The pandemic’s much-feared financial toll on churches and nonprofit ministries failed to materialize in 2020. That’s the verdict from a survey of 1,292 members and friends of ECFA (the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) published March 4 in a 12-page illustration-rich report titled “Remarkable Resilience.” Every three months since the nation’s coronavirus-driven financial upheavals began last spring, ECFA has polled its membership, plus other likeminded churches and nonprofits. After an initial dip in charitable giving, donations rose and held somewhat steady in the summer and ..read more

Ed Stetzer: Why did you write this book? Steve Addison: For years I’ve been struck by what happened when Jesus rose from the dead and discovered his disciples had scattered in fear, failure and despair. As far as they were concerned it was all over. Yet Jesus was about to launch a missionary movement that will go to the whole world with these same disciples who have failed him. How did he do that? Jesus restored them, then he walked them through the books of Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets over a period of forty days. He showed them why the Messiah had to suffer then rise from the dead. H ..read more

Someone in the line of the Huguenots—the French Protestants who had to flee from persecution in the 16th and 17th centuries—has shown up to remind us what today’s priorities for Christian witness should be. I refer to Thomas Schirrmacher, who became Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) on March 1. His family lineage dates back to the Huguenots. Symbolically, Schirrmacher’s inauguration ceremony took place just down the road from Wittenberg, where five centuries ago Martin Luther pried open the controls exerted by the Catholic Church and triggered the Protestant Reformati ..read more

I knew from an early age there was something wrong. I listened to Easter sermons from good evangelical preachers, and they seemed to be missing the point. I suspect the same problem is getting in the way now, as we try to draw from the Easter message the hope that the post-pandemic world will need so badly. The sermons I heard tended to stress two points. First, belief in Jesus’ resurrection could be supported by personal testimony: “You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart!” Second, Jesus’ resurrection proved (we were told) that there really is “life after death.” Nothing wr ..read more

Dr. Ed Stetzer: How would you encourage pastors, church leaders and fellow Christians to see the importance of the vaccine, see it for their own health in some cases, but also to see it as a way love their neighbor? How would you encourage them to communicate and articulate? Dr. Jay Butler: First of all, be a leader. I would encourage everyone to take a vaccine selfie, or to have somebody else take that picture. If you get nervous when there’s a needle going through your arm, I’d encourage you to take that picture as a way to show your leadership and reassure your congregation that the vacci ..read more

Each of the last few years, our team and I partner with Outreach Magazine to look through many resources on evangelism and apologetics. Once they have announced, I like to share a bit more here at The Exchange. This year, I commended the following two books: 1.How to Talk About Jesus Without Being That Guy: Personal Evangelism in a Skeptical World by Sam Chan. Sam Chan offers wise and practical advice on sharing Christ in our ever-changing, post-Christian world. Using pertinent biblical texts, encouraging real-life examples, and sociological and cultural information, Chan offers the reader a ..read more

Image: IVP In a world where success is king, we must be careful to not fall into the trap of believing that our identity somehow derives from the magnitude of our achievements rather than our relationship with God. Christian leaders are called to be change-agents for Christ, bringing healing and restoration into the brokenness of their communities and workplaces. Surrender is the place where your leadership must begin. . . . A surrendered leader has nothing left to lose because they’ve already put everything in God’s hands. So, my job is just to show up every day, do my best and trust God ..read more

Dr. Ed Stetzer: Where are we—or do we even know—in the midst of this pandemic? Dr. Jay Butler: What we can describe is where we’ve been and how that might reflect what’s going to happen next. Right now, we are at a stage where we’ve come down from the worst of the pandemic that occurred in early January. But, we’re also at a critical inflection point because we’re at a time now where the number of cases has stopped declining. Over the past couple of weeks, it’s really been a flat line. We are still seeing anywhere from 50,000 to 60,000 new cases every day. Sadly, roughly one thousand additio ..read more

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, churches responded to serve churchgoers in a variety of ways, and churchgoers are overwhelmingly proud of how their church handled the crisis. According to Nashville-based Lifeway Research, almost 9 in 10 Protestant churchgoers (86%) say they are proud of how their church has responded during the coronavirus pandemic, with 58% strongly agreeing. Few (9%) disagree. Inversely, few (12%) say they are ashamed of how their church responded to the crisis. More than 4 in 5 (84%) disagree, with 73% strongly disagreeing. Some churchgoers, however, are more likely tha ..read more

Marching beneath the Chinatown Gate. In light of the Atlanta shooting of six Asian women on March 16, 2021 and the subsequent outrage and rallies over racist attacks against Asian Americans, are Asian Americans now ready to fully engage in public demonstrations against social injustices? One significant event already occurred on June 28, 2020, as well over 1,000 Asian American Christians in Chicagoland gathered for a demonstration in support of black dignity and pride which was initiated by the Asian American Christian Collaborative. The killing of George Floyd, coupled with the recent death ..read more