Is it possible to be spirituality healthy but have mental health issues? It’s a question that many are asking and that one pastor at a megachurch has chosen to address.

Brad Hambrick, who serves as pastor of counseling at The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, wrote in a blog post that the answer to the question is “yes,” but it is important to explain why.

Hambrick, who is also an author and instructor of Biblical Counseling at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, first suggested several measures of what makes a Christian spiritually healthy, such as embracing the Gospel.

He defined the above as: “An individual [who] recognizes their sinful condition and leans fully on the hope of Christ’s death-resurrection to provide freedom from the overwhelming guilt this sober self-awareness would otherwise create.”

Other markers for a healthy Christian include spiritual discipline, personal devotion, devout character, and having a robust theological framework, where an individual “is able to understand and articulate the biblical world-view that undergirds the previous four marks of spiritual health.”

He argued that it is possible to display those characteristics while simultaneously suffering from mental health challenges. 

One of…

Students in an Ohio middle school class were asked to decide which eight persons among a group of 12 would be “most deserving” to escape planet Earth on a spaceship if it were “doomed for destruction.”

The list, according to Cleveland 19 News, included a “homosexual male professional athlete,” a “21-year-old female Muslim international student,” a “Hispanic clergyman who is against homosexuality” and a “racist armed police officer who has been accused of using excessive force.”

The spaceship was leaving Earth to travel to another planet, and “space limitations” prevented everyone from fitting. 

“Your task is to select the Eight (8) passengers who will make the trip,” the assignment atCuyahoga Falls Middle School said. 

Students were to rank the persons as “most deserving” to “least deserving,” and then join together as a group and discuss their list and come to an agreement. 

The math teacher who made the assignment said it was an “ice breaker” designed to spark discussion, according to Cleveland 19 News. The teacher also apologized. 

On the television station’s Facebook page, readers were split on the assignment. 

“I can see how it’s objectionable,” one person wrote. “I can also see the value in pushing people to justify their biases. Maybe this would teach children…

The sexually abusive behavior pastor Bill Hybels is accused of is “reprehensible,” but there is hope for repentance, the chair of Willow Creek Association Australia has said.

Stu Cameron, who is lead minister of Newlife Uniting Church on the Gold Coast, shared his thoughts on the Willow Creek Community Church founder scandal in an op-ed for Eternity News on Friday.

As Cameron explains, WCA Australia oversees the country’s Global Leadership Summit, which is a worldwide movement that Hybels once led.

“We condemn the behavior Bill Hybels has been accused of as reprehensible and contrary to the standards required of any leader. We are sorry that the mishandling of the allegations has caused more pain for the women who bravely came forward. Our heart aches for them,” Cameron wrote.

“We fully support a truly independent and thorough investigation of all allegations, as announced. Our hope is that the findings of the investigation will lead to truth, repentance, justice, healing and reconciliation,” he added, referring to the pledged investigation into Hybels’ conduct, which was…

According to Korea Bizwire, on Sunday in South Korea, 125 women collectively ingested Mifegyne, a medication typically used to induce natural abortions. Thirty others ingested vitamin pills that were indistinguishable to the Mifegyne in an effort to protect the women taking the illegal substance. The women ingested the medicine in protest of the country’s laws banning abortion.

The online media outlet, reports that the protest was held in front of a large bell pavilion called Bosingak Pavilion in Seoul’s Jongno district. 

The 125 protestors were representing the number of women who undergo illegal abortions every hour in South Korea. They stood before the pavilion urging the government to legalize abortion. 

Korea Bizwire reports, the women believed that abortion is not “taboo or sin,” and that the act has been inappropriately attached to single women and promiscuity.

 The protestors reportedly read aloud a statement while protesting which states, “Abortion is the most commonly performed surgery in the world and normal women choose to get abortions for various reasons. Being able to get an abortion is a basic right for women.”

The women termed abortion as a right and asked for the legal right to have abortions and take pills like Mifegyne. 

According to Christian News, in 1953, South Korea deemed abortions illegal, but in 1973, the country passed…

Inland Hills Church in Chino, California, is now seeking to raise $500,000 for the widow and sons of their late lead pastor, Andrew Stoecklein, who died after a suicide attempt at the church last Friday.

“So many of you have expressed a desire to support Andrew’s wife Kayla and their three young sons. Launched and managed by the #careforkayla team of Stoecklein family friends and Inland Hills staff, this campaign will provide education costs for the boys, day-to-day expenses for Kayla, and financial security during a very difficult season,” a GoFundMe campaign that had raised more than $70,000 in less than 24 hours as of Thursday morning noted.

“Andrew bravely confronted the topic of mental health in his last days, shedding light on illnesses that aren’t widely discussed in public or in the worldwide church. Kayla is committed to continuing his story by honoring the man he was, while calling for greater support for pastors in the burdens they carry. It is by their example that…

The leader of Hamas, the Palestinian organization, said this week the country is negotiating a cease-fire with Israel, but also said that “all of the missiles that the Palestinian resistance fired [at Israel] during the 51 days of the last war [in 2014] it can fire in five minutes.”

Yahya Sinwar said Hamas is capable of “causing six months of rising and falling air raid sirens” in the Tel Aviv area. 

“We don’t want a military confrontation, but we are not afraid of one,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sinwar added that negotiations could still progress in a deal that would release two Israeli civilians who are being held in Gaza. The remains of two Israeli soldiers could also be returned to the country. The soldiers were killed in 2014.

Recently, there has been increasing violence between Israel and Hamas, with protests at the Gaza border, rioting and attacks on Israeli troops. 

Hamas has reported that about 170 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the protests started.

Sinwar also warned this week that the Palestinian government should not try to prevent a deal between Israel and Hamas.

“Any punitive measures the PA imposes on the Gaza Strip will be in violation of the rules of the game. We respond to any such measures appropriately,” he said.

However, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that any ceasefire agreement has to be approved…

A Presbyterian church elder has hit out against an ordained minister advocating that Christians should “trust women” when it comes to abortions.

Paula Rinehart, who is also a therapist and author of books such as Sex and the Soul of Woman, argued that “progressives are getting desperate” in a piece published by The Federalist on Wednesday.

“Christians see embodied compassion as that which leads a person into richer, unfolding life, in which children can only be construed as a blessing. Abortion is a threat to the humanity of the woman herself,” Rinehart wrote.

At the center of her criticism is Rebecca Todd Peters, a professor of religious studies at Elon University in North Carolina, an ordained Presbyterian minister and author of Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice.

In the book, and in an op-ed in The News & Observer in July, Peters argues that different Christian denominations accept some forms of abortion, such as in relation to prenatal health, rape, incest, and health of the mother.

She adds that women who want to have abortions outside those reasons should not be condemned, however.