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As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, numerous governments responded by shutting down borders and ending international flights to prevent infected persons from arriving. For a Cuban Baptist pastor, this meant his quest to overcome international political squabbles left him and his wife stranded for days in Guyana by coronavirus travel closures.

A common temptation in reading the Bible is to put ourselves in the sandals of the good guys. While it’s good to be inspired by the faithful characters in the Bible, if that’s the only roles we see ourselves playing, we miss a more accurate picture of our own faults and struggles.

Smaller churches located in the U.S. and other countries are concerned about "after" the coronavirus, with lower receipts and the ripple effects upon staff, ministry, and mission support. Initiatives launched in the United States and by the Baptist World Alliance are offering relief and inviting participation.

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More "Baptist Without an Adjective"

Baptist

As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, numerous governments responded by shutting down borders and ending international flights to prevent infected persons from arriving. For a Cuban Baptist pastor, this meant his quest to overcome international political squabbles left him and his wife stranded for days in Guyana by coronavirus travel closures.

As people are dying from coronavirus — as well as from other causes that would’ve still occurred without the pandemic — pastors and grieving families face new struggles in how to plan funerals in a time when people are supposed to practice social distancing. For many Baptist pastors, funerals now bring new ministry challenges in order to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people and to remain more than six feet away from others.

People who lined up for meals recently at Cornerstone Baptist Church in blighted South Dallas had not been able to shower in a month and had no place to call their own while the city of Dallas is under a shelter-in-place order.

Nation

Throughout polling history, Democrats have been more likely than Republicans to hold a positive view of the U.N., but the approval gap between parties has narrowed significantly in recent years. Currently more than half of all U.S. adults poll feel the U.N. is doing a poor job.

Some Kentucky churches held Palm Sunday services in defiance of Gov. Andy Beshear’s warning against in-person worship.

GuideStone's legal team, led by Chief Legal Officer Harold R. Loftin, has created a Q&A document to provide general information on the March 27 stimulus package law and how it relates to churches and ministers.

World

Smaller churches located in the U.S. and other countries are concerned about "after" the coronavirus, with lower receipts and the ripple effects upon staff, ministry, and mission support. Initiatives launched in the United States and by the Baptist World Alliance are offering relief and inviting participation.

Israel is working with foreign governments and Orthodox Christian leaders in the Holy Land to make sure that one of their most ancient and mysterious rituals — the Holy Fire ceremony — is not extinguished by the coronavirus outbreak, officials said Friday.

A sobering new report released today by Gospel for Asia in the wake of World Water Day reveals that two billion people globally are struggling to find enough water to survive.

Faith & Culture

Almost 9 in 10 pastors see at least some current events matching those Jesus said would occur shortly before he returns to Earth, according to a new survey focused on Christian eschatology, or the study of end times.

The Churches Helping Churches Initiative has set up a relief fund, and started an application process for $3,000 grants. This initiative is targeted toward congregations between 25 to 150 members in size, in low-income communities, and in urban areas disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

Inspired by a family in Georgia, a Christian movement to erect crosses decorated with Christmas lights during the pandemic has taken off nationally as a symbol of positivity and prayer. But the lit crosses have also drawn comparisons to the Klu Klux Klan’s burning crosses.

Media & Entertainment

Seventy-five years ago, on March 26, 1945, Viktor Frankl celebrated his 40th birthday in the worst conditions imaginable — confined to a concentration camp in Dachau, Germany.

On Sunday, Alex Merritt was signed in to the Zoom video conferencing app, discussing a biblical passage with members of his Sunday school young adults group at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. Then the trolls attacked.

Last week, lying in bed, music arranger and producer David Wise had an idea. Like seemingly everyone else in the world, he was troubled by the ongoing crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and wondered how he might help. Today, that moment of inspiration has encouraged more than a million people.

EDITOR’S PICKS

Editorials

A common temptation in reading the Bible is to put ourselves in the sandals of the good guys. While it’s good to be inspired by the faithful characters in the Bible, if that’s the only roles we see ourselves playing,

There’s a famous line in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where a character laments that because of the White Witch’s rule over the land of Narnia, it is “always Winter but never Christmas.” But, what about

In the disorienting last few days, it feels our society is reading Exodus 32 backward. We’ve started with a plague, moved to inappropriate revelry, and now seek to worship a statue of a cow.

Other Opinions

The loans that are a part of the CARES Act present a decision for each individual pastor, priest, rabbi, imam, or other religious leader and their congregations to decide: Are they going to accept and rely on government aid to continue their ministry?

As states issue stay-at-home orders and bar gatherings, some evangelical Christians — those who believe they are a persecuted minority — have become convinced that religious freedom is under attack. The war on Christmas is now the war on Easter.

Commentary

There are the dark times in life, such as a doctor's report that "there's nothing more we can do," Those “Friday” predictions offer no Easter Sunday hope or joy unless you know about Jesus.

It is a human failure that we tend to tie our beliefs and faith to physical monuments, traditions, ceremonies, and organizational structures. John's approach from the beginning is to present Jesus as God incarnate, the “word made flesh” (John 1:14).

When you sit at the feet of Jesus you discover that God loves you and that he wants to bless you. The gift of eternal life cannot be earned even if you work as hard as Martha.