World Impact Ministries / Peter Youngren

Tomorrow is the day. Billboards around the world have proclaimed “Judgment Day May 21, 2011”. The “prophet” making the prediction is 89 year-old Harold Camping, president of the California-based Family Radio with 150 broadcasting outlets. Camping’s last prediction for the end of the world was September 1994, and we all know how that one turned out.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

“Eternal life is found in a relationship with the Roman Catholic church”. That was talk show host Michael Coren’s message on a recent Oakley show on 6:40 AM. A shocking statement, not only for evangelical Christians, who have given Coren a platform, but also to many Roman Catholics, who believe salvation is in Jesus Christ, not in an institution. I kept listening as Coren promoted his book, Why Catholics are right? After reading it from cover to cover, it is crystal clear; Coren propagates salvation through Roman Catholicism, and Roman Catholicism alone.

Because I know many Catholics, who sincerely trust in Jesus Christ, and who wouldn’t agree with Coren’s assertions, I hesitate to say anything that could be misconstrued as bashing Catholics, but frankly Coren has crossed a line that demands a response.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

Religion is a lot about who is “in” and who is “out”, who “belongs” and who doesn’t. We have “catholic” and “protestant”, “saved” and “unsaved”. Some talk about people who have accepted or rejected Jesus, which causes me to wonder; which Jesus has been “accepted” and which one has been “rejected”?
There are a lot of Jesuses, his story has been told in so many ways. What does the real Jesus look like? Can we know?

While in Finland last week, I discovered the story of a Roman Catholic saint, Holy Henry, Bishop of Finland, allegedly murdered with an axe in 1156 AD. That’s long ago, and I imagine the reader asking “what does this have to do with today?” Hang on; we will get there in a moment.

Article for St. Catharines Standard newspaper by Peter Youngren.

The brutal killing last week of Pakistan’s only Christian government minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, for which the Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility, hit close to home. Bhatti, the Federal Minister for Minorities, was a friend and on several occasions he helped World Impact Ministries, the organization I lead, to obtain permission for Gospel Campaigns in a country where 97% are Muslims. A co-worker emailed, “This is the darkest day for freedom of religion in the history of Pakistan”.

Article for St. Catharines Standard newspaper by Peter Youngren.

“Who is a Christian?”, or “What is a Christian?”, or maybe more accurately, “Who decides?”

At the recent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., President Obama said, “Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior”, a statement that would normally be received with great joy in the evangelical community, but not necessarily so this time. While 18% of the U.S. population believes that Obama is a Muslim, that figure goes to 40% among Tea-party focus groups, top heavy with “born-again” Christians.

So, who really is a Christian?

Article for St. Catharines Standard newspaper by Peter Youngren.

One of the great success stories in publishing in recent years is the novel, The Shack, by Canadian author, William P. Young. Originally Young wrote the manuscript as a gift for his six children. Several friends read it and encouraged Young to get his book published, but no religious or secular publisher showed any interest. Young and an associate launched Wind Blown Media to publish this one book, and the marketing plan was simple; a $300 website and high hopes for word-of-mouth recommendations. The hopes were realized beyond expectation, as The Shack achieved number one Best Seller success in less than a year, with one million copies sold. It remained the number one paperback in spiritual fiction on the New York Times Best Seller list from June 2008 to early 2010, with 10 million copies in print, and translations either completed or slated for 15 languages.

In this article, Pastor Peter uses a recent political hot potato to show that there is peace and rest in Jesus. This article was written for the Saturday edition of the St. Catharines Standard. - Nathan Thurber

Last week Prince Edward Island’s Transportation Minister suggested that God had struck down the Leader of the Opposition, Olive Crane, after she introduced a bill to allow year around Sunday shopping. As a pastor I’m obviously against Sunday shopping. After all, if people didn’t have the option to go to the mall there might be a higher attendance in church. The alternative, of course, is to have such a meaningful Sunday service that people prefer church to the shopping center.

The topic of original sin comes up in the strangest places. On a recent flight I sat beside a devout religious lady, who insisted that sex was the original sin. My protest that sexuality was God’s idea fell on deaf ears. So many of our religious perceptions depend on culture, and religious affiliation. Jews, Muslims, and Hindus all have their own understanding. The concept of sin differs within each religion depending on whether you are an orthodox believer or a liberal adherent. The same goes for Christians. A Catholic has to deal with some “sins” that don’t even make it on the radar screen for Baptists and Pentecostals. Then again, evangelicals have their own sin-lists that Catholics haven’t even heard of. Our convictions will differ depending on whether we were born in Russia, Argentina, Canada or Alabama.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and many congregants will hear the words stated in the headline. Some pastors use this greeting as they welcome people on the front steps of the church building, and some use it as an opener for the Sunday worship.

Christianity can trace its history to a Savior born in a stable, crucified on a hill just outside the city, and ascending to heaven from a mountain. For the first two hundred years apostles and preachers conducted their services in market places, on the streets, in caves, on ships, and in the homes of their converts. There was no building called “church”, or “the house of God”, such a thought was anathema to their understanding of the Good News they had received from Jesus.