Faith & Culture - Baptist Standard: Recent Episodes
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People in helping professions of all kinds risk experiencing compassion fatigue and burnout, but ministers face an additional issue, clinical psychologist Don Corley of Waco asserted.
Crossing lines to work together is essential in addressing hunger and poverty, Jeremy Everett told Fellowship Southwest Compassion & Justice Conference participants.
Barna and Impact 360 concluded a series of Gen Z reports Sept. 12 with a simulcast highlighting their final research-based conclusions.
Jason Le Shana challenged faith and disability workshop participants to commit to “one next move” toward building a culture of belonging.
When it comes to mental health, “too blessed to be stressed” isn’t an altogether helpful catchphrase, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
As reporters and pundits seek to understand the Latino voting bloc, they’re digging into the faith of Hispanic communities. But some narratives distort the big picture of Latino faith.
Good leaders often are told to play to their strengths and hide their weaknesses. That really never has worked for disability activist and nonprofit leader Joni Eareckson Tada.
Generation Z, the first to grow up with smartphones and tablets, is the most fearful and anxious of any age, the American Bible Society said in its latest release from the 2024 State of the Bible.
An April report from the Survey Center on American Life claims young women have overtaken men in disaffiliation from their formative faiths.
Two months before November elections, Tim Alberta challenged a packed house at Baylor to trust in God and stop failing the test.
Many of the most successful worship songs have become more associated with the churches that produced them than the songwriters who wrote them.
Jason Shelton has made a deep scholarly dive into the world of the Black church. But not everything in his new book, The Contemporary Black Church: The New Dynamics of African American Religion, was learned at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he is a sociologist.
Let me take you down to Strawberry Fields. No, not the memorial in New York’s Central Park to the former Beatle John Lennon.
The applause never has died for Steven Curtis Chapman, but the 37 years since his first album have brought a lot of chapters for a career now in its fifth decade. There have been goals met, and there have been curveballs.
It all started when Carlos Whittaker received a Sunday morning notification summarizing time spent on his handheld screen in the past week.
Christians can use different approaches to help refugees adjust to life in the United States, but they all tend to revolve around the subject of availability.
The world’s 280 million immigrants have greater shares of Christians, Muslims and Jews than the general population.
The site of the deadliest church shooting in the nation no longer stands, as FBC Sutherland Springs moved forward with demolition plans.
On Good Friday, Pastor Tony Suarez, founder of Revival Makers, drove a stake into the ground in the middle of a tent in McAllen.
A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a former employee who claimed the company run by Dave Ramsey discriminated against him.
A sense of community and belonging inches out shared spiritual beliefs and faith as a church draw for all groups but evangelicals, the American Bible Society said in its latest release from the 2024 State of the Bible.
A pastor’s resumé might include multiple churches and ministry roles, but most don’t have much job experience other than ministry listed.
When Tim Tyson invited William Barber to meet with a group of white residents in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Barber was skeptical.
Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered a remnant of a massive ancient moat in Jerusalem that fortified the city during the time of the First Jewish Temple and the Kingdom of Judah.
“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” carries a spiritual and cultural weight specific to Black church communities.
Amos Brown, a longtime pastor of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco described Vice President Kamala Harris’ connection to his church.
First Baptist Church survived a tornado, church schisms and two worldwide pandemics in over 150 years of ministry in small-town Illinois.
Christians engaged in Scripture place the highest premiums on civic advocacy and engagement, the American Bible Society said in its latest release from the 2024 State of the Bible.
It’s tough out there for Gen Z. But some graduates of Texas Baptist universities are bucking the negative trends.
Disappointed in her performance at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Alison Gibson said goodbye to the sport of diving for good. At least, that was her intention.
Churches have been guilty of teaching half-truths, a real-life Indiana Jones said, but archeology can illuminate some scriptural texts.
Statistics on Gen Z paint a pessimistic picture, but some Gen Z graduates of Texas Baptist colleges tell a more optimistic story.
