Hillsong Worship recently announced a new children’s book called “What a Beautiful Name,” inspired by their award-winning song of the same name.

Written by Hillsong’s Brooke and Scott Ligertwood, as well as Ben and Karalee Fielding, the 40-page book features a little boy named Oliver who goes on an adventure with his monkey pal Leo to discover the name in a song his mother sings. According to The Christian Post, Oliver was inspired by the Fieldings’ son and his stuffed animal.

“Every single week we receive emails, social media postings and YouTube videos of children the world over singing this song,” the authors told The Christian Post. “Some know the words perfectly, others make up their own. Regardless, their little hearts are being opened to the gospel message, and we want to help make this message even more accessible.”

The book opens with the line, “On a regular Monday, in Oliver’s room, in through the door came a familiar tune…”

Oliver sails the high seas and travels through a jungle to discover the name. It’s in a moment of rest that he remembers the name: “Creator and Savior, who made everything, Beautiful, Wonderful, Powerful King…JESUS.”

The authors hope the book engages little readers to explore the wonder and beauty of God.

“Worship is wonder,” they said. “Teaching children about worship is to teach them about the…

Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen will be opening his doors to congregants on October 18th, The Christian Post reports.

After 7 long months of simply streaming the services online and on SiriusXM satellite radio, Osteen’s church has decided to open its doors again. But congregants must sign up online, as capacity is limited to 25% of the chapel and everyone is required to wear a mask.

The Lakewood, Texas, church’s website states they will be adhering to the CDC guidelines.

Osteen said in a statement that “For the past six months we have been consulting with medical experts here in Houston and adhering to the guidelines set by the Texas Governor and the Houston Mayor and feel that it is the appropriate time to begin reopening the church for in-person worship services.”

He continued, “We are moving forward carefully and will reopen in a steady, gradual manner. We have undertaken many effective safety precautions, as well, that are designed to create a safe environment for our members who wish to attend.”

Osteen’s church isn’t the only one to have begun reopening, but it is one of the more prominent ones.

Big House Church in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia Beach reopened its doors months ago making it one of the first megachurches around the country to reopen. Like Osteen, they have taken the proper precautions, urging people who have Coronavirus to stay home and recommending churchgoers wear a…

(RNS) — Giving to congregations has shifted upward after churches closed their buildings earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a survey shows.

The new State of the Plate research finds that close to two-thirds (64%) of churches across the country reported in August that giving is either up (22%) or steady (42%). By contrast, in April, a similar share of churches (65%) said they had seen a drop in giving.

“This is encouraging news for churches across America,” said Brian Kluth, a former pastor who is now national spokesperson for the National Association of Evangelicals’ Financial Health initiative. “These new findings show that most churches and their families are figuring out ways to survive and even thrive in the midst of all the challenges that the pandemic has thrown their way.”

The findings are based on responses from 1,076 mainline, evangelical and independent Protestant churches. Seven in 10 of them had less than 200 attenders before the pandemic.

A third of the responding churches were in cities or suburbs, almost another third were from towns, about a quarter were from rural areas or small towns and 9% were from large cities.

The vast majority of respondents — 87% — said their congregations are currently meeting for in-person worship services. But more than half (58%) said attendance in person is half or less compared with pre-pandemic times. Six percent said…

(RNS) — As racial tensions have risen in recent months, a new report reveals that some Christians are becoming less motivated to act on racial justice, and an increasing share say there is “definitely” not a race problem in the country.

“Christians generally, and practicing Christians in particular, have changed their minds on addressing racial injustice, but if anything, they’re actually moving away from being motivated,” said David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group.

“It’s not a majority of Christians, but it is a segment of Christians who say they’re unmotivated or not at all motivated to address racial injustice,” he said, adding that the group has “essentially doubled” in the last year.

Thirty percent of practicing Christians — people who identify themselves as Christians, have attended worship in the past month and claim to strongly prioritize their faith — say they are not motivated to engage in matters of racial injustice (12% unmotivated, 18% not at all motivated). That’s an increase from 2019, when 17% said they were not motivated (9% unmotivated, 8% not at all motivated).

That was one of the most surprising findings of the summer study on race by Kinnaman’s California-based research firm.

“I think there was a lot of anticipation that the last three, four months might change Christians’ perspectives on some of these things,…

Last Saturday, one of the three co-founders of the Black Lives Matter organization spoke out against televangelist Pat Robertson for rendering the group as anti-Christian, Newsweek reports.

Robertson, who hosts the 700 Club, made the remarks on Thursday’s broadcast as the televangelist called out the movement’s Marxist ideologies, as seen on their website.

“They’re talking about Marxist communism,” Robertson said. “They’re talking about destroying the nuclear family. They’re talking about destroying essentially Christianity as being racist. And all the way through, they want to upend the capitalist structure and destroy America.”

While he affirms the phrase “Black Lives Matter”, the televangelist noted that the organization is ultimately, “a stalking horse for a very, very radical anti-family, anti-God agenda.”

“People should be aware that they’re not just standing with the poor oppressed Black people. Of course we want to stand with people against police brutality. Of course we do,” he said.
“But we don’t want to go along with a lesbian, anti-family, anti-capitalist Marxist revolution. We don’t want that for America.”

In a statement released on Saturday, BLM co-founder Patrice Cullors decried Robertson’s comments as “completely inflammatory and dangerous” as she defended the group’s support of Christianity.

“In response to…

Conservative Christian commentator Eric Metaxas, a New York Times best-selling author and host of The Eric Metaxas Show, urged young Christians to remain active in their church as well as in politics in an exclusive live interview with The Christian Post.

Metaxas, who authored well-researched biographies on Deitrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce, in addition to other famous leaders of change, sat down with The Christian Post’s John Wesley Reid to talk about the intersection between faith, family, and Christianity while attending Liberty University Falkirk Center’s Faith Summit.

Metaxas offered inspiring words to young Christians, saying “Understand whose battle this is, understand who called you to the battle. That’s what will keep you going when other people say, ‘I’ve had enough.'”

In the interview, Metaxas reminded young Christians of William Wilberforce, who, when he became a Christian, decided he should abandon politics entirely because it was such a corrupt system until a group of Christians implored him to stay. Wilberforce later became one of the driving politicians behind abolishing slavery in England, using his seat in Parliament as an opening to begin changing society for the better.

Metaxas reminded young Christians who are active in politics to surround themselves with the Church so that others can push them to use their positions in politics for good,…

Philadelphia mechanic Brett Lynn recently shared a testimony of forgiveness following a brutal stabbing by an intruder in his family-owned shop, Faithwire reports.

Seven years ago, Lynn had arrived home after dropping off his kids at gymnastics when the incident occurred. He noted that someone was trying to break into some of the cars parked in the lot of his family-owned shop, which was near his house.

After Lynn told the man to leave, the situation grew hostile and Lynn was stabbed in the gut by the intruder and was later hospitalized in critical condition.

Despite being in tremendous pain, Lynn reflected on the matter and realized that as a Christian, he must forgive the attacker.

“If I couldn’t forgive when it really mattered, then I think my witness as a Christian would be hurt,” he argued.

Lynn also felt the Holy Spirit’s conviction to “resolve the conflict” with the person who stabbed him. He added that the attacker had actually attended the same high school as he did.

Lynn’s attacker had graduated 10 years before him, held a job for 25 years, and later became homeless after the company went out of business.

“My heart went out to him,” Lynn said in a video interview with Faithwire.

When Lynn was called to express a victim statement in court, he said that the judge graciously permitted him to address the attacker personally.

“I essentially…