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| Pastor Mathias | | Ms. Brunell - Executive Director | | Mr. Gaffney - Managing Director | | Ms. Helmers - Managing Director | | | |
| Mr. Flynn - Senior Director | | Mr. Bolton - Director | | Ms. Irwin - Director | | Mr. James - Director | | Mr. Levine - Director | | Ms. Radewicz - Director | | Mr. Rodgers - Director | | Mr. Shea - Director | | Mr. Widmyer - Director | | | |
| Ms. Avery | | Ms. Baird | | Ms. Baker | | Ms. Bray | | Ms. Burns | | Ms. Coffey | | Ms. Crane | | Mr. David | | Ms. Drew | | | |
| Mr. Dunlap | | Mr. Ewing | | Mr. Farley | | Ms. Finley | | Mr. Friedman | | Ms. Gay | | Ms. Hahn | | Ms. Hobbs | | Ms. Holder | | | |
| Mr. Horton | | Ms. Lee | | Mr. Maddox | | Ms. Perez | | Ms. Rollins | | Ms. Smith | | Ms. Smith | | Ms. Weslin | | Mr. Wilkerson | | | | | | M.R. Mathias - Ambassador |
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| |  | | | Creation: A Convergence of Torah and Science | Faith
The comprehensive agreement between Torah and science described above does not prove that the Torah is of divine origin, nor does it prove that God exists. However, as we begin the twenty-first century, the person of faith is not forced to choose between accepting the latest scientific discoveries or accepting the Torah account of creation. All leading cosmologists now discuss the creation of the universe, while the Torah discusses the Creator of the universe. It is not unreasonable to assume that science and the Torah are both referring to one and the same subject. It is a pleasure for a person of faith to be living in this day and age!
The current harmony between science and faith was not always the case. Only a few decades ago, the outstanding Torah scholar Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik expressed the then-existing dichotomy between science and faith in a classic essay entitled “The Lonely Man of Faith.”9 Using the word “lonely” to describe the feelings of the man of faith who lives in a scientific world, Rav Soloveitchik wrote:
“Being people of faith in our contemporary world is a lonely experience. We are loyal to visionary expectations which find little support in present-day reality... Religious faith is condescendingly regarded as a subjective palliative, but is given little credence as a repository of truth.”10
Now, only half a century later, in one scientific discipline after another, the words of the scientist can hardly be distinguished from the words of “the man of faith.” Professor Stephen J. Gould of Harvard University tells us that “human intelligence is the result of a staggeringly improbable series of events, utterly unpredictable, and quite unrepeatable.”11 The term “luck” is now commonly used by evolutionary biologists like Professor David Raup, past president of the American Paleontological Union, to “explain” the existence of human beings.12 Archaeologists express their amazement at the “radical and sudden changes, with no premonitory signs”13 that mark the appearance of civilization, and they speak of a sudden “quantum leap in mental abilities”14 that appears in the archaeological record of human cultural behaviour. Scientists in a wide variety of disciplines discuss the “anthropic principle,” which states that the universe looks as if it had been specifically designed to permit the existence and promote the welfare of human beings.15 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy expresses this idea in the following poetic words: “In truth, we are the children of the Universe.”16
The scientific discoveries recorded above are exactly what one would expect if the Torah account of the origin of the universe was correct. Therefore, such harmony between Torah and science constitutes an important argument in support of our religious belief. Modern science has become a significant element in strengthening our ancient faith.
Reprinted from Jewish Life magazine. Download the free Jewish Life app on iOS and Android [More] | |  |
| |  | | | World Olivet Assembly | Para Church Organizations | World Olivet Assembly (WOA) is a global gathering of evangelical churches and para-church organizations existing for the advancement of world mission. The organization is structured through regional and national chapters working together with several global partners.
