Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle landed in “hell” this week where he witnessed a teenage boy shot in the head and a girl sold to an older man. He was in the collapsed city of Port-au-Prince where rubble from former buildings and streets piled with corpses give the impression of an aftermath of a war zone.

Thirty house church leaders were detained in a northern province in China last week, according to a human rights group specializing in Chinese house churches. The leaders, which included men and women, were members of the Chinese House Church Alliance, one of the detained pastors reported to ChinaAid Association before security forces were presumed to have confiscated his cell phone during the incident on Jan. 8.

It is “very, very” unlikely that any good will come to North Korean Christians in the short term from the recent illegal entry of the Korean-American activist, said the president of a ministry that works with persecuted Christians.

North Korea is for the eighth straight year the world’s top persecutor of Christians, according to Open Doors' 2010 World Watch List.

North Korea said Tuesday that it has detained an American who illegally entered the country, leading many to speculate that the detainee is Korean-American Christian activist Robert Park, who reportedly entered the reclusive country on Christmas Day to call for the release of prisoners.

A Korean-American Christian activist has crossed over to North Korea from China to urge the country’s leader, Kim Jong-Il, to repent and release prisoners, according to a group associated with the activist.

The stage for the seed faith message was set when TV evangelist Pat Robertson ascended the steps at the Oral Roberts memorial service Monday to give the opening prayer.

Prominent Christian leaders across the nation responded to the death of Charismatic evangelist Oral Roberts by heaping praises on him, describing Roberts as “a man of God” and “a great hero of faith.”

WASHINGTON – A diverse group of religious people unveiled a giant ark on the National Mall Saturday to press world leaders in Copenhagen to create a strong, binding proposal to tackle climate change.

A former porn star has left the sex industry to start a new life as a college student and church secretary, a group ministering to sex workers announced Tuesday.

Christians launched a spiritual “strike” against one of the most well-known symbols of the sex industry on Saturday.

Chinese authorities reportedly tortured top human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, a U.S.-based rights group said Thursday.ChinaAid Association said it received a report from sources inside China informing the group that Gao has been severely beaten by authorities and his living condition is “worse than death.” Gao is crying daily from pain and desperation, the group noted.

Family-friendly film “The Blind Side” took the No. 1 spot at the box office from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” this past weekend.

A new unauthorized biography of “America’s pastor” Rick Warren uncovers a marriage with an unconventional beginning and a time of depression that later gave Warren the strength to become who he is today.

A Chinese court sentenced the pastor and leaders of a 50,000-member megachurch in northeastern China to prison, rights groups reported Thursday.

If the Chinese church committed itself completely to mission it would be a great new force that could complete the Great Commission, a mission expert stated.

More than 100 organizations, including Muslim and secularist ones, have signed a petition against the proposed U.N. resolutions on the "defamation of religions," which they contend will do more harm than good for religious freedom.

Millions of Christians around the world will pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ Sunday in observance of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced strong opposition Monday to proposed U.N. resolutions on “defamation of religions,” saying that such policies would restrict free speech.

More than 200 American Christians attended a conference in Indianapolis this past weekend to learn how to reach out to Muslims in North America.

The so-called “defamation of religions” U.N. resolutions, proposed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, would create a “global blasphemy law,” the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom warned on Wednesday.

The head of an organization that supports persecuted Christians blasted the World Council of Churches for claiming that the Church in North Korea has freedom.

A new so-called “Twitter Bible,” which summarizes the over 31,000-verse Bible into nearly 4,000 short-form tweets, is being released at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week.

LANDOVER, Md. – The evangelical movement is at a “head-snapping” generational change with younger evangelicals “revolting” against the tone of the Christian Right, says a prominent religious scholar.

LANDOVER, Md. – Stop trying to control your life, said the 62nd Chaplain of the U.S. Senate to a room full of the nation’s top evangelical leaders.