By Brian Kaylor Church health consultants share common stories about churches that have burned through several pastors in just a few years. During the consulting process, a deacon or other lay leader says something like “we just can’t find a…
Church apologizes for botched discipline case
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist megachurch has made amends for disciplining a church member for leaving her husband after learning he is addicted to child pornography. In a face-to-face meeting June 3, Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church,…
Church on a tight budget? Renovate, don’t build
By Vicki Brown Some churches, it seems, are impervious to prevailing economic forces that have kept many congregations building for years. But not Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California, which recently accounted a three-year, $71 million fundraising campaign to, in…
Saddleback Church raising $71 million in largest campaign
By Bob Allen Members of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church have pledged to give $71 million over the next three years in the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the Southern Baptist megachurch’s 35-year history. Warren, who started the Southern California congregation…
Baptist scholars urge churches adopt in-depth theological teaching for lay people
By Jeff Brumley Ongoing spiritual formation for adults at Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., goes way beyond Sunday school. In fact, it borders on divinity school. “Right now in our two-year study … we are studying Bible, church history…
S.C. churches join ranks to minimize challenges, multiply ministry
By Blake Tommey The day Jack Couch realized that the church he founded and pastored for 20 years wasn’t going to survive any longer, he could only see death. Clearview Baptist Church had lost the critical mass of families and…
Public church discipline case a reminder of Baptist past, if not present
By Jeff Brumley A Dallas megachurch got some unwanted publicity recently thanks to its harsh disciplining of a member some leaders believed improperly ended her marriage. On May 28, however, Pastor Matt Chandler of the Village Church stepped in, stopped the…
Man confesses to child porn; church disciplines his wife
By Bob Allen A Dallas megachurch has apologized to a wife subjected to church discipline for leaving her husband without permission after learning he is a pedophile. Elders of The Village Church, a multisite Southern Baptist congregation led by Acts…
Ohio bull-riding leads to 300 baptisms — and prompts questions about church as entertainment
By Jeff Brumley Pastor Lawrence Bishop II generated about 300 baptisms and an internet sensation last week by riding — and getting bucked off — a large bull inside his jam-packed Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, last week. The stunt by…