Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote a book in 1999 entitled Why Christianity Must Change or Die. The Episcopal Church has, largely, followed Bishop Spong’s lead. It has changed and it is dying. If you altered one word of the title, making it Why Christianity Must Change and Die, Spong’s book was indeed prophetic.
Predictions are circulating that the Episcopal Church will be dead by 2050. This article examines how likely this is and how its deep decline might be slowed and even reversed.
David Goodhew makes a number of cogent points in this article which he wrote five years ago. While it is tempting to put on a brave face as denominational leaders are doing in both the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church, a growing number of churches in these two denominations are looking at a bleak future. On a visit to a local Episcopal church I was forced to listen to a retired woman priest prattle on about how it was unEpiscopalian to evangelize the unchurched and to observe members of the congregation emphatically expressing their agreement with what she was saying. This was the attitude many Episcopal clergy took toward evangelism in the 1990s, the Decade of Evangelism, and with which they infected their congregations. Over two decades later Episcopal clergy are still peddling this poisonous KoolAid and Episcopalians are eagerly drinking it!SBC Named as Co-Defendant in Federal Class Action Over Pawleys Island Community Church Scandal
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the SBC Executive Committee (EC) are named as defendants in a new, federal lawsuit against Pawleys Island Community Church (PICC), Pawleys Island Christian Academy (PICA), and certain church and school leaders.
The class action lawsuit is the sixth suit to be filed since it came to light that a convicted sex offender was volunteering on the South Carolina church and school’s campus. It is the first suit filed in federal court and the first to name the SBC.
COVID infection linked to disturbing side effect, says new study
A new study suggests that COVID-19 may reactivate dormant viruses already hiding in the body.
That process, researchers say, is linked to more severe illness and may contribute to lingering symptoms such as fatigue associated with long COVID.
The financial dilemma that wound up helping US churches thrive
American churches could not rely on the state for financial support. Private philanthropy helped them survive – and shaped the country’s religious diversity today.
3 Surprising Effects of Finding Your Confidence in God
Though impossible to measure, my general observation is that “confidence” is at a pretty low point in the world right now. I don’t necessarily mean self-confidence, though that might also be low right now. Instead, I mean our collective confidence in those institutions and people which once held the implicit confidence of society.
Is it still possible to imagine a brighter future?
Two views from the past.
How to Fix the #1 Blind Spot Stalling Your Ministry
If you need people more than you feed people, you will soon be leading from empty.
Handling Ungodly Criticism
Matt Emadi offers pastors four suggestions for handling ungodly criticism from members in a way that honors Christ and builds up his church. Drawing from Scripture and pastoral experience, Emadi reminds us that pastors should desire the good of those who criticize them, know their people well, learn from criticism, and stay near the cross.
When Repetition is a Good Thing
There are many contemporary Christian worship songs that, when used during Sunday service, are put on repeat to the end that they are simply mind-numbing. There is no substance, only emotion. The mind is not being used. It is thrown out the window in the name of an “experience.”
Is it inherently wrong to have the same phrase in a song an exorbitant amount of times? I think the fair answer would be it depends. It depends on the song, setting, and context. But there are no doubt many songs that are focused less on directing your mindful gaze to the Lord of glory and more focused and helping you feel good. We don’t worship to feel good, but to give God glory. We worship him no matter how we feel.
Godfather of AI: Brace for more rogue AIs
The smarter artificial intelligence gets, the harder it will be for humanity to control it, according to Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist known as the “godfather of AI.”
Even Hinton was alarmed by the sophisticated AI agents that recently caused real-world damage after escaping their human-built testing environments.
What the panic over Gen Z’s reading habits gets wrong
A trove of recent articles bemoan the collapse in recreational reading among younger Americans, with COVID-related reading declines, artificial intelligence and social media often described as causes.
But as the authors of “How Gen Z Discover and Consume Books,” we think many claims about Gen Z’s reading behaviors miss the mark.
Trump’s plans for Head Start could leave kids behind
The Trump administration announced on Thursday plans to overhaul Head Start, the early education, nutrition, and health program which serves hundreds of thousands of low-income children. The proposed rule to rescind the majority of the program’s standards of care could have far-reaching effects for the nation’s most vulnerable families.
Early social media use leaves children six months behind at school
Children who start using social media at a young age perform worse in exams than peers who delay online engagement, a study suggests.
Research from the University of Milano-Bicocca found that pupils who opened accounts at the start of secondary school performed poorer in a variety of tests by the age of 16.
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Image Credit: Grace Episcopal Church, Paducah, Kentucky
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