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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.
The young minister’s alarm goes off at 6 a.m., time for his own devotional and the one he will send to the president of the United States.This particular morning, Joshua DuBois meditates on the disciple Peter’s first letter to the early church. The text he prays over and e-mails to Barack Obama half an hour later is about something else.It’s a private start to the day for the president and the pastor, a spiritual BlackBerry session they guard carefully.
COMMENTARYThe question is no longer, "Do you believe in global warming?" but, "What do you believe about the Gulf oil spill?" The BP spill has brought creation care closer to home. Whether global warming is a dire threat or not, human-made or not, we are all now more aware of our relationship to other parts of God’s creation.It goes without saying that one of our main callings is to care for the Earth. The Bible uses a variety of phrases to talk about this, such as "to work and keep" the garden (Gen. 2:15, ESV), to "have dominion" over all…
For 10 years, the Rev. Richard Cizik was the chief lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents roughly 30 million constituents across the United States. But he was forced out of that position in December 2008, after remarks he made on Fresh Air about his support of gay civil unions, among other things. On Wednesday, Cizik returned to Fresh Air to discuss how his life has changed since he left the association and why he started a new group called the Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.
If you told your friends you were going to a Hillsong Live concert, worship leader Ben Fielding would have a good-natured correction for you. “We’d probably err to call it a performance,” he said during the band’s second U.S. concert stop in Johns Creek, Georgia.
COMMENTARYLOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–A man who is like a spiritual father to me began what he called a "family altar" with his wife before they were married, and has faithfully continued the practice through the arrival of children and grandchildren for more than 50 years. Sadly, it seems that few men among even the best evangelical churches today could speak of daily family worship in their home.