“We are hearing, just across the nation, of pastors and churches both struggling,” said Joe Wright, executive director of the Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network. “We’re seeing just the stress of trying to do ministry in this kind of environment is taking a toll
In his first hours as president, Joe Biden will aim to strike at the heart of President Donald Trump’s policy legacy, signing a series of executive actions that reverse his predecessor’s orders on immigration, climate change, and handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a number of existing problems: political divides, inequities, conspiracy theories. It also has exposed religious persecution in a number of countries, according to Open Doors.
As the calendar flips to 2021, gyms and weight-loss programs are bombarding us with some version of, “New Year, new you” campaigns. And nobody needs more honest reflection and a “New Year, new you” campaign more than the church after its response to 2020.
What the Trump Administration Department of Education has been unable to do legally through normal means in four years, it has now attempted to do in the last days of the administration through an executive order related to COVID-19. Read full piece
Charging documents say Timothy Taylor, 29, was arrested across the street from the church with three loaded firearms in his possession. Read full piece
In 2020, we celebrated holidays at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked at home, attended school at home, even attended worship services at home. Many Christians also turned to hymns for comfort at home, according to Hymnary.org.
To contend that spiritual nourishment is received only if you assemble in church, sit in pews and collectively engage in the liturgy, that is a bridge too far for some faith traditions. Read full piece
Even while hospital chaplains rolled up their sleeves to join other frontline workers as some of the first to be gifted with human-made immunity to COVID-19, many reflected on the work that led them to the historic moment — jobs that are sometimes harrowing, sometimes
The biblical writer Matthew quotes words from the prophet Jeremiah in the Christmas story. This Christmas, that contrast of death and hope can also be seen with the coronavirus pandemic during this season.