by | Dec 12, 2023 | Uncategorized
The International House of Prayer founder speaks out for the first time as the ministry launches a third-party inquiry.
International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) founder Mike Bickle has admitted to “inappropriate behavior” and “moral failures” that took place more than 20 years ago—but he says the claims of sexual abuse that emerged against him this fall are false.
Bickle publicly addressed recent allegations of abuse for the first time Tuesday, saying he had repented for his “past sins,” apologizing for how the situation has affected his family and ministry, and asking followers not to come to his defense online.
“Some may wonder why I am just now making a public statement 20+ years later? It is because I was recently confronted about things that I said or did 20+ years ago—things I believed were dealt with and under the blood of Jesus,” he wrote. “Since this has now become public, I want to repent publicly.”
A group of former IHOPKC leaders released a statement in October saying Bickle had been accused of sexual misconduct “where the marriage covenant was not honored” and that they had heard corroborating testimony from “several victims.” In The Roys Report last week, a woman alleged that Bickle sexually abused her while she was an intern at IHOPKC 27 years ago.
Bickle has been on leave from the ministry since October 26 while IHOPKC leaders looked into the allegations. On Sunday, after weeks of back-and-forth, the church announced a third-party investigation. Bickle said he drafted a statement on October 28 but was advised by legal counsel to wait.
Bickle, 68, did not describe his past “inappropriate behavior” other than to say he wasn’t admitting to the “more intense sexual activities that some are suggesting.” …
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by | Dec 11, 2023 | Uncategorized
Margaret Sullivan’s “reality-based” approach to journalism overlooks the reality of legitimate division in American society.
Veteran journalist Margaret Sullivan’s Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life first appeared in hardcover a year ago. It was released in paperback this month, generally the sign of a successful run and a reason for new critical attention, like this very review.
But if you want to get the gist of Newsroom Confidential’s core dispute with the mainstream press—what Sullivan dubs the “reality-based media,” a term to which I’ll return momentarily—you could skip the book and instead read a few dozen words from one of her November columns.
Reflecting on then-fresh poll results showing former president Donald Trump edging out current president Joe Biden in key battleground states, Sullivan says Trump is on the verge of “making the United States an authoritarian regime,” so the media must “do its job better. The press must get across to American citizens the crucial importance of this election and the dangers of a Trump win. They don’t need to surrender their journalistic independence to do so or be ‘in the tank’ for Biden or anyone else.”
The trouble here, as in Newsroom Confidential, is never Sullivan’s skill as a writer. She has a varied and impressive career, enough that the reader should grant her the impulse to toot her own horn.
It’s a big horn, after all. Few can boast of having served as the public editor of The New York Times. Sullivan has worked, too, as a media critic for The Washington Post, the newsroom leader at The Buffalo News, and now, a columnist at The Guardian. She’s well-positioned to pen this kind of memoir, and I was eager to learn from her experience while comparing CT, journalistically, …
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by | Dec 11, 2023 | Uncategorized
The legacy of Hudson Taylor and his China Inland Mission is still inspiring new generations of Christians in China and beyond.
In the courtyard of the headquarters of Overseas Mission Fellowship (OMF), across the street from lush botanic gardens in the city-state of Singapore, there is a pavilion emblazed with words in both Chinese and English: “Have faith in God.”
This simple but overwhelming command is the spiritual core of the mission that OMF continues, the work of British missionary James Hudson Taylor (Dai Desheng 戴德生, 1832–1905), who founded OMF—then known as China Inland Mission (CIM)—in 1865. Taylor’s pioneering work in China’s inland was groundbreaking, and he is remembered for his missional drive, spiritual discipline, evangelistic strategy, contextualization to Chinese culture, and support for single women missionaries.
For Chinese Christians in China, Taiwan, and overseas, Taylor remains a peerless figure. He is loved and admired, and many Chinese Christians can still recite his best-known words: “If I had a thousand pounds, China should have it. If I had a thousand lives, China should have them. No! Not China, but Christ.”
Taylor’s descendants of four generations, each boasting at least one missionary dedicated to the Chinese church, are affectionately called an example of Dai Dai xiang chuan (戴戴相传), a “legacy of dedication from one generation to the next.” Indeed, the very existence of tens of millions of Chinese Christians and thousands of Chinese churches all over the world today is significantly the legacy of Taylor and CIM/OMF.
“History has proved that the fruit of the gospel produced by CIM has a strong foundation and can stand up to the winds and rains,” wrote mainland Chinese pastor Yan Yile. “Even though Western missionaries were forced to …
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by | Dec 8, 2023 | Uncategorized
Jam out this season to highlife, Afrobeats, jazz, a cappella, R & B, rap, dance, and hip-hop artists from Nigeria, South Africa, and more.
Having listened to hours of African Christmas music, I can safely say that these albums and songs will put your heart in a worshipful mood and set your feet tapping and your body grooving. While globally, African music may be best known for the highlife and Afrobeat genres, artists across the continent incorporate jazz, a cappella, R & B, rap, dance, and hip-hop into their music.
As a British Ghanaian now living in the United States who has sung in choirs and led worship, I count these among my favorite African Christmas gospel songs, largely from the Anglophone world, representing these wide-ranging music styles and showcasing collaborations with other world-class artists.
If we missed any of your favorites, send us an email at ctafrica@christianitytoday.com!
Florocka is a Nigerian gospel artist and producer who has been in the music and production industry for over 27 years and is a multiple award–winning singer and producer. He has collaborated with other well-known Nigerian artists, including Helen Yawson and Sammie Okposo.
Florocka’s 2021 album, Another Christmas According to Florocka, is a dance album (think J Moss–type songs, especially “Keresimesi”) featuring pop and hip-hop tracks alongside songs like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” which somehow mashes up Middle Eastern music with rock and a rap bridge.
Jehovah Shalom Acapella is a six-member Ugandan band that released the five-track EP Joy to the World in 2020. The title track, an adaptation of Isaac Watts’s classic, begins in English before transitioning to Luganda, and the song “Enkya Ennungi Esembedde” (“I’m Telling the World about His Love”) is entirely in the Bantu language.
Last year, …
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by | Dec 8, 2023 | Uncategorized
New report by international religious freedom advocates compiles the text of 73 laws in 46 nations.
To share your faith—or change it to another—first check your citizenship.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a new report on anti-conversion laws around the world. Providing the legal text for 73 separate laws, the compendium notes that 1 in 4 nations (46 total) restrict the right of its people to either adopt or propagate a religion.
“The right to convert from one religion or belief to another, or to no religion or belief at all, is central to [the] protection for religious freedom,” said Susie Gelman, a USCIRF commissioner. “And in countries with anti-conversion laws, religious minorities tend to be broadly targeted for harassment, assault, arrest, and imprisonment.”
Gelman, a three-term president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, cited the example of pastor Keshav Acharya, sentenced by Nepal to one year in prison for allegedly attempting to convert Hindus to Christianity. But he is not the only example.
Last week in India, 9 Christians were arrested for allegedly evangelizing the poor.
Last summer in Iran, 106 Christians were arrested for their religious beliefs.
Last spring in Libya, an American Christian was arrested for alleged missionary activity.
The USCIRF report grouped the laws into four categories. First, anti-proselytizing laws restrict witnessing of one’s faith in 29 nations, including in Indonesia, Israel, and Russia. In Morocco, for example, it is illegal to cause a Muslim to question his or her religion.
The second category of interfaith marriage is restricted in 25 nations, including in Jordan, the Philippines, and Singapore. In Qatar, for example, if a wife converts to Islam but the husband does not, a judge may annul …
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