Elevation Church has asked volunteers and employees alike to sign a confidentiality agreement, which threatens to sue if volunteers and members disclose church finances. “If Steven Furtick’s followers in the congregation at Elevation want to pay him these outlandish salaries and want to allow him to live in multi-million dollar homes, that’s up to them,”... Continue Reading

The Board of Great Commission Publications (GCP) announced that Rev. Marvin Padgett has been called as its new Executive Director. Meeting on October 28, 2013, the GCP Board approved the recommendation of the search committee to hire Padgett as Executive Director. Padgett had been serving as interim Director during the search process. The former Executive... Continue Reading

 But, it seems to this outside observer, there are also some troubling problems here.  First, this distinction between “soteriological inerrancy” and “absolute inerrancy” will almost inevitably have the practical effect of setting up a soteriological canon-within-a-canon.  While the intention here may be to prevent people from asking impertinent questions of the biblical text, the result... Continue Reading

I also appreciate the ways Byrd interacts with cultural values. She does a good job of distinguishing between cultural standards of beauty and God’s values, calling us to embrace aging with grace. She points out ways in which the self-absorption and self-esteem that seem so prevalent inhibit a wholehearted pursuit of God where we seek... Continue Reading

“No one is forced to say this. This is about imposing an atheistic view on everyone so there can be no recognition of God,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and a Marine Corps veteran, said in response to the complaint.   The Air Force Academy is considering dropping the phrase “so help me... Continue Reading

For almost 40 years the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (PCRT) has been synonymous with Tenth Presbyterian Church in center city Philadelphia. It was started there in 1974 by James Montgomery Boice, and as it grew and flourished, it was taken to many other venues throughout America over the years. Now, as it prepares for... Continue Reading

Altogether, the report found, churches had $87.2 million less to spend in 2011 on work beyond their congregations than in 2010. Empty Tomb also reported that overall church membership has declined.   Collection plates are growing even lighter as Protestant church member giving reached new lows in 2011, and tithing probably will not recover from the... Continue Reading

Secularists want to understand the world, including its history, without any reference to the supernatural. Begrudgingly they allow the study of religion as yesteryear’s superstitions that led to bondage and war. But there is little motivation to understand the deep convictions of people that changed their way of life or to credit any religious movement... Continue Reading

“If you keep being told to buy Spurgeon, eventually you’ll read Spurgeon,” Dever says. “And if you read Spurgeon, you’ll never be able to believe the charge that all Calvinists are hyper-Calvinists and cannot do evangelism or missions.”   Seven years ago this fall, a young journalist named Collin Hansen wrote a cover story for Christianity... Continue Reading

Highland Park Presbyterian is locked in a legal battle over custody of its $30 million church campus in University Park on University Boulevard. The church and its regional parent group, Grace Presbytery, have been in talks to try to resolve the property issue, but no agreement has been reached. Earlier this month, a state district... Continue Reading