Old Scars and New Wounds: Christians Comfort Lebanon’s Trauma

One month since the blast, emotional support comes from evangelicals, refugees, children, and other unexpected sources. One month since the blast, emotional support comes from refugees, children, and other unexpected sources. To a traumatized child, a teddy bear can make a big difference. But as the handful of Lebanese evangelicals trained in counseling are emphasizing in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, so can an ordinary individual. “I don’t think the... Read More

Bethel’s Sean Feucht Rallies ‘Worship Protest’ in Seattle

The tour, held in defiance of COVID-19 regulations, continues in Colorado, Minneapolis, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the week ahead. A battle of wills between a California musician known for a series of open-air Christian worship concerts around the country and the city of Seattle, which denied him a park venue for a Labor Day concert, ended with a two-hour “worship protest” being held one block north of the park. A group of local pastors located an alternate site on a blocked-off... Read More

Monuments Can Be Destroyed, but Not Forgotten

Our most controversial stone statues carry layers of communal history that aren’t easily cast aside. In the Hebrew Scriptures, stone monuments are earthen witnesses to a sacred covenant. When Jacob contractually maneuvered himself out from under his father-in-law Laban, he set up a pillar in the highlands of Gilead. It was supposed to be a reminder of a legal separation, but the fragility of the peace was underscored by the dueling names given to the monument: Jacob’s in the Hebrew... Read More

Christian Colleges Are Changing to Survive. Is it Working?

Facing with declining enrollments, evangelical schools add programs, cut programs, and hope. Norman Hall knew what he needed to do. The new president of Simpson University was appointed in 2018 to save the Christian and Missionary Alliance-affiliated school in Redding, California. The hard part was how. Enrollment was dropping at Simpson. In 2014, more than 1,000 full-time undergraduate students signed up to start classes in the fall. Four years later, there were only about 620. With that... Read More

Evangelism: Reconsidering Our Approach in a Pandemic

Pursuing creative, personal opportunities for evangelism during COVID-19. Many churches have found effective and creative ways to be on mission and to engage in evangelism during the coronavirus crisis. At the same time, some evangelism approaches have been affected just like church life (and, let's face it, all of life) has been disrupted. If you aren't a scholar or researcher in the field of evangelism you may not realize the many ways it is carried out. On the one hand, we all... Read More

State of Theology: Evangelicals Hold Steady on Doctrine, More Outspoken on Politics

American evangelicals make mostly incremental changes around some common heresies. In the latest survey of Americans’ theological views, evangelicals stood out for their love of their Savior and Scripture, but like the rest of the country, they still have significant gaps in belief and interpretation. The biggest change in this year’s State of American Theology Study had to do with approaches to political engagement, with evangelicals three times less likely to believe that... Read More

Rise of the Machines: New Book Applies Christian Ethics to the Future of AI

Q&A: John Lennox reflects on questions of consciousness in computers, enhancing humans, and other quandaries. Once viewed as the stuff of science fiction, artificial intelligence (AI) is steadily making inroads into our everyday lives—from our social media feeds to digital assistants like Siri and Alexa. As helpful as AI is for many aspects of our lives, it also raises a number of challenging moral and spiritual questions. Facial recognition can be used to locate fugitive... Read More

Why Our Sunday School Disciples Christians in Politics

If churches don’t engage our members, pundits and memes will. Are you sure that’s a good idea?” That’s the most common response I get when I tell someone our church is hosting a Sunday school class on faith and politics this fall in the middle of the 2020 election season. We’re a growing, politically diverse congregation in the heart of downtown Indianapolis, so I understand the concern. Isn’t talking about politics a recipe for disaster? Won’t it just... Read More

Sudan Agrees with Rebels to Remove Islam as State Religion

Peace deals include bold pledges on religious freedom. But much work remains for transitional government after three decades under Bashir’s strict sharia. In signing successive peace deals with entrenched rebel movements last week, Sudan drew upon the legacy of Thomas Jefferson. “The constitution should be based on the principle of ‘separation of religion and state,’” read the text of an agreement between the North African nation’s joint military-civilian... Read More

QAnon, Conspiracies, and Discipling the Way Out

Reflections on my recent article for USAToday Few articles I’ve written have provoked the response as touching conspiracy theories in 2020. It is an odd mixture of those consumed by fury or derision at my apparent blindness and those derisive of my supposed attempt to generate clickbait. This is part of the problem I tried to address in my latest article at USAToday on the growing influence of the conspiracy theory known as QAnon in evangelical churches. In the article, I concluded... Read More