NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Danny Chambers, a Nashville-based worship leader and pastor who was well known in charismatic Christian circles, has died.

Chambers’ death was announced by his wife, Jillian Chambers, on Instagram Wednesday (Sept. 23).

“May the Rain of Your presence fall as we mourn the passing of my best friend, Danny Chambers,” she wrote. “I know many of you have heard that he is now in the arms of Jesus. The earth will feel a great void but Heaven is rejoicing.”

Chambers, known for his worship songs “Let the Rain of Your Presence” and “I Will Bow Down and Worship,” was the longtime pastor of Oasis Church in Nashville, now known as Citipointe Church, Nashville.

“As you can imagine, the past 24 hours have been difficult for all of us here on staff as we are all mourning the passing, as many are, of our former pastor, Danny Chambers. Our hearts go out to the Chambers family. Please keep them in your prayers,” a notice on the church’s Facebook page stated.

News of Chamber’s death spread on social media.

“Very sorry to hear that Danny Chambers passed away today in Nashville,” wrote Lee Grady, former editor of . magazine, on Twitter. “He was a gifted worship artist who made some amazing albums. His recording of ‘All Consuming Fire’ was my favorite. Pray for his wife and family.”

Christian musician Russ Taff also mourned his friend on…

The twin brothers made famous on YouTube for the “First Time Hearing” reaction videos are thanking God for being able to buy a car.

According to Faithwire, Fred and Tim Williams gained fans after posting a video of themselves listening to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” for the first time.

“I never thought we’d get this big, but we’re doing this to show people that it’s ok to listen to different types of music,” Tim said in an interview in August.

This week, Tim Williams posted a vlog update saying that he had been praying for a car for “forever.” He bought a Dodge Challenger.

“I thank God for the opportunity I have to get this car,” Williams said. “It’s only God willing I’m able to even get this car. I appreciate the fan-love support, but God always first for everything. I’ve been praying for this forever, like for real. It’s just a dream come true, man.”

The mother of the boys, Tiffany King-Richardson, said in an interview with The U.S. Sun that she is proud of her sons. King-Richardson said she struggled with drug addiction and spent two years in prison.

“The boys were nine when I went to prison and 11 when I came out,” she said.

Today, she is an addiction recovery coach and mentor.

She said when her son Tim wanted to drop out of college to produce YouTube videos, she was doubtful.

“I said to him: ‘How are you going to earn a living…

(RNS) — People who identify as highly spiritual are more likely to say it’s important to make a difference in their communities and contribute to the greater good, a broad new study on American spirituality finds.

The study, “What Does Spirituality Mean to Us?,” found that 86 percent of Americans identify as spiritual to some extent. It also found that the more people define their spirituality through connection — to a higher power or to humanity at large — the more likely they are to volunteer, donate and vote.

Funded by the Kalamazoo, Michigan, Fetzer Institute, whose mission is to build a spiritual foundation for a loving world, the study included a nationally representative survey of 3,609 people, as well as 16 focus groups that met in 2018 and 2019. All the research was done before the coronavirus pandemic. (Fetzer is a past funder of Religion News Service projects.)

“What the Fetzer study has uncovered is how much people are talking about connection when they talk about spirituality — connection between the inner and outer world and with others in community,” said Omar M. McRoberts, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and an adviser to the study. “Spirituality is not a solipsistic endeavor where it’s just about individual experience or elevation.”

Still, only 45% of respondents said spirituality influences their political views; 36% said…

(RNS) — It’s known in the United Methodist Church as the “Cross and Flame.”

But the denomination’s logo — two red flames intertwined with a thin, black cross — means something else to the Rev. Edlen Cowley, pastor of Fellowship United Methodist Church near Dallas.

It reminds Cowley, who is Black, of the first burning cross he saw.

He was 10 years old, riding in the car with his family from Marshall, Texas, where his dad pastored Miles Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, to Shreveport, Louisiana. His mother pointed it out, burning alongside the freeway, explaining that the symbol was meant to instill fear in Black people.

“No longer should we be represented by an image that was devised to evoke fear in the minds of so many,” Cowley wrote this summer for United Methodist News Service.

Now one of the United Methodist Church’s regional conferences has taken up the call to replace the denomination’s logo because of its association for many with the racist imagery of a burning cross.

The North Texas Annual Conference voted 558-176 at its annual meeting last weekend (Sept. 19) to send legislation to the 2021 General Conference, the denomination’s global decision-making body, to begin the process for changing that logo.

“If the logo itself has become a stumbling block to part of the population we’re trying to reach, then it’s time for a…

The biblical story of Jesus saving the woman caught in adultery has been twisted and given a new ending in a Chinese textbook, with Jesus killing the woman and telling her that He, too, is a sinner, according to a new report.

The textbook, published by the government-run University of Electronic Science and Technology Press, is used to teach “professional ethics and law” in vocational schools, according to Union of Catholic Asian News, which first reported the controversy.

In the original biblical story in John 8, Jesus goes to the temple courts, where the teachers of the law and the Pharisees bring him a woman caught in adultery and ask Christ if she should be stoned. Jesus writes on the ground and then tells them, “Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” After the woman’s accusers leave, Jesus tells her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

It’s a story of grace and mercy.

The Chinese textbook, though, changes the ending, according to UCA News. The textbook says, “When the crowd disappeared, Jesus stoned the sinner to death saying, ‘I, too, am a sinner. But if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.’”

A Catholic parishioner uploaded a copy of the textbook story to social media.

“I want everyone to know that the Chinese Communist Party has always tried to distort…

An estimated 17,000 babies have survived abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Roe v. Wade decision more than 40 years ago, an expert on the issue says.

Melissa Ohden, who survived an abortion as a baby and founded the Abortion Survivors Network, revealed the statistic Wednesday and said America “has been so impacted” by the “abortion agenda” that “stories like mine” and others are “pushed under the rug by the media and everyone else.”

Ohden made the comments during the virtual Values Voter Summit.

All total, she said, an estimated 17,155 babies have survived an abortion in the United States.

“That number is … the estimated abortion survivors since Roe vs. Wade, simply based on a number that the CDC threw out a long time ago saying that they estimated about one child a day surviving an abortion. Take that throughout the course of Roe versus Wade [and it’s] 17,155.”

Ohden’s comments came the same day President Trump said he would issue an executive order protecting babies who survive an abortion. Legislation that would require medical care for such infants has failed in Congress.

“People seem to think that this legislation is not necessary and [an] executive order isn’t necessary, but I’m here to tell you that it is,” she said.

Abortion survivor @melissaohden gives reaction to the Executive Order President