More than 600 people attended a celebration of life service Monday at Antioch Christian Church, Marion, Iowa, for correctional officer Robert McFarland, who was killed last week during an attempted escape from the Anamosa State Penitentiary. McFarland, 46, leaves a wife and three children. Prison nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, also was killed. Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered flags in the state to be flown at half-staff Monday. Two prisoners have been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths, the Des Moines Register reported.
_ _ _
“Americans’ membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50 percent for the first time,” Gallup reported on Monday. “In 2020, 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50 percent in 2018 and 70 percent in 1999.”
_ _ _
The Frederick, Colo., Campus of Rocky Mountain Christian Church hosted an outdoor candlelight vigil Saturday for Boulder police officer Eric Talley and nine other victims of the mass shooting at King Soopers grocery store last week. The church has offered certain assistance to the family of Talley, who lived in Frederick, RMCC lead pastor Shan Moyers said via Facebook video.
_ _ _
Beacon Church in Derry, N.H., conducted its first service on Sunday. Calvin Daly (originally from the United Kingdom) serves as lead pastor of the Restoration House Ministries plant. The Johnson University graduate met his wife, Tara, at Manchester Christian Church.
_ _ _
Indiana University public policy major Charlie Willis quoted Sherwood Oaks Christian Church lead minister Shawn Green extensively for an opinion article he wrote for the student newspaper.
“The Christian faith has been muddied by so many internal and external factors that it’s hard to know exactly what it means anymore,” Green told Willis. “But, if you really want to see who God is and what Christianity is about, look to Jesus.”
The Indiana Daily Student opinion piece by Willis, a member of Cru, is headlined, “Only Christ Should Define Christianity.”
_ _ _
Some members of the University of Kentucky football team delivered donations to Community Christian Church in Beattyville, Ky., Sunday afternoon to help victims of flooding in that area.
“We may not have a lot of money and we may not have a lot of resources,” Tony Barrett, a worship leader at the church, told www.lex18.com. “But our people have heart and we love each other.”
_ _ _
Some community residents are working with Greenville (Ind.) Christian Church to install a Blessing Box outside the church that will be stocked with food and hygiene products. “We’re kind of like a food island,” church member Melissa Martin told the Herald Bulletin. When completed, people can “leave what you can, and take what you need,” said group member Melissa Houghlin.
_ _ _
A group of children known as the God Squad at New Hope Christian Church, in Seville, Ohio, tackles projects like cleaning up trash around town, collecting thousands of pairs of socks for homeless people, and turning beach towels into 62 cot covers for a homeless shelter in Akron, the Daily Record reported. (That last project won a $500 Disney Be Inspired Grant.) Eva Allen is the church’s youth director and God Squad leader.
_ _ _
Send news to [email protected].
0 Comments