Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon
Shepherd Church in Porter Ranch, Calif., provided shelter and food for some of the 100,000 people evacuated from the Saddleridge Fire in north Los Angeles late last week.
“Shepherd Church is open for any residents who need a place to go,” the church announced on its Facebook page last week. “Join us in praying and lifting up our community and the valley in this dangerous time. Please help us lift up all first responders, firefighters and families directly affected by the fire.”
The Saddleridge fire broke out in Sylmar on Thursday night and was fueled by Santa Ana winds. It burned about 8,000 acres, destroyed 17 structures, and damaged 58 others. Two men died of heart attacks related to the fire. All evacuation orders were lifted over the weekend.
The church is accepting donations via its website to help those who have sustained losses.
The local fire department provided flyers that Shepherd Church distributed after weekend worship services.
“Some of you are going back to your homes, maybe for the first time since having to be away from them,” teaching pastor Jeff Walling said. “So take one of those, take time to read it, but as you do [let] it be a reminder to pray for all those who are fighting the fires, all those who are struggling with loss, all those right now who have bags packed—some of you know what that feels like. . . . And may our ultimate prayer be, Lord, may you use even this tragedy to draw our city close to you . . . because we love LA.”
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News Briefs
Milligan College president Bill Greer praised Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee for planning a statewide “voluntary Day of Prayer, Humility, and Fasting.”
The day of prayer was Oct. 10. Lee asked all Tennesseans to fast and pray “for God’s favor and blessing on the people of Tennessee.”
“As president of a Christian college, I am pleased we have a governor who is bold enough to call on the people of the state to pray for Tennessee,” Greer told the Johnson City Press. “I appreciate the approach he’s taken, that he’s doing it and that it’s not a government mandate.”
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Brandt Jean, 18-year-old brother of Botham Shem Jean, a Harding University graduate who was shot to death while eating ice cream in his own apartment by an off-duty Dallas police officer in 2018, forgave and hugged the fired officer, Amber Guyger, during his victim impact statement earlier this month. A video of that moment was featured during a chapel service the next day at the noninstrumental church of Christ college in Searcy, Ark.
“When it was finished, not only could you hear a pin drop; you could hear your own heartbeat,” Harding president Bruce McClarty told the Christian Chronicle.
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Lead pastor Bob Rigsbee of Fortville (Ind.) Christian Church has joined with other local pastors and lay ministers to form Christians Unite . . . for Fortville.
“Most people these days think about churches being against things,” Rigsbee told the local newspaper. We want people to know that the Christians in our community are FOR something. We are FOR FORTVILLE!”
The group has been working with a local food bank and will come together Nov. 16 to make Thanksgiving boxes for local families.
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Mill Spring Christian Church, Piedmont, Mo., celebrated its 135th anniversary on Sunday. A local newspaper previewed the service.
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The Christian Post highlighted the Cane Ridge Meeting House of Paris, Ky., in a short online feature over the weekend. The weeklong Cane Ridge Revival in August 1801 featured the preaching of Barton W. Stone, among others. The revival helped give birth to the Restoration Movement—also called the Stone-Campbell Movement—which includes thousands of churches. Due to subsequent splits, there are now three streams of churches that identify with the Cane Ridge events; two of these church groups are nondenominational: the noninstrumental (or a cappella) churches of Christ, and the Christian churches and churches of Christ (the primary constituency of this magazine). The Post feature discusses only the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which became a denomination in 1968.
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