1.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
2.
Tithe
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A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, several European countries operate a formal process linked to the tax system allowing some churches to assess tithes. Traditional Jewish law and practice has included various forms of tithing since ancient times, orthodox Jews commonly practice maaser kesafim. In modern Israel, Jews continue to follow the laws of agricultural tithing, e. g. maaser rishon, terumat maaser, and maaser sheni. Instead, the New Testament scriptures are seen as teaching the concept of offerings as a means of supporting the church,1 Corinthians 16,2,2 Corinthians 9,7. Also, some of the earliest groups sold everything they had and held the proceeds in common to be used for the furtherance of the Gospel, Acts 2, 44-47, Acts 4, 34-35. Further, Acts 5, 1-20 contains the account of a man, tithes were mentioned at the Council of Tours in 567 and the Synod of Mâcon in 585. They were formally recognized under Pope Adrian I in 787, none of the extant laws of the Ancient Near East deal with tithing, although other secondary documents show that it was a widespread practice in the Ancient Near East. Who is in charge of the tithe, hebrew is a Semitic language, related to Akkadian, the lingua franca of that time. In Genesis 14, 18-20, Abraham, after rescuing Lot, after Melchizedeks blessing, Abraham gave him a tenth of everything he has obtained from battle, Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. ”Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. ”And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. ”So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first, and of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you. ”The tithe is specifically mentioned in the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The tithe system was organized in a cycle, corresponding to the Shemittah-cycle. These tithes were in reality more like taxes for the people of Israel and were mandatory and this tithe was distributed locally within thy gates to support the Levites and assist the poor. Every year, Bikkurim, Terumah, Maaser Rishon and Terumat Maaser were separated from the grain, wine, the first tithe is giving of one tenth of agricultural produce to the Levite. Historically, during the First Temple period, the first tithe was given to the Levites, approximately at the beginning of the Second Temple construction, Ezra and his Beth din implemented its giving to the kohanim
3.
NPR
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NPR produces and distributes news and cultural programming. Individual public radio stations are not required to broadcast all NPR programs that are produced and its content is also available on-demand via the web, mobile, and podcasts. The organizations legal name is National Public Radio and its brand is NPR. Is NPR has been used by its hosts for many years. However, National Public Radio remains the name of the group. National Public Radio replaced the National Educational Radio Network on February 26,1970 and this act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which created the Public Broadcasting Service in addition to NPR. A CPB organizing committee under John Witherspoon first created a Board of Directors chaired by Bernard Mayes, the board then hired Donald Quayle to be the first president of NPR with 30 employees and 90 charter member stations, and studios in Washington, D. C. NPR aired its first broadcast in April 1971, covering United States Senate hearings on the Vietnam War, a month later, the afternoon drive-time newscast All Things Considered began, on May 3,1971, first hosted by Robert Conley. NPR was primarily a production and distribution organization until 1977, when it merged with the Association of Public Radio Stations, NPR suffered an almost fatal setback in 1983 when efforts to expand services created a deficit of nearly US$7 million. After a congressional investigation and the resignation of NPRs president, Frank Mankiewicz, NPR also agreed to turn its satellite service into a cooperative venture, making it possible for non-NPR shows to get national distribution. It took NPR approximately three years to pay off the debt, delano Lewis, the president of C&P Telephone, left that position to become NPRs CEO and president in January 1994. In November 1998, NPRs board of directors hired Kevin Klose, NPR spent nearly $13 million to acquire and equip a West Coast 25, 000-square-foot production facility, NPR West, which opened in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California, in November 2002. C. In November 2003, NPR received US$235 million from the estate of the late Joan B, Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds Corporation. This was the largest monetary gift ever to a cultural institution, in 2004 NPRs budget increased by over 50% to US$153 million due to the Kroc gift. US$34 million of the money was deposited in its endowment, the endowment fund before the gift totaled $35 million. NPR will use the interest from the bequest to expand its news staff, the 2005 budget was about US$120 million. In August 2005, NPR entered podcasting with a directory of over 170 programs created by NPR, by November of that year, users downloaded NPR and other public radio podcasts 5 million times
4.