Most churchgoers believe Christians have a good reputation with Americans in general, but they worry those feelings are starting to sour.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on June 17 called for warning labels to be placed on social media, saying in a post to X it is “an important contributor” to a youth mental health crisis.
Scripture engagement improves hope and lowers stress in Gen Z, the American Bible Society said in its latest release.
Since the oldest members of Gen Z began entering adulthood in 2014, studies have shown a pessimistic, struggling generation.
Joseph Josselyn remembers being fascinated by the 1977 drama ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ But as a Deaf child, he had to rely on closed captions to catch the dialogue.
One of the biggest research projects into Scripture ever conducted is looking into how people use the Bible and what it means to them.
Consensual adult content including nudity and sex is now OK on X, formalizing an unstated practice allowed when the platform was called Twitter. The policy change could cause X to lose more users who object to pornography.
Since taking the pulpit at Legacy Baptist Church in Coolidge, Ariz., Pastor Rob Hudelson has not shied away from hot-button political issues.
"The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith" suggests as many as two-thirds of white Christians in the U.S. have elevated whiteness to a religion itself, one that rivals Christianity.
Once taboo in the corporate world, religion is gaining traction in Fortune 500 diversity efforts, according to a new report from the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation.
Many congregations have adopted policies and procedures designed to screen out abusers and to report any abuse to authorities. But few denominations check to see if churches follow those procedures or track those who do.
Ask a college chaplain, and you’ll hear a story behind the pro-Palestinian protests on American college campuses that is more complicated—and in some ways less dire—than what you’re seeing on television or in your news app.
Most surveyed Americans don’t see a moral or spiritual benefit to artificial intelligence, new research from the American Bible Society revealed.
People of faith must move beyond tribalism and identify with human suffering experienced by those on “the other side,” a Baptist minister involved in promoting multi-faith relationships said.
A May 2 webinar urged sensitivity and compassion in ministering to people with dementia and their caregivers.
Protesters sang “How Great Is Our God” during the Jericho marches that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and it has been a staple at Christian nationalism conferences in recent years.
Sexual abuse has proved pervasive across institutions. And when it comes to faith groups, no creed, structure, value system or size has seemed immune.
Christian nationalist activist Sean Feucht, pastor Russell Johnson and author Eric Metaxas led a pro-Israel rally at Columbia University.
Erik Carter challenged participants at a Baylor University conference to be catalysts for change—so all really do belong.
Many turn to LinkedIn for updates on industry insiders, but among the billion professionals featured alongside respected companies are sexual exploitation leaders such as Pornhub and OnlyFans.
A Tennessee pastor known for burning books, casting out demons and creating outrage says someone burned 200 Bibles outside his church on Easter Sunday.s
The results of a new Global Flourishing Study found links between religiosity and people’s satisfaction with their lives.
Religious churn has been a key fixture of U.S. religion for a long time, but a new surveyof changes in American religion finds that motion is not so much a swirling but a one-way stream heading out.
'God Gave Rock & Roll to You' is a new history of the cultural power of contemporary Christian music from religious historian Leah Payne.
Most pastors expect one of their largest crowds of the year at church on Easter, but those expectations have tempered some in the past decade.
More than half of Americans (56 percent) say they seldom or never attend religious services, according to new data from Gallup.
Over the past few months, staff members at Catholic Charities across the country have become the targets of some media personalities, conspiracy theorists and even members of Congress.
Charlie Dates defends Martin Luther King Jr. after John MacArthur declared King “was not a Christian at all.”
Participants at a worship conference seek a “deeper and richer” theology than what they say they have been getting in praise and worship music.
Archaeologists discovered a cache of four 1,900-year-old Roman swords in a cave east of Jerusalem, all of them remarkably well-preserved.
“More people have left the church in the last 25 years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and Billy Graham crusades combined,” Jim Davis and Michael Graham write in "The Great Dechurching."
