Congregations that would accept a member of a cohabiting unmarried couple as a lay leader: 31 percent

Congregations that would accept a member of an openly homosexual couple as a lay leader: 23 percent

Churches are talking trash. No, not badmouthing other congregations; they're examining ways to reduce the waste they produce. Earth care is in vogue, and many Christians, believing that stewarding creation is a spiritual mandate, are looking to mesh environmentalism with their faith.

One leader in the movement is Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland: A Church Distributed, out of Longwood, Florida. Hunter ...

According to a recent study, doctrine and church beliefs were found to be the most important reasons why adults switch churches. For those who have regularly attended more than one church as an adult, 89 percent indicated they would select a new church on the basis of what the church says it believes. Next in line of importance is the preaching (87 percent), with the authenticity of the church members ...

Eight Men Out is the historical drama about the infamous Chicago White Sox scandal of 1919. When many of the players felt cheated and demoralized by owner Charles Comiskey's penny-pinching and tough-handed ways, gamblers influenced several of them to lose the World Series in exchange for a large amount of money. A newspaper reporter eventually exposed the scandal. A sympathetic jury later found them ...

"We do not want, as the newspapers say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world."

—G. K. Chesterton

The map of global Christianity that our grandparents knew has been turned upside down. At the start of the 20th century, only ten percent of the world's Christians lived in the continents of the south and east. Ninety percent lived in North America and Europe, along with Australia and New Zealand. But at the start of the 21st century, at least 70 percent of the world's Christians live in the non-Western ...

In the later months of 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was angered by General George B. McClellan's inactivity despite superiority in numbers over the Confederate forces. In the end, he wrote McClellan a letter consisting of only a single sentence:

"If you don't want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully, A. Lincoln."

Ten years ago, Kirsten and Lee Hildebrand thought they knew where their lives were headed. They had just settled into their first home in a suburban community, where Kirsten practiced labor and employment law and Lee was working on a doctorate in counseling psychology. But when the couple attended Eastbrook Church, a nondenominational, inner-city Milwaukee church, they began to wonder: Did we settle ...

To End All Wars is the true story of Scottish prisoners of war in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. A group of the prisoners begin to study philosophy, Shakespeare, and the Bible in order to maintain their sanity in a horrible place. Soon, their Christian behavior influences many of the other prisoners; it also amazes their captors.

This scene begins with a group of seriously injured Japanese ...

Big Ed goes to the revival and listens to the preacher. After a while the preacher asks anyone with needs to come forward to be prayed over. Big Ed gets in line. When it's his turn, the preacher says, "Big Ed, what do you want me to pray about?"

Big Ed says, "Preacher, I need you to pray for my hearing."

So the preacher puts one finger in Big Ed's ear and the other hand on top of his head and shouts, ...