Focus on the Family
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Focus on the Family is an American Christian conservative organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is active in promoting an interdenominational effort toward its socially conservative views on public policy, Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s. Focus on the Familys stated mission is nurturing and defending the God-ordained institution of the family and it promotes abstinence-only sexual education, creationism, adoption by married, opposite-sex parents, school prayer, and traditional gender roles. It opposes abortion, divorce, gambling, LGBT rights, particularly LGBT adoption and same-sex marriage, pornography, pre-marital sex, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social scientists have criticized Focus on the Family for trying to misrepresent their research to bolster FOTFs fundamentalist political agenda and ideology. The organization also produces programs for targeted audiences, such as Adventures in Odyssey for children, dramas, from 1977 to 2003, James Dobson served as the sole leader of the organization. In 2003, Donald P. Hodel became president and chief executive officer and this left Dobson as chairman of the board of directors, with chiefly creative and speaking duties. Focus on the Family aims to equip families through radio broadcasts, websites, simulcasts, conferences, interactive forums, magazines, books, and counseling. In March 2005, Hodel retired and Jim Daly, formerly the Vice President in charge of Focus on the Familys International Division, assumed the role of president, in November 2008, the organization announced that it was eliminating 202 jobs, representing 18 percent of its workforce. The organization also cut its budget from $160 million in fiscal 2008 to $138 million for fiscal 2009 and he is no longer affiliated with Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family sees its primary ministry as helping couples “build healthy marriages that reflect Gods design”, based on what it sees as “morals, Focus on the Family formed Love Won Out, an ex-gay ministry, in 1998 and sold it to Exodus International in 2009. Focus on the Familys Wait No More ministry works with agencies, church leaders. The program co-sponsors several adoption conferences throughout the country each year, since November 2008, more than 2,700 families have started the adoption process through Wait No More. In Colorado, the number of waiting for adoption dropped from about 800 to 350. Focus on the Family supports laws to prevent couples from adopting who are cohabiting together outside of marriage as well as homosexual couples. Focus on the Familys Option Ultrasound Program provides grants to qualifying crisis pregnancy centers to cover 80 percent of the cost of a machine or sonography training. As of October 31,2014, the program has provided 655 grants to centers in all 50 states and Bucharest, Focus on the Family began OUP in 2004 with the goal of convincing women not to have abortions. FOTF officials said that ultrasound services help a woman better understand her pregnancy and babys development, the Option Ultrasound Program reported in 2014 that it has helped prevent more than 270,000 abortions since 2004. A study released in February 2012 shows that ultrasounds do not have a impact on an abortion decision
5.
