End times bible study

A man opened fire during a lunch reception at a Southern California church, killing one person and wounding five senior citizens before a pastor hit the gunman on the head with a chair and parishioners hog-tied him with electrical cords. Jerry Chen had just stepped into the kitchen of his church's fellowship hall around 1:30 p.m. Sunday when he heard the gunshots. Chen, 72, a longtime congregant at Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, peeked around the corner and saw church members screaming, running and ducking under tables. “I knew someone was shooting," he said. “I was very, very scared. I ran out the kitchen door to call 9-1-1. ” Officials said the shooting ended after the gunman killed one man and wounded five senior citizens before worshippers hog-tied his legs with an electrical cord until deputies arrived. Four of the five people wounded suffered critical gunshot injuries. Recommended ‘Putin likely to have lost third of troops … [Read more...] about Parishioners subdue gunman in fatal California church attack

RNZ The Detail: Journalist David Farrier talks about his reporting on serious allegations of emotional and physical abuse at one of the country’s biggest megachurches: Arise. It was early May and Pastor Peter Mortlock​ was preaching to the converted. There had been trials and tribulations, highs and lows, but Mortlock had much to be pleased about. He founded Bays Christian Fellowship on Auckland’s North Shore in July 1982 and watched it grow and grow. In the early 2000s, the church, now known as City Impact, built a large facility complete with a state-of-the-art 2100-seat auditorium. Along with 10 campuses in New Zealand, there are 48 mission campuses in India, plus others in the Philippines, Mexico and Tonga. On this particular Sunday, nearly 40 years after the start of the City Impact story, Mortlock had good news and bad news. READ MORE: Ex-member of Arise Church told she was 'choosing to be depressed', she says The Detail: David Farrier on Arise Church … [Read more...] about The media and the megachurch

Wedged into a recliner in the corner of her assisted living apartment in Portland , Skylar Freimann, who has a terminal heart condition and pulmonary illness, anxiously eyed her newly arrived hospital bed on a recent day and worried over how she would maintain independence as she further loses mobility. There to guide her along the journey was the Rev. Jo Laurence, a hospice and palliative care chaplain. But rather than invoking God or a Christian prayer, she talked of meditation, chanting and other Eastern spiritual traditions: “The body can weigh us down sometimes,” she counseled. “Where is the divine or the sacred in your decline?” An ordained Sufi minister and practicing Zen Buddhist who brings years of meditation practice and scriptural training to support end-of-life patients, Laurence is part of a burgeoning generation of Buddhist chaplains who are increasingly common in hospitals, hospices and prisons, where the need for their services rose dramatically … [Read more...] about Buddhist chaplains on the rise in US, offering broad appeal

Published 21 February 2018 Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Once dubbed God's Ambassador, Billy Graham went to the four corners of the world with his evangelical mission. His soft-spoken Southern style was in direct contrast to the fire and brimstone adopted by so many evangelical preachers. Over six decades, he preached to an estimated 215 million people in 185 countries and reached hundreds of millions more through his radio and television ministry. His early audiences were predominantly white, middle-class and conservative. But, as the civil rights movement gained momentum, he began to preach against segregation and formed a sometimes strained friendship with Martin Luther King. William Franklin Graham Jr was born on 7 November 1918 and brought up on the family dairy farm in Charlotte, North Carolina. His parents were members of the conservative Associate … [Read more...] about Obituary: Billy Graham