As expected, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted the following resolution:

"Resolved, that the ELCA commit itself to finding ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships."

The vote was 619-402.

Update: Late this afternoon, the assembly also voted 559-451 to allow "people in such publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered leaders of this church."

Much of the debate was not over sexual orientation but rather on sexual relationships and activity.

Delegate Al Quie, the former governor of Minnesota, had offered a resolution earlier in the day: "Rostered leadership of this church who are homosexual in their self understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relations and practicing homosexual persons are precluded from rostered leadership in this church." (That resolution was defeated.)

"We are today part of a church denomination that is changing, and it will make possible sexual moral standards that are contrary to the Bible — which is what brings Jesus closer to us," Quie said (he was quoted by the Associated Press).

There's another vote tonight on a resolution outlining some of the specifics in which the church will make allowances for members and clergy "in a publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationship." But given the outcome of the other votes this week, it's sure to pass.

Posted by Ted Olsen at August 21, 2009 | Comments (100)

United Methodists have defeated amendments that would have made church membership open to all Christians regardless of sexual orientation and furthered the creation of a new, U.S.-only governing body, according to the denomination's news service.

Delegates at the United Methodist Church's General Conference last year approved the sexual orientation amendment, as well as several others that would have changed how the international church is governed. But the amendments failed to gain support from two-thirds of the denomination's annual conferences, as required by church law. The conferences voted in May and June.

Twenty-seven of the 44 regional conferences that reported voting results rejected the amendment that would have made membership in local churches open to "all persons, upon taking vows declaring the Christian faith, and relationship in Jesus Christ," according to United Methodist
News Service.

The amendment followed a controversial case in 2005 in which a Virginia clergyman denied membership to a gay man who would not agree to change his sexuality. The UMC's high court later backed the pastor's decision.

The complicated amendments to church polity in the UMC, which counts 8 million members in the U.S. and about 3.5 million more in Asia, Africa and Europe, was seen by some as a way to make it easier for Americans to pass pro-gay resolutions.

"It is only thanks to the African and other international delegates that United Methodism has upheld biblical standards about homosexuality," Mark Tooley, a Methodist and president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, warned in April.

"Liberals increasingly resent the growing African influence in our church and know they cannot win when the African churches are growing and the U.S. church declines, unless they can at least partially separate the U.S. church from the African churches," he wrote in lobbying against the amendments.

Advocates for the changes say it would have allowed local churches to be more responsive to cultural contexts without interference from a large, churchwide bureaucracy.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at July 30, 2009 | Comments (13)

Many mainline Protestant churches still struggle to fill the pews, as evidenced by a multi-million dollar advertising campaign from the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

People drop away from church attendance. Young people are not interested.

So how can church improve? What can the church do for you? Or maybe it’s not the church’s problem.

Actually, it may be our own fault.

In the early days of the church, Christianity grew incredibly. The apostles purposefully traveled long distances to spread the good news, took the time to talk face to face with others, and spend time with new believers.

Thanks to the web and internet technology, we don’t need to budge to talk to someone on the other side of the world.

However, we don’t really talk to people anymore, either; we communicate by mediums such as cell phones, computers. In our love for technology and gadgets, we may have lost that human touch and sense of community.

Of course, we have to adapt to meet cultural needs, and technology has always been willing to lend a helping hand. In earlier days, when illiteracy was widespread, stained glass windows depicting Bible scenes helped people grasp the stories. Nowadays, the problem is that we get bored and distracted easily.

It is difficult to simply sit and listen, and it is common for a church to have a PowerPoint on a big screen marking the major points of a sermon.

But PowerPoints are staid compared to a new trend: Twittering in church

Some people are quick to embrace this form of communication, and want to use it in their own churches. Pastor John Voelz of Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich. is accredited with this idea of using Twitter in church, and has others asking him, “Got any tips to persuade church leadership this is way cool?”

Early Christians didn’t have to worry about making the message look like the latest fad, or be apologetic about taking the time to converse with people. Sometimes, things are hard and boring! Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples succumbed to naps instead of praying. During Paul’s journeys, he talked so long that a poor guy fell asleep while propped up against the window, fell out of it, died and was raised back to life.

We minimally accommodate ourselves and expect the church to meet our needs, our expectations. Give us a reason to show up. Make it easy for us to pay attention.

When people cannot focus on an hour long sermon, it is time to take a step back and reexamine both our faith and culture.

Posted by Tim Morgan at May 29, 2009 | Comments (11)

Think the churches in your neighborhood don't get along? Then, this should put things in perspective: The pastor of Rubaga Miracle Centre in Kampala, Uganda, has accused the pastor of Omega Healing Centre of trying to destroy his reputation by 1) kidnapping and torturing his personal aide and 2) bribing the aide to accuse him of sexually abusing boys.

Omega Healing Centre's pastor, Michael Kyazze, denies he was involved in kidnapping:

I have never been engaged in as nefarious and criminal an act of kidnapping. My struggle has been and will continue to be the fight for the increasing number of victims of sodomy in our society. If it has been interpreted as an effort to discredit Pastor Kayanja, then it is both unfortunate and a dangerous insinuation.

This comes soon after an assistant pastor of Omega Healing Centre was arrested while trespassing at Rubaga Miracle Centre, allegedly while trying to investigate Kayanja .

The aide is currently recovering in a Kampala hospital.

Uganda’s New Vision reported the story and says it highlights growing tension among competing Pentecostal churches. The Daily Monitor says "Cases of alleged homosexuality in churches have now become common." New Vision says rival pastors also accuse each other of witchcraft.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 30, 2009 | Comments (4)

This week's Gospel Coalition Conference - the second one open to the public - was packed out. About 3,400 registered participants meant breakout sessions and the main assemblies overflowed, with people sitting on the floor and peeking in from the hallways.

And these participants were overwhelmingly young men. I tried counting from my seat and came up with about 20 men per woman - not too surprising in a mid-week conference for pastors with Calvinist and complementarian views. Don Carson estimated that 80 percent were under forty.

The theme was based on 2 Timothy, a letter from a pastor near the end of his life to a young pastor. It was clear, especially in John Piper's sermon and the panel discussion at the end, that TGC see themselves in that role of pastoring pastors.

As far as the conference itself goes, clearly it's come a long way since 2007, when Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was able to fit everyone on their campus. The lineup of speakers continues to represent a very broad range of styles (John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, among others). Nevertheless, it's also a place where someone can say "peculiar unction" and be understood by all.

But it's no longer just a conference. One of the few non-sermon events was an introduction, led by Keller and Don Carson, to forming official chapters of the Gospel Coalition. Those will have a virtual existence on The City (a social networking site developed at Mars Hill). They're also expected to facilitate face-to-face meetings and conferences. On three separate occasions, people told me TGC seemed like a nascent denomination.

Some sessions are well worth listening to: Keller on contemporary idols, Driscoll on dealing with difficult people, Ajith Fernando on preaching the uniqueness of Christ in a pluralistic society (there doesn't seem to be an available audio file on this), and the second half of the panel discussion, where Keller, Piper, Ligon Duncan, and Crawford Loritts talk about suffering (also not online).

Posted by Susan Wunderink at April 24, 2009 | Comments (6)

Books & Culture Editor John Wilson likes David Dark's new book, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, but he has some searching questions for the author. Here's the podcast of his discussion with Stan Guthrie.

Posted by Stan Guthrie at April 9, 2009 | Comments (0)

Some observers point to the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) as evidence that religion is finally in decline in the United States. However, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge say the nation's free-market principles of innovation and competition help keep religion vibrant.

Religion, no less than software or politics, is a competitive business, where organization and entrepreneurship count. Religious America is led by a series of highly inventive "pastorpreneurs" -- men like Bill Hybels of Willow Creek or Rick Warren of Saddleback. These are far more sober, thoughtful characters than the schlock-and-scandal televangelists of the 1970s, but they are not afraid to use modern business methods to get God's message across.

The authors, who this week are releasing their book God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World (Penguin), have nothing to say in their Wall Street Journal article about how the forces of capitalism may affect orthodoxy for good or ill. But it is probably fair to say that reports of religion's death have been greatly exaggerated.

Posted by Stan Guthrie at April 7, 2009 | Comments (5)

A pastor was shot and killed during his sermon today at a church in a village in Illinois, the Associated Press reports. The pastor deflected the first round of bullets with his Bible, which the 150 congregants initially thought was a skit.

The gunman strode down the aisle of the sprawling First Baptist Church shortly after 8 a.m. and briefly spoke with The Rev. Fred Winters, then pulled out a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and began firing until it jammed, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said. Churchgoers wrestled the gunman to the ground as he waved a knife, slashing himself and two other people, Trent said.

The pastor was standing on an elevated platform to deliver his sermon about finding happiness in the workplace before the shooting happened, the AP writes.

Authorities didn't know whether Winters, a married father of two who had led the church for nearly 22 years, knew the gunman. Police described the gunman as a 27-year-old from nearby Troy but would not release his name pending possible charges.

This evening, the congregants gathered for prayer, as the pastor's colleague urged mourners to be resilient after the "attack from the forces of hell."

One of the last shootings in a church took place at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where a man opened fire in a parking lot.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at March 8, 2009 | Comments (3)

The general secretary of the Assemblies of God has resigned after admitting to ethical misconduct, the denomination announced February 13.

The resignation of John M. Palmer, who served in the position since November 2007, was immediate.

General Superintendent George O. Wood, the denomination's chief executive officer, said Palmer "confessed to a one-time incident that involved ethical misconduct and an inappropriate interaction with a woman that did not involve any physical intimacy," reported the church's News and Information Service.

The general secretary maintains information about the denomination's ministers and churches, oversees the chartering of churches and credentialing of ministers and keeps official statistics about the Pentecostal religious organization based in Springfield, Mo.

In a statement, Wood said he was "deeply saddened" about "this failure" and asked for prayers for Palmer and his family.

"John has had a sterling record in the Assemblies of God as a church planter, pastor, and national leader," said Wood. "This failure on his part is an aberration from a lifetime of faithful service to the Lord, his family and our fellowship."

Wood expressed hopes that, after a "period of rehabilitation yet to be determined," Palmer would be able to return to ministry.

The executive presbyters, who serve as the board of directors for the denomination, are expected to appoint an interim replacement for Palmer to serve until the General Council, the major biennial meeting of the Assemblies of God, in August.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 18, 2009 | Comments (44)

The pastor of Willow Creek Chicago, megachurch Willow Creek Community Church's city campus, resigned and admitted to "sexual impurity," according to Chicago breaking news.

In 2006, the Rev. Steve Wu began leading Willow Creek Chicago, launching Willow Creek's fifth campus. Willow Creek is the second largest megachurch in the United States with more than 20,000 members, according to a database by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

According to the article, a church elder read a statement to the Willow Chicago congregation on January 25 announcing Wu's resignation, saying the pastor "admitted to sexual impurity and has taken full responsibility for his sin. He has expressed a desire to participate in a restoration process." The statement also said that Todd Katter has agreed to serve as interim campus pastor while the church searches for Wu's replacement.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 17, 2009 | Comments (16)

I've been suffering for CT at the National Pastors Convention in, uh, San Diego. Yet despite the gorgeous locale and weather, there is, as usual, palpable angst here. The place is full of pastors who are either exhausted, burnt out, frustrated, or missional. They all amount to the same thing: a simmering anger about the church.