Three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches have fewer people in the pews but more money in the collection plate and less conflict than they had in 2020.
An evangelical political scientist says recent trends reveal the culture is quickly shifting on issues such as adultery, pornography and abortion.
In April, Pew asked Americans which was the bigger problem facing the country when it comes to matters of race: People overlooking racism when it exists or seeing racism in places where there is none.
The Hill tells the inspirational true story of professional baseball player Rickey Hill, the son of a Southern Baptist pastor.
Owen Strachan, anti-woke activist, has spent years warning that liberals were undermining America’s evangelical churches. Now he is taking aim at a new threat: “mono-ethnic Christian nationalism.”
Many Americans believe financial prosperity is God’s plan for them, but they need to give more to ensure that blessing, a Lifeway Research study showed.
Senior adults suffered the largest increase in suicides among Americans as nearly 50,000 people in the United States killed themselves in 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest report.
Most Gen Z adults say their lives have been transformed through Scripture despite their three-year decline in Bible engagement, the American Bible Society said in the latest chapter of the 2023 State of the Bible.
A Lifeway Research study finds about 7 in 10 U.S. Protestant pastors (69 percent) believe there is a growing sense of fear within their congregations about the future of the nation and world.
Anne Graham Lotz and Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright—the daughter and granddaughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham—both are Bible teachers who have both endured serious medical conditions.
A filmed stage adaptation of The Hiding Place, the true story of Corrie Ten Boom and her family’s hiding of Jewish refugees from the Nazis during World War II, is set for a special theatrical release.
Belief in God, Satan, angels, heaven and hell is at a 23-year low in America, Gallup said in its latest update.
Stanley Frankart left prison in 2017. Today, he goes back once a week to his old prison to coach soon-to-be-released prisoners who are hoping to make a new life when they are released.
Baylor University announced July 24 the appointment of Stephen Newby as the inaugural holder of the Lev H. Prichard III Chair in the Study of Black Worship.
About three months ago, Nils Gulbranson started work on Biblemate.io, a “Christian ChatGPT” to help interrogative minds who are looking for biblical answers to life’s difficult questions.
Black Christians score 10 percent higher than all other Christians in spiritual vitality, according to a new scale of holistic spiritual health the American Bible Society introduced in its 2023 State of the Bible report.
Although churches like Australia-based Hillsong and Bethel Church in California have met with scandal and controversy, worship leaders still keep singing their songs.
Two scientists are looking to new advancements in artificial intelligence to translate the Bible into rare languages.
Engaging with Scripture, forgiving others and using spiritual gifts help people flourish and lead hopeful lives, the latest release from the American Bible Society’s 2023 State of the Bible shows.
Most churches have some type of security measures in place during worship services, a Lifeway Research survey revealed.
While the Neo-Calvinist movement remains influential, controversies and losses raise questions about its future.
The Pew Research Center finds a third of Americans regularly attend in-person worship services, while a bit more than a quarter regularly watch religious services on TV or online.
Author Greg Garrett explores themes of faith, prejudice, violence, love, forgiveness and healing in his latest novel, "Bastille Day."
Over the past decade, Jemar Tisby’s life has largely been shaped by two forces: the Bible, and the deaths of young Black men, often at the hands of law enforcement.
Although most churchgoers say they want to serve in their communities for gospel impact, there is a noticeable gap when it comes to the number who are already volunteering for a charity.
Tim Keller, an influential Presbyterian Church in America minister who founded a network of evangelical Christian churches in New York City, died. He was 72.
Christians tend to follow their mother’s religion, but those who have changed their religion since childhood are spiritually healthier, the American Bible Society said.
More pastors are encouraging members to adopt and provide foster care at a time when adoptions have declined in the United States.
Habitat for Humanity was built on a pair of simple yet profound ideas. Everyone deserves a decent place to live. Anyone who wants to help make that happen is welcome to pick up a hammer and get to work.
