WASHINGTON (BP)—A federal court ruled late Friday (Oct. 9) the District of Columbia has likely violated the religious freedom of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and therefore cannot prevent the Southern Baptist congregation from meeting outdoors with proper safety measures in place. Trevor McFadden, a federal judge in D.C., granted a preliminary injunction, saying the district’s present limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic “substantially burden [Capitol Hill Baptist’s] exercise of religion.” He also said the church “is likely to succeed in proving that [D.C.’s] actions violate” the Religious ..read more

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (BP) — Flash flooding rolled through the St. Joseph, Mo., area beginning July 20, displacing families and rendering many homes unsafe. But as the community was thrown into need, individuals and organizations within the community stepped in to help rebuild and provide immediate necessities. Jacob McMillan, pastor of Journey Baptist Church in St. Joseph, found himself faced with a crash course in disaster relief when the floods affected 200 homes just a quarter-mile from the church. McMillan, working alongside Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief, said his congregation made a goal of ..read more

How can a persecuted believer trust again after being betrayed by those closest to him? How can a person rightly understand suffering when his culture is awash in prosperity gospel teaching? How can a pastor carry the weight of leading when he doesn’t know how to study Scripture? These are challenges that Christian workers Mary and Andrew Flint* face every day as they seek to encourage growth among Persian refugee churches. Recently as they reflected on the first half of 2020, they realized that amid the noise of a global pandemic, God has been quietly answering their prayers for unity, streng ..read more

Kentucky pastors try to reach tough groups at protest By Mark Maynard/Kentucky Today GRAYSON, Ky. (BP) — Josh Schmidt looks forward to the Sunday afternoon when he can do some door-to-door evangelism again. But for now, said the pastor of First Baptist Church in Grayson, God has another assignment. For the second straight week, Schmidt, youth pastor Cory Jones and pastoral intern candidate Darin Phillips were “being the church” as a Black Lives Matter protest and a lot of counter-protesters collided in the downtown streets of the small northeastern Kentucky city. The three men were armed with ..read more

David Spika joined Jonathan Howe on Monday (August 3) to review this month’s economic shifts. As we draw nearer to the election, the markets should start to predict the outcome and foreshadow what they expect in 2021 and beyond. Also, David discusses what we might see in the next government stimulus package. Finally, Spika and Howe look at commercial property trends and what that might mean for churches ..read more

ATLANTA (BP) — “Black lives matter!” is a statement of proclamation — a declaration and a decree — emerging from centuries of anguish born of America’s history of injustices stemming from the African slave trade. “Black Lives Matter” is also an organization — a body of people with a particular mission — emerging from the proclamation, following episodes of police brutality and vigilante killings of Black men. The proclamation existed before the organization. The message of the proclamation and the message of the organization are not the same. There are many who embrace the proclamation, yet ar ..read more

WASHINGTON (AP/RNS) — A life-sized statue of the Rev. Billy Graham will be installed in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall collection sometime next year, replacing a statue of a white supremacist that both the state of North Carolina and the U.S. House want removed. Last week, a North Carolina legislative committee approved a 2-foot model of the statue depicting the famous evangelist who died in 2018. The sculptor, Chas Fagan, will now begin working on a life-sized model that will have to be approved by a congressional committee. Fagan has previously created several statues of religious figures ..read more

LOS ANGELES (AP/RNS) — Every year in August, tens of thousands of people fill the seats of Angel Stadium in Anaheim, not for baseball, but for the weekend-long Harvest Crusade. A tradition for more than three decades, the Southern California evangelistic event, founded by Harvest Christian Fellowship Pastor Greg Laurie and the late pastor Chuck Smith, has attracted millions of people since the ’90s. It has been described as the last of the big Billy Graham-style crusades in the United States. Christian music artists lead in worship before Laurie shares his message of faith, loss and hope from ..read more

What if a billionaire believer approached me and said, “Ross, something has to be done about unbelieving young people who are heading toward a life of spiritual ruin and eternity without Christ. I’m going to pay to fly every SBC senior pastor and student pastor to Cowboy Stadium. That should just about fill up the place. Then I’m going to give you a microphone and let you say whatever you want to say to those folk.” If I were given such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I would give prayerful thought to every sentence—indeed, every word—I was going to say. After 50 years of pouring over Script ..read more

NASHVILLE (BP) — Continued financial faithfulness of Southern Baptists has pushed monthly giving through the Cooperative Program to levels not seen since before the COVID-19 global pandemic. July’s total giving through the national CP allocation budget totaled nearly $17 million — the highest monthly total since February. “My heart is so filled with gratitude to God and to our churches for their faithful support of our Great Commission mission and ministries,” said SBC Executive Committee president and CEO Ronnie Floyd in a statement. “This is a powerful testimony of the generosity of God’s pe ..read more