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(RNS) For centuries during Lent, Christians have sought to grow closer to God through praying, fasting and giving to the poor.

Now they can also mark the 40-day period of penitence that precedes Easter by posting pictures to Instagram, reading a regular reflection in their email or watching a priest answer questions on Facebook Live.

On Valentine’s Day, some Kenyan pastors handed out red roses as a sign of love to HIV-positive youth suffering stigma and discrimination.

The gesture was meant as a way to reach out to youth, many of whom feel rejected by the churches.

Do we measure the success of our churches by the number of people present each Sunday, the square footage of our buildings, the number of degrees held by our pastoral staff or the amount of money that is given to annual missions initiatives? Although I appreciate and value what these things mean to a congregation, I wonder if those criteria are the best way to measure whether a fellowship of believers is fulfilling its call to participate in the building of God’s kingdom.

Six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law targeting missionary and evangelistic activities, Baptists and others in the country face large fines and other penalties. The new law went into effect on July 20. Authorities prosecuted at least 32 cases in the first six months after the law went into force. Two Baptists were among the first charged in the law’s first month and other Baptists are now finding themselves targeted.

Irv Cockriel is sounding the alarm for any who will listen. The retired college educator now works to educate his fellow Baptists on the importance of getting college students in church. Cockriel, who retired in 2000 after 32 years as an educator and administer in the College of Education at the University of Missouri, had a wake-up call about five years ago when he heard statistics from a youth minister about how many church-going youth fall away from church in college and never come back.

If Christians are living like the rest of the world, does church remain important?

After a fire destroyed Antioch Baptist Church in Ralls County, Mo., on Dec. 20, pastor Jack Emmite promised the congregation one thing: they would have a place to worship on Christmas Sunday. That place was Smith Funeral Home, which invited Antioch to hold services in their chapel.

(RNS) As confusion continued over President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and travelers from seven Muslim countries, Catholic leaders from Iraq are warning that the policy change will hurt thousands of Iraqi Christians languishing in Middle East refugee camps.

“They would like to continue their lives in Europe, Canada, Australia or America,” Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil told a news conference in Rome on Monday (Jan. 30).

After President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring refugees and stopping visa-holders from seven nations, many Baptist leaders quickly criticized the action. Trump’s Jan. 27 order halted the admission of all refugees for 120 days, barred all Syrian refugees indefinitely and blocked all individuals from seven predominately Muslim nations from entering for 90 days. Although Trump claimed national security concerns to justify the order, refugees have been implicated in zero terrorist attacks in the U.S. since the Refugee Act of 1980 and the visa ban does not include any of the nations of the 9/11 hijackers.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on church-state issues that originated in Missouri. To learn more about the case, Word&Way editor Brian Kaylor interviewed Holly Hollman, general counsel and associate executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.