A new survey says that most churches have not returned to in-person services, and many are uncertain about the future of worship gatherings.

The survey is from the Wheaton Billy Graham Center’s Send Institute, Exponential, and the Association of Related Churches. Some 767 responses were recorded for the study.

In a key finding, the survey showed that most churches have the potential to meet for in-person services, but 67 percent have not.

“Some church leaders explain that while they are allowed to gather in some capacity, the health and safety of their congregation and community outweigh their ability and desire to gather,” the study said. “Others have shared that restrictions on congregational singing, hesitation from ministry volunteers, and the inability to linger before and after services for conversations, greatly reduce the value of their in-person gatherings.

About 33 percent of pastors reported their churches have returned to in-person gatherings, but only about half of the congregation is attending.

As expected, 80 percent of large churches, those who boasted an attendance greater than 1,000 before the nationwide quarantines, reported they are not meeting.

In another key finding, half of churches will most likely return to in-person gathering this month, but about a third said they aren’t sure.

The survey said that one pastor said that “it does not make sense…

These history makers changed the world around them with their “yes” to God’s calling on their lives. Read stories of these inspirational missionaries and be encouraged!

William Carey

British born William Carey is often referred to as the “father of modern Missions.” Born in 1761 this Baptist minister was a missionary, a translator, a social reformer and a cultural anthropologist. He began his work in India founding schools for impoverished children. His work and writing is responsible for the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society, whose reach covers forty countries.

Over his years on the mission field, Carey translated the Bible into dozens of Indian dialects and founded a college to equip local ministers. He truly lived up to his own quote, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

Mary Slessor

Mary Slessor lived a radical life as a missionary to Nigeria. Known for her powerful personality and sense of humor, Slessor fearlessly worked in regions where many missionaries before her had been martyred. Yet she remained unswayed by the imminent danger saying, “Why should I fear? I am on a Royal Mission. I am in the service of the King of Kings.”

In the regions she worked, twins were seen as a bad omen and abandoned by their villages to die in the jungle. Not on Slessor’s watch. She began scooping up the abandoned twins and taking them in. Over her years of service, she…

Texas pastor Tony Evans says churches have an obligation to help fix the current divide in America because churches stood on the wrong side of multiple issues of race during the past 200 years.

Evans made the comments this month to Scripps National News and to the Don Kroah Show on WAVA in Washington, D.C.

“The only reason this problem has existed this deep for this long is the failure of the church,” Evans said on the Don Kroah Show of racism and racial injustice. Evans is the author of Oneness Embraced and the pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas.

“Had the church not endorsed slavery, had the church not endorsed … segregation, Jim Crow and many of the systems, [then] they would not have been adopted and perpetuated in the culture. So since the church contributed to this mess, the church has got to fix it,” he said.

Evans gave examples of how he has experienced racism.

“I was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Dallas Seminary, but if I would have applied a few years before I did, they would not let me in because of the laws of segregation,” he said on the Don Kroah Show. “The only reason I’m on radio is [because] James Dobson intervened, because the radio stations told me that a black speaker would be too offensive to their white listeners. He intervened, and that opened up some doors. … 

“When I was in college in Atlanta, I walked…

A blind Rhode Island woman filed a charge of religious discrimination with the state Commission for Human Rights Tuesday after a local park banned her from the premises for two years and threatened her with arrest for having conversations with patrons about Jesus.

Gail Blair, who is blind from a genetic condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, says in the discrimination charge she was never combative and never argued with anyone who wanted to end the conversation in Wilcox Park in Westerly, R.I. She also says she didn’t follow people. 

Blair handed a copy of the Gospel of John to those who talked with her.

Blair filed the discrimination charge against The Memorial and Library Association, which manages Wilcox Park and Westerly Public Library in Westerly, R.I. She was banned from the adjacent library even though she says she never had a conversation with any strangers in the building about Christ.

Blair is claiming “unlawful discrimination … on the basis of my disability and my religious beliefs.”

“I respectfully request that the Commission intercede and require the Memorial and Library Association to make amends for their unlawful discrimination, and to permit me to return to the park and library to make full use of its accommodations and services, including through peaceful, civil, and non-confrontational conversations about Jesus,” she wrote.

First Liberty…

Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy is calling for white Christians to repent of their racism against their black brothers and sisters while fighting for their rights.

The Christian Post reported that Cathy, alongside Megachurch Pastor Louie Giglio and rapper Lecrae discussed the issue of racism in America following the deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks by white police officers.

“I think we have to recognize we are in a very special moment right now that the answer is not just for this to go off the radar screen, go back to talking about COVID-19, to talk about world peace, the environment, … politics is going to be coming up here this fall,” Cathy said on Sunday at Passion City Church in Atlanta.

“I believe if we miss this moment, we would have failed in our generation,” he cautioned.

Then Lecrae chimed in on his own personal experience of racial injustice at Cathy’s request.

