The future of Christians in Syria will be the focus of a conference at the European Parliament on Tuesday (Sept. 8), bringing together church leaders, European Union policymakers and Syrian representatives.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday, Sept. 2, praised a Christian nurse who risked her life to rescue an infant from a hospital fire that killed 14 newborns last week.
The mission isn’t ours, it is God’s. But those who hold power in the missions community (usually those holding the purse strings and prioritizing activities) too easily forget that. To reach nations with the gospel requires a posture change. Instead of doing missions through, with, or by sending indigenous leaders, expatriate involvement must show up differently and now be willing to come under indigenous leadership.
For a followers of folk religion in Taiwan, who understand religion as transactional with individual spirits, forgiveness of sins may not immediately sound like an answer to the practical fears that emerge during Taiwan's Ghost Month. Yet the gospel can reframe the human problem without ignoring the fear that brought the person to the conversation. Our deepest problem is not that we have failed to satisfy every unseen power. It is that we are sinners before a holy God.
Disciples are made to need one another, and in their interdependence they reveal God's glory. Collaboration with those who follow Christ from other backgrounds is a powerful witness in this regard. By living and ministering well together the lives of those who don't know Jesus will be impacted by a community of spiritually transformed, self-giving people who demonstrate a love that is not of this world.
After a grueling travel journey we can get to our destination and not actually feel welcome. So it can be with arriving at a church. A sign can welcome people to a building but only people can welcome people into a community. Jesus was extraordinary at making people feel welcome.
Moroccan Christian groups are pressing political parties to address freedom of belief and the rights of religious minorities as the country prepares for parliamentary elections on Sept. 23, saying religious freedom should be part of the political debate rather than left to individual candidates.
A U.N. panel last week cited India for discrimination against its Christian and Muslim minorities.
