In this Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 photo, Bishop James Johnston leads a service for the dedication of the new St. Mary's Catholic Church in Joplin, Mo. at the church. Members of the Joplin parish whose church, rectory and elementary school were destroyed in the May 2011 tornado have celebrated the first Mass at their new building. Hundreds of residents packed the new St. Mary's Catholic Church on Wednesday for a dedication service and its first Mass, The Joplin Globe reported. Photo by The Associated Press.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) Members of a Joplin parish whose church, rectory and elementary school were destroyed in the May 2011 tornado have celebrated the first Mass at their new building.

Hundreds of residents packed the new St. Mary's Catholic Church on Wednesday for a dedication service and its first Mass, The Joplin Globe (http://bit.ly/13fYvTK) reported. The service was led by the Most Rev. James Johnston, bishop of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese, and the Rev. Justin Monaghan.

Parishioners applauded as Johnston was presented with the key and blueprints of the new 750-seat church. He then blessed the church.

"It's like Christmas," Joplin resident Glenn Damaso said. "Losing the church and trying to be guided and looking for a place to call home now we have this place."

A multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign, insurance proceeds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations funded the construction of the new church. St. Mary's held its services temporarily in an old hardware store while the new church was being built.

The entire process took "a lot of faith and a lot of tears," said Tina Longnecker, a parishioner of about 30 years and president of the Parish Council.

"This is a blessing, and we are so thrilled to be here," she said. "It's a new beginning, and I honestly believe it's a sign that when you're faced with this type of devastation, with enough faith, you can overcome anything."

The tornado killed 161 people and destroyed several schools, dozens of churches, two parks and hundreds of homes and businesses. Many of those structures have been rebuilt.

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Joplin Catholic church celebrates new building

These drawings show how the design of a housing project next to the Mormon temple in Langley was revised from the original proposal (top) to a more subdued colour scheme and traditional look (bottom).

image credit: Courtesy Township of Langley

A church-approved colour scheme has cleared the way for construction of row housing across the street from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Langley.

A majority of Township council voted at their Dec. 8 meeting to issue a development permit for the Qualico Developments project at the corner of 82 Avenue and 204 Street, now that the church and the developer have worked things out.

In October, council postponed a decision because the church objected to the proposed look of the 29 row house units and eight semi-detached units in four buildings, saying they would clash with the classical design of the nearby temple.

The Qualico design featured a choice of colour schemes that included shades of orange, red and green, not a good match with the granite church, temple president Ron Komm said.

Project architect Brian Shigetomi has softened the colours, which he described as a bit punchy at the October meeting.

The revised design opts for a grey, beige and brown colour scheme with a more formal overall look that adds, among other things, a brick veneer and window shutters.

The report to council included a copy of an email from temple president Komm approving the aesthetic improvements and thanking the builders for showing sensitivity to the church suggestions.

The Langley temple was dedicated in May of 2010.

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New colour scheme for development is fine with church

MENDOTA Five Mendota churches will open their doors and share their unique holiday dcor with the public during the areas first ever Church Walk on Sunday, Dec. 28. The public is invited to attend this free holiday event for an up-close look at the way each church has been decorated for the holidays. Participating churches include First United Methodist Church, Holy Cross Church, First Presbyterian Church, Zion United Methodist Church and St. Johns Lutheran Church.

Sponsored by the Mendota Area Ministerial Association, the Church Walk is a chance for everyone to experience the dcor, both old and new, as well as the unique architecture and stained glass that graces each of these historic Mendota churches.

Rev. Michael Morrell, pastor of First United Methodist, said he was approached with the idea for a Church Walk last year but it did not materialize. This year, he decided to do something about it. We often dont get inside other churches to see their festive garb, he explained. This is a chance for the public and other congregations to enjoy each others churches over the holidays.

Greeters will be stationed at each of the five churches from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 28 to welcome visitors and answer any questions they may have. Refreshments will be served at First United Methodist. There is no charge to attend but donations will be accepted and given to the Mendota Area Christian Food Pantry.

History

The history of Mendotas religious congregations goes back nearly as far as the town itself. All five of the participating churches were founded by 1862, although some underwent name changes over the years. Likewise, their church buildings were replaced through the years as their congregations grew larger.

