Category: Christian news

One is scholarly with a big cable budget, the other is gritty and crowdfunded. This month brings two profoundly different takes on the biblical Gospels to the small screen. In Jesus: His Life, which premiered Monday and runs through Easter, History seeks to commemorate the Lenten season with a reverent, fast-paced, inclusive miniseries. “The story of Jesus is one of the cornerstones of Western civilization,” says Mary Donahue, executive producer of the series and senior vice... Read More

Five benefits of taking a year off before college. When it comes to keeping the faith, the odds are increasingly against Gen Z, those born between 1995 and 2015. According to the evangelical Christian polling firm Barna Group’s recent study, the percentage of the U.S. population that identifies as Christian has been on a downward trend since the generation before baby boomers, which Barna calls “elders.” And the percentage of Gen Z that identifies as atheist is double that... Read More

After preaching at Billy Graham rallies and revivals in Asia, the Christian Aid Mission founder introduced new emphasis on supporting indigenous missionaries. Robert Finley—who founded Christian Aid Mission, considered the first missionary organization dedicated to supporting indigenous missions abroad—died last week at age 96. Finley’s long ministry career intersects with major evangelical leaders and organizations, and his early insistence in the effectiveness of local... Read More

I used to think religious people were ignoramuses. Then I got smart and took a chance on God. As early as grade school, when I was a voracious reader and a straight-A student, I identified with being smart. And I believed smart people didn’t need religion. As a result, I declared myself an atheist and dismissed people who believed in God as uneducated. In high school, I led a classroom debate team arguing for a godless form of evolution, confident my side would win because “this... Read More

Many evangelical mission organizations trace their history back to the Haystack Prayer Meeting. On a balmy Saturday afternoon in August of 1806, five students from the Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, gathered in a field for a prayer meeting. Suddenly, a fierce thunderstorm broke above them. Caught unprotected from the storm’s winds and lightning strikes, the students turned to the nearest shelter at hand—a large haystack. There, huddled under hundreds of pounds... Read More

Why our flaws alone can’t disprove God’s purpose. Human mothers have remarkably short interbirth intervals, compared to other ape species. While birth spacing averages four years in gorillas and nearly eight years in some orangutans, women can return to fertility by two months postpartum or earlier, if not lactating, while those who breastfeed begin ovulating again sometime between three months to up to two years postpartum. That puts human interbirth intervals as short as one... Read More

A conversation with an incredulous friend gave me a chance to tell my story. I am both black and evangelical. Two years ago I was challenged on these dual allegiances because they have been deemed mutually exclusive. It was during the 2016 presidential campaign and I was online registering for the annual conference of the Evangelical Theological Society. A friend was nearby and, upon noticing what I was doing, exclaimed, “You’re an evangelical?!” It was a challenging... Read More

Shouwang Church, which famously kept meeting outdoors after losing its pastor and worship space, is the fourth major unregistered congregation to be forcibly closed in recent months. Another prominent unregistered church in China, Shouwang Church in Beijing, was raided by Chinese police over the weekend and officially banned from gathering to worship. Shouwang, which draws more than 1,000 attendees, is the fourth major underground congregation shut down by the Communist government over the... Read More

College bribery cases point to a common idol. The recent college admissions scandal has all the elements of a sensational, headline-grabbing story: Rich and famous parents paying bribes. Coaches encouraging fabricated athletic success. Prestigious colleges caught in the crosshairs. And now the potential of class action lawsuits brought against some of our nation’s most elite universities. While it’s easy to criticize the parents implicated in the scandal, my hunch is that most... Read More

“Missionaries would do well to spend more time learning from their newfound communities as they spend trying to teach them.” Ed: You talked a lot about the importance of learning to speak of God, particularly as you went from the South to NYC. How did that change impact your relationships in NYC? Jonathan: When I moved to New York City, I encountered an unexpected language barrier. I could still speak English, but I could no longer speak God. I couldn't have free-flowing... Read More