There is an earnest search among the believers across the world for a real Church where a person can commune with God and relate to his fellow brethren. After trials and experiments the Indian Church is forming “Troop Church”.

The Army of Jesus was experimenting with the “Troop Church” for the past 19 years. Started in the year 1998. The experiment with Troop Church has been successful.

1. It has independent first line second and third line Troop Churches
2. It has raised many leaders, prophets, counselors and other ministers and gospel workers.
3. It has no visible leader or hierarchical structure
4. It has no office, no full timer, no paid worker etc.
5. No organizational (hierarchical) set up.
6. No money collection or transaction.
7. No election, board, Committee etc.
8. Every Troop Church trains up believers in their gifts like worshipping, preaching, prophecy etc.
9. Since the mother troop disperses and starts new troops after 2 months, there is no stagnancy.
10. No pollution or corruption with money or power.
11. The two wings of Troop Church are Decentralisation and Multiplication.

Family Looks for Answers after Christian Boy Beaten to Death in Pakistan

On their son’s third day of high school, the parents of 17-year-old Sharoon Masih learned that he had been in a fight, had suffered a serious injury, and been taken to the hospital. They rushed to the hospital and there found him dead. “The boys from his class who had brought him there told us that he died in the classroom,” said his mother, Razia Bibi, a Christian woman in a predominantly Muslim country.

Police said that on Aug. 27 another student at the school — in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province — kicked Sharoon in the stomach and that he died of internal injuries. The student charged in his death now awaits trial, but police are not calling the attack a hate crime. However, many Christian Pakistanis, who make up less than two percent of the country’s population, suspect the teenager was targeted because of his religion. Christians, they say, are often forced to occupy the lowest rungs of the social ladder, and are regularly discriminated against in education, employment and housing. Advocates for Christians in Pakistan note that another Christian boy was killed violently this year: On Oct. 9, police killed a 14-year-old Christian boy in an incident still under investigation. Pakistan is fourth on the list of 50 countries that the U.S.-based nonprofit Open Doors — which advocates for persecuted Christians — lists as the most difficult in which to be a Christian.

Asif Aqeel, a Pakistani journalist and advocate for the rights of religious minorities, said discrimination against Christians is so blatant that some government advertisements for janitorial jobs state that only non-Muslims should apply. Aqeel said that a disproportionate number of Christians work as cleaners in government offices.

 

Missouri Satanist Challenges Pro-Life Laws as ‘Religious Tenets’

Pro-abortion activists have adopted a new legal strategy against pro-life laws in Missouri, challenging them as violations of religious liberty protections. In 2016, a self-avowed Satanist sued the state, claiming its abortion regulations are “religious tenets” and therefore a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Missouri’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA). The case now heads to the state’s Supreme Court for what could be a final decision.

 

North Korean Defector Shares Horrors of Living under Kim Jong-un’s Regime

A North Korean refugee said that children and infants are “dying without hope” in the country. Grace Jo, 26, is now studying at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, but the woman said in an interview this week with Fox News that the world must try to end Kim Jong-un’s regime. Grace Jo and her family escaped three times to China, but each time the family was captured and taken back to North Korea.

"Please kindly be reminded that a large number of underground Christians are within North Korea. They are the most persecuted religious group in the world, according to international religious freedom watchdogs groups. As I pray your team accepts upon deep reflection, it would be decidedly un-Christian to countenance indiscriminate killings of those who are among the people in the world who suffer the most," Park wrote in an open letter to President Donald Trump earlier this month.

 

Two Christians Hospitalized in Critical Condition After Brutal Assault on Church in India

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Christians attending a worship service in Jaripara village, located in the Dantewada District of India's Chhattisgarh State, were brutally assaulted by suspected Hindu radicals on Sunday, October 15. According to witnesses, a mob of more than 300 attacked the Bastar for Christ Movement (BCM) Church and beat the congregants, leaving nine seriously injured, including two in critical condition at the government hospital in Dantewada. According to witnesses, more than 300 people encircled the BCM Church around noon on October 15 as a worship service was being conducted. The mob then disrupted the service, dragging Christian worshipers out of the church and into the street. There, the mob ordered the Christians to renounce their faith. When the Christians refused, the mob attacked and beat the Christians with sticks and slippers. Christian women were stripped by the mob and even Christian children were not spared. The mob then vandalized the BCM Church and set fire to the church's furniture.