For most pastors that anger is directed at stupid lay people, stubborn church boards, or indifferent church bureaucrats. But "the church," and especially "the Western church" or "the American church," is the object of a myriad of derisive and sarcastic comments.

The anger is understandable. Pastors are an idealistic lot, having entered the ministry because they had the mistaken idea that they could make a difference in the world. And the church is standing in their way. I know. I was once a pastor. It's the way this works. I had great ideas for ministering to the community and the world. And all sorts of church people, from laity to church bureaucrats, got in the way. What I could have done in a church without people!

What occurs to very few pastors--I only heard it from Will Willimon and Larry Osborne--is the difficult passion to love the church. To be sure, love can be tough. But love should also be tender.

Not a lot of tender comments about the sheep that these shepherds are responsible for. Lots of desire for transforming the world, becoming a missional outpost, and enough social justicing to make mainline liberals drool with envy. But not much tender love for those people, as Willimon put it, whom Jesus loves and calls into community with him.

As I said, this is understandable. This is a place where pastors need to get their frustrations off their chests. I went to similar conferences when I was a pastor and found them to be blessed weeks of healing and renewal precisely because we talked frankly about our frustrations with our churches. I just wish that at NPC, more of the presenters would not have fed the anger with calls for revolutionizing this and transforming that, which only puts more guilt and even more unrealistic expectations on the shoulders of men and women in pastoral leadership who are trying to love the people for whom Jesus died.

Posted by Mark Galli at February 13, 2009 | Comments (18)

CT's Senior Managing Editor Mark Galli is running around the National Pastors Convention in San Diego, talking to people like Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, and A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically.

He's also using CT's Twitter, that social network that allows you to do some reporting from your phone. The fun part is that Mark has only 140 characters.

Using the #npc09 symbol, Mark will give updates and wants your feedback. What do you want to know about the convention?

I've posted some of his tweets below:

#npc09 Interviewing Rob Bell later today. What ? do you have for him? Tweet markgalli.

#npc09 interviewing AJ "living the Bible literally" Jacobs later. What ? should we ask him?

#npc09 best undiscovered author: Shane Hipps. Has done lots of wise thinking about technology and the gospel.

#npc09 William Willimon preached. Key idea: pastors are called to love the infuriating people that Jesus loves and dies for: the laity

#npc09 Rob Bell: Great interview on his latest book. Thanks especially for the question about putting the gospel in a tweet. He tried :-)

#npc09 AJ Jacob interview: I can see why this guy is so compelling/attractive. He's pretty humble and gracious. Puts some Xians to shame

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 12, 2009 | Comments (1)

Open Doors has released its list of countries where Christians are most persecuted. Their 50-question survey asks both about Christians' legal status and what actually happens to them.

North Korea is at the top of the list for the seventh year in a row. It scored a 90.5, putting it in a category by itself, 32.5 points beyond Saudi Arabia and Iran. "The North Korean regime believes that it will collapse if it fails to stop the spreading of Christianity," Open Doors explains.

They list Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Mauritania, Algeria, India, Nigeria (North), Indonesia, Bangladesh and Kazakhstan as countries where Christians' freedom has deteriorated.

Countries that improved include Bhutan, China, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Sudan (North), Zanzibar Islands, Cuba, Turkey, and Colombia.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at February 4, 2009 | Comments (3)

The Rev. Robert J. Marshall, who led the former Lutheran Church in America and helped lay the groundwork for the church's merger with two other denominations to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died Dec. 22. He was 90.

Marshall, a dedicated ecumenist, was elected president of the Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S., in 1968, according to the ELCA.

He served as president for a decade, helping prepare the LCA to merge with the American Lutheran Church and Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in 1987 to form the 5 million-member ELCA.

Current ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson recalled Marshall as a steady soul who led Lutherans through turbulent times.

"To God we give thanks for the service of the Reverend Dr. Robert James Marshall, who himself became one of those giants among Lutheran leaders who served in the 20th century," Hanson said in a statement.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 30, 2008 | Comments (0)

Sunday Adelaja has been a controversial figure in Kyiv church life for some time. The senior pastor of Embassy of God megachurch has drawn criticism for allegedly overreporting attendance, preaching a prosperity gospel, exaggerating his role in the Orange Revolution, and for his church's relatively flamboyant cultural engagement.

But this time, he faces allegations of criminal misbehavior. Charisma ran a long article about accusations that Adelaja was at the center of a scam that bilked investors - many of them congregants - of $100 million.

Pentecostal leaders allege Adelaja encouraged church members to invest in King's Capital,

But last month, several church members went to authorities saying they were unable to recover the money they invested, which left many of them bankrupt. Police later arrested one of King's Capital leaders, Aleksandr Bandurchenko, on suspicion of fraud.

So far, it's unclear whether King's Capital was a legitimate venture that failed, as Adelaja claims, or a pyramid scheme.

The press release on Embassy of God's website sends some mixed messages, quoting Nehemiah 6:3 ("I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down"), John 8:7 ("If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her"), and Micah 7:8 (Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise). But Adelaja denies he had anything "to do with the King's Capital management, administration, and moreover finances."

Posted by Susan Wunderink at December 19, 2008 | Comments (5)

The Rev. Robert A. Schuller has resigned as senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California after his father, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, said his son would no longer be the sole preacher on the church's "Hour of Power" television program.

In October, the elder Schuller said differences between the two men over the "direction and the vision" of the megachurch and its related television broadcast had led them to "part ways." At that time, the younger Schuller remained as the church's senior pastor while the elder Schuller hosted the broadcast and invited a range of guest speakers to the pulpit.

A statement on Crystal Cathedral's Web site says its executive team has accepted the younger Schuller's resignation and he remains a member of the Reformed Church in America, the denomination with which the church is affiliated.

"It is expected that Robert will make an announcement soon regarding plans for his new ministry," reads the statement. "The leadership and congregation wishes him all the best as his plans unfold."

The Rev. Juan Carlos Ortiz, founder of Crystal Cathedral Hispanic Ministry, has been named interim senior pastor.

Crystal Cathedral spokesman John Charles said the elder Schuller's role has not changed at the ministry. The pulpit is being filled by a rotation of pastors around the country, he said.

As of Monday (Dec. 15), Charles said the younger Schuller had not yet announced his future plans.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 15, 2008 | Comments (10)

The Boston Globe has a great story and video about a company it calls "Microsoft of altar bread."

Mark Arsenault writes about the Cavanagh Company in Rhode Island, which makes 25 million Communion wafers each week and boasts of an 80 percent market share in the United States. Even in a recession, the company's CEO says that sales are up as much as 5 percent this year.

The company noticed a dip in Catholic Church attendance reflected in lower sales in the early part of this decade after the church sex abuse scandal broke.

"We're cautiously optimistic that the numbers have bottomed out and are on the way back up," he said. He thinks the increases may be due to the economy. He also cited the pope's US visit last April, in which the pontiff expressed regret for the scandal.

The Cavanagh Co. also provides wafers for other denominations, such as Lutheran and Episcopal churches, the family said. They bake an entirely different style of altar bread for Southern Baptist churches. Those breads are small white squares. "They probably would double as a great soup cracker," said Andy.

In that spirit, the family revealed last week that they are experimenting with a new, semisecret product line - a secular cracker. Not for dipping in wine, this cracker would be dipped in dip.

Here's a video by the Globe's Scott LaPierre:

Looking to get into the wafer business? The company sells a box of 1,000 standard wafers at $12 or more, twice the wholesale price.

(h/t Michael Paulson)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 2, 2008 | Comments (2)

In light of tightening financial times, and the heightened scrutiny of household spending that follows, some churches are making it easier for congregants to follow the money. Waterfront Community Church in Schaumburg, Illinois, gives 100% of its offerings each week to local households identified by a partnering Christian agency. This practice allows a church member, in pastor Jim Semradek's words, to "see a face on the other side that you're blessing."

How does the church take care of its own operating costs? Eight sponsors cover rent and salaries, freeing it to use all of its offering in this way. The model is an attempt to restore trust in local churches and return mission to the core of their identity. Its mission-minded sponsors believe freeing Waterfront from concerns about its own expenses does just that.

Waterfront is, of course, not alone among local churches experimenting with new budgetary models as it rethinks mission.

Posted by Derek Keefe at November 18, 2008 | Comments (4)

Old news is not interesting. Unless it keeps repeating itself. And then, like a defective CD that keeps sticking at the same place, it's time to do something.

An article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune announces:

Here's the steeple; open the door, and where are the young people?
A survey finds that many youths draw a line between being spiritual and participating in an organized religion.

The story is based on the release of a survey conducted by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, in which nearly 7,000 people were queried about their attitudes towards religion and spirituality.

"Spirituality is bigger than religion," said Peter Benson a co-directors of the Institute's Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. "One of the things we have to focus on now is disentangling spiritual development from religious development."

And this Colorado Springs, in a story about a new congregation called Amplify Church:

The church also ignores traditional Christian rites and rituals in favor of an ultracasual atmosphere. It's just young adults with Bibles, hanging out to rap about their faith.

"Churches have become corporations," [The Rev. Dan] MacFadyen said. "We are trying to take away the corporate baggage and be real."

Being real apparently amounts to meeting in a bar, sitting "at bar tables in near darkness while blinking lights bathed the musicians in bright hues," "where Miller Lite and Budweiser posters, not crosses, hang on the walls," and where the pastor is "forgoing suit and tie in favor of worn jeans, sandals and T-shirt."

Again, not much new or creative here, and yet it speaks to an ongoing distrust among many people (and not just youth) of the church. Then again, we know from other stories, there is a counter-movement towards traditional churches with rich and even complex liturgies.

Actually both movements--away from mere religion and toward liturgy--may be driven by the same thing, something the Minneapolis survey tries to quantify: "The good news for faith communities is that 93 percent of the young people surveyed believe there is a spiritual aspect to life."

Despite rumors to the contrary, we don't live in a secular age. People remain hungry to know God. To me it is silliness to abandon the rich history and tradition of the church. At the same time, it is foolishness for churches to carp at the shallowness of so much spiritual searching.

Posted by Mark Galli at November 11, 2008 | Comments (11)

The Board of Emergent Village announced a new direction for the network last Thursday, which includes the decision "to streamline, decentralize, and reduce expenses by discontinuing the role of National Coordinator."

This move comes in response to feedback from more than 2,000 friends of Emergent given in a survey sent out this past summer. Thursday's announcement reports that "nearly everyone [survey respondents] agreed that emergent is a grass-roots relational network" and that friends of Emergent are wary of "institutionalization" -- becoming "another large nonprofit religious organization building a big budget and staff."

Jones will continue in his role of National Coordinator on a part-time basis through the end of the year and will, according the announcement, "stay actively involved as a passionate participant in this conversation and friendship."

More to come.

Posted by Derek Keefe at November 3, 2008 | Comments (8)

I've been attending the second annual REVEAL Conference at Willow Creek. At the first one, Willow announced that a survey called REVEAL had shown them that a lot of their members had stalled out in their spiritual growth. This was a surprise to Willow leaders, though many long-term critics of Willow shook their heads and said, "We told you so!"

Whatever one's views of seeker-sensitive or market-driven ministry or studies (like REVEAL) that claim to be able to statistically measure spiritual growth, this much is clear: Willow is not the only church that is desperate to learn whether it is being a good and effective servant. The auditorium is filled (I'm guessing 2,000 in attendance) with pastors and staffs from hundreds of churches, and churches of all sizes and shapes.

