Salem Media Group’s 2024 annual report signals a major financial comeback for the Christian world’s only publicly traded media company. The California-based firm made bold financial moves in 2024, drastically improving its bottom line after a challenging prior year.
Read MoreAmerican men have outpaced women in church attendance, reversing a longstanding trend of more women in the pews that narrowed in 2016, Barna said in its 2025 State of the Church release, created in partnership with Gloo. Women had outpaced men in attendance since 2000, then at 47 percent to 38 percent, before men began outpacing women in 2022.
Read MoreSeminary enrollment is up, according to data collected by the Association of Theological Schools, an accrediting agency for seminaries. For more than three decades, ATS has been releasing its annual data about what is happening in the world of graduate theological education.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Rev. Stephen Tong is a polymath and multitalented person whose stunning range of activities remain firmly and deeply rooted in his Christian faith. He is perhaps most alive in his preaching, which consistently challenges his hearers to follow Jesus Christ to the point of death. This remarkable man is now 85 and rather than slowing down, he asks for prayer that he might live until at least the age of 90 so that he can complete a series of Farewell Gospel Rallies worldwide.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In recent weeks, as peace discussions proceeded among victimized Ukraine, its imperialistic neighbor Russia, pro-Ukraine Europeans and America’s Donald Trump administration, there’s been some vigorous religious debate about this muddled situation.
Read MoreFor centuries, churches have used different methods to calculate the date of Easter. Rarely do they coincide. The search for a common date has also been one of the main issues of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, whose 1,700th anniversary is being celebrated this year. As a result, this could be a year that marks a turning point in the relationship between Eastern and Western churches.
Read More(ANALYSIS) If she were still alive, March 25 would mark Flannery O’Connor’s 100th birthday. This milestone invites us to explore the many ways in which her Catholic faith shaped her literary genius. O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, where Protestantism was the norm. Her decision to follow Catholicism wasn’t just a personal faith choice, but a key part of her identity and a driving force in her writing.
Read More(OPINION) All humanity is royally screwed up. As a result, your family is screwed up. Likely, you are screwed up, too, and your family may have contributed to that screwed-upness. But your ancestry doesn’t have to define your destiny. With God’s help, you can break the cycle of dysfunction, no matter how far back it goes.
Read MoreWalk through the doors of St. Peter’s Church in the English town of Shipley, in West Yorkshire, and this Anglican house of worship can sometimes result in a very unexpected sight. Forget rows of pews leading down to a main altar. Instead, you’ll find a WWE-style ring featuring wrestlers acting out Bible stories to the delight of those watching.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Thirty-eight days have gone by since Feb. 14, when Pope Francis left the Vatican to be hospitalized at the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital. These weeks have been challenging for an 88-year-old patient battling bilateral pneumonia. Medical reports did not downplay the severity of his condition, the crises he endured, or the complexity of his clinical picture.
Read MoreThey lined up on March 2, ready to enter the baptistry at First Southern Baptist Church. College athletes, all of them. Emerging from the water symbolized a new start for them. The pastor’s name is Doyle Pryor. Imagine what a guy named Doyle Pryor would look, sound and be like. Odds are you imagine a preacher with a big personality and even bigger desire to do whatever it takes to reach others for Christ.
Read MoreWhen it comes to basic statistics, the 1960s and ‘70s were the high-water mark for liberal mainline Protestants. Pews were often full and strategic mergers — such as the process that eventually created the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1983 — led to membership totals that inspired ecclesiastical bureaucrats to dream about bold “reforms” in the future (click for a timeline of LGBTQ+ activism in the Episcopal Church).
Read MoreWhen covering a tragedy, faith almost always emerges as a part of the story. That was the case again this past weekend when a monster storm system struck the Deep South and the Plains.
Read More(REVIEW) There’s a kind of soothing boredom that settles in throughout the film. Everything about it is mild. The jokes are gentle. The characters’ anger restrained. The sadness subdued. The animation is beautiful, but unremarkable. The voice actors deliver their lines without much intensity. Because the emotional highs and lows are nonexistent, the experience is more like watching a screensaver.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The goal was to create local educational events about smartphones and digital technology that would let parents interact with representatives from Troomi and other major companies in the “minimalist” phone marketplace — such as Gabb, Bark, Pinwheel and The Light Phone. What happened next?
Read MoreCambodia Christian Ministries models the medical missions it hosts after Jesus’ example, Meierhofer said, referencing Matthew 4:23. About 93% of Cambodia’s 17 million people are Buddhist, making it essential that the Christian nonprofit work within government systems to spread the Gospel.
Read MoreNearly 80 percent of evangelical Protestant pastors reject the scientific consensus that the climate is changing and human actions are a major cause, according to a new report. Only about one-quarter of clergy from other Christian traditions, such as Catholic and mainline Protestants, share this same skepticism.
Read MoreHalf of U.S. Protestant pastors say their churches are growing but some warning signs remain about their congregational future. U.S. Protestant churches are almost evenly split between those that have grown within the past two years and those that are plateaued or declining, according to an Exponential study by Lifeway Research.
Read MoreIn recent years, Nigeria has seen a surge in kidnappings and violent attacks. Christians living in the country’s five southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo have said violence has affected their religious lives.
Read More(OPINION) “Poor wordy little Protestants” — as someone once said — have severed this connection between the church and its visual soul food. Bereft of beauty, Protestant churches have left us to the narcotizing effect of TV and social media, and a daily diet of pap, propaganda and rage. Could new generations and populations be inspired again to aspire to the heights to which those early artists aspired? If so, we'll surely need to get out more.
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