Adrienne S. Gaines

Australia's Hillsong Church is launching its first U.S. congregation in New York City, with weekly small-group meetings beginning Sunday night. Known for its popular worship music, Sydney-based Hillsong has planted churches around the world, including in London; Paris; Stockholm; Cape Town, South Africa; and Kiev, Ukraine.

A music minister long known for belting out powerful worship choruses from her wheelchair stood up and walked Friday for the first time in 22 years during a revival service led by former Brownsville Revival leader John Kilpatrick.Delia Knox, a popular singer who pastors Living World Christian Center in Mobile, Ala., with her husband, Bishop…

The sister of kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst once aspired to be an entertainer whose glamorous life would be featured on the TV show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. But today Victoria Hearst is a born-again Christian who says she's "having way more fun" leading an evangelistic ministry in Colorado. Reared as a Catholic, Hearst is the granddaughter…

Prophetic minister Rick Joyner said he believes President Obama "wants to know the real Jesus." But the MorningStar Ministries founder is teetering in his own view of which faith the president practices. In a ministry blog Monday, Joyner responded to a recent Pew Research Center poll that found 18 percent of Americans think President Obama…

A cross-section of Pentecostal-charismatic leaders from more than 70 nations met this week in Stockholm for the 22nd Pentecostal World Conference. Hosted in Sweden for the first time in 55 years, the triennial event was held Tuesday through Friday with a focus on equipping churches for spiritual leadership in the next century. Speakers included Brian…

A group of more than 70 prominent ministers defended President Obama against what they call a "misrepresentation" of his Christian faith.Bishop T.D. Jakes, Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, World Vision President Rich Stearns and the Rev. Sammy Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, were among the signatories to an open letter released…

TheCall prayer movement is marking its 10th anniversary with a 12-hour "solemn assembly" in Sacramento next week, and ministry founder Lou Engle says the daylong prayer meeting isn't coming a moment too soon. "America is being shaken to the core," said Engle, who is hosting TheCall Sacramento Sept. 3-4. "The political system, the economic system,…

The president and CEO of World Relief has stepped down, effective Sept. 1.Sammy Mah has led the Baltimore-based Christian humanitarian organization since 2005. Previously he spent 27 years as an executive at General Motors.

A Messianic Jewish organization based in Jerusalem is organizing relief efforts for Pakistan, which has been facing the worst flooding in 80 years.Next month, the missions ministry Keren HaShlichut will go into Pakistan and help distribute food and supplies for victims of massive flooding that the United Nations estimates has affected nearly 14 million people.…

A federal appeals court has ruled a defamation lawsuit California pastor Frederick K.C. Price filed against ABC and its former 20/20 correspondent John Stossel can move forward. Price, founding pastor of Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles, claims his words were taken out of context in a 2007 20/20 report about businessmen, pastors and politicians…

In one of the most populated nations in the world, where thousands of children live on the street, Mustard Seed International (MSI) is relying on faith to feed and educate the vulnerable homeless children of Calcutta, India. Today MSI is giving 3,000 impoverished children an education at the eight schools the missions group operates in the…

Residents in the Nigerian village of Karu are seeing an outpouring of healing miracles, with the deaf hearing, lame walking and a man healed of mental illness. So says Daniel Kolenda, an evangelist with Christ for All Nations, a Florida-based ministry founded by Reinhard Bonnke that has been leading crusades across Africa for more than…

The potential discovery of an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of oil in Israel is raising hopes that the Jewish nation one day will become energy independent and may even export oil. In a preliminary report to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Givot Olam Oil estimates there are 1.525 billion barrels of oil at its Rosh…

The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World elected Bishop Charles H. Ellis III as its presiding bishop last week during the organization's annual convention in Minneapolis. Ellis, pastor of 6,000-member Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, succeeds Bishop Horace Smith, M.D., pastor of Apostolic Faith Church in Chicago.

The killing of a team of eye medics, including eight Christian aid workers, in a remote area of Afghanistan last week was likely the work of opportunistic gunmen whose motives are not yet clear, the head of the medical organization said Thursday.   On Aug. 6, 10 medical workers were found shot dead next to…