Suspected Islamists Shoot 5 Christians to Death in Pakistan

SUKKUR, Pakistan (Compass Direct News) – A dozen masked men shot five Christians to death as they came out of their church building here on July 15, two months after a banned Islamic extremist group sent church leaders a threatening letter, relatives said.

“As we came out of the church, a group of a dozen armed gunmen came and opened fire at us,” said Shahid John, who survived a bullet in his arm. “Fear struck the area. The police arrived 45 minutes after the incident, and we waited for over 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.”

Besides Shahid John, five others were wounded in the attack.

In May church leaders received a letter from Islamic extremist group Sip-e-Sahaba (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba until it was banned) warning the Christians to leave the area, said Kiran Rohail, wife of the slain Rohail Bhatti.

“It said to vacate the land, Christians are not welcomed here, they are polluting our land,” Kiran Rohail said.

The Sip-e-Sahaba and Sunni Tehrik extremist groups are both linked with an area madrassa (Islamic school) whose students had been threatening the church since 2008, Christian sources said.

“In 2008 a group of Muslim students started making threats for the church to vacate the land, as there are only 55 Christian families living in the area,” said the pastor’s widow, Naila John, who also lost her son Salman John in the attack.

The masked gunmen of July 15 had young physiques like those of students, Christian sources said, and their manner of attack indicated they were trained extremists.

The madrassa students that have threatened the church since 2008 belong to the Sunni Tehrik extremist group, the sources said.

Pastor John and Bhatti had reported the threats of the past two years to police, but officers at the local station did not take them seriously, said Naila John.

When they received the threatening letter in May, Pastor John, his son Salman, Bhatti, Gill, Mall and another member of the church, Arif Gill, went to the police station to register a First Information Report (FIR), according to Shahid John.

“Police just took the application but didn’t register the FIR,” he said. “The station house officer just provided two police constables for security.”

On the evening of July 15, the pastor called a meeting to discuss needed security measures, his widow Naila John said. The meeting ended around 7:30 p.m., when they left the building and were sprayed with gunfire.

“No FIR has been registered due to the pressure from the local Islamic groups,” said Kiran Rohail, referring to Sunni Tehrik, Sip-e-Sahaba and the local mosque. “The police came and took our statements, but they didn’t show up again.”

An independent government source confirmed the shooting deaths of the Christians, adding that local Islamist pressure had prevented media from reporting on it.

The church began in 1988, and Pastor John had been leading it since 2001.

Sukkur, in southwest Pakistan’s Sindh Province, has been the site of previous violence against Christians. Last June or July, area Christians said, students from the local madrassa beat Pastor Adnan John of Multan, severely injuring him, after they saw him walking in front of the mosque wearing a cross and holding a Bible. In another instance, the Muslim students prevented Christian students from holding a Christmas program at a park.

In 2006, some 500 Muslims burned down two churches in Sukkur and a convent school on Feb. 19, reportedly over rumors that a Christian threw a copy of the Quran into a trash can. A crowd wielding gasoline bombs torched St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Savior’s Church of Pakistan after media and government sources floated the rumor, but local sources said the violence occurred after a Muslim was arrested for burning pages of the Quran and trying to frame his Christian father-in-law, Saleem Gill, with the deed.

After torching the inside of St. Savior’s, the mob turned on Pastor Ilyas Saeed Masih’s home, then went five minutes away to destroy the 120-year-old St. Mary’s edifice.

[By Compass Direct News|John Little]

Possibili "Tea" (Bess Howard)

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Why A Strategic Plan?

Today's Quote

The most important person in every community on earth is not the governor, the congressman, the senator or even the President. The most important person in every community is the local, Spirit-filled pastor. As goes the pastor, so goes the community.

COG Elects Council of Eighteen

The Council of Eighteen was elected during the Tuesday afternoon session of the General Council. The body of ministry leaders represents the General Council between Assembly periods meeting with the Executive Committee at least three times a year concerning church business, doctrine and polity.

Elected to serve for the 2010-2012 Assembly period were H. Loran Livingston, senior pastor of the Central Church of God in Charlotte, N.C., R. Lamar Vest, executive director of the American Bible Society, M. Thomas Propes, state overseer of the Church of God in South Carolina, Gary W. Sears, senior pastor of Mount Olive Ministries in Cleveland, Tenn., Mitchell Maloney, senior pastor of the North Cleveland Church of God, Donald M. Walker, state overseer for the north Georgia region of the Church of God, Tony Scott, senior pastor in Sylvania, Ohio, J. David Stephens, state overseer of Tennessee, Jerry F. Chitwood, state overseer of western North Carolina, Mark Walker, senior pastor at Mt. Paran North Church of God in Atlanta, John D. Childers, state overseer of Alabama, Ishmael Prince Charles, pastor in Tortola and overseer of the British Virgin Islands, Gerald McGinnis, senior pastor of Park West Church of God in Knoxville, Tenn., Nick Park, overseer of Ireland, David Muguia, president of SEMISUD in Quito, Ecuador, Daniel Vassell, regional overseer of western Canada, Mike Chapman, senior pastor of City Church of Chattanooga, Tenn., and J. Martin Taylor, state overseer of Florida.

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What Search Committees Are Looking for in a Pastor

Demonstrated competence and religious authenticity.

Search committees want pastors who have the ability to do the work required and a genuine religious life that brings together both "head and heart."

