Seven months after revealing that he hoped to remain in his position for at least five more years, Mac Brunson, senior pastor of the 10,000-member First Baptist Church of Jacksonville in Florida, abruptly resigned on Sunday as church officials assured members his premature exit wasn’t prompted by any scandal.

“On Sunday, April 29, 2018 Dr. Mac Brunson announced his resignation as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida. His last Sunday preaching will be May 6, 2018. This announcement came as sad news to a church that has appreciated Dr. Brunson’s ministry for so long,” the church said in a statement.

“Whenever a pastor leaves a place of service it is common for rumors of a scandal to circulate. We want to be clear that no such scandal exists at First Baptist, or in the ministry of Dr. Brunson. Dr. Brunson’s service has been characterized by moral and ministerial faithfulness, and no individual or group within our church asked him to leave.”

Brunson, 60, has been at the helm…

US President Donald Trump decried the killings of Christians in Nigeria as he met with the country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, in Washington yesterday (30 April).

Nigeria has been plagued by violence attributed to Fulani herdsmen in the Middle Belt and northeast. Benue state has been particularly affected, with attacks happening almost on a daily basis.

The killing of 19 worshipers, including priests Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, last week (24 April), has provoked outrage in Nigeria and elsewhere.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria has urged President Buhari to step down in the wake of the massacre. Various advocacy groups, including Open Doors International, had called on President Trump to seize the opportunity to call Buhari to account for allowing unchecked atrocities against Christians in his country.

“We have had very serious problems with Christians who are being murdered in Nigeria,” said Trump as he met with President Buhari at the White House. “We are going to work on that problem very, very hard because we cannot allow that to happen.”

President Buhari was the first Sub-Saharan African leader to meet with Trump in Washington. In response, he said efforts were being made to ensure that killings in the country were stopped.

He attributed the ongoing violence to cross-border insecurity resulting from the fall of Libyan President…

American pastors facing controversial political debates in their congregation, and criticism from some church members for not swinging one way or another, need to be aware of when the right time to speak out is, says Reformed evangelical theologian Kevin DeYoung.

DeYoung, who pastors Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, wrote a blog Tuesday on The Gospel Coalition addressed to pastors, noting that they face difficult questions when it comes to responding to controversial debates swirling around politics.

“When preachers are quickly criticized for saying too much (you’re not Gospel-centered!) or saying too little (you’re not woke!), it behooves us to think carefully about the relationship between pastoral ministry and politics,” he positioned.

DeYoung offered seven pieces of advice, starting with allowing the Bible to set the agenda for weekly ministry.

“I love preaching through the Bible verse by verse. I’m not smart enough to decide what the congregation really needs to hear this week. So they’re going to get John 5:1–18 this Sunday. Why? Because last week they got John 4:43–54. And in the evening they’re going to get Exodus 24, because last Sunday was Exodus 23,” he…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says “dramatic” intelligence discovered this week reveals that Iran is “brazenly lying” about its nuclear weapons program.

Netanyahu says Iran is violating a 2015 nuclear deal. Intelligence shows that “half a ton” of files related to its nuclear weapons programs were moved to a “highly secret” location in Tehran after the deal.

“These files conclusively prove that Iran is brazenly lying when it says it never had a nuclear weapons program,” he said. 

The files include more than 55,000 pages and 55,000 files on some 180 CDs.

The prime minister showed copies of the material in a nationally televised address. The nuclear program in Iran to build a weapon was called “Project Amad.”

Netanyahu talked with President Donald Trump about the information over the weekend. Trump has said in the past that he wants the country out of the deal, and a deadline to re-certify the deal is coming up soon, according to Fox News.

“In a few days’ time, President Trump… will make a decision on what to do with the nuclear deal,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll do the right thing, the right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel, the right thing for the peace of the world.”

On Monday, Trump said he would make a decision “on or before” May 12.

“That doesn’t mean I won’t negotiate a…

Robert Morris, the founding pastor of the nearly 40,000-member Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, who is battling an illness, says in a Facebook live video that he’s alive and recovering thanks to the prayers of thousands of believers.

“I’m doing better. I’m getting stronger,” the 56-year-old Morris, who has been critically ill since early April, says in the video posted on Sunday. 

“It’s just a slow process and I appreciate your continued prayers,” continues Morris, who also serves as chancellor of The King’s University and is a best-selling author of 14 books. “I just wanted to let you know where I am. I’m alive and I’m headed in the right direction and I am recovering. So thank you, thank you, thank you for praying for me.”

Gateway Church spokesman Lawrence Swicegood earlier said that Pastor Morris had to undergo several emergency surgeries to stem internal bleeding following a hernia operation on April 2. He was most recently treated for pneumonia.

Prominent Southern Baptist leaders Russell Moore and Thom Rainer are speaking out against the controversial comments of a former Southern Baptist Convention president who in 2000 appeared to advocate for women to remain with abusive husbands.

Last Saturday, the Baptist Blogger posted an audio recording from 2000 in which former SBC head Paige Patterson, who currently serves as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, spoke of encouraging a woman to remain with her abusive husband.

Rainer, who is president and CEO of LifeWay, released a statement on Monday, declaring that there “is no level or type of abuse of women that is acceptable.”

“We have been called by God to show honor and respect to all women and girls. They are our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, our granddaughters, and our wives,” stated Rainer.

“And I stand with all who say ‘no’ to any type of abuse of women at any time and under any circumstance.”

Moore, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, echoed Rainer’s position on…

A controversial mass based around the music and messages of pop-icon Beyoncé Knowles-Carter drew as many as 900 people to an Episcopal cathedral in San Francisco last week, up from around the 50 who usually attend weekday services.

The Rev. Yolanda Norton, a San Francisco Theological Seminary assistant professor who specializes in the Old Testament, told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that the service, held at Grace Cathedral on Wednesday, was inspired from a desire to explore female-centric interpretations of the Bible.

“When we talk about womanist biblical interpretation, Beyoncé felt like a natural fit,” Norton said. “If we look at the trajectory of her person and her relationships, we can see so many issues black women face and how it can affect how we interpret the text.”

The Rev. Jude Harmon of Grace Cathedral explained that the mass was part of a three-part series on Grace, titled “Speaking Truth: The Power of Story in Community,” which seeks to focus on marginalized elements in the Christian community, such as women and people of color.

Harmon admitted that there has been controversy surrounding the mass,…