
Wedding disrupted, worship banned at site in Indonesia
Local officials in Indonesia on Sunday (June 30) stopped a wedding ceremony and banned the church from further worship meetings at the site, sources said.
Local officials in Indonesia on Sunday (June 30) stopped a wedding ceremony and banned the church from further worship meetings at the site, sources said.
Traditional churches in China tend to serve a context where poverty and need are typical and the desire for communal support and directive leadership is welcome. China's large upwardly mobile and independent population doesn't need what these traditional churches are offering. A different gospel approach and new forms of church must emerge to meet different needs in rapidly changing urban contexts.
For decades the global missions community has talked about deeper collaboration with local ministry leaders as partners. But self-perception can misread reality. The post-COVID political shifts in China are a reality check, according to a long-term expatriate living through changes that are shattering the illusion that he knew better than the locals about how to advance the gospel in a foreign context. It is a new era for missions, demanding a new depth of humility.
The rise of Artificial General Intelligence is now unstoppable. It is not an overstatement to say that it is transforming life on earth as humans know it. No sphere of human interaction is immune, least of all the religious sector. Now, more than ever, we need to be spiritually discerning about AI/AGI use in our faith walk. Let us take care not put our trust in something that has neither heart nor soul.
India’s famed Emperor Ashoka was an ancient convert from Hinduism to Buddhism. He demonstrated that a person is NOT forced by others to convert from one religion to another. Today, “religious conversions are forced,” is the flawed premise of all anti-conversion laws of India. Who could have forced mighty Emperor Ashoka to change his religion? The Emperor’s famous religious conversion was his choice.
Police in Pakistan on Sunday (June 23) arrested a Christian under blasphemy laws as part of his siblings’ effort to retaliate against him over a property dispute, sources said.
TWR Motion and Antioch Ministries International (AMI) are working together to reach the Buddhist community in Thailand through an animated series called “Journey to Hope”. Using vibrant illustrations, the 20-episode series communicates the main teachings of the Bible in a way that is easy for Thai Buddhists to understand.
At an event where prominent social and political leaders across Punjab Province were present, Christian leaders and others last week called on the government of Pakistan to amend blasphemy laws and end its indifference to violence against minorities.
In the afternoon of June 17, a founding thanksgiving service was held for the Korean Christian Mission Church Association (led by Chairman Rev. Seok-Jeon Yoon) at the Antioch Sanctuary of Yonsei Central Baptist Church in Guro-gu, Seoul, where Rev. Yoon also serves as the senior pastor. Christian leaders gathered to give thanks for the newly registered organization, giving remarks and expressing their hopes for the group to strengthen the mission focus of Korean churches.
A Catholic has been jailed under blasphemy charges since April 27 in Lahore, Pakistan for inadvertently stepping out of his rickshaw onto some papers said to be pages of the Quran, sources said.
Due to sloppy police investigation and pressure from an Islamist extremist party, a judge last week granted bail to at least 52 Muslims accused of killing a Christian man over a false blasphemy accusation, sources said.