The oldest church building still in use is First Presbyterian Church, 1003 5th St. The congregation organized in 1855 and the following year, they began holding services in a frame building at the present location. In 1857, the wooden church burned to the ground. When the elders voted to rebuild, they decided to build with a material that would not burn and chose Sioux Falls Jasper Granite. Construction of the present building was completed in December 1898. Additions to the church were made in 1959 and 2007, the latter using surplus Jasper Granite stones to match the original exterior.

Two years after construction of First Presbyterian was completed, the current Zion United Methodist Church was built at 808 Jefferson St. where it stands today. Organized in 1867, the congregations first church was built in 1868 and named Zion Evangelical Church. The new building, constructed in 1900, was needed to accommodate their growing numbers. In 1946, the Evangelical Church joined with the United Brethren and the local church was renamed Zion Evangelical United Brethren Church. Then in 1968, when Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist church joined as the United Methodist church, the name became Zion United Methodist.

From 1859 until 1931, Mendota was home to two Catholic parishes, St. Marys for English speaking Catholics and Holy Cross for those who spoke German. However, in 1931 the bishop decided the two parishes should merge at the Holy Cross location, 1010 Jefferson St. and Father Leo J. Wissing was appointed pastor. At that time the original Holy Cross Church, built in 1864, was dismantled and construction of the current church began in 1932. The cornerstone of Tudor Gothic style church building was laid in 1934 and the church was dedicated in 1935. The rectory was added in 1956.

The oldest of Mendotas congregations, First Methodist Church, goes all the way back to 1856 when the Methodist Sunday school was organized and plans were made for a church building. The original Methodist church building was completed in 1860 and served the congregation until 1962 when the newly constructed building at 100 E. Sixth St. was dedicated. In 1968, church members voted to change the name to First United Methodist Church.

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Local churches plan holiday "Church Walk"

Ogden, UT (PRWEB) December 16, 2014

Building God's Way announced this week that it will continue its popular Momentum Summit seminar series for church leaders this spring, with events being planned in 15 cities between February 24 and May 21. More than 900 ministry leaders attended a Momentum Summit event in 2014. Live seminar sites for spring 2015 will include Kansas City, MO; Des Moines, IA; Atlanta, GA; Charleston, SC; Tampa, FL; Orlando, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Dallas, TX, Fort Worth, TX; Fishers, IN; Canton, OH; Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Eugene, OR and Denver, CO. A video recording will also be made available to churches in other locations.

Churches and other non-profits are facing ever-increasing financial challenges to sustaining their ministries, including changing tax legislation and generational changes in charitable giving. The focus of Momentum Summit is to introduce new paradigms and to transform the way ministry leaders think about how their facilities are designed and utilized, how they can effectively reach all generations and how they can integrate for-profit enterprise to expand ministry opportunities.

Momentum Summit will feature experts and consultants who have worked with hundreds of ministries across the country in the areas of church leadership & growth; church design, construction & remodel; capital fundraising; biblical entrepreneurship, A/V technology and more. The event will run from 8:30am - 12:30pm, followed by a complimentary lunch.

The keynote speaker for the seminars will be Pastor Eric Bahme, a cutting-edge entrepreneur, passionate preacher and author of the book, The MBE (Mission-Based Entrepreneur) Revolution / Developing Economic Engines that Drive Mission-Based Movements. Eric and his stories of successful for-profit integration with churches have been featured on the 700 Club, Harvest Show, and in several local and national publications and television broadcasts.

For more information or to register for Momentum Summit, visit the website or call 866-249-8484.

About Building Gods Way (BGW) - BGW has become a recognized leader in ministry design and construction through its extensive experience in working with hundreds of churches, Christian schools and colleges across the U.S. BGW's trademark programs based on Biblical stewardship and ministry on the construction job site have set them apart in the industry. BGW clients typically save 20-30% compared to average construction costs (based on RS Means construction cost data). The broad range of services offered within the BGW Network includes church design, church building, engineering, worship technology, capital fundraising and pastor coaching in the areas of church leadership, church health and growth. For more information about BGW, call 800-552-7137 or visit http://www.bgwservices.com.

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Building God's Way Announces Spring 2015 Schedule for "Momentum Summit" Seminar Series

December 16, 2014|8:20 am

Epiphany Byzantine Catholic Church in Georgia burning after someone set it on fire.

A 24-year-old man suspected of setting fire to a Roswell, New Mexico, church was arrested this week and was naked when police picked him up.

Epiphany Byzantine Catholic Churchlocated on Old Alabama Road burned down around 2 a.m. on Sunday. The suspect, Juan Carlos Ramirez, was naked and arrested nearby for disorderly conduct. He had been charged with arson as a result of a police investigation and a subsequent confession, according to a WSBTVreport.

