A new video message from Billy Graham is in production and is set to be released in honor of his 96th birthday on Nov. 7. The program, called "Heaven," is being released to churches as an evangelistic tool, in conjunction with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's My Hope 2014 with Billy Graham campaign.

"Evangelism is clearly the hardest activity of the Church, but it's also the one most closely tied to the health of the local church," said Steve Rhoads, vice president for My Hope. "We want to come alongside pastors and help them as they motivate their congregations to reach out in love. The local church holds a unique position of influence in our communities."

A recent Barna Group study found that while 73 percent of "born-again" Christians believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, only half (52 percent) have actually done so in the past year. Among "evangelicals" – the group which overwhelmingly believes they have a responsibility to share their faith – less than one-third (31 percent) have in the past 12 months. more >>

Bob Jones University, a Christian liberal arts school in South Carolina, found its record of handling sexual abuse under the spotlight again this week when a former student revealed that she was told by a dean of students at the school to repent of her sin after she told him she had been raped.

Former Bob Jones student Katie Landry, 31, explained in an Al Jazeera America report Tuesday that she was just an inexperienced 19-year-old conservative Mennonite from rural Ohio in 2004 when she was raped by her supervisor at her summer job with an ambulance company in Columbus, Ohio.

She says one night as she counted supplies in the back of an ambulance she was startled by the prick of a needle then everything else that followed. more >>

Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse has deployed disaster relief teams to northeast Nebraska, where two tornadoes caused devastating area damage and claimed two lives.

"The reports we've received about yesterday's storms are devastating," said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse, in a statement. "This community lost everything including their town's business district and fire station. We will be there for as long as it takes to support them and help them begin rebuilding their lives."

Equipment and supplies are expected to arrive in the town of Pilger by Wednesday evening, including a Disaster Relief Unit, stocked with chainsaws, heavy-duty plastic tarps, generators and other tools. more >>

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's Rapid Response Ream held its annual chaplains conference in North Carolina, having a record attendance for the multiday event.

Held last week at The Cove in Ashville by the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, the conference involved training chaplains in various fields of care.

Scott Holmquist, deputy director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, told The Christian Post about how the conference went. more >>

Tullian Tchividjian clarified on Thursday that he was neither backing away from his theological position nor recanting his critical remarks on the Sovereign Grace Ministries sex abuse scandal when he released an apology last week.

His apology came after "getting a week of reflection under my belt and thinking long and hard about not any of the issues regarding Sovereign Grace or any theological disagreements I had with The Gospel Coalition or anything like that," the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church pastor told Janet Mefferd on her radio show. "This had more to do with literally, God, the Holy Spirit, convicting me regarding the tone in some of the things that I've said, things that I've said in private, things that I've said in public — not backing away at all from my theological position or the way that I felt, continue to feel about the whole Sovereign Grace issue at all."

Tchividjian said he penned the apology in response to a "prompting of God's spirit" and a desire to say "'sorry,' to the many, many, many, many people out there, believe it or not, who hated to see a public breakup like that." more >>

WASHINGTON – The Rev. Franklin Graham told a large gathering of pastors on Thursday to address controversial issues from the pulpit, declaring that "God hates cowards."

Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, based his remarks on Revelation 21:8, wherein God lists eight groups of people who will be "in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Of groups like murderers, idolaters, unbelievers, and others, the first group of persons listed were the cowardly. It was this first group that Graham focused on for his speech, titled "Standing Strong on the Controversial Issues," at the Thursday evening session for the 2014 Watchmen on the Wall National Briefing. more >>