Contemporary Christian music
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Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith. Today, the term is used to refer to pop, rock. Top-selling CCM artists will also appear on the Billboard 200, in the iTunes Store, the genre is represented as part of the Christian and gospel genre. The growing popularity in the styles of Rock n Roll music in the 1950s was initially dismissed by the church because it was believed to encourage sinfulness. Yet as evangelical churches adapted to appeal to people, the musical styles used in worship changed as well by adopting the sounds of this popular style. The genre became known as contemporary Christian music as a result of the Jesus movement revival in the latter 1960s and early 1970s, about that time, many young people from the sixties counterculture professed to believe in Jesus. Convinced of the bareness of a lifestyle based on drugs, free sex, however, there were people who felt that Jesus was another trip. It was during the 1970s Jesus movement that Christian music started to become an industry within itself, Jesus Music started by playing instruments and singing songs about love and peace, which then translated into love of God. Paul Wohlegemuth, who wrote the book Rethinking Church Music, said 1970s will see a marked acceptance of rock-influenced music in all levels of church music. The rock style will become familiar to all people, its rhythmic excesses will become refined. Larry Norman is often remembered as the father of Christian rock and he is remembered as the artist who first combined rock n roll with Christian lyrics in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Unlike traditional or southern gospel music, this new Jesus music was birthed out of rock, pioneers of this movement also included Keith Green, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Barry McGuire, Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, Evie, Benny Hester, and The Imperials, among others. The small Jesus music culture had expanded into an industry by the 1980s. Many CCM artists such as Benny Hester, Amy Grant, DC Talk, Michael W. Smith, Stryper, the genre emerged and became prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s. Beginning in July 1978, CCM Magazine began covering Contemporary Christian Music artists and it has certain themes and messages behind the songs and their lyrics including Praise and worship, faith, encouragement, and prayer. These songs also focus on themes of devotion, inspiration, redemption, reconciliation, many people listen to contemporary Christian music for comfort through tough times. The lyrics and messages conveyed in CCM songs are aimed to evangelize, one of the earliest goals of CCM was to spread the news of Jesus to non-Christians. In addition, contemporary Christian music also strengthens the faith of believers, Contemporary Christian music has influences from folk, gospel, pop and rock music
6.
Prosperity theology
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It is based on interpretations of the Bible that are traditional to Judaism, though less so in Christianity. Prosperity theology views the Bible as a contract between God and humans, if humans have faith in God, he will deliver security and prosperity, the doctrine emphasizes the importance of personal empowerment, proposing that it is Gods will for his people to be happy. The atonement is interpreted to include the alleviation of sickness and poverty and this is believed to be achieved through donations of money, visualization, and positive confession. The prosperity teaching later figured prominently in the Word of Faith movement, in the 1990s and 2000s, it was adopted by influential leaders in the Pentecostal Movement and Charismatic Movement in the United States and has spread throughout the world. This gospel of wealth, however, was an expression of Muscular Christianity, the New Thought movement, which emerged in the 1880s, was responsible for popularizing belief in the power of the mind to achieve prosperity. While initially focused on achieving mental and physical health, New Thought teachers such as Charles Fillmore made material success a major emphasis of the movement, by the 20th century, New Thought concepts had saturated American popular culture, being common features of both self-help literature and popular psychology. E. W. Kenyon, a Baptist minister and adherent of the Higher Life movement, is credited with introducing mind-power teachings into early Pentecostalism, in the 1890s, Kenyon attended Emerson College of Oratory where he was exposed to the New Thought movement. Kenyon later became connected with well-known Pentecostal leaders and wrote about supernatural revelation and his writing influenced leaders of the nascent prosperity movement during the post-war American healing revival. Kenyon and later leaders in the prosperity movement have denied that he was influenced by the New Thought movement, anthropologist Simon Coleman argues that there are obvious parallels between Kenyons teachings and New Thought. Kenyon taught that Christs substitutionary atonement secured for believers a right to divine healing, Prayer was understood to be a binding, legal act. Rather than asking, Kenyon taught believers to demand healing since they were legally entitled to receive it. Kenyons blend of religion and mind-power beliefs—what he termed overcoming faith—resonated with a small. Pentecostals had always been committed to healing, and the movement also possessed a strong belief in the power of speech. Kenyons ideas would be reflected in the teachings of Pentecostal evangelists F. F. Bosworth, in fact, early Pentecostals tended to view prosperity as a threat to a persons spiritual well-being. By the 1940s and 1950s, however, a form of the doctrine began to take shape within the Pentecostal movement through the teachings of deliverance. Combining prosperity teaching with revivalism and faith healing, these evangelists taught the laws of faith, Oral Roberts began teaching prosperity theology in 1947. He explained the laws of faith as a pact in which God would return donations seven fold. Roberts offered to return any donation that did not lead to an equivalent unexpected payment, in the 1970s, Roberts characterized his blessing pact teaching as the seed faith doctrine, donations were a form of seed which would grow in value and be returned to the donor
7.