Police also said Ramirez was "running around naked"and saying he was Jesus or knows him.

Parts of the church building, along with the woods surrounding it, were burning when the firefighters arrived at the scene. The church's pastor, the Rev. Philip Scott, was asleep in a nearby building when the fire started. Its flames were spotted by a passerby who called 911. The pastor commented on the damage done.

"My reaction is one of shock of course and sorry because our church building is really a pride and joy to us," he said.

However, he shared plans for the church repair.

"We're going to start construction on the repairs tomorrow morning so we're getting right back into it. Hopefully have Christmas in there," the pastor continued.

The Orthodox Church leaders next door to Epiphany Byzantine will allow the congregation to use their building until Epiphany is repaired.

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Naked Man Claiming to Be Jesus Arrested as Suspect in Georgia Church Arson

By GREG KENNELTY

Staff Writer

SEA BRIGHT The J.W. Ross Cultural Arts Center/Library will use the Sea Bright United Methodist Church as a temporary home until a permanent facility is constructed.

According to Borough Administrator Joseph Verruni, the church at 1104 Ocean Ave. could begin hosting the temporary library by early February, pending council approval.

[The church] has to clean out the area we are going to use, but we think we can get in there by Feb. 1, Verruni said at a council workshop meeting on the morning of Dec. 11.

The former location of the J.W. Ross Cultural Arts Center/Library, 1097 Ocean Ave., was demolished in early January after the council resolved that it would be more fiscally responsible to build a permanent location instead of repairing the old building. The facility was heavily damaged by superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The librarys books are currently in storage.

Verruni said setting up the library in the church and leasing the property would not cost much more than the amount the borough is paying for storage.

There will be some initial expenses to provide bookcases to separate the sanctuary portion of the church to the other side, he said, adding that it would amount to several thousand dollars.

But it will provide a nice area for the library, he said.

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Sea Bright church to provide temporary home for library

To the Ends of the Earth
Maranatha volunteers spread the Gospel through church construction in the remote jungles of Costa Rica.

By: Maranatha Mission Stories

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To the Ends of the Earth - Video

A 600 pound bell is lowered into a truck on 19th Street and Central Avenue Thursday afternoon. The bell was a gift to St. Mark's Church from St. Mark's in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1868 and was removed to be placed on display. Michael Smith/staff

CHEYENNE - A piece of local history kept cloistered away for decades may be back in the public eye again as early as next year.

The article in question is a 600-pound bell that has spent much of the last century hanging unused in the bell tower of St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 1908 Central Ave.

Crafted by a foundry in Troy, New York, the bell was a gift to the local church from another house of worship with the same name - St. Mark's Episcopal Church of Philadelphia.

According to a history of the Cheyenne church written by Shirley Flynn, the bell was gifted by friends of the Rev. Joseph W. Cook, who founded the Cheyenne church in 1868.

Larry Swanson, a former junior warden at St. Mark's, said the bell's age is reflected in its inscription. It presents the bell "to St. Mark's, Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory."

Wyoming would not become a state until 1890.

The bell first rang out on April 4, 1869, at the church's original location on the corner of 18th Street and Ferguson, now Carey Avenue. But it was put into temporary retirement following the construction of the current church building.

"The current St. Mark's was started in 1886 and completed in 1888. But it didn't have the bell tower on it as originally built," Swanson said.

"The tower was added to the building in 1924, and the original bell was placed in the tower at some point after that."

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Historic church bell to return to public eye

The Christian Church is a term used by some to refer to the whole group of people belonging to the Christian religious tradition throughout history. With "Church" capitalized, the term does not refer to a building. Others believe the term "Christian Church" or "Church" applies only to a specific historic Christian institution (e.g., the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Oriental Orthodoxy).

The term Christian Church, in the first understanding, which is generally used by Protestants, does not refer to a particular denomination. However, the majority of Christians belong to groups that consider themselves to be the one true church, to which other Christians do not belong. The three largest such groups are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Oriental Orthodox communion. Thus, some Christians identify the Christian Church with a visible structure (the view of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches) while others (generally Protestants) understand it as an invisible reality not identified with any earthly structure and others equate it with particular groups that share certain essential elements of doctrine and practice though divided on other points of doctrine and government (such as the branch theory as taught by some Anglicans).