The conference attendees are mostly white, suburban males, but the presenters have been a healthy mix of suburban/urban, white/black/multicultural churches. Some years ago, Hybels had committed his church to a more multicultural friendly direction, and he has done so, at least from what is presented from the front.

What is more striking, however, is the passion that exudes from the audience as they participate in worship, and applaud or laugh with speakers. This is a leadership group that is desperate to know and follow Jesus, and to lead their congregations and communities into deeper knowledge of God and larger concern for neighbors.

In an age time when many evangelicals seem ambivalent about evangelism, here is a larger group whose hearts burn within them to share the gospel message. In a time when nuanced and sophisticated discussion of hermeneutics abound, here is a group that is more interested in obeying biblical commands we do understand than writing articles on the verses we don't understand. In a time of postmodern doubt and narcissistic self-questioning, here is a group who knows whose they are and what they are called to do in his name.

It's not hard to find things to criticize at a conference based on a survey that traffics in marketing language and the latest business maxims. Really, do we, as one speaker said, "need to completely reinvent spiritual formation" - as if the desert fathers and medieval saints and reformation heroes hadn't already taught about spiritual practices that are supposedly being rediscovered by a contemporary marketing survey?

To argue about method, though, would be to fall into cultural mindset that St. Paul seems to reject: The point is the longing to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. And that longing is palpable here.

(For more of a play-by-play look at this conference, check out the Out of Ur blog from our sister publication, Leadership.)

Posted by Mark Galli at October 15, 2008 | Comments (2)

A judge ruled that a church property in Oklahoma belongs to the Presbyterian Church USA after a two-year fight with the congregation, Tulsa World reports.

Kirk of the Hills left the Presbyterian Church USA two years ago, expressing concerns that the denomination was drifting from its biblical foundation, reporter Bill Sherman writes. It has continued to meet in the building and plans to appeal the decision.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at September 9, 2008 | Comments (6)

Nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker released a book this summer that may prove an unlikely ally for those concerned about the lack of engaged men in American churches. In Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care, Parker identifies our cultural moment as one in which it's acceptable to portray men as dumb, violent, sex-crazed, or irresponsible husbands and fathers. (Movies and TV shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men, and Knocked Up, to name but a few, typify this depiction.)

Parker, who frequently writes on families and sexuality, believes cultural "male-bashing" in part comes from the mainstreaming of a feminism that assumes men must be devalued so that women may rise to a place of equal treatment politically and professionally. What is refreshing about Parker's argument is that it's rooted not in shrill, anti-feminist rhetoric (she calls herself a feminist), but in Parker's personal history and current family situation: She was raised by a single father after her mother died, and now has three young boys. Her adolescence was marked by the realization that men are, well, human. Here's how she described it to Karen Spears Zacharias:

Each day after school, I joined [my father] at his law office where I did my homework until he finished up. Once home, we convened in the kitchen where he cooked while I perched on a wooden stool peeling potatoes. We talked.
In that ritualized communion, I learned many useful lessons about the opposite sex. I learned that men like to talk while doing something else. . . . I learned that fathers adore their children and will sacrifice anything to help them succeed. I learned that fathers will lay their lives down for their children. I learned that men are capable of honor, valor, compassion and courage and that they are essential to instilling those virtues in their sons and daughters.

Given Parker's thoroughly personalized vision of men and subsequent sensitivity to male-bashing, some of the antidotes to American churches' lack of men offered by David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church and ChurchforMen.com, strike me as ironic. Could it be that Murrow's solutions -- shorter, to-the-point sermons, action-oriented worship songs like "Onward Christian Soldiers," ministries that feature cars or extreme sports -- play on the very caveman stereotypes that belittle men instead of help them utilize their gifts through full participation in church life?

Posted by Katelyn Beaty at August 15, 2008 | Comments (5)

Gary B. Trudeau's Doonesbury, which newspapers publish either with the comics or the editorial cartoons, just wrapped up a series about Iraqi Christian refugees. Roland (in this series a Fox News correspondent) is trying to cover the story of an Assyrian family in a way that is flattering for the Surge. Doonesbury treats the imaginary Iraqis with a great deal of dignity. Fox News doesn't fare so well.

Fox News actually did run an Associated Press story about "Christians Fleeing Violence in Iraq" in early May, which brings up the matter of ransoms most Christians pay for "protection."

The background--not in the comic strips, although alluded to--is that Iraq's Christians, the largest non-Muslim religious group in Iraq , are represented disproportionately in the refugee population (although it should be mentioned that the Assyrian diaspora dates back to World War I). It's such a huge drain that some churches in Iraq have no members left. Christians can be identified by their names and ID cards, and they are often targeted for violence. The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) is calling it genocide. So, many Assyrians leave as soon as they can. Others, like the family in Doonesbury, wait until something unbearable happens.

CT suggested in an editorial that U.S. and Iraqi governments should:

Stop discrimination in aid grants by naming a special aid coordinator in Iraq to insure that Christians and other minorities receive a fair share of international assistance.

Implement the creation of a homeland for Christians in Iraq's Nineveh Plains to be governed jointly by Christians and other minority groups. (This is provided for under article 125 of Iraq's new constitution.)

Provide more comprehensive care for the estimated 3 million Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people. The United States should follow through with its commitment to resettle more refugees from Iraq. In 2006, only 202 were resettled, while a total of 20,000 had been authorized.

Remove religious affiliation from identification cards. There could hardly be an easier way to protect the lives of Christian civilians, such as Ayad Tariq, than issuing new ID cards minus religious labels.

AINA divides Assyrians up into five groups: Chaldeans (of the Chaldean Catholic Church) at 45 percent, Syriac Orthodox at 26 percent, Church of the East at 19 percent, Syriac Catholic at 4 percent, and other groups at 6 percent. In 2005, 2 percent of Iraq's population was Christian, according to the World Christian Database.

CT published an article on Iraqi Christian refugees in 2006.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at July 15, 2008 | Comments (9)

Ministries headed by evangelists Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn are both changing the way they operate even as a Senate probe into alleged lavish spending by six prominent ministries continues, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday, July 7.

"Both Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn have indicated that they are instituting reforms without waiting for the committee to complete its review," said Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, in an update on the investigation he began last year.

"Self-reform can be faster and more effective than government regulation."

Roby Walker, a spokesman for Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo., confirmed that changes are being made but could not release details on Tuesday.

Don Price, a spokesman for Benny Hinn Ministries in Grapevine, Texas, also declined to comment in detail but said "reforms and improved governance practices" were being shared with Grassley's office.

Grassley's update noted instances of "whistleblower intimidation" where former employees "have received phone calls reminding them of their confidentiality agreements and threatening lawsuits if the agreements are breached."

Jill Gerber, a spokeswoman for the committee, would not disclose which ministries were involved in such calls, and declined to elaborate on the changes planned at Hinn's and Meyer's ministries.

Grassley's update described the responses from Hinn and Meyer as "in good faith and substantively informative," but said the others are "incomplete" or "not responsive."

Broadcaster Kenneth Copeland has reportedly said his Texas-based ministry will not respond even if a subpoena is issued. Grassley's memo said staffers are "consulting with Senate attorneys about next steps."

In other cases, staffers continue to contact ministry lawyers and officials in hopes of further cooperation.

"Sen. Grassley still very much wants to avoid subpoenas and hopes that those ministries will agree that subpoenas would be an unnecessary step," Gerber said.

The other ministries under investigation are: Bishop Eddie Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.; Creflo Dollar Ministries in College Park, Ga., and Randy and Paula White, who co-pastored Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at July 8, 2008 | Comments (14)

I was wrong. The election of Johnny Hunt as president of the Southern Baptist Convention did not actually generate much analysis in the Baptist blogosphere. Instead, almost all the discussion is about a resolution on church membership numbers.

Numbers were a key theme of the meeting this year, and none were good news:

• 9,500: Expected number of "messengers" (delegates) at the convention.
• 7,200: Actual number of messengers.
• 419,342: Baptisms in Southern Baptist churches in 1999.
• 345,941: Baptisms in 2007.
• 5.5%: Drop in baptisms between 2007 and 2006.
• 3: The number of consecutive years in which baptism numbers have dropped in the SBC.
• 22: Number of years that outgoing president Frank Page says it will take, given current trends, for the SBC to lose half its churches (from about 44,000 to 20,000).
• 39,326: Drop in membership Southern Baptist Convention between 2006 and 2007.
• 10: Years since the last drop in membership.
• 2: Number of years SBC membership has declined since 1926.
• 16,266,920: Members in 2007.
• 6,148,868: Southern Baptist members who in 2007 attended a primary worship service of their church in a typical week.

Those final two statistics really drove the resolution "On Regenerate Church Membership and Church Member Restoration."

The resolution, which calls for churches to "maintain accurate membership rolls" and exercise church discipline "even if such efforts result in the reduction in the number of members that are reported," was submitted in two previous years but failed in both cases.

Critics had earlier argued that purging the membership rolls could hurt evangelism - after all, if there are "unregenerate" people in the pews, they're the ones who most need to hear the gospel. Other critics complained that such a resolution would violate the fundamental Baptist value of the autonomy of local churches.

But this year the convention passed the resolution by an overwhelming margin.

There was some debate over an amendment to the resolution calling for churches "to repent of the failure among us to live up to our professed commitment to regenerate church membership." The resolutions committee had opposed such wording.

"We felt it was not proper to ask our entire convention to repent when there are many godly, conscientious pastors ? that are actually exercising this stewardship from the Lord of their flocks and of their fellowships," committee chairman Darrell Orman explained.

But Tom Ascol, the main force behind the resolution, said every one needed to repent.

"If we need to repent over anything in the Southern Baptist Convention, it is true that we need to repent over how we have failed in maintaining biblical standards in the membership of our churches," he said.

After all, pastors reporting only "regenerate" membership probably still refer to the Southern Baptist Convention as having 16.2 million members, even though those pastors probably know that number is inflated.

Union University president of David Dockery, whose speech at the convention is largely credited with giving the resolution a boost, told The Tennessean that the SBC would likely lose a million members once the membership rolls were cleaned up.

But the number may be much higher than that. Millions of members (about 7 million, according to one site) are "non-resident," meaning they do not live near the church that calls them a member. Millions more are completely inactive, and still more attend only occasionally.

Convention speakers repeatedly spoke of that phenomenon as a scandal. "We are not even winning our own sons and daughters like we should," North Carolina's Al Gilbert said in his Wednesday sermon. "We have incredible numbers of people on our rolls that are inactive and probably lost."

To see the looming battle in SBC churches, put those two sentences together. Saying its time to purge the rolls of inactive members or of those who have moved away is one thing. But actually taking Bobby Smith's name off after he moves away for college and stops attending church might not be welcome news to Bobby's parents.

(Another potential battle is financial: Distribution of Cooperative Program funds are partly based on churches' membership numbers. Rigorous accuracy may be costly.)

Johnny Hunt, the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, supported the resolution but said he was wary of its implementation. "There are two ways to deal with it," he told The Tennessean:

Some would say, "Clean up the rolls. If they're not going to come, take them off." And then what you have to deal with is we are living in a generation [with different views on commitments]. I probably minister to 10,000 people every 30 days; they're just not there every week. USA Today did a story not long ago and a person said if they go once a month, they feel they're active. I would not say they are, but I have to give them credit that in their heart, that's where they feel they are. I would like to see them more committed, but we work on that. We try to call them; we try to write those who are not coming. But I think what we are saying with regenerate church membership is we need to do a better job, and who would not agree? ?