Despite reports of declining worship attendance and religious affiliation, 6 in 10 Americans say that they pray, a new survey reports.
Several new books are taking a fresh look at the roles of women in Jesus’ ministry and in the early church.
Sixty years after Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” faith leaders say his response to white clergy critics endures as a “road map” for those working on justice and equal rights.
Most churchgoers see tithing as a biblical command and give at least 10 percent of their income. But they have more diverse opinions on the “where” and “how” of tithing, research says.
Fear-saturated stories about the saved being transported to heaven while the world faces havoc can generate lifelong panic, paranoia and anxiety, according to some who grew up in a rapture-focused culture.
Catholicism remains the largest faith of U.S. Hispanic adults, but an increasing number identify as religiously unaffiliated, a new Pew Research Center survey found.
Three-fourths of surveyed Christians oppose predatory lending, but one-third have obtained payday loans and see them as “helpful” and “useful.”
A new study found a handful of megachurches have cornered the market on worship music in recent years, churning out hit after hit and dominating the worship charts.
Scripture engagement remains down among Americans, but a widespread curiosity gives ground for evangelism, the American Bible Society said in releasing the first chapter of its 2023 State of the Bible survey.
Emarthle is using her love and expertise of her native Mvskoke tongue in a collaborative project to translate “The Savior” film into Mvskoke.
The shooting at The Covenant School, which left seven dead including the shooter, highlights a dual reality of life in Nashville. It’s a place where God is everywhere—and so are guns.
For the most part, religious Americans say their LGBTQ neighbors should be free of discrimination when they are at work, in public or at home. This is true even among groups that oppose same-sex marriage.
A new audit of antisemitism in the United States shows a continued growth in the number of incidents reported in 2022.
Truett Theological Seminary and Beeson Divinity School are on a list of recommendededucational institutions for candidates seeking ordination as a deacon or elder in the Global Methodist Church.
Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows 57 percent of young women said they felt “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” during 2021.
Protestant pastors are less satisfied with their jobs and church assignments and less confident in their spiritual callings, Barna Group research said in its latest study on pastoral resilience.
After enduring difficult economic seasons recently, churches are better prepared for financial rainy days than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A year after ousting its founders, the Preemptive Love Coalition announced March 16 that it has merged with the international peace-building nonprofit Search for Common Ground.
Pro-life advocates and others are awaiting a Texas judge’s ruling on Mifepristone an abortion pill approved by the FDA in 2000.
The rising popularity of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT is causing Christians to examine questions beyond the ethical nature of the technology, such as what it fundamentally means to be human.
As churches continue ministry in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many find it increasingly difficult to grow their small groups.
Debido a que muchas iglesias estadounidenses se esmeran por alcanzar a niños y a estudiantes o a poder retener a los jóvenes adultos en la iglesia, un tercio (35%) de la iglesia protestante hispana de los Estados Unidos tiene menos de 30 años.
As many American churches struggle to reach children and students or retain young adults, a third of the average U.S. Hispanic Protestant church is under 30, according to a Lifeway Research survey.
In her recently released memoir, All My Knotted-Up Life, Moore discusses difficult subjects such as abuse and mental illness.
Want to be considered a regular at a local church by those behind the pulpit and in the pews? Try showing up in person at least a couple times a month.
A new study of ICU patients’ family members confirms what many chaplains already know: Proactive, enhanced spiritual care leads to better spiritual and psychological outcomes.
Students at Asbury University gathered for their biweekly chapel service in the 1,500-seat Hughes Auditorium on Feb 8 to sing, listen to a sermon and pray. A week later, many of them are still there.
A new docuseries featuring Black clergy and scholars highlights how many Black church members tie their accomplishments in society to their adherence to the Bible.
New readings of text on the Moabite Stone studied for 150 years give evidence the stone may include an extra-biblical reference to King David, scholars have announced.
