I Plant Secret House Churches Because I Was Saved into One

How an Iranian teenager found Christ and launched a mission to equip persecuted believers. I was raised in a Muslim family in Tehran, Iran. My mother was a teacher and the principal of an elementary school. She knew a lot about Islam and did her best to follow its teachings. She helped me learn to read the Qur’an, taught me to pray at least three times a day, and encouraged me to fast during Ramadan. As a Muslim teenager, I remember being full of fear—specifically, the fear that... Read More

Saddleback Successor Cleared of Allegations of Overbearing Leadership

Search firm Vanderbloemen reviewed texts, emails, and videos but did not talk to former staffer who made accusations against Andy Wood. Leaders at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church say a preliminary investigation has cleared Warren’s recently announced successor, Andy Wood, of allegations of an authoritiarian leadership style that demands unquestioning loyalty. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and one of the most influential voices in evangelical Christianity, is... Read More

Drug Addiction Was Bad in America. The Pandemic Made it Worse.

Recovery ministries try to help as people give up and give in. For 50 years, Toby Nigh had what he describes as the perfect life. He had a good job, a happy family, and if you had asked him, he would have told you that he was really lucky. “Everything always seemed to work out for me,” the Kirksville, Missouri, man said. Then his perfect life fell to pieces in 2018. One day at work he picked up a 30-pound machine and blew out the L4-L5 disc in his back. A surgery led to an... Read More

Southern Baptists Prep for Annual Meeting With Heavy Hearts, Cautious Hope

It was a fight to get the landmark abuse investigation to happen. Now, will the denomination be able to overcome divides to enact reforms? Pastor Adam Wyatt was driving to a hospital visit in southern Mississippi last month when he began crying angry tears. “I usually don’t do that,” said Wyatt, who had stayed up late the night before to read through the devastating 288-page report on Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders’ response to abuse. “It’s been... Read More

Churches Are Putting the ‘Hospital’ Back in Hospitality

COVID-era congregations are finding better ways to minister to their grieving parishioners and neighbors. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jane Waln waited at home as her husband declined in hospice, restricted from visitors by lockdown. She’d lovingly nursed Dennis through the years as dementia stole him from her, but new health protocols were undermining her hopes for the end she thought they would be able to face together. When Jane returned to church after... Read More

Why In-Person Church Will Never Go Out of Style

Despite more online church options, Philip Yancey says, embodied gathering will always be relevant. An Associated Press poll last year reported that three-quarters of churchgoers in the US plan to resume regular in-person attendance as the pandemic subsides. The pastors I know are looking out at the empty seats with their fingers crossed, hoping that prediction will eventually come true. I confess that during the lockdown I rather enjoyed watching church services online while lounging in my... Read More

India’s Anticonversion Laws Loophole

The government didn’t have the votes to pass a controversial bill in Karnataka. So it found another way. Last month, a delegation of Christian leaders met with Thawar Chand Gehlot, the governor of the southwest Indian state of Karnataka. Their aim: to discourage Gehlot from signing an anticonversion ordinance that they believe will embolden religious radicals to stir unrest. Despite what Bengaluru archbishop Peter Machado described to CT as a “courteous and welcoming”... Read More

Study: Female Songwriters Are Dropping Off the Worship Charts

As big-label collaborations dominate church setlists, fewer Christian women are penning hits than 30 years ago. When songwriter Krissy Nordhoff moved to Nashville in 1996, she had hoped to be guided and supported by the women who had gone before her in the Christian music industry. Her first musical mentor was a woman—her grandmother, who inspired her to start writing songs when she was five years old. But as she found success in the industry, penning hits including “Your Great... Read More

Texas Soul Singer Wrestles with ‘the Old Man’ and Finds God’s Grace in First Album

“Because of the faith we put in Jesus, we get to write a different story.” Micah Edwards does not want to become like his father. At 27, the retro soul singer from Houston has reached the age when many men slip into a resemblance. It just happens. The timbre in their voices, the way they couch a phrase, or how they respond to a situation seems, suddenly, exactly like their fathers’. And it doesn’t feel like a choice, but the manifestation of inherited traits. The... Read More

Why a Presbyterian Elder Defended Muslims Building a Mosque in Middle Tennessee

Q&A with First Amendment champion Eric Treene on religious freedom, land use, and how the Westminster Confession contributed to his work at the Department of Justice. Eric Treene has gone to court to defend Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, and people from other minority faiths for more than 25 years. If you ask him why, he points to the Bible and the Westminster Confession. Treene, an elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, is motivated by his faith to defend religious... Read More