“I don’t need the media to tell me that this is a problem because it’s a reality that I live,” Lecrae began.

The rapper noted how a police officer pulled a gun on him at 13, and how he was falsely placed on a gang list by police for skipping school at 14.

Lecrae also recounted other incidents with law enforcement, including being pulled over by police officers for no reason.

One recent incident, in particular, had police officers stop and search Lecrae’s rental car while he was driving…

Several petitions by Christian organizations are urging for the cancellation of a controversial film that blasphemes Jesus Christ.

CBN News reported that the independent movie called “Habit” will feature 22-year-old Paris Jackson, the daughter of the late king of pop, Michael Jackson.

Jackson, who is bisexual in real life, will be playing Jesus who would be portrayed as a lesbian who indulges in carnality with another woman.

E-Online stated that Habit follows a “party girl with a Jesus fetish who gets mixed up in a violent drug deal and finds a possible way out by masquerading as a nun.”

Jackson’s physical portrayal of Jesus also features a nose ring, tousled waves and a traditional robe.

While the film has no official release date, a petition was made in order to stop the film’s release by Movieguide, a non-profit that seeks to restore Christian values to the entertainment industry.

Movieguide argued that the “Habits” release would cause confusion and mislead children and new Christians from the biblical Jesus.

Movieguide also noted that the film lacks the support of a distributor, hence the lack of a release date.

The petition entitled, “STOP HOLLYWOODS ATTACK ON JESUS” already has 100,000 signatures with a goal of 150,000, alongside donations.

“Hollywood is back at it again!” the petition starts. “This time they’re attacking the historical and…

Moody Bible Institute president Mark Jobe, along with other school leaders, has apologized for past yearbook photos that showed white students in blackface.

“Regardless of when these photos were taken, or what the intent of the students was at that time, these pictures are shocking and deeply offensive. As senior leadership of Moody Bible Institute, we come together in this letter to deeply apologize for these photos and the underlying ignorance and the racist foundation blackface represents,” Jobe wrote of the 1974 and 1984 yearbook photos, Christianity Today reports.

“This behavior absolutely does not reflect how we envision our Moody community, which is grounded in God’s Word and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” the statement said. “It also undermines the advancements we have made together in the area of diversity.”

Earlier in June, Jobe asked for nationwide prayers in response to the killing of George Floyd. He is working with provost Dwight Perry, author of Breaking Down Barriers: A Black Evangelical Explains the Black Church, to review the school’s history on racial issues.

“I am most discouraged, personally, not so much by the violence I see outside, even though I am very discouraged about that,” Perry said in a video of Moody leaders discussing race. “I am most discouraged by once again the lack of the evangelical church, which I…

As the nation continues to protest and debate racial reconciliation and police reform, megachurch pastor Greg Laurie and Republican Senator Tim Scott sat down to an honest conversation on how the country can move forward, as reported by Faithwire.

Sen. Scott, a black Christian from South Carolina, has pushed forward the GOP’s policing reform policies in the wake of George Floyd’s death. The proposal, which was released on Wednesday, would restrict chokeholds and enhance a use-of-force database. Sen. Scott encouraged “character-driven law enforcement.”

“I can be pro-law enforcement and pro-communities of color. You can be both,” said Scott. “God is not colorblind. He actually loves diversity. He embraces diversity, and we should too, and we should treat each other according to Matthew 22, verse 39. We should treat each other as we would want to be treated.”

Laurie, who recorded the conversation for his congregation at Harvest churches, agreed.

“I believe God has established law enforcement. I believe racism is a real problem in our country. And I think we need to talk about it. And I don’t know why you have to be in one camp or the other,” he said.

In recent days, Scott has been candid on the struggles law enforcement has caused him. He was asked by Capitol Hill police to show his ID despite wearing a Senate pin and pulled over by police seven…

(RNS) — The Washington National Cathedral announced a 15% reduction in full-time staff on Tuesday (June 16) due to the financial impact of coronavirus. Starting July 1, the cathedral — located in Washington, D.C. — will eliminate 13 full-time positions and 13 part-time ones and will furlough another 12 full-time positions.

The cathedral’s doors have been closed since March 12, preventing tourists and worshippers from visiting during what is usually the 113-year-old neo-Gothic landmark’s busiest time of year. In an email to Religion News Service, Chief Communications Officer Kevin Eckstrom said that while donor support has remained strong despite holding only online services, the cathedral has been unable to rent its buildings and grounds for events, which normally helps underwrite operations.

Supporters of the cathedral, an Episcopal parish as well as the seat of the church’s bishop of Washington, can still contribute to Sunday morning offerings virtually, and the cathedral has expanded the ways people can give, but these contributions haven’t been able to compensate for the lack of funding available during the cathedral’s closure.

The historic Washington National Cathedral’s governing foundation was chartered by Congress as a house of prayer for all people where the country gathers during moments of national significance and for state funerals. But it receives no…