We have to be very careful. If you try to take this to the lowest common denominator, before too long, you'll find the pastors and the church leadership to try to separate the sheep from the goats, and only Jesus and the angels he assigned can do that.

The problem, says Dockery, is that churches are letting many goats think they're sheep: "One thing worse than people being lost in their sins is lost people who think they are saved because their names are on a church roll."

The resolution is nonbinding. Churches can keep reporting their membership numbers as they always have. But the gauntlet has been thrown. Answering the challenge won't be easy. A commenter on Ascol's blog notes the problem at one church: "[T]he constitution requires a 75 percent vote to remove someone from the roll (outside of death or transfer to another church) and only 50 percent-plus-one to remove a pastor."

(Note: An earlier version of this blog post indicated that the resolution passed "nearly unanimously." Several observers have since said it passed overwhelmingly, but that there were many votes against it.)

Posted by Ted Olsen at June 12, 2008 | Comments (25)

Johnny Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., has been elected the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

It's not a huge surprise: he's a megachurch pastor with a lot of support among the SBC leadership. It is a bit of a surprise that he won by so much. With 3,100 votes, he had more than twice as many as the next candidate, fellow Atlanta-area megachurch pastor Frank Cox of North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga. With six candidates for the position -- the most since 1979, when the conservative resurgence in the denomination began -- many expected the vote to go to a runoff .

What does Hunt's presidency mean for the SBC? So far, it's hard to tell, though I'm sure the Baptist bloggers will be full of analysis tonight. Hunt's main emphases were preaching and missions (he was particularly vocal about finding new ways of funding missions). But his stances on controversies within the denominations may have had an effect as well.

It's clear that Hunt is no fan of the growing Calvinist movement within the Southern Baptist Convention. He's hosting a major conference to refute Calvinism at his church in November. But most of the candidates were not friendly to Calvinism, and Hunt has given indications that he's not out to purge the denomination of Reformed influences.

"I am not overwhelmingly concerned about Calvinism," Hunt told Baptist Press two weeks ago. "I am concerned about hyper-Calvinism, simply being defined as those that take election to the point that they feel that the Gospel should not even be shared with the whole world. ... I trust that Calvinists, and those who love Jesus of other persuasions, would come together for the common cause of making Jesus Christ known to the nations. There is plenty of room for all of us in this Baptist family."

It's worth noting that Frank Page, the current SBC president was also highly critical of Calvinism (even writing a book titled Trouble with the Tulip) but had an irenic spirit that won him support among Calvinists and Arminians alike.

Things may have gone quite differently had Al Mohler, the Calvinist president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, stayed in the race (he suffered health complications).

Hunt was actually a leading candidate during the last SBC presidential election, but dropped out a month before the vote.

Hunt might be considered a moderate (though that word is awfully complicated in the SBC context) on one of the denomination's biggest controversies: the International Missions Board's guidelines forbidding missionaries from using private prayer languages, and requiring them to have been baptized in a specific way. Hunt told Baptist Press:

I am not sure that I fully understand all that the IMB trustee guidelines have said, however, if a person has received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, and has been baptized by a minister who embraces the Gospel and the Scriptures as we do, their baptism should count in our churches. If James Dobson desired to become part of First Baptist Church Woodstock, I would not require him to be re-baptized.

Concerning the private prayer language: If, indeed, it is private, it seems as though we really don't have an issue to deal with. When a person chooses to become more Pentecostal in their convictions and beliefs, our concern then becomes that of what they are relating to the people on the field. That should call for proper action.

That's an answer that's unlikely to please either of the two major sides in the debate, but it's an answer that's also unlikely to make either to see him as a crusader for the opposition.

Baptist blogger Nathan Finn publicly supported Hunt before the election, and his lengthy blog post last month serves nicely to summarize the main concerns people had about a Hunt presidency, and how Hunt supporters answered.

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Posted by Ted Olsen at June 10, 2008 | Comments (20)

Cathy Lynn Grossman's recent USA Today article on William Young's surprise bestseller The Shack is her second in a month, this one shifting attention to the long-developing and growing backlash against the book coming from a number of influential voices concerned about the book's implicit theological claims.

Several conservative Protestant heavyweights--Al Mohler, Chuck Colson, Mark Driscoll, and influential blogger Tim Challies--have sounded off on the dangers of The Shack's vision of God, salvation, and the Church, creating a quartet of caution for the casual Christian reader. These strong cautions are all the more notable in light of the over-the-top endorsement from one of evangelicalism's most respected spiritual sages, Eugene Peterson, which is featured on the book's back cover.

Among other things, this growing backlash broaches important questions about the proper relationship between art, theology, and the Church for evangelicals and their close kin. What does it mean for artists to be faithful to the confessional Christian traditions and communities of which they are a part, especially that largest of communions--the communion of the saints across time, space, and tradition? If we regard the Nicene Creed as a shared expression of that broad communion, what does it mean for an artist, perhaps a writer such as William Young, to be faithful to that confession?

Switching directions, we must also ask what it means for Christian traditions and communities to be faithful to artists and their craft. This, too, is a theological question: How does the Church show good faith toward those sub-creators in God's human economy whose very creative inclinations are evidence that they bear the image of a God who delights in creating? Making a place for art and the artist is a way of affirming the human and creational pattern that the Christian God calls "very good."

My hunch is that we probably see a failure to keep faith on both sides here, and that it would be a good thing for all of God's Church to discuss the when's, where's, why's, and how's of our mutual infidelities.

Along the way we might also want to pause to think about what the phenomenal grassroots popularity of an iconoclastic novel such as The Shack--1.1 million copies in print, 500,000 more to be printed in June, UK rights just purchased--tells us about the attitudes and pastoral realities churches must reckon with on the ground.

Posted by Derek Keefe at May 30, 2008 | Comments (66)

My friend Dean's list of interests on his facebook profile reads as follows: "Interests: You Name It. The World Is An Interesting Place." I tend to share Dean's expansive interests, which partially explains why on a day when I could have blogged about yesterday's ruling allowing gay marriages in California, the global food crisis, continued gnashing of teeth regarding the Evangelical Manifesto, or the critical response to the latest Narnia film that opens this weekend, I'm instead drawn to this Houston Chronicle story about Lone Star Cowboy Church in Montgomery, Texas.

I'm admittedly a latecomer to the cowboy church phenomena, which was reported on in the pages of our magazine some five years ago. And upon reading that Lone Star has its own rodeo arena, which was built almost as soon as the tent church that served the congregation for the first two years, it's tempting to dismissively file the whole movement under news of the weird, as an odd bit of cultural ephemera spun out of American evangelical subculture machine. Yet the Chronicle article also indicates that Lone Star has over 1300 members, and that there are more than 100 churches linked with the Baptist General Convention's Texas Fellowship of Cowboy churches alone. (I highly recommend you take a look at this map, which plots cowboy churches in the Fellowship.)

Clearly, something is going on here, but what? How should we understand what's happening at Lone Star and in the larger movement? Does it represent the expansion of the gospel through the faithful translation of Christianity into the everyday cultural forms of a distinct subcultural people group--an exercise in removing unnecessary barriers and becoming "all things to all people"? Or, does it represent the collapse of the Christian gospel and message into the world of meaning provided by the mythos, language, and forms of the American West's cowboy culture?

While I'm confident the truth lies somewhere between these two poles, it's hard to say where, though I'm definitely nervous about what appear to be the "tribal" markers that bind the movement and its churches together. These tribal dynamics are also clearly on display in other subcultures that have produced churches or movements, such as biker culture, surf culture, or the hippie culture of the 60s and 70s. When churches begin to look like affinity- or interest- groups, and less like God's extraordinary project to transcend cultural divisions by uniting a diverse and motley lot under the the Lordship of God's Christ, the gospel has been diminished. In Christ, there is neither cowboy nor yuppie, biker nor gamer, farmer nor techie. All are one in Christ Jesus.

In an American free-market, voluntary church environment, we'd all do well to scan the pews (or hay bales) of our own churches and see who we've joined ourselves to. My hunch is that we'd find we're probably not much different than our cowboy brothers and sisters in seeking out our cultural kin.

Posted by Derek Keefe at May 16, 2008 | Comments (18)

Evangelizing persons of other faiths, or even committed atheists, agnostics, or freethinkers, is tricky business in our pluralistic and increasingly politicized religious landscape. In Western cultures where tolerance is preeminent among public virtues, such efforts are generally met with scorn, chastisement, and much journalistic gnashing of teeth. In other parts of the world, interfaith gospelers are subject to far worse than a tongue-lashing from the cultural gatekeepers. Such activity may win them spots in jail, or cost them and their families their livelihood, if not their lives.

Recently we have dipped our editorial toes into the chaotic waters of interfaith relations, whether they take the form of a dialog, as touched on in Richard Mouw's piece, or conversion-seeking proclamation, as argued for in Stan Guthrie's recent editorial on evangelizing the Jews. Having read both pieces, it's clear that Mouw shares the evangelistic imperative born of love highlighted by Guthrie, and that Guthrie shares Mouw's firm belief that whatever the form of interfaith communication, it should be marked by "convicted civility," a term Mouw borrows from venerable church historian and cultural commentator Martin Marty.

With regard to the issue of evangelizing the Jews, I'm also pleased that in response to the World Evangelical Alliance's recent statement that ran in The New York Times, "The Gospel and the Jewish People: An Evangelical Statement," we've decided to host an exchange between Stan Guthrie and Rabbi Yehiel E. Poupko, Judaic Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, on the very topic of Christian Evangelism and Judaism. Outside of this exchange, WEA's ad has generated very little public comment, except for this critical response from the Anti-Defamation League, and an angry article in The Jerusalem Post.

Yet the kerfuffle surrounding a recent public statement on Christian-Jewish relations from Christianity's largest global communion, namely Pope Benedict's revision of the Good Friday prayer for the Jews, has not abated. For those who have not followed the story, here's the portion of the prayer judged offensive by some:

Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men...Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your church, all Israel may be saved.

Several weeks on from Good Friday, the news is still abuzz today with reports of:

1) Continuing critique from those who thought the revision offensive: Agenzia Italia, AFP, Anti-Defamation League.
2) Vatican response and attempts to mend relations with Jews: Catholic World News, United Press International, Catholic News Agency, JTA, AFP, The Times, Reuters, Catholic News Service.
3) Indications of how this situation is shaping the Pope's upcoming visit to the U.S.: New York Times, Zenit, Catholic News Service.

As the world gets smaller, the challenge of interfaith relations only gets bigger, and the need of wisdom greater still...especially for those who are, by definition, gospel people.