Nearly half of churchgoers in a recent survey say their church needs to become more ethnically diverse.
“He Gets Us” ads have shown up on billboards, YouTube channels and television screens across the country. The Super Bowl ads alone will cost about $20 million.
Las iglesias hispanas en los Estados Unidos están enfrentando desafíos únicos, pero están teniendo éxito en la construcción de una comunidad dentro de sus congregaciones y alcanzando a personas fuera de sus iglesias.
Hispanic churches in the United States face unique challenges but are finding success in building community within their congregations and reaching those outside their walls.
Theology Lab, a series of online discussions that began in the fall of 2022 and run through this spring, is designed as an exercise in theological formation for laypeople.
Trauma expert Diane Langberg believes many church leaders have yet to reckon with the damage done to abuse survivors where churches turned a blind eye to the suffering in their midst.
Martin Luther King Jr. is known as a civil rights activist, a minister and a world leader who gained the Nobel Peace Prize. King scholar Lewis V. Baldwin adds other titles: ethicist, theologian and philosopher.
Biblical evidence from Jesus’ Judean ministry might be unearthed as Israel excavates the full Pool of Siloam, an area that has fascinated archeologists more than 150 years.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every congregation in the United States shut down, at least for a while. For some Americans, that was the push they needed to never come back to church.
Most Protestant churchgoers say they spend time alone with God at least daily, but there’s a range in what they do in that time and what resources they use, a Lifeway Research study reveals.
Religion News Service editors selected what they considered the 10 most significant faith-related stories in 2022.
Sunday school, adult forums and other Christian formation classes, already threatened by declines in worship attendance, have been further challenged since COVID-19 shuttered churches and sent their services online.
A conference focused on deconstruction—examining core beliefs and often rejecting the conservative politics, sexism and racial divides for which evangelicalism has become known.
As millions of Americans celebrate Halloween, many Protestant pastors in the United States are encouraging their church members to respond to the holiday in specific ways.
Printed Bibles remain the most popular choice among Bible readers, the American Bible Society said in its latest installment of the 2022 State of the Bible report.
The “He Gets Us” campaign is a $100 million effort to redeem Jesus’ brand from the damage done by his followers, especially those who say one thing and then do another.
A new survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors finds that half are concerned the economy is hurting their churches.
For some Christian families, politics are revamping the college decision process, swaying them away from colleges marked “too liberal” or “too conservative.”
(RNS)—About a decade ago, the conservative commentator and radio show host Glenn Beck told listeners to “look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church website. If...
When it comes to memorializing the nation’s Civil War legacy, Americans are nearly evenly divided over whether to preserve Confederate symbols, memorials and statues, according to a new Public Religion Research Institute survey.
Substantial majorities of evangelicals in the United States say they want an immigration solution that both secures the border and values those already in the country, a new Lifeway Research report shows.
Fuller Theological Seminary, the nation’s largest interdenominational seminary, has chosen a Baptist as its new president—David Emmanuel Goatley, the first Black person to hold the office.
If current trends continue, Christians could make up less than half of the population—and perhaps as little as a third—in 50 years.
Gen Z—adults 25 and younger—lead all ages in their openness to spiritual conversations, the Bible society said Sept. 8 in releasing its latest chapter of the 2022 State of the Bible.
Churches are getting a new look with architects and ministry leaders focused on the needs of today.
Eileen Campbell-Reed of Union Theological Seminary surveyed more than 100 Christian pastors, chaplains, campus ministers and lay leaders from more than 20 denominations between June 2020 and April 2022.
The National Association of Evangelicals unveiled a sweeping report on global climate change, laying out what its authors call the “biblical basis” for environmental activism to spur fellow evangelicals to address the planetary environmental crisis.
Research reveals about one-third of millennials in North America turn to digital religious or spiritual activities on at least a monthly basis. But only 5 percent said they do so without engaging in in-person forms of religion or spirituality once a month or more.