world.today

Christmas joy without fear

When the shepherds in the field heard the good tidings of Christ’s birth, they perceived two calls: they were to have great joy and no fear! The birth of the Son of God was to bring joy to all people and make the fear of the individual recede into the background. Do we hear this too?

December 25, 2020

Asia Chief Apostle

+1

• Christmas

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Spotlight 19/2020: Freedom is also an emotion

How do you define freedom? The determining factors are not always verifiable and objective. Freedom is often just the feeling of being free. Even the man Jesus was torn back and forth in His feelings. District Apostle Peter Schulte, who lives in Australia and looks after the Western Pacific district, explores the subject.

December 22, 2020

annual motto

+2

• Australia / Pacific
• District Apostle

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Donors focus more on projects

The donors of the aid organisation human aktiv are making more targeted donations. This is reflected in the recently published financial report for 2019 by the institution of the New Apostolic Church Southern Germany.

December 21, 2020

Africa

+6

• America
• charity work
• congregation
• Easter
• Event
• Youth

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At home worldwide: learning, giving, rethinking

Things never stay the same for long. This applies to many areas of life, also when it comes to church. Here are three stories on learning, giving, and rethinking.

December 9, 2020

Africa

+11

• Chief Apostle
• Christmas
• congregation
• District Apostle
• divine service
• doctrine 
• Event
• ministry
• Music
• Pastoral care
• Youth

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A surplus in donations put to immediate use

More donations, more funding for projects: this is the formula that sums up the year 2019 for the charity nak-karitativ. The recently published annual report makes it clear how necessary this was and is.

December 7, 2020

Africa

+3

• charity work
• Chief Apostle
• Easter

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Equally created in the image of God, and equal in commission too

Both in terms of organisation and content, the most recent District Apostle Meeting was dominated by the coronavirus crisis. Yet not even the pandemic was able to stop the work that needed to be done on the future-oriented topics on the agenda of this conference.

December 2, 2020

America Australia / Pacific

+9

• Chief Apostle
• congregation
• District Apostle
• divine service
• doctrine 
• Holy Communion
• Organisation
• Pentecost
• sacraments

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A man who said yes and stayed true

A faithful servant of the Church, that sounds like the perfect caption for the life of Johann Rissik Kitching, who was responsible for the fate of the New Apostolic Church in Southern Africa for many years. Who was this man? Let us take a look back in honour of his 100th birthday.

November 30, 2020

Africa

+14

• apostolate
• Chief Apostle
• congregation
• District Apostle
• divine service
• doctrine 
• grieving
• investiture
• ministry
• Pastoral care
• Profile
• retirement
• Thanksgiving Day
• Youth

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At home worldwide: Sharing joy and sorrow

Life is varied. Misery and elation alternate, and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is making it difficult not to feel overwhelmed. But there are always hopeful little stories that encourage and point to a better future. Here is a small glimpse.

November 25, 2020

Australia / Pacific

+11

• Christmas
• congregation
• District Apostle
• divine service
• doctrine 
• Easter
• history 
• investiture
• ministry
• Music
• Pastoral care

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Jesus dries our tears

The sermon was about weeping, but the situation was anything but sad! On the contrary, those who weep are to be consoled. This was the message of the Chief Apostle during a divine service in Strasbourg (France) on 15 November 2020.

November 24, 2020

America

+6

• Chief Apostle
• congregation
• divine service
• Easter
• grieving
• Pastoral care

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Law and justice—two completely different beasts?

Who is in the right? An often heard question. Whom will the law favour? That is already a more difficult question to answer. But having the law on your side is not necessarily the same thing as actually being right. And what is justice anyway? Where does it start? Where does it end? A few words on the subject...

November 19, 2020

America

+4

• doctrine 
• Europe
• history 
• society

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Pastoral care (08): a big heart for little children

Who cares for the children? Their parents, of course, but also the teachers, the whole congregation, and naturally also the ministers. But how can they help? And what are the special challenges of pastoral care for children?

November 17, 2020

Children

+5

• congregation
• divine service
• doctrine 
• Pastoral care
• Social commitment

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United over thousands of kilometres

The pandemic forces people to keep a distance from one another. This also applies to the regularly occurring conference of the international Church leaders. In some respects, a digital conference of the District Apostles is uncharted territory, and the preparations for it were quite complex and involving.

November 16, 2020

Africa

+5

• America
• Australia / Pacific
• Chief Apostle
• District Apostle
• Organisation

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Local, regional, and countrywide

Fewer central video services, more local broadcasts: the number of transmissions is increasing. The goal in Europe is to have more service transmissions from local congregations.

November 13, 2020

Chief Apostle

+4

• congregation
• divine service
• Europe
• Local news

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Where’s the fire?

The return of Christ: this is the goal of faith for all New Apostolic Christians. Yet the fire of Christian anticipation of His imminent return was ignited long before the modern age. Following is a summary of 2,000 years of history.

November 9, 2020

apostolate

+6

• concept of salvation for the departed
• doctrine 
• Europe
• history 
• ministry
• society

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Good things come to those who wait

USA, Japan, Germany: these are the stages in Shawn Beasley’s life. His path of faith is even a little longer. Join us on a journey of faith and discovery.

