church

The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee on Tuesday disfellowshipped Saddleback Church, citing the congregation's hiring of a female pastor as conflicting with the denomination's statement of faith.

On Sunday afternoon, Philadelphia police discovered an 18-inch pipe bomb behind a Catholic church in Holmesburg. Pennsylvania.

A Southern Baptist youth pastor who was previously placed on administrative leave for giving teens “I ♥ Hot Youth Pastors” stickers has returned from suspension.

Todd Benkert, a Southern Baptist pastor who was on the Southern Baptist Convention’s task force to address sexual abuse policies, has stepped down from the team.

A 72-year-old Indiana woman has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for transferring nearly $574,000 from a Catholic Church and its school into her personal accounts, where she used the money for gambling and vacations.

"For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones'" (Is. 57:15-16).

In this amazing passage, it's clear that if we prepare the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, God will bring the fires of revival. It's a great reminder that His Word always comes to pass. As the lyrics in a popular contemporary worship song attest, "When all hope is gone, and Your Word is all I've got, I have to believe You still bring water from the rock" (Spirit Lead Me).

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns seems, at least to most of us, like an extended nightmare of yesterday. However, some of the ways that our lives changed have stuck with us. For example, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans working primarily from home has tripled since 2019. Many people will never go back to full-time commuting, nor do they want to (though there are signs of a reset on the horizon).

Another change, one even more consequential for individuals and our society, is the large-scale exodus from in-person church services. According to Pew Research, though nearly all houses of worship had resumed regular, in-person services by this time last year, disappointingly few Christians had actually returned. There’s the church, there’s the steeple, open the door … but where are the people?

Have our spiritual enemy and our secularized culture been isolating your soul? Being identified with a denomination or even a local church is not enough. The question is: Are you engaged in intentional community within the body of Christ?

The lead pastor and the executive team of an Association of Related Churches megachurch have resigned.

Half of Protestant churchgoers say their church needs to be more ethnically diverse, according to new Lifeway Research data that also shows pastors are investing more time on the issue than they were six years ago.