The assembly first began in 2000 as a loose association of world evangelical bodies formed by alumni of Olivet Theological College and Seminary. The network's development culminated in the inauguration of the World Olivet Assembly in 2007. [More] | | |
| | | | | History | National Press Club | Perched atop the National Press Building within sight of the White House and just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol, the National Press Club is the traditional meeting place in Washington for newsmakers and journalists.
Founded more than a century ago as a haven for Washington reporters to relax, enjoy a drink and play cards, it is now the world’s leading professional organization for journalists, and one of the most popular venues to host business, news or social events in downtown Washington.
Through its doors have come presidents, premiers, kings and queens, Cabinet secretaries, senators and House members, movie stars and sports heroes, titans of business and finance – just a who’s who of the 20th and the 21st centuries. Here they have found a willing audience of reporters waiting to grill them with questions, interpret what they say and send the news around the world.
It all began on a cold, blustery February day in 1908 when a one-legged reporter for the old Washington Times by the name of Graham Nichol crossed 14th Street on crutches and met a colleague, James Hay. “I’m getting tired of having to hunt a stuffy, ill-ventilated little hall room in a cheap boarding house every time I want to play a game of poker,” Nichol exclaimed. “Hells bells, why don’t we get up a press club? A place where the fellows can take a drink or turn a card when they feel like it.”
“How? Where?” Hay responded through chattering teeth. “I don’t know and I don’t give a damn where,” Nichol replied. “But all the same, we’re going to have a club.” And he hobbled to the pressroom at police headquarters on 12th Street and started collecting signatures of reporters willing to plunk down $10 each to get the Club started.
On March 12, 1908, 32 newspapermen with $300 in their treasury and promises of support from 200 of their colleagues decided that a press club was feasible and elected officers to look into it. Meeting just 17 days later in the F Street Parlor of the Willard Hotel, they framed a constitution for what they called the National Press Club.
By May, the Club had rented two floors above a jewelry story at 1205 F St. NW and threw a housewarming party that drew not only hundreds of journalists but several members of Congress, diplomats and Buffalo Bill Cody.
Right from the beginning the Club attracted noted figures of the era. Sarah Bernhardt, Charlie Chaplin and Andrew Carnegie dropped by in those early days.
William Howard Taft became the first president to visit the Club when he hoisted his 300-pound body up the stairs on New Year’s Day 1910. He gave the bartender a rosebud from his lapel in exchange for a glass of water. Former President Theodore Roosevelt stopped by to tell of his exploits hunting big game in Africa and hint he may run again in 1912. Woodrow Wilson visited often. He once said the Club was the one place in town where he could relax – something hard to imagine in today’s adversarial environment. Warren Harding, who was a newspaper publisher before he went into politics, voted in Club elections.
During a World War II canteen for servicemen, then vice president Harry Truman played an upright piano while movie actress Lauren Becall sat on top and draped her long legs seductively over the side to the soldiers – and photographers – delight.
As the Club rapidly expanded, it outgrew its first three homes. In the 1920s, the Club’s board decided to build a high-rise office building with the Club at the top. It would be filled with the Washington bureaus then scattered along 14th and F Streets known as Newspaper Row. President Calvin Coolidge laid the cornerstone, and the 14-story building – the largest private office building in Washington at the time -- opened in December 1927 with a spacious Club on the top two floors. In the early 1980s, the building was torn down to its girders and rebuilt while the Club kept functioning. In 2006, the Club added a Broadcast Operations Center that shoots and transmits news and events around the world.
It’s hard to imagine now, but the Club excluded women until 1971. In retaliation, women journalists began their own Club, the Women’s National Press Club, in 1919, the same year women got the right to vote. That club developed its own lively program, especially with the help of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It became famous for its annual “Salute to Congress” dinner. It fought the National Press Club for access to its speakers, and in 1959 it convinced Nikita Khrushchev not to speak at the NPC unless women were admitted. They were – for that one event. When the NPC finally voted to admit women, the women’s club changed its name to the Washington Press Club and admitted men. They remained rival clubs until they merged in 1985.
