Tommy Deal wept the day five police officers were gunned down in Dallas last summer. Distraught, the Baptist minister jumped into his car in search of police to comfort — even though he was in Dalton, Ga., not Dallas. Geography didn’t…
Modern — and ancient — Christian identity crisis drives decline of American church
Europeans, it seems, are wondering if American Christianity has pretty much gone off the rails. A recent editorial in Great Britain’s The Guardian newspaper raised the question after describing the role faith has had in the “social and political convulsions”…
Religious diversity a reality within churches, research shows
The church, it seems, is experiencing a constant “wake-up call” these days. It needs to wake up about the needs and interests of Millennials and the growth of the “nones.” It needs to wake up about worship styles, ministering outside…
Marching to the voting booth
The book of Ecclesiastes tells us there is nothing new under the sun. Well, I say Ecclesiastes was wrong. Recently, I heard about a notion that is not only new under our sun, but frankly, new under any star or…
Study ranks incomes of religious groups
Compared to Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Baptists store more of their treasure in heaven than on earth, according to a new comparison of household incomes of U.S. religious groups by the Pew Research Center. The analysis of Pew’s 2014 Religious Landscape…
‘Are you not entertained?’ Discipleship and Pew Research findings
Have you ever claimed to be something you’re not? I once posed as a town sheriff, brandishing a gun and stopping everyone who disobeyed the law. Of course, at the age of 4, and with a plastic orange-tipped six-shooter, my…
Let’s bring back blue laws to increase church attendance?
Should we bring back Blue Laws to increase our Sunday worship attendance? No, but the thought of it does raise some interesting questions. What were Blue Laws? Actually there are still some around so “was” is not in every place…
One millennial’s response to the recent Pew Research findings
My name is Seth Vopat, I am a husband and father of two boys, who happens to work in ministry as well. At age 33, I belong to the millennial generation which continues to make headline news. I continue to…