The faith-based film Overcomer stayed in the Top 5 for three weekends and grossed $34.6 million, but its director says the lives it helped change is more worthy of celebration. 

The Kendrick Brothers film opened in theaters in August and will release to home video in the coming weeks – on digital platforms Nov. 26 and on Blu-ray and DVD Dec. 17.

Director Alex Kendrick told Christian Headlines that 50 people accepted Christ after watching it at one theater.

“A college coach took a college team to see the movie,” Kendrick told Christian Headlines. “After the movie was over, he stood up and he said: If you’ve watched this film and you are not sure where your identity is based – if you want to nail that down with the God that loves you – you’re welcome to come down here and pray with us. And over 50 people responded, and that was just one showing.”

But that is just “one of many, many stories” of lives changed by the film, Kendrick said.

“We’ve had more reports than I can count of church groups inviting people and giving invitations at the end of the film, and individuals making decisions for Christ in the theater,” he said.

Another story involved a special needs teenager.

“There was a couple that took their special needs teenage son to the movie,” Kendrick said. “And he had limited communication, and he was able to talk a little bit,…

In a recently released music video for the song Follow God, Kanye West’s father shares what it means to walk with God.

“Like, as I stand here today, I’m reminded of the first time my children ever got the opportunity to be in snow, and when we walked outside in the snow, they were very fearful in terms of the steps that they would take,” West’s father, Ray, said as the pair walked through snow on his ranch in Cody, Wyoming, as reported by Faithwire.

“What I did was I walked in front of them, and I took steps, and I said to them, ‘Instead of creating your own footprints, walk in the footprints that I’ve already made.’”

The song Follow God mentions Kayne’s father several times and his teaching about God.

“This is like a movie, but it’s really very lifelike / Every single night, right, every single fight, right? / I was looking at the ‘Gram and I don’t even like likes/ I was screaming at my Dad, he told me, ‘It ain’t Christ-like,’” West raps in the song.

Ray West, according to Heavy, was a part of the Black Panther Party in the ‘60s and ‘70s. But it was Kayne’s birth that changed his father’s path and became one of the first black photojournalists at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He received several awards for his work, including photos of Maya Angelou, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, and…

A national atheist group is demanding a Missouri school district investigate two high school coaches who allegedly have prayed with players – an action the group calls illegal and unconstitutional.

Head football coach Jeff Wallace and assistant football coach David Stucky of Cameron High School in Cameron, Mo., have prayed with players and discussed Bible verses with them before and after games, according to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which also says the coaches have led players in a postgame prayer at the 50-yard line. 

The foundation, which represents atheists, agnostics and “freethinkers,” sent a letter to Superintendent Matt Robinson in late October, urging him to conduct an investigation.

“Coach Wallace’s conduct is unconstitutional because he endorses and promotes his religion when acting in his official capacity as a school district employee,” the letter says. “… When a public school employee acting in an official capacity organizes and advocates for team prayer or worship, he effectively endorses religion on the District’s behalf.” 

The letter points to Supreme Court cases that have struck down school-sponsored prayer.

Parents of several players, though, told local television stations that they support the coaches’ actions. The parents also said the allegations aren’t accurate. The 50-yard…

A professor from Iowa State University recently received a complaint for allowing a student to claim abortion and birth control are “women’s issues,” according to the College Fix.

The complaint came after a discussion in class about abortion. The student stated that the professor should have issued a correction when a classmate suggested that only women can have abortions because it “erases trans men and people who are non-binary who get abortions and/or use birth control.”

The student continued to state that “there was no push back by the professor to get students to be more inclusive and instead repeated this erasure.”

Iowa State University gives students the opportunity to report incidents on campus through a “Campus Climate” portal in order to help the university “provide support for those who report being impacted by hate, intolerance or bias on campus.”

In the past year, 49 reports have been filed with the university ranging from transgender issues to abortion to racism. About 20 percent of those were “trans erasure” or “misgendering.”

One student complained that the paperwork for the university’s psychiatric services on campus only asked women for the date of their last menstrual cycle.

“Women are not the only people who have menstrual cycles,” the student wrote. “Trans men can have…

After being fired for making crude threats on a recording, as well as over allegations for financial mismanagement and bullying, James MacDonald of the megachurch Harvest Chapel has posted an apology on Facebook.

“I was, am, and will remain very sorry for the careless and hurtful words that were illegally recorded and publicized,” the apology states. “I immediately sent written apologies where appropriate, grieving what it revealed about the state of my heart at the time, as well as the hurt caused to those who trusted us to be a more consistent example of Christlikeness. I have no excuse and am truly sorry.”

He continues in the lengthy response to confess “a regression into sinful patterns of fleshly anger and self-pity that wounded co-workers and others.”

But, according to Relevant Magazine, several of the people harmed by MacDonald have not received apologies.

“I have not received one of these written apologies, though MacDonald mocked me repeatedly on the recording and joked about me having an affair with a Christianity Today editor,” said Julie Roys, the freelance journalist who exposed many of the allegations against MacDonald. “I also don’t know of anyone else who’s received one either, including the more than two dozen sources who went on the record with me with horrific stories about MacDonald.”

MacDonald, who was a founder of Harvest Bible…

Nearly nine in 10 Americans say they believe in God, although the percentage falls when the question is asked differently, according to a new Gallup analysis.

Eighty-seven percent of U.S. adults answered “yes” in 2017 when asked, “Do you believe in God?” – a number in line with the percentage in 2013 (87) but below the number from past decades. For example, 98 percent in 1967 and 1953 said they believed in God, and 96 percent answered that way in 1944.

But belief in God falls when adults are given three options, according to the analysis. On that question, 79 percent believe in God, 10 percent are not sure, and 11 percent don’t believe in God. Gallup last asked that question in 2016.

The number falls even further when Americans are asked if they are “convinced” that God exists. On that question, 64 percent say they are convinced God exists, 16 percent say God “probably exists” but they “have a little doubt,” 5 percent say God “probably exists” but they “have a lot of doubt,” 6 percent say God “probably does not exist” but they aren’t sure, and 7 percent are “convinced God does not exist.” Gallup last asked that question in 2017.

“The array of Gallup results leads to the conclusion that putting a percentage on Americans’ belief in God depends on how you define ‘belief,’” Gallup’s Zach Hrynowski…

Building on the success of a New York City pro-life event that drew more than 20,000 people, Focus on the Family says it will expand its “Alive” program to five cities in 2020 – all with a live 4D ultrasound image of an unborn third-trimester baby so attendees can get an unfiltered peak into the womb. 

The ALIVE 2020 event will take place on May 9 in yet-announced cities in Southern California and South Florida, as well as in Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta.

This year’s “Alive from New York” took place in Times Square, as pro-choicers and pro-lifers alike watched a live 4D ultrasound image and even heard the baby’s heartbeat. With more than 20,000 people in attendance, it was billed as the largest pro-life event in the history of New York City.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life.

Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, said the New York event made a difference.

“Protesters dropped their signs, [and] their jaws went down when they saw that ultrasound and heard that baby’s heartbeat,” Daly said in a promotional video filmed alongside Mancini in New York City. “… You could hear a pin drop here in Times Square.” 

ALIVE 2020 will take place on Mother’s Day weekend and – like the New York City event – will feature a live 4D ultrasound image. It also will include…