National Religious Broadcasters
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National Religious Broadcasters is a non-partisan, international association of Christian communicators. While theologically diverse within the community, NRB members are linked through a Declaration of Unity that proclaims their joint commitment. Members of the association are required to ascribe to the Statement of Faith, NRB members must also meet the Standards of Financial Accountability set forth by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Protestant denominational leaders argued for regulations that would restrict access to the radio broadcast spectrum and they claimed independent Evangelical preachers who were unaccountable to any denominational entity could not be trusted with the public airwaves. In that same year, the Mutual Broadcasting System received more than 25% of its revenue from religious broadcasters. Yet in 1943, the Federal Council of Churches supported proposed regulations that would have resulted in every Evangelical broadcaster being taken off the radio networks. They demanded that religious broadcasting should only be aired as a service during free or sustaining time donated by the radio networks. The Federal Council of Churches persuaded all three radio networks – NBC, CBS, and the Mutual Broadcasting System – to adopt the proposed regulations. Subsequently, every Evangelical Christian broadcaster was taken off the radio networks. In response to challenge,150 Evangelical Christian broadcasters and church leaders held a series of meetings which led to the formation of the National Religious Broadcasters. In the fall of 1944, members of the NRB adopted their Constitution, Bylaws, Statement of Faith, in 1949 that effort bore fruit as the newly formed ABC radio network reversed the ban on paid religious broadcasting, with the other networks following their lead. In a few years, Evangelical radio broadcasters were again on radio networks with scores of new programs. The NRB now operates in a complex electronic media environment. And the audience for religious broadcasters has expanded, with 141 million Americans using Christian media at least once per month, NRB provides networking, educational, ministry, and advocacy opportunities for its members. The association also provides information to its members, and recognizes excellence in Christian broadcasting. NRB also participates as Amicus Curiae in proceedings before the United States Supreme Court on First Amendment, information The Communications Department of NRB produces e-publications. NRB Today highlights industry trends, important federal broadcast policies, current issues of NRBs publications may be viewed on the associations homepage, and back issues are available to NRB website registrants. Both publications are free of charge to NRB Members and on-request to the general public
8.
Gospel music
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Gospel music is a music genre in Christian music. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music varies according to culture. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, Gospel music usually has dominant vocals with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century, with roots in the oral tradition. Hymns and sacred songs were repeated in a call and response fashion, most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella, the first published use of the term Gospel Song probably appeared in 1874. The original gospel songs were written and composed by such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane. The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music, following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate. Gospel blues is a form of gospel music. Southern gospel used all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up, progressive Southern gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern gospel over the past couple of decades. Christian country music, sometimes referred to as gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. It peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s, bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music. Celtic gospel music infuses gospel music with a Celtic flair, and is popular in countries such as Ireland. British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora, some proponents of standard hymns generally dislike gospel music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, with distance, there is a greater acceptance of such gospel songs into official denominational hymnals. Gospel music in general is characterized by dominant vocals referencing lyrics of a Christian nature, subgenres include contemporary gospel, urban contemporary gospel, Southern gospel, and modern gospel music. Several forms of gospel music utilize choirs, use piano or Hammond organ, tambourines, drums, bass guitar and, increasingly, electric guitar. In comparison with hymns, which are generally of a statelier measure, several attempts have been made to describe the style of late 19th and early 20th century gospel songs in general
9.