Posted by Derek Keefe at April 4, 2008 | Comments (6)

I don't pick up The Chronicle Review--an insert in The Chronicle of Higher Education--expecting to be spurred to reflection on the emerging movement. And I'm quite sure that was not what author and UCLA history professor Russell Jacoby intended. Nevertheless, his intriguing article, "Not to Complicate Matters, But...," collided with other reading from my week to produce that rare but welcome guest--a helpful insight. In short, Jacoby is frustrated with scholars' growing penchant to "complicate," "problematize," or "complexify" issues and think in so doing that their work is complete. To make his point, Jacoby cites mock and actual examples that will sound familiar to anyone who's laid their hands on a peer-reviewed academic journal in the last decade:

"I hope today to complicate our notion of cahiers - grievances - and the role they played in the States-General of 1789." The professors and graduate students at the symposium nod appreciatively. They have heard or read similar justifications untold times before. The author explains that he or she will "complicate" our understanding of some event or phenomenon. "In this article," writes an ethnic-studies professor, "I seek to complicate scholars' understanding of the 'modular' state by examining four forms of indigenous political space." Everyone seems pleased by this approach. Why? The world is complicated, but how did "complication" turn from an undeniable reality to a desirable goal? Shouldn't scholarship seek to clarify, illuminate, or - egad! - simplify, not complicate? How did the act of complicating become a virtue?

Towards the end of the article, Jacoby approaches territory that sounds more like an apologetics classroom at a Christianity liberal arts college than what one would expect from a professor at a large state university with works such as The Repression of Psychoanalysis: Otto Fenichel and the Political Freudians to his credit (although, to be fair, Jacoby is also Honorary Vice President for Life in the American Pessimist Society, so maybe he's just cranky as a rule):

The new devotion to complexity gives carte blanche to even the most trivial scholarly enterprise. Any factoid can "complicate" our interpretation. The fashion elevates confusion from a transitional stage into an end goal. We celebrate the fact that everything can be "problematized."...We revel in complexity. To be sure, few claim that the truth is simple or singular, but we have moved far from believing that truth can be set out at all with any caution and clarity.

It's Jacoby's claim that current academic devotion to complexity "elevates confusion from a transitional stage into an end goal" that provides the link to the emerging movement. The very fact that this amorphous movement moves under the designation "emerging"--coming into view or existence--suggests a critique parallel to Jacoby's.

In late 2003, Peter Rollins, whose book How (Not) to Speak of God, has been described by Tony Jones as "the best bloody book on the emerging church yet," responded this way to an interviewer's question, "What would your 'emerging church survival kit' contain?"

An empty space? really. I think that if you want to survive Christianity, and I am not sure if its possible yet, you need one of those cartoon tunnels, something that can create a womb-like space in the being of your beliefs and religious services, a virgin space where the word of God can impregnate you...

The problem with using a metaphor of gestation--or even the designation emerging for that matter--to describe a movement is that it necessarily entails a coming birth, a definitive coming into existence. In order for the complicating, complexifying, and problematizing work of the emerging movement to prove fruitful to the Church, it will have to move beyond this transitional stage at some point, and deliver the greater goods of illumination and clarity. Here's hoping for a healthy baby.

Posted by Derek Keefe at March 7, 2008 | Comments (9)

Prominent theologian and Christianity Today senior editor J. I. Packer has made no secret of his break with the Anglican Church of Canada's Diocese of New Westminster. More than five years ago, he wrote a Christianity Today article explaining why he left the diocese.

The story has developed a bit since then. Earlier this month, his Vancouver church, the largest Anglican congregation in Canada, voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada to join the Province of the Southern Cone, which is based in Argentina.

Now New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham has sent Packer and seven other clergy members a "notice of presumption of abandonment of the exercise of ministry." He says he wants them to declare "whether they have left the ministry of the Anglican Church of Canada, and if they are seeking admission into another religious body outside Canada."

Seems like Packer and the others have been awfully clear on that point.

The news that Ingham may suspend Packer is getting a lot of buzz in the Anglican blog world. As always on these Anglican news bits, see TitusOneNine and Stand Firm, though the lead on this story came from the Canadian site LambethConference.net.

Frankly, this story isn't terribly newsworthy in the traditional sense. It's predictable, and any suspension would be irrelevant. Packer will continue his ministry just as he has been doing since he left the diocese.

But as Nicholas Knisely notes on the left-leaning Episcopal Cafe (the official blog of the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Washington, D.C.), Packer's name will give the story attention it might otherwise not have received.

[While] Packer's teaching and writing is not commonly encountered the Episcopal Church, it is widely known and respected by Evangelicals in the Anglican Communion. The possible suspension of Packer may create a bit of a problem for both the Archbishop of Canada and the Archbishop of Canterbury given the reaction that could be expected from many parts of the Communion.

It also has potential to make non-Anglican evangelicals worldwide more interested in the Anglican crisis. If you're one of those who has been skipping the coverage until now, start with Packer's story. More CT coverage is available here.

Posted by Ted Olsen at February 29, 2008 | Comments (18)

The parents of the man who shot and killed four people on two Colorado church grounds in December spoke about their son for a radio broadcast that aired today.

The Associated Press reports that the shooter, Matthew Murray, had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was bitter for being an outcast, but he gave no indication of his violent plans.

The parents spoke in an interview to be broadcast today and Friday on James Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program.

Murray, 24, killed two people and wounded two at a YWAM training center on the grounds of Faith Bible Chapel in a Denver suburb. Murray then slept in his own bed at his parent's house; 12 hours later and 60 miles away, he killed two sisters in the parking lot New Life Church in Colorado Springs before he killed himself.

According to the AP, Loretta Murray said her son called his cousin in Utah shortly before the training center shooting, "pouring out his heart" about how depressed and lonely he was.

The cousin called Loretta Murray just before midnight to tell her about Matthew's emotional state and she asked her husband to call him, the AP writes. Matthew told his father on his cell phone at 1:15 a.m. that he was eating at a restaurant with friends and was coming home. He had just shot and killed two people at YWAM.

Matthew appeared fine the next morning, and his mother told him to be careful driving in the snow, according to the AP. The same morning he shot two sisters and their father at New Life.

The AP reports that Murray dabbled in the occult, briefly joined the Mormon church and turned against charismatic Christianity. The Murrays said on the show that their son felt rejected and was unable to forgive people who he believed to be tormentors.

"The lesson is that unforgiveness leads to this bitterness and then opens you up to the spirit of Satan, to the spirit of whatever, and when that occurs, it becomes a power that people cannot control," said Ronald Murray, a neurologist.

Murray said that neither he nor Loretta Murray knew he owned weapons and that his son "had never expressed a desire for violence toward anybody."

On the program, the Murrays met David and Marie Works, the parents of two sisters who their son had killed.

David Works said on the program that forgiveness was simply part of the Christian walk.

"Without forgiveness," Ronald Murray said, "I don't think we could have moved on."

Previous CT coverage includes:
Five killed in New Life Church, YWAM center attacks | Police think two separate shootings may be related.
Arming in the Aftermath | Shooting spree at two churches prompts pastors to rethink security plans.
Securing the Faithful | What New Life Church did right when a gunman showed up in its parking lot.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 28, 2008 | Comments (8)

While Bruce Gierson’s article, "An Atheist in the Pulpit," in the most recent issue of Psychology Today often devolves into a spiritual travelogue of clergy de-conversion, it does alert us to some of the personal and practical dilemmas raised when persons involved in professional ministry come to realize they doubt their beliefs.

Given that Gierson is writing for Psychology Today, it should come as no surprise that the story focuses on the "deeply inauthentic" feelings and accompanying "psychic stress" that results from a disconnect between a minister's public preaching, pastoral care, or performance of the liturgy, and his or her private doubts or disbelief. His clergy characters are often cast as heroes who live by Shakespeare's line--"to thine own self be true"--and uphold the "inviolability of the individual conscience." Better to be true to self than keep one's commitments, however far removed they now seem.

To be fair, I have sometimes wondered, in my contemplation of ordained ministry, but what would I do when those desert seasons of doubt and despair come, as they regularly have, in my own life? Would it be OK for me to hide in and behind the liturgy, in and behind the text, in and behind the prayers of the saints gathered around me, at least for a time? I'm not sure I ever came up with good answers to those questions, or the basic question behind them: Is there room for doubt in the life of a minister of the Church? I'm not talking about settled or aggressive disbelief, but those dark periods that befall many Christians. In short, I'm sympathetic to the plight of ministers who find themselves unable to be for their flock what that flock often want them to be--a paragon of faith and hope.

It's a shame that Gierson never addresses this question from the other side of the pulpit, except through the perceptions of the clergy he interviewed. If a minister is bold enough to share his or her doubts with a congregation, what should the congregation do? Should they come alongside and pray for their minister? The answer to that seems obvious enough. Should they help him or her organize a sabbatical or leave of absence? If the minister is willing to continue, would the congregation mind knowing that their pastor was, for a time, working from obligation or a desire to keep a commitment, rather than from a living, burning, hearth of faith? (Would any marriage last were not a similar commitment in place?) And, if the minister did eventually come to a place of settled disbelief, how should that be handled?

These are by no means easy questions. It's good that Gierson is raising them, if only indirectly.

Posted by Derek Keefe at February 22, 2008 | Comments (13)

The board that oversees New York's 71 remaining OTB (off-track betting) parlors has voted to close them, according to an article in the New York Times. Apparently, they are no longer profitable for the city of New York.

People are already mourning the demise of OTBs because of the unique social atmosphere they provide. (The article is strong on atmospherics.)

Here's the quote caught my eye in that article. A regular at the OTB on Seventh Avenue at 38th Street told the Times reporter:

"Wherever you have gambling, you're going to have rich guys and beggars next to each other," observed ... Eric Quinones, 40. "And that's what makes these places unique."

Oh, wait a minute. I thought that having "rich guys and beggars next to each other" was supposed to be the church. As a matter of fact, it is what the church is called to be.

And from what I read in Christianity Today, New York's churches are doing a pretty amazing job. (See this important article by Tony Carnes from December 2004.)

Cross-posted at the Ancient Evangelical Future blog.

Posted by David Neff at February 22, 2008 | Comments (0)

Michael Lindsay has, through extensive interviewing, tapped into a feature of American evangelicalism that's both fascinating and frustrating: two distinct social tiers. He identified these as the "populist" and "cosmopolitan" groups, which he wrote about in Faith in the Halls of Power. But there's another way of looking at evangelicals that divides them - much along the same lines - into elite and non-elite Christians.

The separation is fairly deep, it seems. So deep that they don't really go to church together. In fact, Lindsay writes in Monday's USA Today, many of the evangelical elite (including George W. Bush) hardly go to church at all:

I spent the past five years interviewing some of the country's top leaders - two U.S. presidents (George H.W. Bush and Carter), 100 CEOs and senior business executives, Hollywood icons, celebrated artists and world-class athletes. All were chosen because of their widely known faith. Yet I was shocked to find that more than half - 60% - had low levels of commitment to their denominations and congregations. Some were members in name only; others had actively disengaged from church life.

Everybody loses out, Lindsay says: "Community is a virtue for most religious traditions, but evangelicals have excelled at it. Declining church commitment among these leaders, therefore, is ripping at the very fabric that has distinguished American evangelicalism."

He addresses the reasons for this (frustration with the way churches are run) and the issue of where these elites do have Christian fellowship (exclusive Bible studies, parachurch ministry boards), and takes them gently to task for elitism.

But he doesn't give them the assignment of solving the problem - in this article, that's meted out to clergy.

