Six months into 2026, four church trends deserve a closer look. Algorithms are discipling your congregation 49 hours a week. AI's biggest threat isn't prompts—it's disruption on a scale the church isn't ready for. Women are still leaving, and now we know why. And a new kind of megachurch pastor is quietly emerging. Here's what's changing and what to do about it.
Class May Exclude Many from Our Churches
“It’s the Economy, Stupid,” is a watchword from the first Bill Clinton presidential campaign that regularly reappears at election times. Attributed to political consultant James Carville, it serves to stress the economy’s impact on voter behavior. As we are beginning to discover, there may be economic factors that also are at the heart of the challenge churches are facing: the reality that large segments of people do not affiliate with churches today in the United States.
A Journey to Original Methodism: Circuit Riding on the Canterbury Trail
Few contemporary voices are exploring both the overlap and divergence of modern Methodism and Anglicanism from the perspective of Original Methodism. I have set out to remedy this. Last year, I wrote about the central influence of Methodists on the early days of the Reformed Episcopal Church, a founding jurisdiction of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). That was a historical account contained to the 19th century. Now, in the 21st century, you will find former Methodist laity who are confirmed Anglicans in pews, former Methodist elders who are Anglican priests, and even a few churches that disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church (UMC) and joined the ACNA. Asbury Theological Seminary, my alma mater, is an approved ACNA seminary with an Anglican Studies track, several ordained and lay ACNA faculty, and a thriving parish on the seminary campus.
Everywhere I turn I meet Anglicans with deep connections to Methodism. It is important to articulate why many faithful Methodists like me have found a home among orthodox Anglicanism, why it is appropriate, and how the original formulation of Methodism found within the Church of England in the 18th century still calls Anglicanism to faithfulness today.
Asbury Seminary Removed From United Methodist Church’s Approved Ordination School List
Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, has been removed from the United Methodist Church’s (UMC) list of approved learning institutions for candidates for ordination in the UMC.
According to Asbury, the decision was related to Asbury’s traditional stance on marriage, which clashes with the UMC’s recently revised stance, which affirms same-sex marriage.
Also See: Leaders drop Asbury from approved seminaries; Asbury Theological Seminary cut by United Methodist Church over same-sex marriage issue;and UMC removes Asbury and 3 others as approved seminariesSouth America backs Nairobi–Cairo, but warns Anglican crisis is doctrinal, not structural
The Anglican Church of South America, led by its primate, the Most Rev. Brian Williams, Bishop of Argentina, has issued a strong endorsement of the Nairobi–Cairo structural reforms while warning that the real crisis in global Anglicanism is doctrinal, not institutional. At the same time, Bishop Williams’s visible role at GAFCON’s Abuja gathering shows the province aligning with the orthodox Global South while not formally joining the new Global Anglican Council.
SBC says it’s not possible to be gay or transgender and Christian
It is not possible to be a “gay Christian” or a “transgender Christian,” the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission says.
In a new social media reel posted by the ERLC, that question is answered by RaShan Frost, ERLC director of research and senior fellow “focused on issues of human dignity.”
Also See: What Is the Church of England For?PCA General Assembly votes against female deacons, advances report on Christian nationalism
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) voted against an overture Thursday to allow women to serve as ordained deacons in the denomination, which has been conducting its annual meeting this week in Louisville, Kentucky.
Overture 37, which had been introduced by the Pacific Presbytery, sought to amend the PCA's Book of Church Order to strike the word "men" from diaconal criteria and open the office to qualified women at the discretion of the local session, while clarifying that only the office of elder is restricted to men.
A Catholic schism over women deacons? Many opponents have already left.
Those who reject papal authority are already out the door. The women who have given up hoping for change are on the way out, too.
Less than half of born-again Christians believe human life is sacred: study
While more than half of theologically identified born-again Christians strongly reject abortion as morally acceptable, less than half believe in the sanctity of human life, according to the latest installment of the American Worldview Inventory 2026 survey conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.
The sanctity of life refers to the moral and religious belief that all human life is inherently sacred, holy, and possesses an immeasurable worth. Still, just 44% of theologically identified born-again Christians, a term referring to those who believe they will go to Heaven when they die because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, believe human life is sacred.
The US founders’ other revolutionary choice: Separating religion and government
European colonial powers linked church and state. But the founders of the United States broke from that idea as surely as they broke from Britain.
Social media and rallies drive growth of Christian nationalism in UK
Christian nationalism is not only an insidious force in the far-right policies of the United States but is gaining influence across Europe.
In the U.S. and abroad, Christian nationalism grows by spreading polarizing, sensational rhetoric through social media and public rallies. The result in both Europe and America is policies that proliferate racial prejudice and radicalize voting populations toward conservative values.
Like SBC, Episcopal Church hopes to sell its headquarters building
The Southern Baptist Convention isn’t the only national denomination attempting to sell its headquarters building amid changing dynamics. The Episcopal Church announced June 17 that its 12-story Church Center building in New York City is on the market.
Two years ago, the SBC Executive Committee announced plans to sell its headquarters building in downtown Nashville, Tenn., but has yet to find a buyer. That seven-story building was built for $8 million in the 1980s and appraised for $31.7 million in 2021.
By some insider accounts, the once-hot Nashville real estate market has hit a wall that likely has cooled interest in the Baptist property.
The SBC sale was prompted by expenses accrued in investigating and defending allegations of clergy sexual abuse in the denomination.
What Is Modalism? The Most Common Mistake About the Trinity
Have you ever tried to explain the Trinity and accidentally committed a heresy? You are not alone. The usual suspect, perhaps, is Modalism.
Modalism may sound right to many believers. However, it critically misunderstands the nature of God as presented in Scripture.
Let us explore what this heresy is, why it matters, and how we can avoid it.
When Is an Elder Disqualified From Ministry?
Most of us own something we only bring out for special occasions. A good watch. The wedding china. A pen you would never let a stranger borrow. The rest of the time it stays protected, set apart from daily wear. Scripture uses that same idea for the men called to lead the church. A pastor or elder is set apart for God’s purposes. That does not make him more loved than anyone else in the family of God. It means God has marked him for a specific kind of service, and with that service comes a specific standard.
Across the New Testament, the titles pastor, elder, and overseer describe the same office and are largely interchangeable. A plurality of elders leads many healthy churches, and each of those men is held to the same character bar. The question is what happens when one of them falls short of it.
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