Naka and Jonas were settled in their lives in Kara. The third-largest city in Togo, Kara sits in the north, where the dominant religions are a blend of Christianity, Islam and folk religions. There, mentored by missionaries Randy and Jeanette Alderman and equipped with a deep understanding of their culture, Jonas and Naka became leaders in the church, and […]

Felch Mountain Bible Chapel isn’t what you’d expect as a hotbed of relational evangelism.  Its local K-12 school district tops out at 140 students in this rural, heavily wooded, largely isolated and scrappy area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, 40 minutes from the nearest Walmart. Winters remain brutally cold. For years, the church’s attendance hit a ceiling of 55.   Pastor Joe Basso labored for two years to train his congregation in […]

Isaac Vineyard had never intended to plant a church. But Freddie Gray’s death changed all that.  Vineyard, a theology teacher at Annapolis (Maryland) Area Christian School, had witnessed the voices of his minority students going unheard. But upon Gray’s fatal injuries in police custody, after which six police officers faced criminal charges from the state, widespread riots shook the city. Unfeeling social media responses of his white students […]