When President-elect Franklin Roosevelt spoke in 1932 he began what has become the newsmaker luncheon series that has attracted thousands of leaders to the Club’s podium [More] | | |
| |  | | | About | National Press Club | | The National Press Club is the world’s leading professional organization for journalists. It serves its members through activities that bolster their skills, through services that meet the changing needs of the global communications profession, and through social activities that build a vital media community in Washington and across the world. The Club is where news happens in the nation’s capital and is a vigorous advocate of press freedom worldwide. [More] | | |
| | | | | About EPA | Evangelical Press Association | The Evangelical Press Association is a professional organization of Christian print and digital publications: magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and content-rich websites.
EPA is the world’s largest professional organization for the Evangelical periodical publishing industry. Our heart is to provide members with opportunities to build relationships and strengthen professionalism within the community.
EPA puts great focus on serving the kingdom of God through written, print, and digital communications. Our members are committed to excellence as they strive to cultivate a vibrant community that strengthens the publishing industry.
Teaming up with the Evangelical Press Association is your opportunity to become much more than a credentialed associate of a national press organization. You have the chance to become an integral part of the Christian publishing community.
As a member of the EPA, you are part of an influential and closely knit community. Here writers, editors, designers, and publishers unite with a shared vision to strengthen the Christian publishing industry. It is an environment that fosters instruction, respect, professionalism, and faith. Members and staffers alike are inspired to reach higher, go deeper, and become more, as they embrace the great calling of influencing the world around them. [More] | | |
| |  | | | HISTORY - NRB.org | In the early 1940s in America, the emerging culture of hostility between so-called mainline Protestant denominations and the rapidly growing Evangelical Christian movement reached a crisis phase in the world of radio broadcasting. Protestant denominational leaders argued for regulations that would restrict access to the radio broadcast spectrum. They claimed independent Evangelical preachers who were unaccountable to any denominational entity could not be trusted with the public airwaves.
In those early years of radio broadcasting, pioneer Evangelical broadcasters like William Ward Ayer, Paul Rader, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Walter Maier, and Charles Fuller had built radio audiences in the millions and were faithfully proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By 1942 The Lutheran Hour was receiving more mail than the well-known Amos ‘n Andy radio program, and The Old Fashioned Revival Hour was the largest program on the Mutual Broadcasting System, purchasing 50 percent more airtime than the next largest secular broadcaster. In that same year, the Mutual Broadcasting System received more than 25 percent of its total revenue from religious broadcasters.
Yet in 1943, the Federal Council of Churches (later renamed the National Council of Churches) supported proposed regulations that would result in every Evangelical broadcaster being taken off the national radio networks. They demanded that religious broadcasting should only be aired as a public service during free or “sustaining” time donated by the radio networks. They further argued that these public service slots should only be allocated to “responsible” religious broadcasters that had been approved by local and national denominational councils – like themselves.
The Federal Council of Churches was eventually able to persuade all three national radio networks – NBC, CBS, and the Mutual Broadcasting System – to adopt the proposed regulations. Subsequently every Evangelical Christian broadcaster was taken off the national radio networks, with their only access being small independent stations with a very limited audience.
Billy_Graham_NRBIn response to this challenge, 150 Evangelical Christian broadcasters and church leaders held a series of meetings which led to the formation of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). In the fall of 1944, members of the NRB adopted their Constitution, Bylaws, Statement of Faith, and Code of Ethics. And thus began a multi-year effort by NRB to build credibility for Evangelical broadcasters, to secure their fair share of the available public interest slots, and to overturn the ban on the purchase of radio airtime for religious broadcasting.
In 1949, that effort bore fruit as the newly formed ABC radio network reversed the ban on paid religious broadcasting, with the other networks following their lead. In a few short years, Evangelical radio broadcasters were again a dynamic and growing presence on major radio networks, with scores of new programs serving a vast national audience.
