A men-only ministry embraced women and united with Jews on Saturday at a Dallas megachurch.

The Promise Keepers event, held at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in South Dallas, drew at least 850 people and was the first time women in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were invited to a conference organized by the world’s largest Christian men's ministry.

Since last year, Promise Keepers began opening its conferences to women, largely because women are increasingly the head of the family in single-parent households, the group explained. So far, there have only been a handful of U.S. cities that have hosted PK events that include women. more >>

A pending bill that seeks to bar government funding for non-profits that have a religious requirement in their hiring process is a “serious assault” on faith-based charities, said the senior vice president of the world’s largest network of Christian communicators.

The SAMHSA Modernization Act of 2010 (H.R. 5466), sponsored by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (R-R.I.), threatens to cut valuable social services provided by faith-based groups, wrote Craig Parshall, the National Religious Broadcasters’ senior vice president and general counsel, to members of the network last week .

“[T]his bill represents a serious assault on non-profit faith groups as it threatens to cripple faith-based humanitarian and charitable organizations,” he added. more >>

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a $40-billion plan Wednesday to help improve child and maternal health – one of least improved areas out of the eight addressed by the Millennium Development Goals.

Funding from the plan is expected to go toward saving the lives of 16 million women and children over the next five years. Governments, foundations, businesses and non-governmental organizations contributed to the funding, the United Nations reported as this week’s high-level MDG2010 Summit was coming to an end.

Notably, however, four times as much money, or $169 billion, is actually needed to save the lives of 16 million women and children, according to Robert Orr, a senior aide to Ban. Orr told reporters that the initial $40 billion in pledges is expected to bring in more funding in the years ahead. more >>

The standard of life in South Sudan is so far behind modern society that it dreams to one day reach Third World status, says the head of a missions group that works in the region.

So if South Sudan voted to secede from the North in the January referendum, it would need “a lot of external help,” warns Bill Deans, president of Mustard Seed International.

“For the past three generations they’ve been in war. Every family is touched by that,” reports Deans, whose organization ministers to the "least of these." more >>

With an estimated 20 million people affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan, it is “almost incomprehensible” to imagine the response needed, said a Christian relief group Sunday.

“The scale of the response needed by all humanitarian actors is almost incomprehensible,” said Anita Cole, program development and quality director for World Vision Pakistan.

Cole said World Vision is assessing the situation in the Southern district of Sindh and preparing human and financial resources to ramp up programs in Pakistan to respond to the floods once immediate dangers are over. more >>

At normally its lowest donation time of the year, medical charity Mercy Ships has received a donation of more than $1 million in stock.

Annette Simmons, wife of billionaire Harold Simmons, has given a gift in stock worth $1,015,635.19 to the Christian medical charity, the group announced Tuesday.

“For Mrs. Simmons to step up at this particular time during August – which is always the slowest time each year even in good economic situations – has really given a substantial boost to all our volunteers that are actually out there on the field,” said Sam Smith, CEO of Mercy Ships. more >>