An occasional compilation of events from around the religious world. To suggest items for inclusion, email assistant editor Jeff Brumley at [email protected].
Banking study may hold key to church Millennial crisis
Congregations are often broken-hearted when young adults leave church or don’t show up at all. “Churches in some ways feel rejected by Millennials,” said Laura Stephens-Reed, an Alabama-based clergy and congregational coach. But they shouldn’t feel alone, she said.
Americans seeking self-care in age of Trump, mass shootings and nuke fears
Anyone who even casually consumes news websites or social media is confronted with an array of anger- and fear-driven reports of End Times-inducing developments. So, it may be no coincidence that new Barna research has found “that most Americans are open to investing in their mental health through counseling” and that discussions about self-care have become mainstream.
Research: many ‘nones’ likely to find or return to faith
The Pew Research Center is reporting that 80 percent of Americans believe in God, which should be great news for America’s struggling churches. Right? But hold on. Of that group, only a slim majority, 56 percent, believe in the God described in the Bible, Pew found in a recently published survey. However, that doesn’t mean the rest are outright religion-rejecting secularists.
Co-habitation up, finger pointing down as church discipline declines
Experience and new research show that churches aren’t punishing morally wayward members like they once did. “There is less discipline overall,” said George Bullard, a veteran church and clergy consultant and director of missions for the Columbia Metro Baptist Association in…
Inspired by youth, churches rising to oppose gun violence
Inspired by the concept that nothing changes if nothing changes, people of faith are responding the gun crisis by organizing everything from congregational letter-writing campaigns to strategy conferences to local gun buybacks. Clergy and laypeople involved say the key is doing something — anything — rather than caving in to the enormity of the gun violence issue.
White Christians should make pilgrimage to new Lynching Memorial, Baptist leader says
Lynching is a part of America’s past that must be confronted and accepted before racial healing can occur, says Hannah McMahan, executive director of the New Baptist Covenant. McMahan attended today’s formal opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.
Emotional rebuilding continues 5 years after Texas blast
The town of West, Texas, took one on the chin when an April 2013 fertilizer plant explosion flattened or damaged scores of homes, destroyed schools, killed 15 people and injured hundreds of others. But the community located about 20 miles north…
25 years later, religious leaders reflect on how they might have helped prevent Branch Davidian tragedy
Twenty-five years ago today the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas burned to the ground with cult leader David Koresh and 75 of his followers inside. Religious leaders who watched the tragedy play out close up reflect on what, if anything, could have prevented it.