Organized religion is perhaps the one factor that could motivate people to bridge the gap between rich and poor, especially now as more of the faithful move into the halls of power. To turn the tide, clergy around the country must engage and draw in these leaders. Otherwise, affluent believers will continue to leave their congregations - and their fellow believers - behind in their ascent, creating a gated community of the soul.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at February 12, 2008 | Comments (16)

Lost in the media storm preceding and following Super Tuesday, and the actual storms that debilitated or devastated much of the US that same day, was media coverage of the start of Lent, arguably the most recognized of the exclusively Christian seasons on the Church's liturgical calendar. In reviewing English-speaking coverage of this turning of the seasons, I was struck by the difference between US media reports and those issuing from across the pond in the UK.

US stories were generally conventional - though sometimes oddly technical or whimsical - and documented an approach to the season that was consistently pious, yet often private in scope, focusing on interior spiritual attitudes or individual struggles of the will in forgoing chocolate, coffee, alcohol, or insert-your-weakness-of-the-flesh-here for the 40-day period. (Jane Hawes's article is notable in its attempt to balance both the private-public and negative-positive dimensions of the season.)

Stories from the UK, on the other hand, conveyed a theological posture toward Lent that emphasized the public dimension of Christian commitment. Most notable is the Tearfund carbon fast mentioned by Tim Morgan in an earlier blog, which was launched by the Anglican bishops of London and Liverpool, and backed by Archbishop Rowan Williams, as well as scientist Sir John Houghton, an evangelical who formerly chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's scientific assessment. The proposal received considerable coverage in UK press (Daily Telegraph; The Guardian; BBC News; New Consumer), though its only mentions in the US were on one or two blogs, a university newspaper, and an ezine.

Also worth mentioning is the Lent Endurance Challenge issued by the UK organization Church Action on Poverty, and backed by several Anglican bishops, as well as Catholic, Methodist, and Baptist church leaders in the UK. The Challenge is to live the life of a refused asylum seeker for one week, which involves donating one's normal weekly food budget in exchange for ?3.50 and the typical food parcel supplied to the homeless by local charities. The hope is to give participants a glimpse into the life of these "living ghosts," who are "essentially airbrushed out of existence as ?failed' asylum seekers," but, lacking money to return home, remain in the UK, unnoticed or ignored by society at large.

These constructive and creative public applications of Christian theological commitments make my own internal ruminations about whether I should give up coffee or fried foods for Lent seem, if not entirely inconsequential, unimaginative and blatantly disengaged from my neighbor and the world. If Lent is about submitting to suffering for the sake of identification with our Lord, whose own suffering was always for the sake of carrying forward God's redemptive intent for the whole world, navel-gazing US Christians like me may want to look across the seas to spark our flickering theological imaginations.

Posted by Derek Keefe at February 8, 2008 | Comments (1)

Lent 2008 starts incredibly early this year. If you don't wish to give up chocolate this Lent, consider a Carbon Fast. Two top clerics in the Church of England are endorsing this concept.

The globally known group, Tear Fund, notes on its website:

Bishops of London and Liverpool join to launch the Carbon Fast. Two of the Church of England’s most senior Bishops are urging people to cut their carbon rather than give up chocolate this Lent. Bishop of Liverpool and Vice President of Tearfund, James Jones and Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres, are joining with development agency Tearfund in calling for a cut in personal carbon use for each of the 40 days of Lent.

At the same time a Tearfund survey reveals that three out of five adults in the UK are willing to take an energy saving action this Lent. Tearfund and the Bishops have launched the fast because of the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, and to protect poor communities around the world who are already suffering from the ravages of climate change.

Bishop of Liverpool and Vice President of Tearfund, James Jones said, `Traditionally people have given up things for Lent. This year we are inviting people to join us in a Carbon Fast. `It is the poor who are already suffering the effects of climate change. To carry on regardless of their plight is to fly in the face of Christian teaching.

`The tragedy is that those with the power to do something about it are least affected, whilst those who are most affected are powerless to bring about change. `There’s a moral imperative on those of us who emit more than our fair share of carbon to rein in our consumption.'

The Carbon Fast is a 40 day journey through Lent, towards a lighter carbon footprint, with a simple energy saving action per day. Actions include:

* snubbing plastic bags
* giving the dishwasher a day off
* insulating the hot water tank
* checking the house for drafts with a ribbon and buying draught excluders

Participants are asked to begin the Carbon Fast by removing one light bulb from a prominent place in the home and live without it for 40 days - as a constant visual reminder during Lent of the need to cut energy.

With a lighter carbon footprint, the Western church would save money while saving the world in the name of Christ.

Posted by Tim Morgan at February 6, 2008 | Comments (15)

We reported last November on the raids on Grace Church, a network of Korean Presbyterian church-plants, in Kazakhstan. The country’s secret police (formerly KGB, now KNB) are back at it, Forum 18 reports. Last weekend they raided the Grace Church in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.

Leaks through the media allege that church members are engaged in spying, appropriating church members' property, failing to file financial information, inciting inter-religious enmity and holding illegal drugs, even though no-one has ever been brought before a criminal court.

Vyacheslav Kalyuzhny, the Deputy Human Rights Ombudsperson, says the Church has not complained to his office. "People are not persecuted on religious grounds in Kazakhstan," he claimed.

The claim, while absurd, has worked in the recent past. In November, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) elected Kazakhstan to be the chair, beginning in 2010:

Minister Tazhin also emphasized that religious tolerance is highly valued in Kazakhstan, and that the country "enthusiastically supports the establishment of the three CiO personal representatives on religious tolerance: for Anti-Semitism, Muslims, and for Christians and Other Religions."

In 2009, Kazakhstan will host the third Congress on World and Traditional Religions in Astana.

Kazakhstanis are wonderfully welcoming and friendly people (I lived there for a couple years), and Central Asia has a long tradition of tolerance going back to the Silk Road. But the government has pretty much scrapped that tradition. It seems far more worried about Borat than the possibility of censure from the international community over degenerating religious rights.

Posted by Susan Wunderink at February 1, 2008 | Comments (1)

The cover story of The Wall Street Journal's weekend section begins:

On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed his cellphone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher answered, the preacher said a former congregant was in the sanctuary. "And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P."

The 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey was arrested and put in jail for returning to the church where she had recently been expelled for spreading "a spirit of cancer and discord" after questioning the pastor. Caskey had tithed regularly during her nearly 50-year membership at the church.

"It was very humiliating," says Mrs. Caskey, who worked for the state of Michigan for 25 years before retiring from the Department of Corrections in 1992. "The other prisoners were surprised to see a little old lady in her church clothes. One of them said, 'You robbed a church?' and I said, 'No, I just attended church.' "

The Journal reports that this "ancient practice" of church discipline is making a comeback. "The revival is part of a broader movement to restore churches to their traditional role as moral enforcers, Christian leaders say. Some say that contemporary churches have grown soft on sinners, citing the rise of suburban megachurches where pastors preach self-affirming messages rather than focusing on sin and redemption."

But I wonder if it isn't just an excuse for heavy-handed leadership. "Last week, the pastor of a 6,000-member megachurch in Nashville, Tenn., threatened to expel 74 members for gossiping and causing disharmony unless they repented. The congregants had sued the pastor for access to the church's financial records."

About 10 - 15 percent of churches discipline in this way, according to the article, but there's no proof to the claim that the practice is rising. It does seem, however, that lawsuits following church discipline may be increasing.

In 2005, CT published a cover package on church discipline, which included the article "Keeping the Lawyers at Bay."

Posted by Rob Moll at January 18, 2008 | Comments (15)

The Wall Street Journal today interviewed Charles Zech, director of the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova, which has just launched an M.B.A. program for clergy. The degree is geared specifically for Catholics priests, following the clergy-abuse scandal and, more recently, a church embezzlement crisis. "Our center on church management surveyed chief financial officers of U.S. Catholic dioceses in 2005 and found that 85% had experienced embezzlements in the previous five years," Zech said. He continued:

There clearly are serious questions about internal financial controls at the parish level, and we are now doing research on parish advisory councils and asking questions about such things as who handles the Sunday collection and who has check-writing authority. Does the same person count the collection, deposit the money and then reconcile the checkbook? Obviously, you're just asking for problems if it's the same person; you can imagine the temptations.

Evangelical colleges and universities have launched M.B.A. programs, which can be financially attractive to CCCU schools who are often very dependent on tuition-paying students. But a church M.B.A. I don't think even the Leadership Network has thought of, though evangelical churches are not immune to fraud.

Posted by Rob Moll at January 8, 2008 | Comments (2)

Last summer, Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company denied the West Adrian United Church of Christ in Michigan insurance because its denomination supports same-sex marriage and the ordination of practicing homosexuals. Wall Street Journal reporter M. P. McQueen writes,

"Based on national media reports, controversial stances such as those indicated in your application responses have resulted in property damage and the potential for increased litigation among churches that have chosen to publicly endorse these positions," Marci J. Fretz, a regional underwriter for Brotherhood Mutual -- one of the nation's largest insurers of religious institutions -- wrote in a letter to the church last summer.

McQueen writes that churches have sometimes been denied or have had coverage revoked because of specific acts of violence. "Some churches in the South reported cancellations after a wave of arson attacks in the mid-1990s." But this would be the first instance of the denial of a claim due to fears that a controversial stance would provoke a violent backlash.

Founded in 1917 as a mutual-aid organization by evangelical Mennonites, Brotherhood Mutual is now the largest provider of insurance to churches in the country. A spokesperson "didn't have any examples of violence attributable to a church's support for gay clergy or same-sex marriage," McQueen writes. She did note that disputes over gay marriage have led to church splits and resulted in costly lawsuits.

Michigan banned same-sex marriage in 2004. The church has not specifically endorsed the denomination's position on same-sex marriage and ordination of homosexuals. The article says that as long as insurance companies abide by non-discrimination and other laws, they are free to set their own guidelines for accepting or rejecting applications.

A couple of things to note: Brotherhood Mutual rejected the church's application not because of moral or religious opposition to the church's stance, but because the stance might increase risk to the insurer. So this is not precisely a religious freedom issue. One wonders if the company didn't want to do business with supporters of same-sex marriage and risk seemed a better explanation for its refusal. But are churches that support same-sex marriage really more prone to being victims of vandalism? The article says there is no evidence one way or the other. The story doesn't mention any other ways in which Brotherhood Mutual does business with supporters of same-sex marriage. Does it screen its investments of companies that offer benefits to partners of employees? Presumably, if/when same-sex marriage and homosexual ordination became less controversial, Brotherhood Mutual would then accept applications from churches that supported that stance.

Also, there is no lawsuit. West Adrian didn't sue Brotherhood Mutual over the denial, so the situation would set no legal precedent in regards to religious freedom. If same-sex marriage does gain national legal acceptance, there will probably be exceptions for clergy and churches to discriminate according to their religious teaching. The real test, however, will lie with for-profit companies like Brotherhood Mutual.

Posted by Rob Moll at January 8, 2008 | Comments (4)

With megachurches come mega crowds, mega money, and increasingly, mega security concerns.

The crowds -- anywhere from 2,000 to 20,000 worshippers each weekend -- can be an attractive target for a deranged shooter. Overflowing offering plates are tempting to thieves, and well-known preachers can become high-profile targets.

Sunday's shootings at New Life Church in Colorado Springs and a missionary training facility in Arvada, Colo. -- which left five people dead, including a gunman -- reflect the security nightmares facing some of the country's largest churches. Many of those churches now employ armed guards to protect human, financial and physical "assets."

The full article is available here.

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 10, 2007 | Comments (3)

Five people were left dead after shooting sprees at two Colorado megachurches Sunday. Five others were wounded.