The Greek term , which is transliterated as "ecclesia", generally meant an "assembly",[1] but in most English translations of the New Testament is usually translated as "church". This term appears in two verses of the Gospel of Matthew, twenty-four verses of the Acts of the Apostles, fifty-eight verses of the Pauline Epistles (including the earliest instances of its use in relation to a Christian body), two verses of the Letter to the Hebrews, one verse of the Epistle of James, three verses of the Third Epistle of John, and nineteen verses of the Book of Revelation. In total, appears in the New Testament text 114 times, although not every instance is a technical reference to the church.[2]

In the New Testament, the term is used for local communities as well as in a universal sense to mean all believers.[3] Traditionally, only orthodox believers are considered part of the true church, but convictions of what is orthodox have long varied, as many churches (not only the ones officially using the term "Orthodox" in their names) consider themselves to be orthodox and other Christians to be heterodox.

The Four Marks of the Church first expressed in the Nicene Creed are unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity.[4]

The Greek word ekklsia, literally "called out" or "called forth" and commonly used to indicate a group of individuals called to gather for some function, in particular an assembly of the citizens of a city, as in Acts 19:32-41, is the New Testament term referring to the Christian Church (either a particular local group or the whole body of the faithful). Most Romance and Celtic languages use derivations of this word, either inherited or borrowed from the Latin form ecclesia.

The English language word "church" is from the Old English word cirice, derived from West Germanic *kirika, which in turn comes from the Greek kuriak, meaning "of the Lord" (possessive form of kurios "ruler" or "lord"). Kuriak in the sense of "church" is most likely a shortening of kuriak oikia ("house of the Lord") or ekklsia kuriak ("congregation of the Lord").[5] Christian churches were sometimes called kuriakon (adjective meaning "of the Lord") in Greek starting in the 4th century, but ekklsia and basilik were more common.[6]

The word is one of many direct Greek-to-Germanic loans of Christian terminology, via the Goths. The Slavic terms for "church" (Old Church Slavonic [crky], Russian [cerkov], Slovenian cerkev) are via the Old High German cognate chirihha.[citation needed]

In using the word (ekklsia, "church"), early Christians were employing a term that, while it designated the assembly of a Greek city-state, in which only citizens could participate, was traditionally used by Greek-speaking Jews to speak of Israel, the people of God,[7] and that appeared in the Septuagint in the sense of an assembly gathered for religious reasons, often for a liturgy; in that translation stood for the Hebrew word (qahal), which however it also rendered as (synagg, "synagogue"), the two Greek words being largely synonymous until Christians distinguished them more clearly.[8]

The term appears in only two verses of the Gospels, in both cases in the Gospel of Matthew.[7] When Jesus says to Simon Peter, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church",[9] the church is the community instituted by Christ, but in the other passage the church is the local community to which one belongs: "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church."[10]

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Christian Church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WESTLAKE, LA (KPLC) - Sasol recently bought First Baptist Church of Westlake and its surrounding lot to begin construction of a transit route as part of the company's multibillion-dollar ethane cracker project.

"Properties on the south side of Sulphur Avenue and properties along the north side of Old Spanish Trail are properties we've been negotiating with over the past couple of years," said Sasol public affairs manager Mike Hayes.

The church property will be used as part of the project's heavy haul route, which will be used to transport large modules and other equipment from a construction dock to Sasol's project site.

"We've already started moving power lines, working with Entergy through Triad Electric and some other contractors to get the power lines out of the way," said Hayes. "Widening the road will be the next step. Building the dock and the dock facilities is underway."

Rev. Wayne McEntire of First Baptist Church of Westlake says the offer couldn't have come at a better time.

"The church acquired property on the golf course here in Westlake, over 19 acres, so relocation plans have already been in the works," said McEntire. "This gave us a buyer and the resources needed to make that move."

McEntire says Westlake Assembly of God is also negotiating with Sasol and has to share a facility with Westlake Church of God on Maddox St. until ready to move. He says they hold services at different times.

Hayes says the heavy haul route construction shouldn't be an inconvenience to citizens. He says the first step is relocating both underground and above ground utilities. Signs, fencing and other itemsthat are located in the route that modules will pass through will also be relocated. Width and weight capacity of roads will also be increased and new traffic signals will be installed at the Sampson St. and Sulphur Ave. intersection.

Hayes recommends citizens to log on to Sasol's website and sign up or text alerts to stay up to date on construction alerts and other news.

For more information, CLICK HERE.

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Sasol buys church in Westlake; heavy haul route construction underway