Free Republic

While other churches were returning from summer mission trips to third-world countries in August, First Baptist Church in Sturgis, S.D., was just beginning to reach the world in its own backyard. The 63rd-annual Black Hills Motorcycle Rally, held Aug. 4- 10, brought in about half a million people to the small community, which has a population of about 6,000. The overwhelming flux in population each August brings just as many ministry needs with it. This year, about 450,000 bikers and tourists from across the globe descended on the community for a week of bikes, racing, beer, music, gambling, food and...

Patrolling for Jesus: For this officer, to protect and serve is to serve Christ By Tracy Simmons TRIBUNE REPORTER A Scripture verse flashes across the computer screen in Albuquerque police Officer Briane Dennison's patrol car. It might seem an odd place to read the Bible, but cruising through the Southeast Heights, Dennison says, "This is like a mission field for me." As he rolls through the streets, guys wearing do-rags and girls with black lip liner stop. They wave to the uniformed man they know as Officer Briane. It's pronounced "Brian" - the e at the end of his...

Christianity is growing at a rate that is nearly unparalleled in the history of the church. Yet this growth is primarily taking place in cultures that have not previously been Christian at all. In historically Christian societies, where for centuries upon centuries the church has thrived, Christianity seems to be fading. In 1900, according to statistics from the website of the mission organization Synergos, Western Europe was home t0 more than 70 percent of the world's professing Christians. Today, that figure has shrunk to 28 percent. In 2025, it is projected that only about one in five of the world's...

(AgapePress) - A Southern Baptist educator says many Christian parents are fooling themselves by thinking their children can provide "salt and light" in the public school system. Ed Gamble is executive director of the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools. He says a small percentage of students do succeed at being "salt and light" in their public school -- but that far and away, the vast majority only succeed in "just holding their own" and have little impact in their school. "An awful lot of them are not having an impact on the environment, but the environment's having an impact...