Bishop T.D. Jakes, Regent University Form Partnership To Bring Quality Christian Education

Regent University has embarked on a multi-pronged educational effort with two well-known Christian entities.

Find out more details HERE in the article by Victor Tremmell:

The King's Men Tour

The King’s Men tour could be on its way to your city (or to a city near you)! This tour is set to feature Kirk Franklin, Marvin Sapp, Israel Haughton, and Donnie McClurkin. Definitely a great line up! Tickets are already on sale.

DATE	CITY	VENUE	ON SALE DATE
Sun, Sep 16	Phoenix, AZ	Comerica Theatre	Fri, May 11
Wed, Sep 19	Los Angeles, CA	Gibson Amphitheatre	Fri, May 11
Sat, Sep 22	Concord, CA	Sleep Train Amphitheatre	Fri, May 11
Tue, Sep 25	Dallas, TX	Verizon Theatre At Grand Prairie	Sat, May 12
Wed, Sep 26	Houston, TX	Reliant Arena	Sat, May 12
Fri, Sep 28	Atlanta, GA	Chastain Amphitheatre	Fri, May 11
Sun, Sep 30	Miami, FL	AmericanAirlines Arena	Fri, May 11
Tue, Oct 02	Tampa, FL	USF Sun Dome	Fri, June 1
Thu, Oct 04	Norfolk, VA	Constant Convocation Center	Fri, June 8
Sat, Oct 06	Washington DC	Verizon Center	Fri, May 11
Sun, Oct 07	Philadelphia, PA	Liacouras Center	Fri, May 18
Tue, Oct 09	Cleveland, OH	Wolstein Center	Fri, May 11
Wed, Oct 10	Chicago, IL	United Center	Mon, June 18
Fri, Oct 12	Detroit, MI	Fox Theatre	Sat, May 19
Sun, Oct 14	Brooklyn, NY	Barclays Center	Sat, May 12

For more info, click HERE.

Meagan Good and DeVon Franklin Tie the Knot

Actress Meagan Good and her fiance', DeVon Franklin, tied the knot in Malibu yesterday!  The couple met in 2011 while filming Jumping the Broom.  Franklin is a Sony Pictures Entertainment executive and also a preacher. 

Congrats to the happy couple!!

Photo from www.theybf.com

To peep more pics, click HERE.

A New Reality Show for Mary Mary

Gospel duo, Mary Mary, have their very own reality show starting on March 29th (10pm EST) on We TV.

The We TV website provides the following synopsis for the show:

Sister duo Erica and Tina Campbell make up the multi-Grammy award winning Gospel group Mary Mary. Balancing busy lives of worldwide recording artists with the demands of being both mothers and wives is challenging, especially when working closely with family.


Tina and her husband, Teddy, have four children. Erica and her husband, Warryn, have two small children and are expecting another. Despite the glamorous life of Mary Mary on the road, at home it’s very different. Luckily for Erica and Tina, their supportive husbands also work in the music business and understand the challenges they face. Warryn is the successful producer to Mary Mary, and Tina’s husband, Teddy, is The Tonight Show’s drummer. In the end, family trumps all, but Mary Mary’s music is their true passion, and they are determined to reach even greater heights.

Per We TV: New episodes then air in its regular timeslot Thursdays at 9pm EST beginning April 5, with 10, hour-long episodes.

Looking forward to the show!

Have People Stopped Attending Church

With so much going on in today's times, it appears that the number of those attending church should be increasing.  However, here's an interesting article by Dr. Lisa Tait on the state of church attendance.

Click here to read

Black News: Fewer Americans Calling Themselves Christian

America is a less Christian nation than it was 20 years ago, and Christianity is not losing out to other religions, but primarily to a rejection of religion altogether, a survey published Monday found.

Survey finds percentage of of Americans identifying themselves as Christian has fallen over two decades.

Seventy-five percent of Americans call themselves Christian, according to the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1990, the figure was 86 percent.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League said he thinks a radical shift towards individualism over the last quarter-century has a lot to do it.

"The three most dreaded words are thou shalt not," he told Lou Dobbs. "Notice they are not atheists -- they are saying I don't want to be told what to do with my life."

At the same time there has been an increase in the number of people expressing no religious affiliation.

The survey also found that "born-again" or "evangelical" Christianity is on the rise, while the percentage who belong to "mainline" congregations such as the Episcopal or Lutheran churches has fallen.

Click to read.

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What is the Black Church?

 

By Rev. Nicholas A. Pearce

Though often portrayed as a singular, monolithic entity, many scholars debate whether “the Black Church” truly exists. While the distinctive differences that have so long divided predominantly African-American Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and non-denominational churches are apparent, a potentially pernicious predicament currently demands our attention. While many people focus on the differences that exist among denominations and local churches, our attention must turn to one critical challenge we face within many of our churches. Young people are always labeled “The Church of Tomorrow,” which suggests two things: (1) that their spiritual gifts, leadership, and contributions are less meaningful, insignificant, and/or invalid at present and (2) the presupposition that tomorrow is promised. As countless young people leave the Church and still others sit restlessly in the pews waiting for a tomorrow deferred to finally arrive, the question we must confront is clear – when is “tomorrow” today?

The situation looks much like a track relay race. Our parents in the ministry were passed the baton of the Word of God by their parents and find themselves running the race of leadership as the next generation prepares in anticipation of receiving the baton in the exchange zone. Our forerunners in the ministry generally fall into one of three typological categories as they approach the exchange zone. (1) Some of our parents finish strong and cleanly pass on the baton to the next generation to run the next leg of the race. (2) Others of our parents, hearing the acclamation of the cheering crowd, decide to run an extra lap and skip the waiting generation in the exchange zone. Other racers with fresh legs soon pass by as these overzealous individuals run out of energy and solemnly realize that the baton was meant to be passed to the next generation. The overlooked and disenfranchised next generation ponders their befallen state and searches for other constructive outlets for their energy and talent that was intended to be expended in the race. (3) Still others of our parents approach the exchange zone with timidity, fearing that they will slowly fade out of the picture as they relinquish possession of the baton to a seemingly untested new generation. The combination of the outgoing generation’s insecure ambivalence to let go and the waiting generation’s consequent loss of self-assurance, the baton exchange is botched. No matter how well the previous lap had been run, no matter how talented the next runner may have been, the baton was dropped; the race was lost.

Does the Church have the luxury of leaving its young people and their gifts in a perpetual holding pattern, never to land? Can the Church afford to continue to mistakenly equate seniority with maturity as young people are prepared yet overlooked in the exchange zone? Will the Apostle Paul’s 1 Corinthians 12 treatise on unity in the body of Christ and the importance of each member thereof extend to a generation waiting to lead? Even a cursory glance at the state of the “Black Church” reveals an institution wrestling with its identity, struggling with being attractive while remaining authentic and grappling with the challenges and realities of a new day. Will an intensifying focus on devising better methods instead of making better men and women for the Kingdom of God cause the 21^st century Black Church to institutionally marginalize itself? God forbid – but let us earnestly wait for the day when tomorrow becomes today and the next generation carries forward the baton of leadership.

Rev. Nicholas A. Pearce serves as Associate Minister of the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, IL and is a doctoral candidate at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. Contact: npearce1@alum.mit.edu

Technorati Tags: black church,black pastors,black preachers,african americans,black social commentary

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Says It's OKAY that Blacks were in Slavery!