WE PERSEVERE ROUNDUP 8/5/2016 AUSTRALIA: According to a 2014 study by the non-partisan Pew Research Centre, Christians are the most persecuted minority in the world. Christians were persecuted and harassed by government or the general society in 108 countries, an increase of 102 from the year before. However, there’s very little open discussion of the […]
The solution to injustice isn’t solely police reform; rather it’s believers and churches loving communities and being willing to serve them. Charles Holmes explains that here.
We Persevere Weekly Roundup Week of July 22, 2016 CHINA: Despite the increasing persecution of Christians in China, the Communist country is on track to have the largest Christian population in the world by 2030, according to Rodney Pennington, who studies religious trends for OMF International. By 2030, “China will almost certainly have the most […]
The recent shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille has given us cause to revisit the commentary on racism and police brutality towards the African American community. Many of us are trying to parse through feelings of rage, helplessness, and apathy while we are subconsciously still being rocked by the images we are seeing. As a […]
In this article, Earon James explains how Christians must process our pain, by God’s grace, in light of the nation’s recent tragedies.
Note: This post originally appeared on We Persevere: The Personal Blog of K.A. Ellis. Find the post and more excellent content here. When I first met Deborah*, the word that came to my mind was “firebrand.” Deborah lives among an unreached people group in Northern Africa. Long ago, they were stripped of their dignity, identity […]
We Persevere Week of June 16, 2016 United States: In California, A threatening and overreaching bill (Senate Bill 1146) is working its way through the legislature. If passed as is, this bill would strip California’s faith-based colleges and universities of their religious liberty to educate students according to their faith convictions. As many as 42 […]
#WePersevere is a weekly roundup of national and international stories highlighting spiritual and religious freedom. Week of 6/3/2016: In Syria and US: Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said Thursday that it was “unconscionable” that of the record 499 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States in the first three weeks of May, not one was a Christian. Read […]
About 7 years ago, I started seriously considering the beauty of diversity in the church. I’d begun to develop a myriad of distant discipleship influences from different theological persuasions. I started reading books and listening to radio programs from mostly white, reformed preachers who first introduced me to expository preaching and Puritan theology. I didn’t […]
One Tuesday morning, I woke with all too familiar stories on social media. Two young, black men were dead. One of them, David Joseph, died just about an hour south of where I sat. A high school kid, so much like those I love here — except he was naked, unarmed, and shot dead just a […]
Racism is a national issue, an individual issue and an issue in the church, particularly among reformed, white believers. I’ve found that it’s easy to discuss the effects of racism in a more abstract, group-oriented way, but I’ve been forced by God in his providence to learn that it’s an issue for me personally as […]
Rough Beginnings Growing up in the inner city, I lived in a single parent household with my mother. In my lifetime, I met the man said to be my father once. I yearned for security, a sense of knowing where I belonged or whom I belonged to. Unfortunately, I was a black child among many growing […]
Suffering in light of God’s sovereignty is something Reformed African Americans have experienced for centuries. But are we really okay?
Today is a good day. Five prisoners have been released by the Iranian government, and among them is Saeed Abedini. An Iranian native and convert to Christianity, Abedini was arrested in 2012 by the Iranian government during a trip to help build a state-run secular orphanage. How is such a deal successfully brokered? The Director […]
Tim Challies answers the question that many spouses have considered at one time or another.
For our nightly Advent devotional last year, I used The Dawning of Indestructible Joy by John Piper. I really enjoyed it, but my kids, well, not so much. The vocabulary Piper used to elaborate and stress certain topics was perfect for my husband and I to understand, but as I read it out loud to […]
The most important question any of us will ever ask ourselves after reading Matthew 21:1-11 is: Who is this? We define how we view the world and the people in it by this one simple question, yet it has left many puzzled and separated from the Father for eternity. This question stems from the cries […]
In this article, Duke Kwon reviews Coates’ Between The World And Me. Kwon shows us how the language used in this book regarding black “bodies” finds critical resonance with Christian theology.
Before we can explore the contours of growing domestic persecution, we must first be clear on our baseline for persecution in the first place. What defines persecution? Is it defined by the actions of a surrounding culture? Is it a particular pattern of legislation in more advanced governments, or the overthrow of a more sympathetic […]
James Fields offers reflections on the brokenness and suffering within our African American culture and the connection between God’s anger & his mercy.
