread the Gospel in North America.

According to the BGEA, as of Monday, 12,279 congregations have signed onto the "My Hope America With Billy Graham" evangelism event.  Bill Conard, executive director of My Hope America with Billy Graham, told The Christian Post that he was "thrilled" by the response from congregations across the United States and Canada.

"With six months to go until the culmination of My Hope, more churches are signing up every day. Our team has been spread out across the nation for over a year, reaching out to pastors from different denominations, helping them show their congregations how to get individuals involved in the project," said Conard. more >>

Dick McClain, the president of The Mission Society, will be retiring in March 2014.

Joining the organization in 1986, he became president in 2009 and is currently the longest tenured member of staff.

McClain was born into a missions family in China and was raised in India and Hong Kong before going on to seminary and eventually pastoring young churches. more >>

Evolutionists and atheist activists who recently complained about a Ball State University assistant professor teaching creationism may be missing a broader view of education, according to popular Christian apologist Lee Strobel, who says that colleges should be a place where students can explore both Darwinism and creationism fully and freely.

"I believe we should give teachers, scientists, and students the right to pursue the evidence wherever it takes them – even if it takes them to the politically incorrect conclusion that there's an Intelligent Designer," Strobel told The Christian Post via email. "In other words, let's test the evidence in the marketplace of ideas.

"As two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling said, 'Science is the search for the truth.' At least, it should be. Personally, I even believe we should teach more on Darwinism," he added. "That's right – more. That's because today students are given only a cursory and one-sided explanation of evolution. On this surface level, the theory's grandest claims seem to hold together pretty well. Yet if students are encouraged to dig deeper – in fact, to examine all of the evidence, pro and con – they begin to recognize its fatal flaws." more >>

Editor's Note: This is the second part of a four-part series based on the new book, "Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership Is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions." The Christian Post series looks at racism and multi-ethnicity in the church from the perspective of African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American Christian leaders. Part One, an interview with the editor of the book, Anthony Bradley, can be read by clicking here.

Amos Yong is an American Pentecostal theologian who was born in Malaysia. He is one of nine evangelical theologians, including Bradley, an associate professor of theology and ethics at The King's College, who write about their personal experiences as minorities interacting with white evangelical institutions in the book, Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership Is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions. Yong is Dean of the Divinity School and the Rodman Williams Professor of Theology at Regent University.

In the book's third chapter titled, "Race, Racialization, and Asian-American Leaders in Post-Racist Evangelicalism," Yong writes that "the North American evangelical world has taken many important steps toward overcoming the racist history of slavery in this country, and my own story, to be told in this chapter, reflects how I and other Asian-Americans have been beneficiaries of such repentant attitudes and even practices." more >>

Plans for Southern California pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie to bring his large-scale Harvest Crusade events back to Orange County, Calif., for three nights of biblically-based preaching and performances by popular Christian recording artists were announced Wednesday. The outreach is scheduled to take place in Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Aug. 23-25.

Laurie recently spoke during the National Day of Prayer event in Washington, D.C., in which he focused his prayer on asking for God's forgiveness and seeking a revival for America, noting that although "we have forgotten God, He has not forgotten us."

In addition to the Southern California Harvest, Laurie and Harvest Ministries will host the Philadelphia Harvest at the Wells Fargo Center on Sept. 28, 29. The event will be simulcast to thousands of locations nationwide for a coast-to-coast evangelistic outreach called Harvest America. more >>

A federal judge in Michigan ruled Tuesday against a suit brought by a group of Christian evangelists who were attacked last year at the largest Arab gathering in the United States.

Judge Patrick J. Duggan decided that the group Bible Believers did not have a case against the Wayne County Sheriff's Office regarding the actions taken at an outbreak of violence at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn.

"Plaintiffs have cited no authority, and the Court has not located any, for the proposition that free speech rights categorically trump the authority of municipal entities to preserve order and protect public safety," wrote Duggan. more >>