Church

Trustees cited a lack of money and declining enrollment in deciding to close Baptist-affiliated Judson College, a small school for women which predates the Civil War. The decision Thursday came just days after what could be the last graduation exercises at the college.

The last eighteen months or so have been difficult for pastors. Already stretched with the day-to-day concerns of running a congregation at a time when organized religion is on the decline, they’ve increasingly found that the divides facing the nation have made their way inside the walls of the church.

Traumatic events are, at their heart, crises of meaning that cause people to question assumptions about their lives, including their spiritual beliefs. The years 2020 and 2021 certainly fit that bill.

During the pandemic, coffee fellowship time at churches disappeared. That time of socializing is one of the things that churchgoers have missed most about meeting in person.

Some preachers hire researchers to do the Bible reading and background research and interpretation on a specific text — known as exegesis — or to provide insights about cultural trends affecting the church. Others find a ghostwriter to help them put it all together.

“Cancel culture” is not wholly embraced on the left, nor is it unknown among political or religious conservatives. In fact, cancel culture should have a ring of familiarity for Christians with echoes of the phenomenon in the history of the church.

Preachers love to borrow from each other, but the practice can sometimes lead to plagiarism. Theologically, this raises serious concerns and can even lead to a pastor being fired.

The largest United Methodist church in the Atlanta metropolitan region announced it is leaving the denomination over the reassignment of its lead pastor. Rather than leave the church, where he has served since 2016, the pastor announced he was surrendering his credentials as an ordained elder.

The faculty of Seattle Pacific University, a Christian school associated with the Free Methodist Church, has taken a vote of no confidence in its board of trustees after members of the board declined to change its policy prohibiting the hiring of LGBTQ people.

A study by Nashville-based Lifeway Research found U.S. churchgoers were less likely to be involved in small groups during the pandemic, but many added some digital and individual activities to their discipleship routines.