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Americans love their Bibles. So much so that they keep them in pristine, unopened condition. Or, as George Gallup Jr. and Jim Castelli said in a widely quoted survey finding, "Americans revere the Bible but, by and large, they don’t read it."Anecdotes abound. Time magazine observed in a 2007 cover story that only half of U.S. adults could name one of the four Gospels. Fewer than half could identify Genesis as the Bible’s first book. Jay Leno and Stephen Colbert have made sport of Americans’ inability to name the Ten Commandments—even among members of Congress who have pushed to have…
She isn’t employed by the show and viewers never see her sparring with Simon Cowell. But Leesa Bellesi exerts her own kind of pull on "American Idol," Fox’s top-rated singing contest that has a unique if often-unstated link to Christian churches. Bellesi, who runs a Christian nonprofit in Lake Forest with her ex-pastor husband, visits tapings frequently, has befriended numerous finalists and helps wrangle funds and scout temporary housing for families who trek cross-country to see relatives perform on "Idol." Bellesi said that churches form a base for the young singers as they try to win votes and establish fan…
The Rev. Scott Schmieding sat in an examination room at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston where a surgeon had just examined a malignant tumor in the center of his tongue. The tumor was spreading rapidly, the doctor told him. Surgeons would have to remove most, if not all, of the preacher’s tongue, and he might never be able to swallow on his own. His speech would likely be unintelligible. In that moment, Schmieding was not afraid of death or the physical ordeal that he faced. He knew heaven awaited him if he were to die. But he wondered…
Leaders of Lake City Church and Mad City Church have scheduled a meeting for Wednesday June 2, 2010, to discuss the possibility of merging the two congregations. Information about the possible merger was presented to the two congregations yesterday morning. Lake City Church Lead Pastor John Ruck delivered the information during a congregational town hall meeting with questions and answers at 9:30am, between two morning services. Mad City Church Senior Pastor Tom Flaherty delivered the information as part of his sermon during the 9:30am service.
As pastor with the Illinois Clay City Christian Church, one of my responsibilities is changing the message on the sign in front of the church. But it’s more an opportunity than a responsibility. Our building is on Main Street, the busiest street in town, so hundreds of people see my messages on the sign who will never hear my messages from the pulpit.
JERUSALEM, Israel – Thousands of Christians from Iraq and other countries are leaving the Middle East because of persecution, violence and economic hardship.Perhaps the most alarming exodus is occurring in the Holy Land — the birthplace of Christianity.
Growing up as a missionary kid in Guatemala, David Taylor was learning the meaning of beauty before he even realized it. Taylor names the tropical landscape as one of five key elements in shaping his own identity as an artist. The others: listening to his mother play classical music on her grand piano; watching his father tend orchids in the backyard greenhouse; reading "books outside my tradition" recommended by his Regent College professors, including Eugene Peterson; and "being given permission to try and fail—again and again—by the leadership of Hope Chapel [in Austin, Texas], as I sought to discover what…
COMMENTARYIs it a show about a modern-day shipwreck, featuring misfit castaways trying to survive increasingly bizarre circumstances on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean?Or is the island just a metaphor? Is it really a show about faith, redemption, evil, predestination, love, suffering, free will and human understanding of the supernatural?
COMMENTARYIf you are at all familiar with the mainstream American contemporary megachurch – a video currently seen on the internet is brilliant satire. Which makes it uncomfortable. It will be very easy for many such churches, and the ones aspiring to join their club, to see themselves in it.
TIPP CITY, Ohio (RNS) It’s often hard to find signs of hope in Sudan’s Western Darfur province, which is considered one of the bleakest places on the planet. Civil war rages in what many call a campaign of genocide that has killed hundreds of thousands of Darfuri civilians and displaced millions of others. But while the Sudanese government in Khartoum has expelled most international relief groups, there are surprising signs of continuing aid from a United Methodist congregation a half a world away.