Category: Christian news

In 1983, Ed Pousson picked up Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World prayer guide and read an entry on Singapore. In it, the Southeast Asian country was described as the ‘Antioch of Asia.’  The American missionary and his Malaysian wife, Lai Kheng, had previously lived and served in Malaysia and were planning to make their home there after leaving the mission field.  Reading about Singapore changed the course of their lives.  “It was a defining moment for both of us,”... Read More

C. S. Lewis wrote at the end of his book The Four Loves that he didn’t feel like he could fully express the nature of love on the page. “I dare not proceed,” he concluded. Now one of the largest ballet companies in the United States is trying to fill in where words fall short, commissioning Four Loves by choreographer Silas Farley with a full orchestral score by composer Kyle Werner. The one-act ballet premiered at Houston Ballet over the weekend.  At a dress rehearsal before the... Read More

We all lead diverse sensory lives—in the form of memories, reflections, emotions, and events that become embedded into our embodied lives. It is through our five senses that we encounter the world, and these experiences get encoded into the fabric of our beings to be later recalled, from compassion and peace to trauma and violence. In other words, our physical senses matter to how we walk through this life. But more than that, they reflect the creativity and beauty of God himself. We are... Read More

It was our first Christmas season as a family of four, and we were excited to attend our new church’s lessons-and-carols service. As my husband carried our infant daughter into the service, I noticed my son marveling at the decorations and the music. I could see him taking it all in with reverence and delight. After a few hymns my son didn’t know, it was clear he wanted to sing something familiar. Unfortunately, his song of choice was not in our hymnal. As he continued to express with... Read More

“Pray, believe, and receive—or doubt and do without” was a phrase I often heard in my Christian circle. And although it was not intended to be a harmful adage, it became one. That is, after I worked at a ministry where I was bullied, isolated, and left to fend for myself. When I finally decided to quit, friends and family still expected me to keep going to church. But I was so wounded from what I had experienced that the thought of attending church literally made me sick to my... Read More

An investigation into how leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) have dealt with sexual abuse by clergy has cost more than $12 million over the past three years, causing the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to put its Nashville headquarters up for sale, the SBC’s Executive Committee announced on Tuesday.  The expenditures, which include $3 million spent fending off a lawsuit filed by a former SBC president, have led the committee to spend down its reserves in what its... Read More

The St. Louis ministers weren’t prepared to debate polygamy.  Darren Young and Thurman Williams, who work in urban ministry in St. Louis, say they joined an accountability group with fellow local pastor and Fuller Theological Seminary professor Vince Bantu for moral support and mutual discipleship.  They felt honored to be in the group with him. Bantu is a rising star in American evangelicalism—an energetic Black scholar doing important research on the origins of Christianity... Read More

The past seven years have been agonizing for any foreigner serving North Koreans. Since 2017, the US has barred its citizens from going into North Korea without special permission, all but halting humanitarian organizations and businesses based in the US from operating there. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, nearly all foreigners left China, including those serving near the North Korean border. These two events have impacted how Christian nonprofits all over the world serve this isolated country,... Read More

When Delyn Garcia moved from the Philippines to Israel in 2018 to work as a caregiver, her goal was to earn enough money for her family back home to build a house. Yet life as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) was extremely difficult. The first year, she had to pay back the agency 1 million pesos ($17,700), meaning that some months she could send only 10,000 pesos ($180) home to her family. Day and night, she cared for her employer’s mother, an ailing 91-year-old, cooking, cleaning, giving... Read More