Good preacher and leader of worship.

Regional leaders and lay leaders differ regarding what constitutes good preaching. Lay leaders generally care less than judicatory officials whether the sermon reflects careful scholarship and organization and are concerned instead that it relates to their own life and engages them personally.

Strong spiritual leader.

Lay leaders want a pastor with a deep commitment to religious beliefs and an ability to inspire spirituality in others. But many judicatory executives regard this as problematic because of the difficulty of determining who will be a good spiritual leader for a particular congregation.

Commitment to parish ministry and ability to maintain boundaries.

Lay members and search committees generally expect their pastor to be primarily devoted to ministry and take minimal time for other pursuits. This criterion, Lummis suggests, is a key place where lay visions of ideal ministry run counter to current thinking among those who counsel clergy about the importance of maintaining boundaries and the need to find time for other interests.

Available, approachable, and warm pastor with good "people skills."

Regional leaders across denominations cited the pastor’s ability to show church members he or she likes and will care for them as an essential quality search committees try to find. This quality, however, can be situationally specific to the culture of a particular church or region.

Consensus builder, lay ministry coach and responsive leader.

Lay leaders want pastors who are responsive to their concerns, pastors who can initiate ideas to revitalize the church, while soliciting opinions of members and engaging them in putting ideas into operation.

Entrepreneurial evangelists, innovators and transformational reflexive leaders.

This area often presents a disconnect between what churches say they want and what they really want. Many say they want a pastor to help grow the church but don’t want to undertake or think about the necessary changes that will be required.

[from Revitalize Your Church by Mark O. Wilson]

Leadership Development

What’s the #1 differentiator between companies that excel at succession planning and leadership development and those that simply “go through the motions?"

It’s the ownership and commitment of the senior executive team. They believe in its strategic importance and treat it as a high priority. Without this, the typical reaction from every manager is likely to be “What’s the point? We go through the motions every year filling these forms out and nothing happens.”

It not only becomes a demoralizing administrative time-waster, but when leadership positions need to be filled, we’re frustrated with the lack of qualified candidates. Of course, there’s also the frustration of our high potentials regarding lack of feedback, coaching, development opportunities, and any meaningful interest and involvement from their managers.

The message is clear (pick one):

1. Your development is not important to me; it’s not worth the expense or time.

2. I don’t think you have the capacity to grow and change so why bother.

3. You’re a manager – suck it up- you’re on your own when it comes to development.

This lack of commitment and involvement then cascades down and throughout the organization. While there may be pockets of excellence, these overall message is pretty clear – it’s not important, just a “nice-to-do”.

However, with commitment from the top, even the most incompetent HR department couldn’t possibly screw it up. Without it, all of the best process, systems, forms, and programs will have little impact.

If you believe in the importance of getting our next generation of leaders ready to take the helm, then are you ready to take a hard look at your own level of commitment and do what it takes to really make a difference? Take the following executive self-assessment to find your opportunities to improve (or send it to your favorite senior executive).

Rating scale: 5=always, 4=usually, 3=sometimes, 2= rarely, 1=never

1. When it comes to leadership development, I “practice what I preach." I openly discuss my development needs and actions I’m taking to improve.

According to Marshall Goldsmith: “When the senior leader acts like a little god and tells everyone else to improve, this behavior can be copied at every level of management. Every level then points out how the level below it needs to change. The end result: No one gets much better.”

2. I have regular (at least quarterly) conversations with my direct reports about their development. These discussions can include developmental feedback, coaching, or development planning… anything but “the numbers”.

3. My development discussions include both improvements in the current role as well as preparation for future roles.

4. I spend a significant amount of my time coaching, mentoring, providing feedback, and teaching high potential leaders (other than my direct reports). Note: look at your Outlook calendar over the last quarter to verify your assessment.

5. I spend time on a regular basis (at least yearly) with my leadership team assessing talent. This includes reviewing the performance and potential of our direct report managers as well as the identification of emerging high potential leaders.

6. I recognize and reward, and hold my direct reports accountable for the identification and development of high potential talent in their own organizations.

7. When I have a management opening, I’m willing to consider “unlikely” candidates from outside my organization, for the purpose of providing a cross-functional development opportunity.

8. I’m willing to let go of one of my best performers in order to prepare them for a larger leadership role.

9. I regularly have talent discussions with my peers. We take “shared ownership” for the development of leaders, rather than operate in self-serving silos.

10. When I’m traveling, I make sure to schedule time and meet with high potential talent.

11. I use consistent and valid criteria when I assess the performance and potential of my managers (and they are all aware of this criteria).

12. I take action to identify and remove underperformers that are blocking the development and movement of our high potentials.

13. I’m actively involved in company leadership development programs (sponsorship, guest speaker, panel discussions, etc….

Scoring key:

45-65: Congratulations, you’re a leadership development machine!! You’re developing leadership strength for today and for the future. You rock!

30-45: You’re doing some things well, but it’s not enough. Pick 2-3 items to improve and get to work.

0-30: Wassa matta wit you? Well, at least you care enough to take the assessment. It’s never too late to change, but you need to get started today. Read Great Leadership to learn how to get started and good luck!

[from Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy]

Today's Quote

“Church unity comes from corporate humility.” - Leonard Ravenhill

Is It True?

The National Enquirer is reporting that Benny Hinn and Paula White are having an affair.

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