Church

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee has offered a public apology and a confidential monetary settlement to sexual abuse survivor Jennifer Lyell, who was mischaracterized by the denomination’s in-house news service when she decided to go public with her story in March 2019.

The tone of the midwinter Nashville gathering was in stark contrast to that of recent Executive Committee meetings, which were marked by sharp divides over issues such as race and politics and how to proceed with an investigation into the ways Baptist leaders have responded to the issue of sexual abuse.

The path that led to Southwest Baptist University’s accreditation woes in many ways started just across the street. Yet, this weekend the school in Bolivar, Missouri, will partner with that neighboring church — Southern Hills Baptist Church — for a conference already sparking controversy and plans for a protest.

The United Church of Christ has now paid off more than $100 million in medical debt for people across the United States. The UCC announced Monday that it used $200,000 from one of its annual Giving Tuesday campaigns to purchase and pay off $33 million in medical debt for residents of Ohio, where the mainline Protestant denomination is based.

Since at least the George Floyd summer of marches and demonstrations against police killings of unarmed Black men, evangelical leaders have been echoing the broader alarm about the divisions they say that wokeness, critical race theory, and other social justice ideas visit on American society.

A report on churches and technology during the pandemic found that by offering online services, churches were able to expand their reach, often connecting with people outside their community or reconnecting with former members who had moved away. Even small congregations that had once struggled to reach outside the walls of the church were able to expand their reach.

Tennessee pastor Willie McLaurin has been named interim president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, becoming the first African American to lead one of the denomination’s ministry entities in its more than 175-year history.

Many Americans — some traditionally religious, some religiously unaffiliated — are increasingly communing spiritually through virtual reality, one of the many evolving spaces in the metaverse that have grown in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic.

Princeton Theological Seminary’s board has unanimously voted to dissociate the name of enslaver and anti-abolitionist Samuel Miller from the school’s chapel.

Senior Editor Beau Underwood interviews Lindsey Braun, pastor of education and faith formation at Plymouth Church in Des Moines, Iowa, for the latest installment of our “Behind the Pulpit” series intended to pull back the curtain on the minister’s life.