James Morris, who was slated to take over leadership of Dallas-area Gateway Church, has resigned in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal involving his father, Robert Morris. In a statement released to media, Gateway said its elders met earlier this week with Associate Senior Pastor James Morris and his wife, Gateway Executive Pastor Bridgette Morris. At that meeting, “they collectively made the decision” that the couple would step down. “We as Elders affirm and believe that God has placed a desire in both Pastors James and Bridgette’s hearts to serve as senior pastors of a church at some poin ..read more

Massey’s near-final words, said shortly before she was fatally shot by a deputy, have taken on a life of their own. As video footage of the fatal police shooting of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who lived in Springfield, Illinois, circulates online, many viewers are memorializing her near-final words: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” Massey initially called 911 from her home on July 6, citing concerns of an intruder.   ..read more

A jury found a former Wisconsin pastor and president of a Baptist State Convention not guilty of child sex assault, according to court records. Robert Stine was acquitted of two counts of first-degree child sex assault after four hours of deliberation from the jury, several local news outlets report. He previously served as the pastor of Midvale Baptist Church in Madison, Wisconsin, led the church’s Kid’s Best daycare program, and served as president of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention.   ..read more

When Tia Levings married at 19 years old, she achieved what her Baptist church had endorsed as her life’s highest calling: becoming a Christian wife. But as her husband embraced the teachings of the Christian patriarchy movement, she became governed by a list of rules she hadn’t bargained for. Her husband controlled her clothing, censored her reading list, demanded to be called “my lord” and subjected her to “physical discipline” — all in the name of Christ.   ..read more

In Louisville, Kentucky, in 1914, when Blacks and whites lived in communities segregated by a city ordinance signed May 11 of that year, Black and white Baptists formed a community partnership that survives to this day. Only five decades since the Civil War and 46 years after the passage of the 14th Amendment, the partnership was born amid exacerbated racial disparities. “It was kind of unheard of when you think about it,” partnership leader Matthew Smyzer Jr.   ..read more

Plans for a new church connected to the embattled International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) have been canceled, according to an email sent to the IHOPKC community this morning. Also, former IHOPKC Executive Team Member Isaac Bennett and his wife, Morgan, who were planning to pastor the new church, have left the 24/7 prayer ministry. The email  was sent by a reconfigured IHOPKC board of trustees and sought to dispel previous statements that IHOPKC was shutting down.   ..read more

A Colorado church will continue to house homeless people in RVs on its church property, thanks to a judge’s preliminary injunction.   In a 18-page order, Justice Daniel D. Domenico temporarily blocked the community of Castle Rock, Colorado, from enforcing zoning regulations, prohibiting The Rock Church from housing people on its property. As first reported on Denver 7, The Rock Church filed a lawsuit in January against Castle Rock, Colorado, in U.S.   ..read more

After the fire that all but destroyed the historic chapel at First Baptist Dallas in north Texas on Friday, senior pastor Robert Jeffress promised congregants that the church will rebuild. “It’s not the building, it’s what that building represents: It represented the bedrock foundation of God’s Word that never changes,” said the megachurch’s leader since 2007 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center at First Baptist’s Sunday service. While the fire did not damage the church’s primary modern worship space, the six blocks of the campus remained blocked Sunday morning for first responders ..read more

The nation’s oldest historically Black Episcopal university will retain its accreditation despite a decision late last year to revoke it, but the school remains on probation and continues to face severe financial challenges. Saint Augustine’s University (SAU) in Raleigh, North Carolina, announced July 22 that an arbitration panel had reversed the decision to terminate the accreditation. Such a termination, which was put on hold during the arbitration, would have made SAU students ineligible for financial aid from the federal government.   ..read more

Award-winning Christian singer-songwriter Aaron Shust is asking for prayer for a young family who has been left orphaned after the tragic loss of their parents earlier this month.  Shust’s best friend’s son, Shuki, was close with one of the boys, Matan, who is now without a mother or father. According to Aaron, Noa and Nir Baranes, 46, were tragically killed in a rocket barrage in Golan Heights on July 9. The pair were on their way home to Kibbutz Ortal, near the southwest corner of Syria, when their car was struck during the barrage.    ..read more