According to…one of America’s preeminent scholars of religion, it is time to redefine our terms. Stark is quite forthright in saying that the true mainline Protestants in America are now evangelicals. And the old mainline is, in his words, the “sideline.” Frederick Schmidt wrote a recent article wondering about the future of seminary education, entitled,Is... Continue Reading

Tuesday AM updates from OPC Missionaries Woody and Laurie Lauer and Luke Cummings Update on the Lauers from the OPC Foreign Missions Web Page: This morning we again heard from OPC missionaries Woody and Laurie Lauer in Numazu, Japan: Friday, March 11, 2:46 pm. Earthquake 9.0 followed by tsunami off the Tohoku coast. Whole towns... Continue Reading

Wednesday AM updates from MTW (Lowthers and Wilsons) and CRASH Japan (plus a bonus Tokyo newspaper story) Update from MTW’s Roger and Abi Lowther, Grace City Church Tokyo Just got off the subway this morning. Ghostly in appearance: Lights half off, vending machines unplugged, escalators not moving, paper signs and police tape…it is NOT “business... Continue Reading

George S. James, who was an Erskine student in the mid-1840s, gave the order for the firing of the first shell on Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, an event generally considered to be the opening of the Civil War, according to a report prepared in 1893. The Civil War had a... Continue Reading

“I have chaperoned Covenant College forensics club trips for two years now,” said Staff Advisor Tim Mahla, “and I can’t imagine a better group of students representing Covenant College.” Covenant’s Debate Society competed in the 2011 National Christian College Forensics Invitational (NCCFI), hosted by Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. Covenant brought home eleven awards,... Continue Reading

Suitcases and backpacks sit neatly lined up, waiting to be loaded in the vans. International Mission Board missionaries in Tokyo shuffle nervously and make jokes in an effort to cope with their relocation orders. No one knows how to react to Japan’s nuclear crisis. For more than a week, scenes at the Fukushima Daiichi plant... Continue Reading

More than a half million Japanese have lost or evacuated their homes since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a monstrous tsunami struck the island nation on Friday. Nearly 70,000 of the evacuees had fled homes near three nuclear reactors rocked by explosions that sent workers scrambling to prevent dangerous radiation leaks. Authorities warned another 140,000 residents... Continue Reading

While most Westerners often are preoccupied with causes of disaster — the questions of why God would allow an earthquake, for example — Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Shinto focus on behavior in reaction to tragedy. It is very important in Japanese life to react in a positive way, to be persistent and to clean... Continue Reading

Samaritans Purse and Churches Helping Churches have joined with many Japan-based evangelical mission teams, including Mission to the World and Presbyterian Mission International, to provide relief throughout the affected area of Japan. As we previously reported on The Aqulia Report, CRASH (an acronym for Christian, Relief, Assistance, Support, & Hope is the disaster relief arm... Continue Reading

Dr. Nielson will be leaving to become president of the newly formed Maclellan Center for Global Christian Education, an initiative of the Maclellan Family Foundations, which has been created to strengthen and advance the Christian education enterprise in the United States and throughout the world. At a meeting of the Covenant College Board of Trustees... Continue Reading