‘It was just beautiful,’ diver says after getting up close with great white shark off Jupiter

It was a close encounter with a great white shark and it was “just awesome.” It happened Sunday when a group of people were spearfishing Sunday about three miles offshore from Jupiter. While the experience might be frightening or hair-raising for some, Tommy Allore of Stuart, said he and those with him were exhilarated. “I think everyone was just excited,” he said. “We knew how special that moment was. It’s not common to see them, especially out of a cage,... Read More

Can Anti-Aging Treatments Offer Abundant Life?

Science seeks to fix aging and death. But a Christian vision of the good life might actually embrace them. A preacher’s kid growing up in the Bible Belt, Micah Redding had a particular view of the physical world and God’s work in it. Singing popular hymns like “This World is Not My Home” and “I’ll Fly Away,” he took away this message: It’s all going to burn anyway, so why bother with the environment or curing diseases? That’s a... Read More

The Danger of “Christian” Infamy

Fallen flesh doesn’t like simply being sent. We’d rather build our own tower for our own glory. Last week, the Send Institute ran a poignant piece by John Davidson that argued for the decoupling of church planting and entrepreneurship. Davidson writes, “Rather than framing planting as ecclesial entrepreneurship, the church would be better served if we framed it biblically. The way to do that is by calling it what it is, apostolic ecclesiology.” He argues that the business... Read More

Praising God Saves Me In My Pain

In the face of illness, death, and disability, Lamentations gives me a script for how to suffer. In 2015, my husband and I opened the doors to our church plant, Renewal Church. We celebrated the tremendous movement of God in our lives and our neighborhood. But the very same week, I woke up inexplicably unable to walk. I couldn’t put any pressure on my legs whatsoever. I didn’t know at the time that this surprising illness-visitor would become a long-term tenant. I now experience... Read More

Emerging Adults: Apathetic or Indifferent to Matters of Faith?

A call to spiritual care among our twenty-somethings. According to research, many emerging adults (those between the ages of 18 and 29) experience a spiritual slump in the years after high school. When comparing 18 to 23-year-olds with the teenagers below them, the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) reported significant declines in the number of emerging adults viewing their faith as “very or extremely important” in shaping daily life. In addition, only 35 percent of... Read More

Back by Popular Demand—Church Signs!

It’s been far too long, back their back! It’s been way too long since we ran some good church signs. They never cease to end, though, and I think we all enjoy seeing them. So tweet me some good ones and we will get this feature started again. In the meantime, enjoy the ones below. Thanks to @sethwaldrop and Oakland church for the reminder that we are both body and spirit! Neglecting either is a fool’s task. Thanks to @ufmikeg (aka Michael Graham) for the reminder that... Read More

Interview: Women in Missions Leadership Walk a Tightrope

Researcher Mary Lederleitner explores the confusions and frustrations they face. What distinctive gifts do women have for the global church? Is the church helping or hindering women leaders? In Women in God’s Mission: Accepting the Invitation to Serve and Lead, missions researcher Mary Lederleitner describes both the particular obstacles women leaders face and the unique blessings they offer the body of Christ. Drawing upon two decades of personal experience and interviews with more... Read More

Family of Covington High teen sues Washington Post for $250 million over coverage of D.C. encounter

The family of the Kentucky teen who was involved in an encounter with a Native American advocate at the Lincoln Memorial last month filed a defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post on Tuesday, seeking $250 million in damages for its coverage of the incident. The suit alleges that The Post “targeted and bullied” 16-year-old Nicholas Sandmann in order to embarrass President Donald Trump. Sandmann was one of a number of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky... Read More

Teen killed fleeing holdup in Pompano Beach park

Players at a Thursday night card game in a Pompano Beach park ran for their lives when two armed robbers showed up and demanded everyone’s money, police said. When the card players, including 18-year-old Brian Wallace Jr., made a run for it the robbers, started shooting, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. It wasn’t until Wallace and a relative made it to the shelter of their nearby car that Wallace realized he had been shot, said Gina Carter, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s... Read More