Today, the Christian multimedia association birthed by these visionary radio broadcasters operates in a far more complex electronic media environment, while retaining its original focus of defending and expanding access to electronic media platforms for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the audience for religious broadcasters has expanded dramatically, with 45 percent of Americans consuming some form of Christian media (TV, radio, podcast, or books) at least sometimes. [More] | | |
| |  | | | Mission Frontiers - Where did all the girls go?: Gendercide and What the Good News Has to Say About It | Where did all the girls go?
Gendercide and What the Good News Has to Say About It
Where did all the girls go?
Around the world, families face great pressure to have a son. Sons mean honor and prosperity; daughters are a financial and social liability. Desperate families respond with desperate measures and try to “select” for a son by killing or aborting daughters. Every year millions of daughters are strangled, suffocated, drowned, lethally neglected, or aborted simply because her family wanted a boy and not a girl. This is called gendercide.
Because of gendercide, girls are disappearing at an alarming rate. In 2005, demographer Christophe Guilmoto estimated that Asia was currently missing 163 million women and girls from their population due to gendercide.[1] Gendercide has continued since then, and kept growing. The United Nations puts their estimate at closer to 200 million women.[2] In a single generation, more women have gone “missing” from Asia due to gendercide than all the girls and women alive in the United States.
When I first encountered these issues, my heart broke. I grieved for the lives lost. I grieved for the mothers and fathers who faced such immense pressure that they felt compelled to discard their child. I grieved for the stories I heard, for the mother who declared that for her daughter it was “better for her to die” than to live in the situations of abuse and hardship her mother had faced, for the mother that strangled and buried seven daughters.
Gendercide is rooted in a belief that a girl offers little to her family in terms of social or financial benefit, but a boy offers much more. I grieved at the thought of measuring the worth of a human life in financial and social status.
But I believe the gospel can indeed be good news to families and communities facing gendercide. This isn’t about asking people to pray a prayer and “convert.” Nor is it just about rescuing unwanted girls. It’s about a transformation of individuals and families to embrace their kingdom identity as people loved by God and called to love others. For me, the understanding of good news has come to rest heavily on the idea that humans are made in the image of God. (See “The Image of God: A Dignifying Invitation.”) Each person has value because he or she is created, known and loved by God.
The good news is that you matter. You are made in the image of God, which means you have worth and dignity that is sacred and eternal. Your life is not disposable. Your value is not conditional on your status, your wealth or your gender. It cannot be tarnished.
The good news is that you can know God. God is not a faraway deity who has no interest in you. He knows you and wants you to know Him. This is a radically different understanding of God from religious traditions where the gods pursue their own ends and have little concern for humans. But God cares so much about being known that He sent Jesus to show us who God is and how much He cares about us.
The good news is that others also have worth and dignity. When we come to understand our own place before God, we can extend the same grace to others. This transforms the way we treat one another, including our own families and children.
The good news is that your salvation is not your own work. God made the first move towards us. This is not a matter of struggling to please a flippant god or trying to be good enough. God declared that we are created, known and loved. He loved us first. This is why we have the gall to hope that God will enter into our brokenness to redeem us.
We can believe with confidence that God cares for these girls and their families, and that it is within His power to shine His light into the darkness that is gendercide. So let’s dive in and get a better understanding of what’s happening. Here are some of the basics.
How does this happen?
These girls have been eliminated primarily through sex-selective abortion specifically targeted at terminating a female fetus in hopes of later conceiving a male. Families with less access to ultrasound and abortion may also kill a newborn daughter, or simply withhold life essentials such as food and medical care. In both India and China, there are laws against finding out the sex of a fetus, aborting because of the fetus’s sex, and killing a child. However, the practices continue with little resistance. A girl is killed or aborted every 16 seconds, simply because she is a girl.[3]
How do we know how many women are “missing” due to gendercide?
The prevalence of gendercide is measured by the male to female sex ratio. A sex ratio reports how many males there are compared to how many females in a certain age group (often ages 0-6) in a certain area. If there is no gendercide, the natural number of males and females would be about even. The presence of many more boys than girls indicates the practice of gendercide.