Contemporary worship music
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Contemporary worship music, also known as praise and worship music, is a loosely defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past sixty years and is similar to pop music. The songs are referred to as praise songs or worship songs and are typically led by a worship band or praise team. It is becoming a genre of music sung in Western churches. Many non-charismatic Protestant churches use this type of music, also, Roman Catholic churches are using this type of music in some parishes. In the early 1950s, the Taizé Community in France started to attract youths from several denominations with worship hymns based on modern melodies. Amateur musicians from these groups began playing Christian music in a popular idiom, some Christians felt that the Church needed to break from its stereotype as being structured, formal and dull to appeal to the younger generation. The Joystrings were one of the first Christian pop groups to appear on television, in Salvation Army uniform, churches began to adopt some of these songs and the styles for corporate worship. These early songs for singing were characteristically simple. Youth Praise, published in 1966, was one of the first and most famous collections of songs and was compiled and edited by Michael Baughen. As of the early 1990s, songs such as Lord, I Lift Your Name on High, Shine, Jesus, Shine, Music and Vineyard were already publishing newer styles of music. Supporters of traditional worship hoped the newer styles were a fad, while younger people cited Psalms 96,1, prior to the late 1990s, many felt Sunday morning was a time for hymns, and young people could have their music on the other six days. A modern worship renaissance helped make it clear any musical style was acceptable if true believers were using it to praise God, the changes resulted from the Cutting Edge recordings by the band Delirious. The Passion Conferences and their music, the Exodus project of Michael W. Smith, Contemporary worship music became an integral part of Contemporary Christian music. More recently songs are displayed using projectors on screens at the front of the church, and this has enabled greater physical freedom, important propagators of CWM today include Hillsong, Vineyard, Bethel Music and Soul Survivor. As CWM is closely related to the movement, the lyrics. In particular the movement is characterised by its emphasis on the Holy Spirit, personal encounter and relationship with God. Lyrically, the informal, sometimes intimate, language of relationship is employed, slang is used on occasion and imperatives, demonstrating the friendly, informal terms charismatic theology encourages for relating to God personally
10.
Christian rock
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Christian rock is a form of rock music that promotes Jesus and is typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals and bands whose members focus the lyrics on matters of Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands, many bands who perform Christian rock have ties to the contemporary Christian music labels, media outlets, and festivals, while other bands are independent. In 1952 Archibald Davison, a Harvard professor, summed up the sound of traditional Christian music, based upon Archibald Davisons statement it is easy to see how different these two genres of music are. Religious people in regions of the United States did not want their children exposed to music with unruly, impassioned vocals, loud guitar riffs and jarring. Rock and roll differed from the norm, and thus it was seen as a threat, often the music was overtly sexual in nature, as in the case of Elvis Presley, who became controversial and massively popular partly for his suggestive stage antics and dancing. However, Elvis was a person who even released a gospel album. Individual Christians may have listened to or even performed rock music in many cases and he Touched Me was a 1972 gospel music album by Elvis Presley which sold over 1 million copies in the US alone and earned Presley his second of three Grammy Awards. Not counting compilations, it was his third and final album devoted exclusively to gospel music, the song He Touched Me was written in 1963 by Bill Gaither, an American singer and songwriter of southern gospel and Contemporary Christian music. In the 1960s, rock music developed artistically, attained popularity and became associated with the radical counterculture. This further increased the Christian opposition to rock music, moreover, many saw the music as promoting a lifestyle of promiscuous sex, drugs and rock and roll, also reflected in the behavior of many rock stars. However, there was growing recognition of the musical and ideological potential of rock. One of his songs, Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music, summarized his attitude and his quest to pioneer Christian rock music. Another Christian rock pioneer, Randy Stonehill, released his first album in 1971, in the most common pressing of the album, side one is entirely a live performance. Another early Christian rock album was Mylon by Mylon LeFevre, son of members of the gospel group The LeFevres. He recorded the album with members of Classics IV and released it through Cotillion Records in 1970, petra and Resurrection Band, two of the bands who brought harder rock into the early CCM community, had their origins in the early to mid-1970s. They reached their height in popularity in the late eighties alongside other Christian-identifying hard rock such as Stryper. The latter had played on MTV, one being To Hell with the Devil. Christian rock has proved successful in the UK and Europe, although such artists as Bryn Haworth have found commercial success by combining blues
