Jim Applegate, 54, pastor for 21 years of Westview Christian Church in Campbellsburg, Ind., died of COVID-19 on Dec. 20, followed by virus-related deaths of his mother (12 hours later), and his sister (on Christmas Eve).
“The thing that’s keeping me going is . . . hope in Jesus because I know where they’re at,” Nicholas Applegate, the pastor’s son and WCC’s youth pastor, told WHAS11.com. “The first few weeks in December our community had seen a lot of COVID cases, especially here in our church family.”
In addition to the death of his father, Nicholas Applegate’s grandmother, Pat Applegate, 82, and his aunt, MaryJane Applegate, 59, also died of the virus.
“My dad was known so well in this community,” Nicholas Applegate told WHAS11.com. “Church members would tell me that ‘your dad was at every birth for my child, every funeral that we had’ . . . Dad was always there.”
A concurrent funeral service for Jim Applegate and his mother, Pat, was conducted Dec. 26 at Westview Christian Church. Nicholas Applegate officiated. The service was livestreamed via the church’s Facebook page.
Weathers Funeral Home, Salem, Ind., posted obituaries for Jim Applegate and Pat Applegate.
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News Briefs
Compiled by Jim Nieman
The $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill that President Trump signed into law on Sunday night provides fresh Paycheck Protection Program funding, according to an article in the Journal of Accountancy.
Numerous churches, Christian colleges, and parachurch ministries received forgivable loans in the first round of PPP funding earlier this year.
“PPP2 loans will be available to first-time qualified borrowers and, for the first time, to businesses that previously received a PPP loan,” the Journal of Accountancy wrote. Previous PPP recipients may apply for another loan of up to $2 million under conditions that include having used (or about to exhaust) the full amount of their first PPP loan and that they “can show a 25 percent gross revenue decline in any 2020 quarter compared with the same quarter in 2019.”
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Throughout 2020, Christian Financial Resources has been celebrating its 40th anniversary. The church extension fund continued to mark this achievement on Dec. 18 when Darren Key, the CEO of CFR, presented a $40,000 grant to Joe Zizz of United Christian Youth Camp in Prescott, Ariz. UCYC had about 10,000 campers in 2019, but no campers this year due to COVID-19. The camp is looking forward to a far better year in 2021, and it plans to use the grant funds to reach more students in the Southwest. CFR shared a video of the presentation on Vimeo.
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Kevin Moyers, senior minister of Rinehart Christian Church, Richards, Mo., wrote the column, “What Does the Bible Say about Wearing a Mask?” which appeared in the Fort Scott (Kansas) Biz on Saturday.
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Ozark Christian College’s Preaching-Teaching Convention will take place exclusively online this winter. The theme “Still True” will be developed in main sessions, breakout webinars, and the president’s address on Feb. 23 and 24. Among the speakers will be Bob Russell, Aaron Brockett, Randy and Julie Gariss, Frank Smith Jr., Shane J. Wood, and Jason Poznich.
All main sessions will be free. Those who pay a $20 registration fee will also receive access to the webinars. downloadable recordings of all main sessions and all webinars, and additional exclusive content. Learn more and register at occ.edu.
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“The Struggle for Christmas,” an article by Ron Clark, executive director of Kairos Church Planting, was published by the Huffington Post on Christmas Day. Clark also serves as minister with Agape Church of Christ in Portland, Ore.
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Thursday is the last day you can register for the 2021 Spire Conference before a $20 price increase. On Jan. 1, registration increases from $179 to $199. Next year’s conference is slated for Sept. 14-16 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Conference Center in Nashville, Tenn. Click here to learn more about pricing and to register.
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A pastor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, was charged under the Reopening Ontario Act after conducting an in-person worship service that exceeded attendance limits on religious gatherings.
“I’m not a virus denier. I’m not an anti-masker. I’m not a foolish man,” Aaron Rock, pastor of Harvest Bible Church, told the Windsor Star. He said his church building’s capacity is 1,350 and that it was less than 25 percent full at the service for which he was cited.
“Our building is almost as big as Costco,” Rock told the Star. “But the government is telling me I can only put 10 people in that building. (Yet) I can take all my people over to Costco. It shows the state of our culture. People can go wander all through Costco, but they can’t step into our church.”
The newspaper said Ontario’s COVID-19 lockdown rules, which went into effect in Windsor on Dec. 14 and province-wide on Dec. 26, limits religious gatherings of any kind to 10 people—indoors or outdoors, including officiants, parishioners, and staff.
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E2: effective elders’ virtual Jump Start/Northwest Christian Conference will be offered in late January. Cost for this prerecorded conference is $99; register before Jan. 25. Learn more at OCC’s website and at e2. (This conference for elders and pastors was originally scheduled to take place in-person on Jan. 30 at the Oregon Christian Convention Camp and Retreat Center.)
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Carey Nieuwhof penned the article “7 Things that Disappeared in 2020 that Affect Your Leadership” in Outreach Magazine.
At the top of the list were “1. Consensus,” “2. The Returns You Get from Incremental Change,” and “3. Control.”
(Nieuwhof also shared three things that didn’t change.)
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Where is our Faith? 2 Chronicles 7:14.