‘Purple church’ pastors mull leadership strategies in polarising times
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USRNS Each Wednesday evening, a group of congregants from First Baptist Church of Mt Olive, located about 105 kilometres south-east of Raleigh, gathers for a Bible study called “Tackling Tough Topics Together”. The 10 to 20 regulars have discussed race, human sexuality and mental illness. Those kinds of conversations are rare and […]
Deconstruction or reconstruction? US pastors discuss a reboot of evangelicalism
Oak Park, Illinois, USRNS A conference about the future of the nation’s largest religious tradition began with a bit of honesty. “Nobody knows exactly what an evangelical is,” said Joel Lawrence, executive director of the Center for Pastor Theologians, at the opening of the Reconstructing Evangelicalism conference on Monday. The conference, which drew about 400 pastors and […]
Faith and politics: Trump divided the nation and their church, experts say, but evangelical fans have few regrets
BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports on the the legacy of US President Trump’s relationship with evangelicals…
Guns and the church: Being a good guy with a gun is what God wants, say “sheepdog” evangelicals
JACK JENKINS, of Religion News Service, looks at the issue of firearms – and the arguments for whether Christians should own them for self-defence – in the light of a recent controversy over a crowd-funding campaign raising money for the defence of 17-year-old charged with killing two people…