Faith & Culture

(RNS) — The top U.S. board of the Assemblies of God has unanimously elected its first woman general secretary in the Pentecostal denomination’s more than 100-year history.

SOUTH BARRINGTON, Ill. (RNS) — As the allegations against former Willow Creek Community Church senior pastor Bill Hybels mount, his congregation is trying to cope — spiritually and practically.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- When it comes to charity, a personal touch works 10 times better than Facebook -- at least for churchgoers, according to a study released April 17.

(RNS) — Barbara Bush, who died Tuesday (April 17) in Houston, always seemed a little old-fashioned to me. But it wasn’t until a few days ago, when news broke that the former first lady was dying, at age 92, that she seemed old.

Like other aspects of her persona, Bush had an old-fashioned sort of religious faith.

(RNS) — In his 32nd book, titled simply “Faith,” Jimmy Carter looks at how belief in God and others has shaped his 93 years.

“To me, ‘faith’ is not just a noun but also a verb,” the former president writes in his latest — and possibly last — book.

Southern states remain the most religious in the U.S., according to a Gallup report released on April 6.

PAICINES, Calif. (RNS) — Sometimes a tomato isn’t just a salad ingredient. Sometimes it’s a call to action.

That’s the revolutionary idea of about 40 farmers who gathered for a first-of-its-kind interfaith weekend at a working ranch in the rolling green hills 60 miles southeast of San Jose. Christians, Jews, Muslims and the spiritual-but-not-religious united to seek nothing less than a complete disruption of how food is grown, distributed and even served.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Has playing the organ become a dying art?

What has happened to the organists -- the ones who read three staffs of music, dance on the pedals, maneuver multiple manuals, pull organ stops, push pistons, manipulate swell and crescendo pedals and follow a director -- all at the same time?

Local churches also have tremendous opportunities to use today’s technology to influence their communities and the world with the gospel.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis is calling for ordinary Catholics to live holy lives in whatever they do, stressing that the "saints next door" are more pleasing to God than religious elites who insist on perfect adherence to rules and doctrine.