While attending a 2008 awards presentation at the Strathmore Music Center, a concert hall just outside of Washington, D.C., author Mark Gauvreau Judge witnessed what can only be described as unashamed joy—something we don't often get to see in a broken world, let alone the church. The scene was made all the more powerful because it included different people from different cultural backgrounds—a ...

Early in his career, many had hoped A. N. Wilson, a brilliant philosopher, would become the next C. S. Lewis. But as a young man, he began to wonder how much of the Easter story he accepted. By his thirties, he had lost all religious belief and publicly repudiated his Christian faith, becoming an atheist. He soon embraced the role of a harsh, cynical critic of Christianity and any faith in God at ...

The Tuesday night prayer meeting at Brooklyn Tabernacle felt like skydiving into a tornado, exhausting and exhilarating all at once. I'd read about the meeting in Pastor Jim Cymbala's book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, but nothing prepared me for the event itself: 3,500 God-hungry people storming heaven for two hours.

Afterward, my friend and I went out to dinner with the Cymbalas. In the course of the meal, ...

Chris Heuertz is the international director of Word Made Flesh, an organization that helps the world's poor. In his book Simple Christianity, Heuertz writes that one night in particular stands out in all his world travels. While walking the streets of Kolkata, a destitute region in South Asia, Heuertz and his companions—Josh, Sarah, and Phileena, Heuertz's wife—stumbled across a person ...

Rate of major depression in women who have attended religious services since childhood: 27 percent

Rate in women who have changed attendance patterns (nearly all had stopped attending services): 36 percent

Incidence of major depression in men who have always attended religious services: 31 percent

Incidence in men who have stopped attending: 24 percent

Eighteen hundred years or so of Hebrew history, capped by a full exposition in Jesus Christ, tell us that God's revelation of himself is rejected far more often than it is accepted, is dismissed by far more people than embrace it, and has been either attacked or ignored by every major culture or civilization in which it has given its witness: magnificent Egypt, fierce Assyria, beautiful Babylon, artistic ...

Kathy was one of 13 children raised by a common father and three mothers in a polygamist community in Utah. [The community was a part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 1890's.]Growing up, she was burdened by the unrealistic expectations of the cult: "We were constantly told to 'keep sweet,' ...

Heidi Baker ministers to the poor in Mozambique. She writes about a vision she had:

I saw the wedding feast of the Lamb. There were huge, long tables laid out with the most beautiful food I have ever seen.

I heard the Lord say, "Wake up, Church! Wake up, Church! The feast is about to begin! The poor have not yet been called, and My house is not yet full. I want My house to be full!"

Then I saw the Lord ...

In Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness, Kathryn Greene-McCreight describes her tortured journey through ten years of extreme depression and bipolar disorder. Concerning the importance of Christian fellowship while in recovery, she writes:

This is why it is so important to worship in community—to ask your brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for you … ...

Milton and Laura Acosta were a part of our church family while Milton studied nearby at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. When he finished his PhD, they returned to Milton's native Columbia to teach at a seminary. We have kept in touch since their leaving, and Milton once wrote about their church building in Medellin, Columbia:

We are attending a Baptist church in Medellin. We are using what used ...