The lead pastor of Central Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, has resigned after confessing to a “pattern of moral failure,” according to an announcement posted earlier this month on the church’s website. While the announcement is now deleted, the text of it is still visible on Google’s search page.
Read MoreA Church of Christ congregation is experiencing renewed growth through its bilingual ministry. Led by Costa Rican-born minister Diego Rojas, the church holds English and Spanish services, occasionally worshiping together to foster inclusion. Supported by the Herald of Truth’s MESA initiative, the church has welcomed over 200 Spanish speakers from 15 countries.
Read MoreDaniel Floyd took the reins last Sunday at scandal-scarred Gateway Church, the multicampus congregation whose founder, Robert Morris, faces a criminal child sexual abuse trial next month. Floyd pledged a “new chapter” for Gateway, which reportedly lost members and tithe dollars after details of Morris’s alleged crimes became public.
Read MoreOne of the traits that makes Maine and New England a fertile area for the Gospel is the same one that leaves many an out-of-state missionary asking, “What did I do?” “People can misinterpret ‘honest’ as ‘mean,’” said Mike Nerney, executive director for the Maine Baptist Association. “People here are extremely open, and they’ll tell you exactly how things are and what they’re thinking.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) To create our new typology of the nones, we used a bit of machine learning. In this case, it was k-means clustering. It’s a pretty simple process, really. You pick some variables that you think that might be meaningful in creating categories and then let the algorithm find commonalities in the dataset.
Read MoreIn a country known for its spices, yoga, the Taj Mahal and Hinduism, a movement is taking place to show the world that Christianity came to India as early as the first century CE. Indian Christians believe their history and heritage can be traced back to Saint Thomas the Apostle.
Read More(OPINION) Back in 2023, I wrote that I was “both frustrated and mesmerized” by the first season of this docuseries. “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” was a behind-the-scenes story of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their children, the stars of the TLC hit television series “19 and Counting” and a number of spin-offs.
Read More(ANALYSIS) When someone says the term “Culture War,” the first issues that usually come to mind are access to abortion or same-sex marriage. These are two of the most well-known ‘social issues’ in American religion and politics over the last several decades.
Read More(ANALYSIS) There is an ongoing push to make chaplains available in public schools across the United States. Chaplains, also called spiritual caregivers, are religious professionals who work in secular institutions and can be of any tradition or none at all. Indiana is currently considering a bill that would allow chaplains in public schools to provide “support services.”
Read MoreMore than 250 people packed the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center in Moscow, Idaho, last Friday evening for a live recording of “Sons of Patriarchy,” a podcast dedicated to exposing what its producers describe as abuse within Christ Church Moscow and Pastor Doug Wilson’s broader religious movement.
Read MoreFew pastors leave the pulpit each year, but those who do mostly say it was a personal decision. According to a Lifeway Research study of former senior pastors in four Protestant denominations who stepped down before retirement age, four in five (81%) felt sure during most of their ministry at their last church that they could stay there as long as they wanted.
Read MoreMost U.S. adults (52 percent) said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church as an institution in 2019, the last year a majority held that belief. In 2018, confidence levels fell below 40 percent for the first time. They edged above that mark in 2020 — only to drop back below in 2021 and even further in 2022.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Among the little-noticed aspects of the 2024 U.S. election is Muslims’ substantial 33% vote for Donald Trump — with a remarkable 42% backing from those who attend mosque weekly. That’s an increase from past elections.
Read MoreA customer service representative can be central to carrying out a religious organization’s mission in the same way a pastor is, a federal appeals court ruled, shielding the employer from federal nondiscrimination statutes.
Read MoreThe case of a high school football coach praying on the field has been in the spotlight since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling. But another football controversy first emerged in 2015, when two Christian schools made it to the state championships. The games were run by the state’s athletic association. Officials barred them from conducting a prayer over the loudspeaker before kickoff.
Read MoreAs students head back to the classroom, they’re likely to see the impact of local churches in their schools this year. A Lifeway Research study found that four in five U.S. Protestant pastors identify at least one way their congregations have engaged with local public schools in the last year. Only 18% of churches say they weren’t involved with area schools.
Read More(ANALYSIS) My first book was entitled “The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going.” It was published — what feels like a lifetime ago — in 2021. I’m pretty proud of that little volume because it established my approach to thinking about non-religion in the United States.
Read MoreA Houston pastor released from prison has returned to lead the church he helped build. Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of 14,000-member Windsor Village Church, returned to the church’s stage to lead worship on Aug. 3. It marked his first time attending services since he was released from prison last year.
Read MoreIn the post-pandemic era, it appears that more and more Americans are conducting their spiritual searches in multiple sets of pews or, perhaps, attending one church in person and another via digital streaming. It’s a seeker-friendly, mix-and-match approach.
Read MoreActivist Hooman Khalili hopes to inspire Iranian women to resist abuse and terrorism through murals displayed on college campuses across the United States. The murals, he said, are meant to spark civil discourse — especially among students — and draw attention to the fight for human rights in Iran at a time when all the focus is on Gaza and Ukraine.
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