Some ar [More] | | |
| |  | | | Mission Frontiers - It’s a Girl, The Three Deadliest Words.: How Will the Church Respond? | It’s a Girl, The Three Deadliest Words.
How Will the Church Respond?
It’s a Girl, The Three Deadliest Words.
Anaya is pregnant and along with her husband, Arjun, and their entire extended family, they are hoping their latest child will be a boy. Anaya lives in a remote village of northern India where advanced medical technology such as ultrasound machines is not available. They will just have to wait and see. There are great social status and financial benefit for those families blessed to have a son. Anaya says, “When my son grows up we will arrange a great match for him and his new wife will join our family and she will take care of me and my husband in our old age. We will make sure to find a girl whose family will provide a good dowry.”
Soon the day of delivery arrives and Anaya gives birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. This is the eighth girl that Anaya has given birth to. Their dreams of a secure financial future are dashed. What will they do now? A short time later Anaya goes for a walk carrying her new daughter to a secluded area near her home. She lays her yet unnamed daughter on the ground. Anaya pulls out a beautiful Indian cloth and places it securely over the baby’s face. After a brief struggle Anaya’s baby girl stops moving. Anaya digs a shallow grave and buries her latest baby girl next to her seven other daughters. Anaya says, “I felt we could keep it only if it was a male and kill it if it was a female child.”1
Anaya’s child is one of over 200 million “missing” girls according to United Nations estimates. More girls go “missing” from India and China every year than all the girls born annually in the United States. Anaya’s choice is but one method by which millions of girls have been eliminated. Most often the sex of the child is determined by ultrasound examination, even though it is illegal to do so, and abortion becomes the preferred method of terminating the pregnancy. The roots of this crisis have been around for centuries. The arrival of modern medical procedures to identify the gender and “quietly” eliminate the female child has turned a long-standing cultural preference for boys in India and China into gendercide—a holocaust of female children unlike the world has ever seen.
These diabolical systems of cultural and financial prejudice against women have to stop wherever they exist. The practice of paying a dowry must end. To his credit, Indian Prime Minister Modi has spoken out against the killing of girls but the Indian government at every level must get serious about enforcing the laws already on the books. Concerted efforts do make a difference as seen in the article starting on page 30.
It should be noted that the devaluation of women and the gendercide that results is not just an issue for India or China. It’s a global problem and sex selective abortion should be illegal in every country on earth. It is currently not illegal nationwide in the U.S.
Will the Church Provide the Answer?
The murder of girls is deeply rooted in the cultural devaluation of women that has existed in many cultures of the world for millennia. It is tragic that women themselves have felt so trapped by financial, cultural and governmental pressures that they have become at least unwilling participants in their own devaluation and murder. How can anyone read the stories from Jill McElya’s article starting on page 13 and not be dumbfounded by the ability of some to justify the routine murder of girls as a normal part of daily life rather than condemn it as the horrendous moral outrage that it is. The global church must speak out against this horror on behalf of the supreme value of girls and women created in the image of God.
As those possessing a biblical worldview and a commitment to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Church should be leading the charge against the devaluation of women in every culture where it occurs. The teachings of Scripture are very clear—both men and women are of equal value and worth as created in God’s image. As Paul says in Gal. 3:28, there is now neither male nor female. We are all equal at the foot of the cross as members of the New Covenant. Women are equal members of the royal priesthood of all believers. Women are equal recipients of all of God’s spiritual gifts, Acts 2:17-18. Both genders are equally responsible for carrying out Jesus’ command to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Mat. 28:18-20). Women have been called by God to be disciple makers and church planters right alongside their male counterparts. The Church must provide women with the freedom, training and opportunities to excel in this common mission. But, quite often the Church does not. Many churches and mission agencies still hold to a pro-male bias in training, leadership development and ministry opportunities. We must not muzzle or stifle half of the Body of Christ. We need the full participation of both men and women to complete [More] | | |
| |  | | | About Us | Facing History and Ourselves | Our mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.
