Your attendance number might look steady, but is your church actually growing, or are you just churning people? In this episode, Scott and A.J. show how to look beneath the top line by following one group of people over three years, so you can see exactly where folks are slipping away: at the front door, in discipleship, or before they ever start serving. You will walk away with four simple numbers that tell you far more than average attendance ever could.
Why Non-Denominational Churches Are Dominating America
Between 2010 and 2020, nondenominational Christianity added roughly six and a half million adherents and about four thousand new congregations, while many of the best-known names in American Protestantism steadily lost ground. This documentary examines how churches with no denominational label became a major force in American religious life, and what that shift costs.
We trace five developments behind the rise: falling trust in familiar institutional names, the speed of local decision-making without layers of approval, the church planting networks that shortened the road to a new congregation, a Sunday experience built around families, children's ministry, and practical preaching, and a public of religious free agents who choose a church by fit, not family loyalty.
We also weigh the limits of the model, from dependence on a single lead pastor and the risks of succession to the ease with which a church built on attraction can be left. Along the way, we draw on survey research, congregational studies, and historians and sociologists of American religion, and we compare how Catholic and Orthodox traditions understand authority and unity.
This is a balanced, research-based look at a quiet change that became a major one, offered without arguing for or against independent churches or any denomination.
Survey shows a rise in Christian nationalism in Britain
The Christian nationalist movement is relatively new in Britain but has caused concern, including among bishops who have tried to disassociate the established Church of England from it, following large demonstrations and some well-known far-right, anti-migrant activists saying that they have become Christians.
Current and past senior ministers urge HPUMC to vote for disaffiliation
The current senior minister of Highland Park United Methodist Church and his two immediate predecessors have sent a message to congregants about why they should vote to leave The United Methodist Church.
And the three senior ministers directly counter the plea of a longtime former associate minister to slow down the process.
More Churches Feeling Economic Squeeze
Lifeway Research’s annual tracking survey reveals most pastors report the economy is negatively impacting their congregations.
An Honest Perspective on Celebrating Halloween as Christians
Halloween often creates unnecessary tension among Christians. Some avoid it because of its association with spiritual darkness and the occult, while others view it as a harmless cultural tradition centered on costumes, candy, and neighborhood fun. Josh and Sam discuss how churches do not need to retreat from their communities during Halloween.
‘Be Careful’ With Worship Music From Bethel, Hillsong and Elevation, Says Ministry Leader Allen Parr
“Some of the most popular worship songs that you’re probably listening to right now more than likely need to be removed from your worship playlist,” Bible teacher Allen Parr told viewers of his YouTube channel, THE BEAT by Allen Parr.
Parr speaks from inside church music. He served as a worship pastor before building his teaching ministry, and he holds a Master of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. In a 16-minute video, he took Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman in John 4 and turned them into four tests for worship in spirit and truth. Then he ran songs from Bethel, Hillsong and Elevation through those tests by name. Below are all four tests, the songs he flagged and a way to use the same filter on your next set list.
I have found that a number of "worship songs" from the three sources contain wording that is theologically unsound and a number of instances blatantly unscriptural. Most of the older worship songs were sounder in their theology and far more scriptural. They were also within the range of an average congregational singer.Why Humans Pretend to Be Computers
The AI Christian Benchmark 2026, released last week by The Gospel Coalition and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, exposes the wizard behind the AI curtain. Yes, when tested for Bible knowledge, AI outperforms all but the most dedicated and gifted seminary students. (I remember when my family challenged me to face my sister-in-law in a Bible knowledge contest. Seminary has nothing on Awana graduates!) Just as AI can solve math problems, you can trust AI to give accurate answers when asking for objective data about the biblical text.
Where AI fails is when you start to ask questions about ethics. We posed 10 questions on each of the Ten Commandments to the most popular AI models. When prompted to answer from the perspective of TGC’s Foundation Documents, the models gave perfectly credible explanations. But for anyone who asked these ethical questions without context, the models delivered destructive advice.
It’s not that the models rejected the Ten Commandments altogether. It’s that they picked and chose which commandments you should observe. Don’t steal, certainly. Best not murder, either. But remember the Sabbath day? Worship no other gods? Not so much.
It’s almost like AI gave you the ethical answers you’d expect from the average Silicon Valley computer programmer in 2026.
VOICES: Is doubt a sign Christian teens are drifting? A teenager says, “I believe in God,” but then they walk into school and open their phones or talk with friends and think about the future.
They navigate questions about everything from relationships to identity, success and belonging. Suddenly the question is no longer simply, “what do I believe?” It is, “because I believe it, how do I live?”
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