(AgapePress) - An initiative that trains church and ministry leaders is expanding around the globe: Three years ago, Dr. John Maxwell’s nonprofit EQUIP ministry began a six-year project to train one million Christians around the world with the skills needed for advancing the Great Commission.
So far, more than a million people have been trained as part of the “Million Leaders Mandate.” And recently EQUIP announced plans to expand the initiative to even more countries. John Hull, president of the ministry, says the project is all about fulfilling the need for ministries to have competent leadership.
“Here’s what we know,” Hull explains. “In the Bible, when Israel had good kings, the people were blessed and the nation prospered. When Israel had bad kings, the people were oppressed and the nation suffered.”
The belief behind the ministry and the mandate, EQUIP’s spokesman notes, is “that good, biblical leaders can make life better for other people and begin to have an impact on their nations to see them transformed by the gospel [and to see them] become God-honoring societies.”
Hull points out that Biblical leaders are not made in a day but, rather, such leaders “are made daily.” He says EQUIP is gathering evidence supporting the effectiveness of its programs, reported by practitioners around the world.
- Allie Martin
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/242006d.asp
When I heard about this story I just could not believe it!
By Jody Brown
March 22, 2006
(AgapePress) - An appeal from the White House. Tens of thousands of e-mails urging President Bush to intervene. International reaction expressing concern for religious freedom. All of these are in response to the plight of an Afghan man who, because he converted from Islam to Christianity, faces possible execution if found guilty by a court in Kabul.
Forty-one-year-old Abdul Rahman reportedly accepted Christ as his Savior 16 years ago while working with an international Christian ministry helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. After several years in Germany, he returned to Kabul — and last month, after being found in possession of a Bible, confessed to becoming a Christian.
Afghanistan’s constitution guarantees religious liberty — but because it is based on Shariah law, many Muslims interpret that to mean that any Muslim who rejects Islam be sentenced to death. Rahman’s trial began last week, and is under close international scrutiny. He has refused to renounce his conversion to Christianity, even with a promise from prosecutors that charges would be dropped if he did so.
Associated Press now reports that the Afghan Christian may be deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. Prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari says “We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn’t talk like a normal person.” If examined and found to be mentally unfit, says a religious advisor to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Islam would have “no claim to punish him” and charges would be dropped.
AP cites sources who report that the question of Rahman’s possible mental fitness may indicate the Afghan government, sensitive to the international reaction, is desperately searching for a way to drop the case.
Meanwhile, the United States, Britain, and other countries — some with troops in Afghanistan — have voiced concern about the trial. AP says Italy’s foreign minister has summoned the Afghan ambassador in Rome and may ask the European Union to intercede on behalf of Rahman. Germany’s foreign minister told a newspaper that he views the case with “great concern” and that German diplomats in Kabul have been in contact with Afghan officials about Rahman’s case. On Tuesday the Bush administration, being careful not to interfere with Afghanistan’s sovereignty, appealed to Kabul to allow Rahman to practice his faith in his home country. And today, ABC is reporting that Australia plans to lobby Afghanistan on behalf of Rahman.
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/222006a.asp
(AgapePress) - Pastor Brian Bozarth of south Maui, Hawaii, is offering Christian young people a clean, safe alternative to taking part in Internet forums, blogging, and photo and music sharing on the popular “myspace.com” website and others like it.
Bozarth, a professor at Calvary Chapel Bible College, has launched a free online Christian Community called “Ditty Talk.” He says the dittytalk.com website and corresponding Internet community began as an effort to steer young people away from MySpace.com, a social website with 55 million users that has been linked to numerous sexual assaults against teens.
“One day,” the Hawaii pastor and educator recalls, “I was approached by a student, saying, ‘You know, there’s some bad stuff posted by our students on there.’ I was Dean of Men of the Bible College, and so I was prompted to actually check out ‘My Space’ and was literally horrified by what I saw — not only located just in the content there but also the stuff some of my students were posting.”
Soon afterward, Bozarth says another student gave him an idea. “As I kind of do web programming on the side, he challenged me, [asking], ‘Why don’t you just build your own My Space?’” the professor explains.
Rising to the challenge, the Bible College dean developed the alternative site and named it, taking his inspiration from God’s word. “Ephesians 2:10 says, ‘We are his workmanship’” he points out. “The word for workmanship is poema, where we get our word poem or song; so a kind of modern translation of poema or poem is ‘ditty.’ You know — you sing a little ditty. So, since we are His ditty, the site is now ‘Ditty Talk.’”
Bozarth says monitors are constantly checking dittytalk.com to make sure that the content is kept to a godly standard and that users posting new messages there express themselves accordingly. Also, he notes, in addition to that safeguard the site has a feature that gives each user the ability to flag others who act deceitfully or talk inappropriately.
At Ditty Talk, Bozarth says teens are encouraged to take part in forums, create their own blogs, share music and photographs, and fellowship with others in an online community where profanity and pornography have no place. Also, he invites pastors, parents and other Christian supporters to become “Ditty Talk Watch Dogs” to help monitor the site and clean up any attempts to “dirty up the ditty.”
- Jim Brown