By studying the historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. | | |
| |  | | | The Displaced Church - YouTube | | We are living in dark times, the dark ages of the 21st century. Anything goes, and whatever darkness of the soul isn't legal yet is being fought to be made l... | | |
| | | | | Church Directory | ChristianMingle | | Looking to find the closest church in your neighborhood? Below is a comprehensive list of churches across the USA. Next time you’re out of town and need to find a church to worship on Sunday. Take a look at our list below. Click on a church for more information about denomination, website, phone number, and directions. | | |
| |  | | | Church Growth | Charles and Dottie Brock | Church Growth International was founded in 1991 by Charles and Dottie Brock who were armed with 20 years of church planting experience in the Philippines. Charles began his church planting ministry with a determination to follow Biblical principles and drop deep-seated traditions that have been followed as if they were Biblical. In the process of church planting, he developed Bible study materials appropriate for this purpose. This was during a time when “indigenous church planting principles” were beginning to take root among foreign missions. The use of Charles’ Bible study materials spread to other countries, being translated into the local languages.
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| |  | | | House Churches in Our Neighborhoods | Small Groups | The house church movement is alive and well—even here in North America.
Joel Comiskey
Most people leave their home to go to church, and then go back home to live. But that hasn't always been the case in church history.
The early church movement was a home-based movement that met from house to house (Acts 12:12; Romans 16:3-5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2). Under the radar of the Roman Empire, God used the early house churches to evangelize, make disciples, and transform the world. They were so effective that Christianity eventually became the dominant religion.
Throughout church history, God has used the house church strategy to draw his followers back to a simpler form of church life and mission. In fact, since 1950 the global house church movement has resulted in a spontaneous multiplication of churches that has proven to be one of the most significant influences of the modern-day church.
Because most house churches gather in countries where the Christian church is persecuted or poor, it's difficult to ascertain exact data. Even conservative estimates of the number of people attending house churches, though, are staggering: many millions of Chinese Christians alone meet in house churches. The house church movement is alive and growing. [More] | | |
| |  | | | House Churches on the Rise, but 'Not for Everybody' - Christian News Headlines | A Christian researcher who monitors trends in American Christendom says house churches will continue to grow in popularity in the United States -- and that those attending the independent, non-denominational gatherings are significantly more satisfied with their overall experience than those who attend conventional churches.
The Barna Group survey of 2,008 house churches looked at several aspects of the growing "house church" trend in the United States. For example, two-thirds of house church attenders were "completely satisfied" with the leadership of their church, compared to only half of those attending a conventional church. Three out of five adults attending a house church were "completely satisfied" with the level of community and personal connectedness they experience, compared to only two out of five adults who are involved in a conventional church.
George Barna, who directed the study, says the house church movement will continue to grow throughout America -- and he explains why that will happen.
"There is an emerging group of millions and millions of people that is also rapidly growing who have come to recognize that they haven't necessarily been called simply to go to church," he observes; "they've been called to be the church." The researcher adds that as part of that journey of faith, those people are seeking out "new options" they feel will enable them to "really play out their faith in every dimension of their life."
The survey also found that many people are just beginning to get comfortable with the idea of homes being the primary place for shared faith experiences. [More] | | |
| |  | | | About - Todd White - Lifestyle Christianity | | Todd was a drug addict and atheist for 22 years—when in 2004—he was radically set free! Todd believes that redemption and righteousness are the foundational keys for living life as a new creation in Christ. Todd’s foremost desire is to see the Holy Spirit flowing through believers everywhere that they go–at work, school, grocery stores, malls, gas stations, and more. Todd’s true joy is being able to reproduce a 24/7 kingdom lifestyle in every believer. His heart is to activate people in the simplicity of who they really are and confront the barriers that hold them back from being who God created them to be. No one is excluded! [More] | | |
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M.R. Mathias 
