It was a sermon illustration I will never forget. Our pastor told the story of Father Michael Renninger, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Va. While a college student on his way home one weekend, Renninger stopped to…
Church dismisses pastor who came out as transgender in Sunday sermon
June Joplin, the Canadian Baptist pastor who came out as transgender in her Sunday sermon June 14, has been dismissed from her pulpit at Lorne Park Baptist Church in suburban Toronto. Member Anne McKye, speaking on behalf of the church’s…
Q&A with Tom Crow on how to thrive as an executive pastor
Tom Crow recently retired as executive pastor at the historic First Baptist Church of Nashville and in early July was honored by The Church Network with its Church Management Hall of Fame award for church administrators. He previously served as…
Q&A with Chris Sanders on unions, social justice and policing
Chris Sanders knows theology and law, and he’s an advocate both for labor unions and social justice. That blend of life experience and life passion makes for an interesting conversation these days — with the dueling demands of holding police…
In the UK, coronavirus has made ‘every street a parish’
In the United Kingdom, the coronavirus lockdown “has made every follower of Jesus a leader, every house a house church, and every street a parish,” according to a consultant who works with thousands of churches across denominational lines. Matt Bird…
Letters to the Editor for July 9
A response to David Gushee: Zoom church is not the nightmare Melanie Vaughn-West, Lauren Colwell, David Rensberger Five reasons I disagree with David Gushee Robert Wallace
Faith leaders lament loosened restrictions on payday lenders
Faith leaders were not surprised that the Trump administration gutted hard-fought regulations for payday lenders July 7, but they were nonetheless disappointed that years of advocacy for poor citizens appeared to be for naught. The federal agency charged with protecting…
There’s a double standard on pastors and politics
Imagine a prominent white Baptist pastor taking to cable news to make a case for Joe Biden and then appearing at rallies to campaign for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. All hell would break loose. And that pastor would soon…
Supreme Court opens new chapter of state funding for religious schools
The hotly contested barrier between private religious schools and government funding cracked significantly wider June 30 with a landmark ruling by the United States Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the state of Montana may not…