Two people were killed and two wounded at the YWAM training center on the grounds of Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, a Denver suburb. A man walked into the center around midnight and after about 30 minutes of talking with staff members, he asked to spend the night there. The receptionist at the center told him no, that no unauthorized person were not allowed. The man reportedly said, "Then this is what I've got for you," pulled out a gun and began shooting.

About 70 miles away and 12 hours later, three people were killed after a man in similar dress opened fire at New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

Sisters Stephanie Works, 18, and Rachael Works, 16, died from gunshot wounds. Their 51-year-old father, David Works, was shot twice in his abdomen and groin area and is in fair condition. Also wounded were Judy Purcell, 40, and Larry Bourbannais, 59. They were treated and released.

Witnesses told the Gazette in Colorado Springs that a man in a black trench coat opened fire in the parking lot setting off a smoke grenade before blasting cars and church members. Police said that the gunman was shot and killed by a plainclothes security guard with a law enforcement background and who is a member of the church.

New Life's senior pastor, Brady Boyd, said that after the YWAM shooting the church called in more than the usual number of security volunteers and "because of the extra precautions we saved many lives yesterday."

"They came to church with their families to worship, and what happened today was a tragedy," Boyd said at a press conference. "As a pastor, my heart is broken today for people that lost their lives."

Another Colorado Springs megachurch, Woodmen Valley Chapel, is providing grief counseling for New Life members, pastor-at-large Tim MacDonald told Christianity Today.

"We're in a sense of disbelief and surrealism that this would take place. We're still dealing with shock and after effects of what has taken place," he said. "We are so saddened by what's taken place, but we're helping in whatever way we can."

MacDonald said the shooting creates concerns for Woodmen's level of security.

"Our security plan is being scrutinized at this very moment," he said. "We're looking at what we need to do to have security without drawing away from the reason that people have come to church and that is to worship Christ."

The two dead victims at the YWAM center were identified as Tiffany Johnson, 26, of Minnesota and Philip Crouse, 24, of Alaska. Youth With a Mission leases property on Faith Bible Chapel's property.

George Morrison, the church's senior pastor, told Christianity Today that Crouse had put up Christmas lights at his house just two weeks ago. "It was tragic," Morrison said. "He was a young man that had a vision for his life and wanted to be involved in missions in Kazakhstan."

Morrison said church members were concerned and questioning, especially after hearing reports of the shooting at New Life. "These things happen in malls, in churches and in the world we live in, it's sad that we live with this. It's sobering that this could happen anytime, anywhere, to any person," he said. "We just have a sense that you have to move on."

The choir at Faith Bible Chapel had planned to kick off Sunday's service with "Joy to the World."

"We couldn't do it, Phil Waters, a member of the church choir, told The Denver Post. "There was no joy this morning."

The choir instead sang a piece about bringing offerings to God, he told the Post.

"We are really close to these kids," he said. "It was tough to be out there (singing) and not have tears running down your face."

More coverage includes:

• Colo. church gunman had been kicked out (Associated Press, most recent AP version)


• Shooter was seeking revenge, court papers say (The Gazette)


• A gunman's bloody trail: from hate mail to mass murder (Rocky Mountain News)


• Pastor tells of horrific day | The New Life Church attacker refused a guard's order to drop his weapon and fired before he was shot to death (Rocky Mountain News)


• Church members find comfort in groups, prayer (The Gazette)


• Church members await news, ask why (The Gazette)


• Gunman defied guard's order | The New Life Church attacker refused a guard's order to drop his weapon and fired before he was shot to death. (Rocky Mountain News)


• Gunman sent 'hate mail' to Arvada missionary center (Rocky Mountain News)


• Church gunman "hated Christians" (The Denver Post)


• Arvada investigators believe attacks linked | Gunman among 5 dead in assaults at center, church (Rocky Mountain News)


• Deadly attacks at mission, church may be linked | "Reason to believe" in connection (The Denver Post)


• 7,000 at church when shots fired | When bullets started flying, security officers locked the doors and people crowded into the basement (The Denver Post)


• Gunman fires on parishioners | Two members of New Life Church are killed and three are hurt. A security guard shoots and kills the attacker (The Denver Post)


• A commitment to overcome tragedy | First a wayward pastor, then a gunman in the parking lot. (The Gazette)


• 'Last place' for a deadly attack | Thousands were at one of state's largest churches (Rocky Mountain News)


• Danger and death in Arvada | Missionaries were training to serve in violent regions (Rocky Mountain News)


• Arvada missionary workers gunned down (The Denver Post)


• Group targeted in shooting has far reach | Begun in 1960 after a 20-year-old college student said he experienced a vision from God, Youth With a Mission has grown into one of the world's most formidable Christian missions groups (Associated Press)


• No general alert sent after center shootings | Deputy Chief Gary Creager said Sunday night that detectives had no indication the gunman was headed anywhere in particular and were given only a sketchy description that would have been useless to other law enforcement agencies (Rocky Mountain News)

On the victims:

• Slain Springs sisters were active in Arvada missionary group (Rocky Mountain News)


• Philip Crouse had undergone transformation (Rocky Mountain News)


• Tiffany Johnson was known for her smile, her love of children (Rocky Mountain News)


• Charlie Blanch involved with YWAM for 2 years (Rocky Mountain News)


• Dan Griebenow has group rooting for his recovery (Rocky Mountain News)


• Young missionaries caring, forgiving | One victim had turned away from gangs; one was called "an angel" (The Denver Post)


• Police ID teens killed in New Life shootings (The Gazette)


• Vietnam vet among Springs wounded | Larry Bourbannais, 59, was eating a hamburger in the cafeteria on the church campus when he heard gunfire, said his daughter(The Denver Post)


• Teen sisters killed in Springs (The Denver Post)

On church shootings and security:

• Attacks force churches to boost security | Some of the nation's estimated 1,200 megachurches have been quietly beefing up security in recent years, even using armed guards to protect the faithful (Associated Press)


• Church security can be tricky | Some already employ armed, professional security officers, while others rely on volunteer church members (The Gazette)


• At a glance: violence at churches (The Denver Post)

From our sister publications:

• Leader's Insight: Security Against Shooters | A police officer's advice on how to prevent, or react to, a gunman at church. (Leadership, June 11, 2007)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at December 10, 2007 | Comments (28)

Dozens of churches and groups have left the Episcopal Church in recent years. Today is the first time that an entire diocese has voted to officially split from the national body. The votes weren't close: the clergy in California's Diocese of San Joaquin voted 70-12 to withdraw, and laity voted 103-10.

"We have leadership in the Episcopal Church that has drastically and radically changed directions," diocesan spokesman Van McCalister told the Associated Press. "They have pulled the rug out from under us. They've started teaching something very different, something very new and novel, and it's impossible for us to follow a leadership that has so drastically reinvented itself."

The diocese, which has 47 parishes, 48 church buildings (including its headquarters), and 8,800 members, will affiliate with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, headquartered in Buenos Aires. As it removed all references to the national Episcopal Church body in its constitution, the diocese added a clause describing itself as "a constituent member of the Anglican Communion and in full communion with the See of Canterbury."

The New York Times notes that the diocese "has long been different from the rest of the Episcopal Church":

It is one of three dioceses that does not ordain women priests. It stopped sending money to the Episcopal Church budget after the consecration of Bishop Robinson. Its cathedral runs a ministry for those struggling "with sexual brokenness," Bishop Schofield said, which includes homosexuality.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori refused to acknowledge that the diocese is leaving.

"The Episcopal Church receives with sadness the news that some members of this church have made a decision to leave this church," she said in a press release. "We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness. We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey. The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership."

Anglican superblogs like TitusOneNine and Stand Firm will have comprehensive links, but here are a few news stories:

• Diocese Secedes | In a historic vote, the conservative Diocese of San Joaquin becomes the first in the nation to split from the more liberal Episcopal Church in a debate over the role of gays, women in the church (The Fresno Bee)
• Diocese will leave Episcopal Church | San Joaquin 1st in nation to make dramatic move (The Modesto Bee)
• Diocese votes to split from church | Talk of schism heated up after gay bishop was installed in 2003 (The Bakersfield Californian)
• Episcopal fold loses 1st diocese -- in valley (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Church votes to secede | Episcopal Diocese of S.J. to join more conservative group (The Stockton Record, Ca.)
• Episcopal diocese secedes in rift over gays | The Diocese of San Joaquin in Central California is the first to break from the U.S. church over its relatively liberal views on homosexuality and biblical authority (Los Angeles Times)
• Episcopal Diocese Secedes over Role of Gays (All Things Considered, NPR)
• Diocese splits from Church in gay row (The Telegraph, London)
• US Church splits over gay rights (BBC)
• Historic split for U.S. Episcopals (Reuters)
• What would Jesus rue? | The scriptural basis for homophobia is thin, culturally difficult to translate and open to interpretation. Yes, ordaining gays is controversial. But is it apostasy? (Michael Fitzgerald, The Stockton Record)

Posted by Ted Olsen at December 8, 2007 | Comments (13)

The AP is reporting that Benny Hinn is following on the heels of Creflo Dollar in telling the Senate Finance Committee to take a hike. Reporters Eric Gorski and Rachel Zoll write:

Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas, said in a statement to the AP on Thursday that he will not respond to the inquiry until next year.

A lawyer for preacher Creflo Dollar of World Changers Church International in suburban Atlanta had said Wednesday that the investigation should be referred to the IRS or the Senate panel should get a subpoena for the documents.

Posted by Rob Moll at December 6, 2007 | Comments (82)

Last year, according to BBC, 244 women and 234 men were ordained to the Anglican priesthood and now women make up a quarter of the Anglican clergy in Britain. Without this increase in the ordination of women, BBC reports that Anglican puplits would become "depopulated."

However, this does not mean that controversy over gender has ceased within the church. According to the TimesOnline,

The Synod is now locked in contentious debate over whether women should be ordained bishop, an issue that insiders fear could be as divisive as that of homosexual ordination, even though some provinces such as the US and Canada already have women bishops.

The General Synod first voted to ordain women in 1992, but some say that despite the increase in female priests, women have had very little impact on the church since then because, according to the University of Manchester, the church is still "far from being an equal opportunity employer."

The Reverend Rosemary Lain-Priestley, secretary to the National Association of Diocesan Advisers in Women's Ministry, said, "Many women priests feel that until women can become bishops they will not be taken seriously in other senior roles, despite the success of women deans and archdeacons."

Posted by Kristen Scharold at November 14, 2007 | Comments (1)

Trustees of a Southern Baptist Convention agency voted to censure Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson and banned him from active participation on the board for at least the next four trustee meetings, the Associated Baptist Press reports.

The ABP reports that the International Mission Board board said Burleson violated two recently adopted policies barring individual trustees from criticizing actions of the board or reporting on any private conversations between trustees about IMB business.

As previously reported in CT, the pastor has used his weblog to criticize two policy changes the IMB trustees approved in November. Burleson defended his right to dissent, and still plans to be at the meetings.

Burleson's blog cricism stemmed from the IMB's decision to bar new missionary candidates who practice a "private prayer language" or tongues from serving on the mission field. The trustees also mandated that a candidate be baptized in a church that teaches believers' security and practices only baptism by immersion.

