North Point Community Church Senior Pastor Andy Stanley has said he believes that most people who’ve left the church still maintain “a crush on Jesus.”

When asked what Christians can do to win people back to church, Stanley responded that he believed even those who are not interested in worship still desire to be loved, “especially when things aren’t going well,” he said in an interview with ChristianBook.com that he shared on Twitter Monday for his new book, Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World.

“Post-Christians could care less about my new sermon series. But they’re still interested in matters of faith and spirituality,” said Stanley.

“And — this is big — most post-Christians still have a crush on Jesus. While modern folks may be hesitant to recognize Jesus as divine, they’re not in the least bit hesitant to laud him as someone whose life is worth imitating.”

Stanley also spoke about reaching out to those who are unchurched, saying he refuses to use the statement “the Bible says,” echoing comments he has made in the past.

In his interview with ChristianBook.com, Stanley compared using the term “the Bible says” in modern American culture to using the term “the Quran says.”

A 19-year-old boy who was stranded at sea for seven weeks said, he survived by reading his bible and heeding the advice of his parents to pray. 

Indonesian teen Aldi Novel Adilang was set adrift in the Pacific Ocean while working as a lamp keeper on a floating fish trap some 80 miles off of the coast of Indonesia. Adilang had worked as a lamp keeper for three years, continuously lighting the traps lamps to attract fish. Once a week his company would come out to the floating trap to collect the fish and restock Adilang’s hut with food, water and fuel.

In Mid-July, however, everything changed. Heavy winds shook the fish trap, known locally as a rompong, and snapped the moorings that held it stationary, casting him adrift. Over the next 49 days, Adilang would drift thousands of miles from home headed toward Guam, with no paddle or engine.

Within the first few days, the teen ran out of supplies and had to survive by using the hut’s wood to cook fish and drinking seawater that was filtered through his clothes to dispel of the salt.

Indonesian diplomat from the consulate in Osaka, Fajar Firdaus, told The Jakarta Post, “Aldi said he had been scared and often cried while adrift. Every time he saw a large ship, he said, he was hopeful, but more than 10 ships had sailed past him. None of them stopped or saw Aldi.”

Newsweek reports that at one point Adilang…

The United Methodist Church’s African bishops have recently reaffirmed their support for the traditional definition of marriage, as well as opposition over possible schism within the denomination.

The UMC Africa College of Bishops released a statement Monday stemming from their official meeting held Sept. 3-7 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

According to their statement, the bishops held extensive discussions regarding the denomination’s debate over homosexuality, which many believe may lead to the UMC splitting.

“… we reaffirm our position as traditionalists and view marriage as union between Man and Woman as clearly defined in scripture and affirmed in our COB 2016 statement in Lake Junaluska, and at the Africa extended cabinet (Ghana, February 2018), and at the May 2018 COB in Chicago, Illinois,” stated the bishops.

“… we remain faithfully committed to our consecration vows as Bishops of the church to ‘maintain the unity of the church.'”

Next February, the UMC will hold a special session of General Conference to resolve the debate over whether to change the church body’s official stance against homosexual acts and same-sex…

A Roman Catholic bishop was arrested on Friday in Kerala, India, following accusations that he repeatedly raped a nun for over two years.

Bishop Franco Mulakkal had been summoned by police on September 19, and after three days of interrogation over the accusations, he was officially arrested.

The Kerala diocese has denied the accusations and argued that there is “anti-Christian” sentiment involved in Mulakkal’s arrest, however, which has prompted unrest and protest from those supporting the nun. 

“It is a fake allegation. We are all with the bishop,” the Rev. Peter Kavumpuram, a spokesman for the diocese, told CNN.

“There is an anti-Christian movement; people are trying to manipulate the truth,” he added.

Vijay Sakhare, inspector general of police of Kochi Range, Kerala, insisted that there is enough evidence to charge Mulakkal, however.

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reiterated Trump administration promises to continue to work for the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been held in Turkey for almost two years.

“We are sparing no effort to return Pastor Brunson home to the United States,” Pompeo said Friday (Sept. 21) at the annual Values Voter Summit attended mostly by Christian conservatives from across the country. “The work is important. He has been wrongly held and his proper place is to be able to return here to once again practice his faith in our great nation.”

In August, the Trump administration sanctioned two high-level officials in Turkey for what it says is their role in the case of Brunson, who faces terrorism-related charges.

Pompeo’s speech, which was met by applause, was part of a focus on international religious liberty on the first day of the three-day summit organized by Family Research Council Action.

Brunson’s daughter, Jacqueline Furnari, spoke shortly after Pompeo’s remarks during a panel discussion on the issue. She said her family awaits her imprisoned father’s next court date on Oct. 12. He has been charged with “Christianization,” which he denies.

She recounted how her father, who has lived in Turkey since 1993 and pastored a small Protestant church there, was called to a police station where he thought he…