November 5, 2020

America

+3

• confessions
• congregation
• divine service

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The best of nacworld are its members

nacworld is made up of thousands of lines of code and high-performance servers. The actual heart of this network, however, are the hundreds of thousands of personal posts, media, and news items. The Church is now making these available for the members to download.

November 2, 2020

congregation

+4

• Europe
• Event
• history 
• Youth

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Bringing people together again in church

From “lockdown since March” to “divine services almost everywhere” it’s all there. This is how differently Covid-19 is affecting the church life of New Apostolic Christians around the globe. And the solutions are just as varied.

October 22, 2020

Africa America

+10

• Asia
• Australia / Pacific
• Buildings
• congregation
• divine service
• doctrine 
• Europe
• Holy Communion
• sacraments
• Youth

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Defeating hunger with fish and sesame

NAK-karitativ is applying a whole bundle of aid measures to help defeat the hunger crisis affecting the people of Burkina Faso. It began by cultivating sesame seeds and establishing farmers' co-operatives, as well as savings and credit groups. Further relief measures are now underway…

September 30, 2020

Africa

+2

• charity work
• doctrine 

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Between Thanksgiving and the service for the departed

In the northern hemisphere, the month of October is often described as a “golden” month: it still brings quite a bit of sunshine, boasts some beautiful sunsets, and paints the leaves of the trees in fabulous hues. This only serves to reinforce the realisation that God’s creation is wonderful!

September 28, 2020

concept of salvation for the departed

+3

• divine service
• doctrine 
• Thanksgiving Day

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Explaining the Bible to children

Anyone who has grown up with Bible stories will likely still remember very specific images. These may have been beautiful pictures from a lovingly illustrated children’s Bible, or perhaps some especially unsettling pictures that you wanted to look at again and again in fascination as a child. This clearly shows us that telling the stories is not the only important thing.

September 24, 2020

Bible study

+2

• Children
• congregation

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Mozambique: mapping the New Apostolic Church (Part 3)

Thousands of pictures, GPS coordinates, addresses, phone numbers. Bishop Alvin Witten and his wife, Jean, are gathering enormous amounts of data. What is going to happen with all the data and who will have access to it?

September 23, 2020

Africa

+5

• Asia
• Buildings
• congregation
• divine service
• Profile

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Let peace enter

“When peace with the Father attendeth my way”—an oft sung hymn in Christian churches. Peace with God is certainly right at the top of the list for Christians, but what about peace with one another? Some reflections on the occasion of the International Day of Peace.

September 21, 2020

America Europe

+1

• history 

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Pastoral care (6): Trust needs space

Children are our future—this sentence is not only true, but it must also be verifiable. This also applies to the Church’s pastoral care, which may be confidential, but should not take place in secret. A great deal of mindfulness is required of all involved.

September 17, 2020

congregation

+5

• doctrine 
• investiture
• ministry
• Pastoral care
• society

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A once derelict church restored

In 2014 the congregation in Somerset in Cape Town (South Africa) moved into a different place of worship. The congregation’s new home is an old Dutch Reformed Church that was taken over by the New Apostolic Church and renovated. The building is over 200 years old.

September 14, 2020

Africa

+6

• Buildings
• Chief Apostle
• congregation
• District Apostle
• divine service
• history 

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How miracles happen nowadays

Miracles are not the solution—they are merely a reference to it. Rather, it is more about performing miracles of our own and sending a signal—or showing a kind of sign—in the process. How, why, and to what end? Following are some points from a divine service with the Chief Apostle.

September 9, 2020

Africa

+5

• apostolate
• Chief Apostle
• congregation
• divine service
• doctrine 

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Of fountains and springs and a church

The New Apostolic Church in Bad Schwalbach has an unusual church building. Though it was dedicated in 1875 as an Anglican Church, the Anglican congregation left their little chapel some 54 years later. In 1957 in was purchased by the New Apostolic Church, and serves its members as a place of worship to this very day.

August 27, 2020

America

+6

• Buildings
• congregation
• divine service
• Europe
• history 
• Youth

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don't miss

… the church comes to the believer

Lockdown, bans on assembly, no divine services—in many places, believers cannot gather together in the church. For them the offer of divine service by video continues.

August 28, 2020

Chief Apostle doctrine 

+5

• sacraments
• Holy Communion
• concept of salvation for the departed
• divine service
• congregation

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“Onward, upward, homeward…” in stereo

When Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider sets off for the Good Friday divine service, he will also be following a cultural connection that will most likely be familiar to friends of modern art. It has to do with a sculpture that reminds us of a hymn from our choir book: "Onward, upward, homeward..." — a brief page view:

April 2, 2015

Good Friday Chief Apostle

+3

• District Apostle
• divine service
• America

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“A decision with long-term goals in mind”

The New Apostolic Church in Angola is growing. It was time to take another step. Since last Sunday, the country has its own District Apostle Helper: João Uanuque Misselo.

February 25, 2015

Chief Apostle District Apostle

+6

• apostolate
• doctrine 
• congregation
• Pastoral care
• Organisation
• Africa

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