The coronavirus pandemic has revealed weaknesses in western Church culture that can be addressed by using restrictions as an opportunity to go deeper with God, says Francis Chan, the prophetic founder of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, who now lives in Hong Kong.

Speaking at a Q Session where several high profile evangelical leaders such as John MacArthur, Samuel Rodriguez and Tim Keller shared their thoughts on the pandemic and how the Church should respond to issues such as restrictions and the ongoing debate on religious liberty, Chan said he believes God is using the crisis to wake up Christians.

“I love this season we are in and I think every true believer does because we look at kind of the status quo and we’re just hoping for a time when we were forced into action. It’s almost like you’re training, training, training, for something and here it is. Are we prepared or not? And it’s a time where I look at it like the time when the Israelites were in the desert,” Chan told Gabe Lyons,…

(RNS) — Criminal charges have been dropped against a former associate children’s minister at The Village Church, a Dallas-area evangelical megachurch.

Matt Tonne was indicted for indecency with a child involving sexual contact in January 2019 and has denied the charges against him.

The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss the charges against Tonne last week, according to court documents. The motion — signed by Sherre Thomas, an assistant district attorney of Dallas County — states that, despite an investigation, “the complainant cannot and has not positively identified defendant as the person who committed this offense.”

A young woman who attended The Village Church while growing up has accused Tonne of sexually assaulting her at a 2012 church camp she attended when she was 11. Now an adult, she sued the Village Church for gross negligence and emotional distress last year, seeking $1 million in damages.

J. Mitchell Stone of Scheef & Stone, who is one of the woman’s lawyers, said that the district attorney did not speak to his client before dismissing the charges.

Stone said that his client “stands ready” to identify Tonne.

“Our client and her family are shocked and disgusted at the Dallas County District Attorney’s sudden decision to dismiss this case without so much as consulting her or even picking up the telephone to talk with her before they…

The pastor of a large California church said Tuesday his congregation will not stop meeting for indoor worship despite fines from the county that have topped $50,000.

Jack Trieber, pastor of North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, Calif., said in a new video on the church’s Facebook page that Santa Clara County posted an additional order on the church’s doors this week and is fining the congregation $5,000 for each service. The video includes a screen capture of the order.

“They’ve ratcheted this thing up,” Trieber said.

Health regulations from the city and county prohibit the church from gathering or singing indoors. The county previously gave the church a cease-and-desist order and claimed the congregation was not social distancing during indoor worship. Trieber, though, says the congregation is social distancing. (A video on the church’s Facebook page shows individuals social distancing while worshiping during a service.)

All total, the congregation has been fined $52,750.

The county’s order calls it an “unlawful indoor gathering.” It also says attendees are not wearing masks.

Trieber pleaded with the county to stop the fines. He also asked Americans for prayer and support.

He read from the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law – no law – [respecting] the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” he…

(RNS) — This past Sunday (Aug. 30) John MacArthur, the senior pastor of Los Angeles’ Grace Community Church, made a startling statement.

“There is no pandemic,” he said.

His proof? A recent Centers for Disease Control report that only 6% of U.S. deaths attributed to COVID-19 listed the virus as the only cause of death; the remaining 94% listed additional underlying health conditions known as “co-morbidities.”

But according to health experts, MacArthur made quite a jump to conclude that, of the estimated 160,000 U.S. deaths examined in the CDC’s report, only 9,210 were due to COVID-19, and all the rest died of something else.

In fact, it’s wrong.

As of Monday, 6 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19 — including 700,000 Californians — and an estimated 184,000 Americans have died from it. When recording the reasons for a patient’s death, doctors list all factors leading to the person’s demise — but the virus remains the main reason they died.

MacArthur’s non-denominational church has been defying California’s ban on large indoor meetings without masks or social distancing. In doing so, the church appears to be wading into a highly politicized campaign to minimize or outright deny the existence of the coronavirus. Recently, MacArthur told President Trump in a phone conversation that “any real, true believer” of Christianity will be forced to…

Twenty-Five missing children were recovered by the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Ohio on September 1, 2020. It is suspected roughly one-fourth of the children were involved in human trafficking or prostitution.

According to local news affiliates, there is presently a sting operation in place to catch the rest of the children. But while that happens, the U.S. Marshal’s Service is working with local authorities to get the rescued children to safety while they continue to free more children and hopefully catch the traffickers running the sordid operation.

The operation, dubbed “Operation Safety Net” is setting out to find all 200 of the missing children in Northeastern Ohio. The operation is made up of 475 people, 250 men and 125 women, who are committed to finding the sex traffickers and freeing the missing and sex-trafficked children.

This report comes on the heels of the U.S. Marshal’s Service freeing 39 Georgia children, many of whom were child sex trafficking victims. 9 known associates were arrested and charged with a litany of charges from sex trafficking to parental kidnapping and other charges. Many of the children were abused and some suffered from mental health issues.

That operation, titled “Operation Not Forgotten,” shows the ability of local law enforcement, the FBI and other organizations to shut down sex trafficking operations and free the victims.

So far this year,…