Should More US Churches Host Mandarin-Language Services?
China has overtaken Mexico as the No. 1 sender of legal immigrants to America.
Fred Biby thought his congregation was missing an opportunity.
Dozens of Chinese immigrants were sending their children to Bridges Community Church’s preschool. But th…
Should More US Churches Host Mandarin-Language Services?
China has overtaken Mexico as the No. 1 sender of legal immigrants to America.
Fred Biby thought his congregation was missing an opportunity.
Dozens of Chinese immigrants were sending their children to Bridges Community Church’s preschool. But th…
Suicide Bomber Kills 65 Christians Celebrating Easter at Pakistan Children’s Park
Blasphemy execution goes from good news to bad news for beleaguered believers.
A suicide bomber targeted Christians celebrating Easter Sunday at a children’s park in Pakistan’s second-largest city, killing at least 65 and wounding 300.
The Taliban-linked attack comes one year after two suicide bombers targeted Lenten services in Lahore’s largest Christian neighborhood. It is the deadliest assault on Pakistan’s Christian minority since the symbolic bombing of Peshawar’s All Saints Church in 2013.
The Lahore park, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, is “a popular site for members of Lahore’s Christian community, many of whom had gone there to celebrate the Easter weekend holiday,” reports Reuters. The crowd was “unusually large” because of Easter, an official told Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
A Taliban splinter group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, took credit for the attack and said it deliberately “targeted the Christian festival of Easter,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
The attack was Pakistan’s deadliest “since the December 2014 massacre at an army-run school that left 143 people dead, most of them children, and marked a devastating new turn in militant violence against Pakistani civilians,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
Pakistani Christians—including Asia Bibi, one of the world’s most prominent persecuted Christians—were bracing for a bloody Easter Sunday after a blasphemy-related death sentence stoked Islamist anger last month.
Five years ago, Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer—one of the most prominent supporters of Bibi and critics of the blasphemy laws which sentenced the Christian mother to death—was assassinated by his bodyguard. In October, Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the bodyguard, Mumtaz …
Suicide Bomber Kills 65 Christians Celebrating Easter at Pakistan Children’s Park
Blasphemy execution goes from good news to bad news for persecuted Pakistani believers.
A suicide bomber targeted Christians celebrating Easter at a children’s park in Pakistan’s second-largest city, killing at least 65 and wounding 300, reports the Associated Press.
The Lahore park, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, is “a popular site for members of Lahore’s Christian community, many of whom had gone there to celebrate the Easter weekend holiday,” reports Reuters.
A Taliban splinter group took credit for the attack and said it deliberately targeted Christians, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Christians were bracing for such violence after a blasphemy-related death sentence was carried out last month.
Five years ago, Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer—one of the most prominent supporters of Asia Bibi and critics of the blasphemy laws which have the Christian mother facing a death sentence—was shot to death by his bodyguard. In October, the nation’s Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Taseer’s bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, and sentenced him to death. In February, Qadri was hung.
The execution was good news for Pakistani Christians—who are often the target of the country’s blasphemy laws—and their advocates. Thousands of Qadri’s supporters protested on Easter Sunday, marching into the capital city of Islamabad.
“It was very difficult to imagine if Pakistan would be able to follow the due course of justice, but the country has shown its will,” Qadri prosecutor Saif-ul-Malook told World Watch Monitor. “The execution has strengthened the fight against extremism.”
Malook also represents Bibi (whose formal name is Aasiya Noreen) after the Pakistani woman was sentenced to death for a blasphemy conviction after an argument over a cup of water. Two …
Tullian Tchividjian Confesses Second Affair Concealed by Two Coral Ridge Elders
(UPDATED) Florida ministry leaders who tried to help reflect on what they’d do differently.
This weekend, Tullian Tchividjian’s past two churches confirmed rumors that the Florida pastor had another affair prior to the one that prompted his resignation last summer.
But the pastor who gave Billy Graham’s grandson a second chance says he doesn’t regret it.
On Wednesday, CT reported how Tchividjian was fired following fresh “disclosures.”
“Repentance is progressive and often painful,” both Willow Creek Presbyterian Church and Tchividjian separately told CT. “It involves disclosing and dealing with the darkest places of our hearts and lives.”
“I remain committed to that painful and progressive process,” Tchividjian told CT in an exclusive statement.
In a public statement, Tchividjian apologized for the pain he has caused his ex-wife and children.
“I hope and pray that the events in my own life over the past couple years serve as a warning to all who, like I did, believe they are standing firm,” he stated. “Sin is deep. It is real. It destroys. It deceives. May this be an opportunity for all of us to examine our own hearts and beg God for the mercy and forgiveness we all need.” (Full statement below.)
When Tchividjian stepped down in June 2015 as lead pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, he explained that he “developed an inappropriate relationship” with a “friend” after learning that his wife was having her own affair. His wife disputed his account, writing that his statement “reflected my husband’s opinions but not my own,” but did not offer details.
On March 13, Tchividjian confessed to a prior extramarital affair from 2014, Coral Ridge confirmed to CT. Later in 2014, …
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