Only messengers to an SBC annual meeting can fully eject Burleson from its membership. Two years ago, a majority of IMB trustees voted to ask messengers to eject Burleson but later rescinded the action.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at November 9, 2007 | Comments (21)

The New York Times shows a healthy respect for its readers' interest in church rock by posting an 8-minute documentary on "The Worship Rock Scene."

Why? Because megachurch bands "now provide one of the major ways that Americans hear live music." The video also points out that churches can be a steady gig for bands in places where they would otherwise have few performances.

High Desert Church in Reno, whose bands the NYT focuses on, has nine rotating bands for three age groups: 18 ? 30, 30 ? 55, and "the classic community" ? those who are 55 and over and, presumably, partial to West-Coast folk rock.

"Each band is carefully calibrated toward the pop culture disposition of each age group," reports Jigar Mehta.

"We have to communicate the gospel in a way that is entertaining so we can tell them the story," says Jeff Crandall, the church's music director and former drummer for the Altar Boys (for a flashback to the '80s, go to minute 5:15).

Steve Wilber, who leads Harbor, the 30 ? 55 worship service, explains that he chooses the music and keeps it up-to-date so that the transition from secular to church music styles isn't jarring.

The video and the accompanying article, while premised on music, linger on prayers. Almost a full minute of the video is footage of the 18-30 band in pre-service prayer.

Dressed in a faded black T-shirt, jeans and skateboard sneakers, [Mike Day] bent his shaved head. "God," he said, "I hope these songs we sing will be much more than the music. I know it's so difficult at times when we're thinking about chords and lyrics and when to hit the right effect patch, but would you just help that to become second nature, so that we can truly worship you from our hearts?"

Posted by Susan Wunderink at November 8, 2007 | Comments (7)

The largest state Baptist convention in the nation elected its first female president yesterday, the Associated Press reports.

Joy Fenner, a former missionary to Japan, narrowly defeated Texas pastor David Lowrie, 900 to840. The Dallas Morning News reports that Fenner's will begin her presidency in a time of trouble for the BGCT, including a budget shortfall, layoffs and a scandal involving church starting funds.

Fenner is not the only "first" for the convention. The AP reports that the convention elected its first Hispanic president in 2004 and its first black president in 2005.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at October 30, 2007 | Comments (9)

Tom Butler represented the Church of England at a House of Lords consultation on organ donation in the European Union yesterday. He presented the church's position that organ donation is a very Christian thing to sign up for, BBC news reports.
"Giving oneself and one's possessions voluntarily for the well being of others and without compulsion is a Christian duty of which organ donation is a striking example," the Church of England's statement says. It also says Christians have "a mandate to heal" - but they're not talking about miracle working.
The Church of England is supporting a switch from an opt-in (to organ donation) to an opt-out system, hoping to help Britain overcome a chronic organ shortage, which can be an ethically tricky problem to solve. Their statement addresses a few of the issues, such as selling organs for profit, making sure the donor is dead, and respect for the body and the bereaved.
"What is done with the body matters," the Church of England affirms. "The body at its burial or cremation should ideally be recognizably the body of the person who has died."

Posted by Susan Wunderink at October 9, 2007 | Comments (0)

A new study out of Norway suggests that cancer doesn't make divorce more likely--unless the diagnosis is for testicular or cervical cancer. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune:

In research presented Thursday at a meeting of the European Cancer Organization, Norwegian experts found cancer patients were no more likely to get divorced than people without cancer, except for those with cervical and testicular cancer. The divorce rate actually dropped slightly in the years following diagnosis for most cancers, they said.

But the study showed women with cervical cancer had a 40 percent higher chance of getting divorced than other women. Men with testicular cancer were 20 percent more likely to get divorced than similar men without cancer. Both types of cancer are curable and are diagnosed at younger ages than other cancers.

A number of reasons are suggested: (1) the marriages are younger and not as established; (2) the diagnoses can interfere with couples' sexual lives, which further undercuts their emotional bonding; and (in the case of cervical cancer) such diagnoses may lead to suspicions of infidelity.

The good news is (1) cancer is not usually a marriage-killer, and (2) the divorce risk for these two forms of cancer seems to decline with age:

Women with cervical cancer had nearly a 70 percent greater risk of divorce at the age of 20, a level that fell to 19 percent at 60. For testicular cancer, the divorce risk was 34 percent at 20 and 16 percent at 60, it said.

Something for Christians to keep in mind when cancer comes to church. The attack comes not just against our bodies, but against our marriages. Ministry to families facing cancer should thus be holistic, encompassing body and soul.

Posted by Stan Guthrie at September 28, 2007 | Comments (0)

Update: Now that the Episcopalian bishops have rejected Anglican leaders' call to repentance and orthodoxy, Wednesday's lectionary readings are fascinating too.

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. ... You spurn all who go astray from your statutes, for their cunning is in vain. (Ps. 119)

But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. (Ps. 81)

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler - not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you." (1 Cor. 5)

There are some readings especially relevant for orthodox Anglicans meeting in Pittsburgh today, too. Among the issues on their mind is whether to fight for property as they leave the Episcopal Church.

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? ... To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? (1 Cor. 6)

"You have heard that it was said, ?An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. ... If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (Matt. 5)

(Yesterday's readings after the jump)

Considering the issues at stake in New Orleans today, it's hard to find a more appropriate commentary than today's lectionary readings in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

Among the Scriptures today:

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. ... And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. ... Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. 5)

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. ? Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil. (Matt. 5)

In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. (Psalm 78)

(Thanks to TitusOneNine)

Posted by Ted Olsen at September 25, 2007 | Comments (9)

We've covered sermon stealing several times, as have our sister publications. But we haven't seen this before: The Valley Morning Star of Harlingen, Texas, reports, "Rev. Dori Zubizarreta had to improvise her sermon a few weeks ago after thieves took the written sermon from her office."

Zubizarreta told the paper, "I was going to use that sermon for the 8 o'clock morning Mass, but I had to wing it. By the 10:30 (a.m.) Mass, I had already worked it out."

A cynic might say the same thing happens every week in many Protestant and Catholic churches -- only without the stealing part.

Posted by Ted Olsen at September 19, 2007 | Comments (0)

A suburban Chicago church sought leadership from Rwanda amid theological disputes with the Episcopal Church. This week, it found itself in conflict with its leaders over Rwandan politics.

All Souls Anglican Church had invited Paul Rusesabagina, whose life was featured in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda, to speak during Sunday morning services. The Wheaton, Illinois, church, a member of the Rwandan-led Anglican Mission in America, invited him as part of a fundraiser to build a school in Gashirabwoba, Rwanda.

On Thursday, however, Emmanuel Kolini, the Anglican archbishop of Rwanda, asked All Soul's pastor J. Martin Johnson to rescind the invitation.

The rest of this article has been moved to the main Christianity Today site.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at September 8, 2007 | Comments (20)

If your church's Vacation Bible School leaders need an encouraging pat on the back, or if you want your church to consider investing time and effort in a VBS, an article on today's Taste page of the Wall Street Journal is worth forwarding to them.

Boston-based writer Jennifer Graham offers a positive perspective on the 119-year-old institution. The efforts are clearly evangelistic, but they are low pressure (often just follow-up postcards with participating unchurched families). They are effective (the impetus for 26% of the year 2006 baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention), but they are also expensive (one of the highest-funded programs at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, Tennessee). And it's big business for curriculum publishers, with 3 million participants in Southern Baptist VBS programs alone and another 24,500 United Methodist Churches offering Vacation Bible School.

Thanks to the Journal for an encouraging article.

Posted by David Neff at August 17, 2007 | Comments (0)

"As a result of seeking the Lord as to His will for my continuing to serve out the remaining two years of the present term, I have reached a decision to step down as general superintendent of the Assemblies of God," Thomas Trask announced yesterday.

The Assemblies of God site and the News-Leader of Springfield, Missouri, have more coverage.

Posted by Ted Olsen at July 11, 2007 | Comments (3)

Conservative Episcopalians received some stunning news this week when a California appeals court ruled the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is within its legal rights in retaining ownership of church property.

The defendants, three dissident churches now linked to the Anglican Church in Uganda, expect to decide soon on whether to appeal to the California Supreme Court.

The worldwide Anglican Communion continues to grapple with the fallout from the consecration of Gene Robinson, an active homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. But increasingly, the civil courts in the US are being drawn into this fight as local, diocesan, and national leaders fight over real estate. It's no small dispute, potentially involving billions in real estate, related assets, and other property.

Of course, national church leaders are overjoyed by the court ruling:

John R. Shiner, Chancellor for the Diocese and its attorney in the litigation, called the ruling a "decisive decision" for the Episcopal Church. Shiner, a partner of Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP, noted, "Yesterday's decision contains the most thorough analysis yet of church property law in California, and should dispel any notion that local congregations of a hierarchical church may leave the larger church and take property with them."

On the conservative side, there are many more cases making their way through the courts. But conservatives, meanwhile, are somewhat encouraged that the Canadian branch of Anglicanism, meeting in General Synod, voted to forbid priests from blessing same-sex unions.

Posted by Tim Morgan at June 27, 2007 | Comments (5)

This week I attended the inaugural one-day conference of the Gospel Coalition. This consortium of more than 50 evangelical pastors have united around a common confessional statement and theological vision of ministry. Organizers hope this short conference, hosted by Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and attended by 500+ pastors and other ministry leaders, will propel a long-term effort to renew and reform evangelical thought and practice. D.A. Carson, a New Testament scholar at TEDS, and Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, organized the group, which has met privately for three years now. Other speakers and workshop presenters included Crawford Loritts, Phil Ryken, Mark Driscoll, and John Piper.

I thought a couple statements stood out in the Gospel Coalition's founding document:

From the preamble: "On the one hand, we are troubled by the idolatry of personal consumerism and the politicization of the faith; on the other hand, we are distressed by the unchallenged acceptance of theological and moral relativism."

From the theological vision of ministry: "If we seek service rather than power, we may have significant cultural impact. But if we seek direct power and social control, we will, ironically, be assimilated into the very idolatries of wealth, status, and power we seek to change."

The Gospel Coalition's core group of pastors plans to meet yearly. Leaders have tentatively planned a national conference for April 2009. A website, www.thegospelcoalition.org, will be forthcoming in June with video of all the conference sessions and loads of links to resources that promote the Gospel Coalition vision.

As Carson told me today, this group could not have come together five years ago. Make of that what you will, but something's stirring in the evangelical movement. The Gospel Coalition seeks nothing less than a return to the theological consensus enjoyed in the days of neo-evangelicalism, led by Billy Graham, Carl Henry, Harold John Ockenga, and many others. That might be a goal more difficult to achieve than pioneering evangelicalism in the post-war Protestant scene, split as it was between fundamentalism and liberalism.

Posted by Collin Hansen at May 25, 2007 | Comments (7)

According to LifeNews.com, Catholic politicians are deeply offended that Pope Benedict wants the church to be the church. Benedict recently said that Catholic politicians who vote for policies that support abortion automatically excommunicate themselves. In response, a group of these politicians said, the penalty of excommunication "offend(s) the very nature of the American experiment and do(es) a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done."

God forbid that the church would do anything to question the American experiment.

Posted by Mark Galli at May 21, 2007 | Comments (2)

Michael Gerson has launched his semi-weekly Washington Post column with a piece on the Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola's recent Virginia trip and the Anglican dispute.

Posted by Ted Olsen at May 16, 2007 | Comments (0)