Local police refused to file a First Information Report (FIR) when the Christians contacted the police. According to local Christians, Hindu radicals had filed an FIR on the Christians prior to the attack. Jaripara's Christians had to protest for more than 24 hours to have police accept their complaint about the brutal attack and it remains doubtful that local police will bring the perpetrators to justice.

 

Will Church School be Forced to Ban Bible, Crosses, and Religious Assembly?

Parents of students at a church school in England have issued complaints leading to a decision by the school to ban a Christian charity. According to ChristianToday.com, St. John’s Church of England Primary School in Tunbridge Wells is now also considering banning crosses, Bibles, and the presence of Church of England clergy at school assemblies. The school has already banned CrossTeach, a Christian charity, whose members interacted with students and allegedly told them that “men can’t marry men” and that “they would not go to a good place when they died” if they did not believe in God.  “This dispute in Tunbridge Wells is highlighting the inability of both our government and the Church of England to effectively preserve freedom of religion and diversity. As the bullies are allowed to have their way, all suffer,” said Sanlon.

 

Though ISIS is Losing Ground, War May be Lost if Christians Can’t Return Home

A Catholic charity has said that despite victories against the Islamic State terror group, unless world leaders make a change, ISIS may still destroy the Christian population in Iraq and Syria. "We have seen drastic reductions in the Christian populations in many nations in the Middle East. Iraq might very well have lost 80 percent of their native Christian people," Edward Clancy, ACNUSA director of outreach, told The Christian Post in an email interview on Wednesday. "Syria might have lost 50 percent. This is compounded by the fact that Christian families have not been secure enough to have many children. The loss of population and the very low birth rate will put great pressure on the Christian communities. "If we do not help these ancient Christian communities, ISIS might very well have lost the battles but won the war."

"Our solace is knowing that whenever Christians have faced terrible odds, great miracles have happened. Christianity has survived and endured, but we needn't wait for miracles. We can act. We can help. We should do both." Middle East church leaders said they feel “forgotten” by the international community. "They need our help. It is more than just guaranteeing property rights for returning families. The security of their communities is a major issue. It is about leaders not being afraid to say that these Christians belong in their ancestral towns and that they deserve to be supported and protected," Clancy said.

 

Will Christians in America Face More Persecution?

 A New Jersey teacher was suspended for giving a student a Bible. A football coach was placed on leave for praying on the field. The Atlanta fire chief was fired for self-publishing a book defending Christian morality. A Marine was court-martialed for refusing to remove a Bible verse on her desk. A senator castigated a political nominee for his evangelical theology. Christian groups like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship have been expelled from college campuses. It’s hard for evangelical Christians not to feel that our culture is increasingly antagonistic toward our faith and values today.

Obviously, American Christians should not compare the opposition we face with the persecution being suffered in countries such as North Korea, Somalia, and Iraq. But Mary Eberstadt is right: “Something new has snaked its way into the village square: an insidious intolerance for religion that has no place in a country founded on religious freedom.” How should we respond?

God wants his people to work for the common good regardless of how society treats us. He instructed his people exiled in Babylon to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf” (Jeremiah 29:7). The apostles led a movement that met physical, social, and spiritual needs so effectively that they won “favor with all the people” (Acts 2:47).

Conversely, one of the ways God redeems persecution is by using it to remind us that this world is not our home: “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). We are “sojourners and exiles” in this fallen world (1 Peter 2:11), knowing that this life is a journey and heaven is our destination. Paul called his ministry team “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He courageously advanced the agenda of his King in distant lands while preparing every day to return home.

 

China: House Church Leader, Daughter, and Grandson Arrested for Sharing Faith in Public

China continues its crackdown on Christians. In the most recent report of persecution, a Chinese house church pastor, her daughter, and her grandson were arrested for expressing and sharing their faith in public. Their exact whereabouts following the arrest are unknown. Xu had previously had a run-in with authorities when her house church was seized by officials and placed under the supervision of China’s state-run Three-Self Patriotic Movement church. China’s government under President Xi Jinping recently added new religious regulations which restrict religious expression to an even greater extent.

“The new religion regulations are sweeping in scope and, if fully enforced, could mean major changes for China’s unregistered church, not only in its worship and meeting practices, but also engagement in areas such as Christian education, media, and interaction with the global church,” wrote China Source president Brent Fulton.