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APARTMENT hunters always have a wish list of things that will help them call a new place home — doormen, laundry rooms, southern exposures. But for some people, faith guides real estate choices. Instead of bay windows and an in-house gym, their must-have may be a kosher kitchen, a short walk to church, room to roll out a prayer mat or like-minded roommates. Community mattered to Jason Storbakken, 33, and his wife, Vonetta, 36, who wanted to share their lives with other followers of Christ, and not just for an hour on Sunday morning. So the couple started Radical Living,…
“Bye-bye church. We’re busy.” That’s the message teens are giving churches today. Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company.
Tony Stratton has all of those kinds of people working for him, but the past doesn’t matter. “The Christian life is not about being labeled, identified, restricted,” said Stratton, a third-generation steeplejack and a fourth-generation preacher who runs Inspired Heights, a steeple reconstruction company in Rockford, Ill.
One of the hot debates in academia is now reaching the courts. The question: Do universities discriminate against religious conservatives? Some professors and students say they do, but it’s not an easy charge to pin down.
African American couples are more likely than others to share core religious beliefs and pray together at home — factors that have been linked to greater happiness in marriages and relationships, according to a study released Tuesday. In what is described as the first major look at relationship quality and religion across racial and ethnic lines, researchers report a significant link between relationship satisfaction and religious factors for whites, Hispanics and African Americans. The study appears in this month’s issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America witnessed its biggest-ever drop in membership last year, according to a recently released analysis. By the end of 2009, ELCA membership stood at 4.5 million – 90 thousand less than the year before, reported the ELCA Office of the Secretary and ELCA Research and Evaluation. Before the latest drop, the biggest loss was 79 thousand – a drop witnessed in 2005.
It’s plain and simple: The Amish inspirational is one of the fastest-growing genres in romance publishing. For many readers today, it’s all about the bonnet. In our sex-soaked society, nothing seems to inflame the imagination quite like the chaste.
Christians from around the country gathered near the White House on Friday to pray for God to heal America and that its people would turn back to Him.
More than 400 people gathered Sunday at Loudonville Community Church in Loudonville, New York, to honor Tom Little, an optometrist who was among 10 people in a medical team killed by gunmen in northeastern Afghanistan.
CommentaryCertain characteristics are so inherent to Christianity that to neglect them is to become a walking oxymoron. A Christian without commitment is such an oxymoron. That’s why I was so disturbed when a friend shared a statement from presidential candidates at a Christian college. When asked, "What has changed the most in the past 20 years with young people who are entering college?" all the candidates said that young adults today are far less willing to commit to anything.