A brushfire that consumed two acres of Saddleback Church’s main campus in Southern California, and prompted retired Pastor Rick Warren to issue a call for prayers, has been fully contained, according to the city of Lake Forest. Investigators determined the fire was intentional and have taken one person into custody.
Read More(OPINION) Lost amid the news of Southern Baptist Convention’s disfellowshipping of Saddleback Church was that of a much smaller Kentucky church — Louisville’s Fern Creek Baptist, with a Sunday attendance of 150, where the Rev. Linda Barnes Popham has served as lead pastor for 30 years..
Read More(ANALYSIS) It’s worth pausing to note a couple of “behind the headlines” moments from the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. If you think there is deep division in the Southern Baptist Convention, you have to ignore a lot of hard data that suggest a strong consensus — on abuse reform, on women pastors, and on cleaning up decades of financial profligacy.
Read More(OPINION) The issue isn’t who is a Baptist and who is not. Church historians struggle to count the number of organized Baptist groups, and thousands of Baptist churches are totally independent. The question is whether the SBC’s DNA has changed in ways that will affect local churches, as well as agencies, boards and seminaries at the state and national levels.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the ongoing battles over who’s in — and who’s out — among Southern Baptists and United Methodists. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) The June 13-14 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, will be a landmark gathering to decide whether to expel any congregation with a women pastor, thus affirming the SBC Executive Committee’s February expulsion of five such congregations.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the spiritual revival that drew thousands to Asbury University, a small Christian college in Kentucky. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read MoreRick Warren’s 2002 book “The Purpose Driven Life” has sold more than 50-million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. But his work as a pastor and author are just the beginning. Warren Cole Smith had this conversation with Rick Warren at his office in southern California.
Read MoreThis is the first in a five-part series about a Norwegian journalist’s perspective on the changing dynamics of Christianity in America. Alyson moved to protect her children against “dechristianization.” A pattern of flight from liberal to conservative states in the U.S. is building a greater concentration of evangelical Christians. Join us in Tennessee.
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