Compiled by Chris Moon and Jim Nieman
Brian Henry, 66, preached his final two sermons Sunday and retired after serving 40 years with First Christian Church, Kenosha, Wis. Through the years, Henry served as preaching minister, senior minister, and minister of pastoral care.
Nancy, his wife of 45 years, “closed her classroom down last week,” Brian Henry told the Kenosha News. “She taught kids her whole life since she was 12 years old”; closing out her ministry “was devastating for her.”
Henry talked about the changes and tough decisions First Christian has made during his tenure there, including leaving their old building and moving into a structure that looked more like an office building.
“We wanted to reach people without looking like a church building,” Henry told the newspaper. “We faced a lot of opposition as we crossed the interstate, changed music style and built this building. It was a huge hurdle, but we built a second wing and can do more ministry because we are debt-free.” The church has grown from about 130 to 600 during his time there.
The Henrys plan to do some traveling before returning to worship at the church they have served for so long.
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News Briefs
The Secret Service held a threat assessment workshop at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., aimed at helping church and school leaders prevent violence on their properties. News station WDRB reported hundreds of school administrators, guidance counselors, and security officers attended the workshop.
An afternoon session of the workshop focused on places of worship.
Phil Noble, SECC’s director of security, said church attacks are not limited by a congregation’s size. “Everybody has to be aware of their surroundings and make the place as secure as they can, but still make it welcoming.”
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Clifton (Colo.) Christian Church opens its grounds once each month for a “Parking Lot Pantry” in partnership with the Western Colorado Food Bank. A local TV station covered Saturday’s disbursement of food—which included fresh fruit and vegetables donated by local farmers—to more than 300 people.
Meanwhile, a weekly food distribution program at Downey (Calif.) First Christian Church was featured as part of a radio story about the growing Latino community in California. Capital Public Radio interviewed people about the financial struggles of local Latinos, even as median incomes for that community continue to rise.
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Several of our churches will serve as remote locations for the Global Leadership Summit Aug. 8 and 9. The summit offers “a unique blend of vision, inspiration and skills you can immediately apply.” Speakers will include Erwin McManus, Angela Ahrendts, Craig Groeschel, and Simon Sinek, among others. Learn more (and find a host church) at www.willowcreek.com.
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Teachers at two Christian colleges in Tennessee are warning against downloading the popular FaceApp that enables users to manipulate photos to make individuals look younger, the opposite gender, older, and other permutations.
Some are saying that when you agree to the Russian app maker’s terms and download the app, something else pretty incredible happens: You give up rights to your own photos.
“I was flabbergasted that they would include some of the language associated to their terms and conditions and their privacy policy,” Chris Simmons, who teaches computer science and information security at Lipscomb University in Nashville, told FOX 17.
In particular, Simmons was referring to FaceApp having “perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide . . . license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate . . . distribute, publicly perform and display your user content.”
The world is transitioning to where your fingerprints and face are becoming your new password, says Teresa Carter, associate professor of computer information systems at Milligan College.
“You’ve now given away one of your biometrics that you were going to use to get into . . . your equipment,” Carter told WCYB-News 5’s Caleb Perhne (a Milligan alumnus).
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Registration rates increase Aug. 1 for Exponential regional conferences scheduled in Washington, DC (Sept. 9, 10), Southern California (Oct. 2, 3), the San Francisco Bay area (Oct. 21, 22), Houston (Oct. 23, 24), Chicago (Nov. 5, 6), New York City (Dec. 3, 4), and Boise (April 28, 29). Learn more here. Exponential 2020—the national conference—will take place March 2–5 in Orlando.
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It recently was determined that a scrap of papyrus held by the University of Basel in Switzerland for the past 100 years is the oldest Christian letter outside the Bible. The Christian Post report the letter originated in central Egypt and dates to the 230s AD.
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Lee Dingle, 37, the husband of Christian blogger and activist Shannon Dingle and the father of six children, died in a beach accident on Oak Island in North Carolina July 19, according to Religion News Service. Shannon Dingle has written about sexual abuse, the #Churchtoo movement, and disability rights.
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