Cutting edge for pastors and ministry leaders.
By Josh Reich If the father is the first in the household to become a Christian, there is a 93 percent probability everyone else in the home will follow. Most churches today, as has been true for the last few decades, are made up of more women and children than men. Yet in most churches, […]
By Tim Popadic Each year in our high school the fathers of the graduating class come together for a Father and Son BBQ (which is really code for “life-sized Jenga, cornhole and really good food.”) However, there is also the random possibility that fathers will be encouraged to share their feelings (a rarity), which could […]
BY Richard Greene With cancer eating away at her, the Iraqi woman faced a devilish dilemma: convert to Islam and receive treatment or remain true to Christ and die. Ten days later she was dead. The 45-year-old woman and her husband had made the treacherous journey late last summer to the hospital in Mosul in […]
By Katelyn Beaty In all the battles waged by men, one of the most effective ways to destroy the enemy is to destroy its women. Rape and sexual abuse are wartime “strategies” as old as war itself. Yesterday The New York Times ran a devastating report that hundreds of girls as young as 11 have been raped and […]
Christianity in the United States may look very different in 10 years. By Ed Stetzer As someone who both cares about the mission of the church and leads a research organization, I watch the trends in the church and the culture. Occasionally, someone asks me to share some thoughts on the big picture, in the […]
By Frank G. Tunstall Christianity as a whole in America is definitely on the decline, but evangelical Christianity is not. Two common doctrinal values that identify evangelicals are belief in the Bible as the inspired word of God and the born-again experience. Based on this definition, Pentecostals are appropriately numbered among evangelicals. This summary is […]
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom […]
Last week I worshiped in Hong Kong with hundreds of believers at the Wing Kwong Church, a Pentecostal Holiness congregation that has grown from 28 members in 1978 to more than 13,000 today. The modern megachurch, which meets in a sleek six-story building completed in the year 2000, gives thousands of dollars every year to […]
By Trevin Wax (RNS) Whenever people today say Christianity needs to update and adapt its moral standards for the 21st century, I hear echoes from 100 years ago. Back then, the calls for change had less to do with morality and more to do with miracles. But the motivation was similar, and the results are […]
Commentry by Gene Schaerr The briefs are in—over 150 in all—and today the Supreme Court will hear the arguments in the cases on states’ freedom to make marriage policy. Here are highlights of points made in the amicus briefs supporting man-woman marriage laws that the Court should consider: More than 50 million Americans voted to retain the man-woman definition […]