When did Texas become part of Europe?

Okay, I AM cheating. This is a video about Texas, not Europe. But it is about a church for bikers in Texas. So it is still worth a look! Enjoy.

Is Europe "free"? In relation to religion at least...

Ever wondered if there was a relationship between religious freedoms and secularity in Europe? The Nova Research Centre has taken some of the recognised measures of "religious liberty" and charted their relationship with "secularity" and "social hostility" on nifty charts.

To find out more click here.

Just don't ask me what they all mean...!

Does God care about football?

Here is a new one for you! First, watch the video:

So what actually happened? This is what a BETTING website, of all places, made of it:
"Last night, we witnessed Torres continue his recent goalscoring form after a brace against Genk in the Champions League. It was arguably El Nino’s best performance in a Chelsea shirt & one which he could of finished with 4 or 5 goals.

"Was it because of weak opposition? Was it luck? Wrong on both accounts. It was because of his Chelsea team-mate David Luiz. Pre-match David Luiz appears to bless Torres & say a prayer for the Spaniard. Thirty minutes later, Torres has scored 2 goals & seem’s to be rediscovering the form that made him a world class player."

If only they had stopped there. But no, they had to finish with:

"Whatever crazy voodoo David Luiz casts has obviously worked and we could very well see this become a regular ritual before Chelsea games."

Free churches gain ground in Switzerland

A Swiss National Science Foundation project investigating religions, the state and society has discovered "Twice as many people attend services each week in free – mostly evangelical – churches as in the state-recognised Protestant Church."


"Twenty-nine per cent of all people who attend a religious service each week go to a free church while only 14 per cent visit the recognised Swiss Protestant Church."

They also state that 690,000 (about 1 in every 11) Swiss nationals attend a weekly service.

Free churches make up almost 25% of the nearly 6,000 religious communities in Switzerland.

See full story here

1/4 of churches in the Netherlands to close in the next 10 years

When I last visited Netherlands I heard about the problem of churches there closing. The picture above is from a church that had been converted into a book store. But this has now been confirmed by Dr Arjan Plaisier, secretary of the general synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands:

"According to expectation one quarter of the churches in the Netherlands will be closed within the next 10 years. We read about church closure in The Hague and other cities. But churches are closed in rural areas as well. Some buildings have not been there for a very long time. They were built somewhere in the 20th century. Other churches have been there for ages. Now they are being closed down. They are being destroyed or get another utilization. A part of history is finished. A place of worship, where baptism, marriage, mourning, prayer, singing and preaching took place, ceases to exist."

Full article here

UK schools must provide "group worship" -- but aren't

The UK can be a confusing place. On one hand most people will never pass through the door of a church, mosque or temple. On the other hand, state schools are still REQUIRED to hold daily corporate worship! So are schools actually holding these collective worship sessions? Do parents want them to? A new survey reported by the BBC provides insights and answers.


"Many state schools in England are not providing group worship, despite legislation making it a requirement, a survey suggests.

"The Comres survey for BBC local radio found 64% of the 500 parents questioned said their child did not attend daily acts of collective worship.

"But 60% of the 1,743 adults asked said the legislation should not be enforced.

"The Department for Education states that all maintained schools in England must provide a daily act of collective worship which must reflect the traditions of this country, which it says are, in the main, broadly Christian.

"Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) chief policy advisor Alison Ryan questioned how much schools and parents wanted daily worship.

"When a law is being flouted on a pretty major scale that is telling you something about its use, about how maybe it should be reformed or changed, so we believe it needs to be looked at."

The 2012 Olympics. What an opportunity!

The 2012 Olympics are less than a year away. But the athletes and the olympic organisers aren't the only ones getting ready. 

Lots of Christians are thinking of ways to use this as a ministry springboard to reach people who might not otherwise be as open to the gospel.

One man involved in this is Bryan Doyle, an ECM Britain missionary who is helping Greater Europe Mission to bring short-term teams from American churches across to the UK. Here's a video about what they are doing and hope to do.