After months of COVID-19-related restrictions compelled places of worship to suspend on-campus services across America, more than 70% of Protestant churches have cautiously resumed in-person services following the required safety measures, according to a new LifeWay Research survey.

About three months ago, in April, less than 10% of Protestant churches held in-person services, but the number climbed to more than 55% by the first weekend in June, and in July, more than 70% met physically, according to the LifeWay survey.

“While more and more churches have resumed in-person worship services, it has not always been a straight path back,” said LifeWay Research’s executive director, Scott McConnell. “Some have had difficulty resuming or had to stop meeting again as things got worse in their area.”

The study found that 99% of the churches that have reopened to meet physically indoors are taking health and safety precaution.

For example, 94% of pastors said they provided…

NEW DELHI, July 27, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A 26-year-old mother became the fifth Christian in two months to be killed in India last week when she refused to hand over her daughter to be raped by Hindus who had assaulted the girl and other Christian minors, sources said.

Two masked Hindus slit the throat of Sunita Devi (name changed for security reasons) in Regadi village, in Jharkhand state’s Khunti District, when she came out her door at 1 a.m. and refused their demand for her young daughter, according to the sources.

“The two suspects had raped Devi’s minor daughter three times in the past besides three other Christian juvenile girls, and all four of the minor girls belong to my church,” pastor Jaymasih Nag of Grace Family Ministry (Anugrah Pariwaar Seva) told Morning Star News.

Devi’s daughter told police the assailants had previously called Devi by phone with demands that she hand over her daughter to be sexually abused, according to a police report. That night her mother had refused to answer her cell phone when the assailants called, according to the daughter.

At about 1 a.m. Devi noticed two men at the window of the room where she had been sleeping with her children and decided to get up and send them away, Pastor Nag said, based on what the minor girl had told him.

“Unaware of their intentions, Devi with the help of her cell phone torch, stepped out of the house to shoo…

After 100 consecutive days of hospitalization due to the COVID-19 disease, a 69-year-old pastor in Ohio came back to his congregation on Sunday to preach a sermon.

Jonathan Mitchell, the pastor of Faith Fellowship Church of God in Youngstown who was put on a respirator for 30 days and kept in the ICU for another month while in hospital, was back in his church Sunday to preach his first sermon in a long time, WKBN reported.

“This is my life, I can’t [do] nothing else. This is my life and I honor God and thank Him for this opportunity and that the church still wants me,” Mitchell said.

The pastor was discharged from the hospital on July 15. On his way back home, he was told they would stop by the church to pick up mail. But many members were waiting in the church to greet him, the newspaper reported earlier.

“My goodness, my heart is overwhelmed. We love you, we love you. My heart is overwhelmed with joy,” he was quoted as saying…

A pitcher for the San Francisco Giants cited his Christian faith as the reason he refused to kneel prior to the national anthem in a team-wide show of unity for Black Lives Matter.

Pitcher Sam Coonrod, who is in his second season with the team, was the only player on either team not to kneel. Every manager, coach and staff member also kneeled, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I’m a Christian … and I just can’t get on board with a couple of things that I have read about Black Lives Matter,” Coonrod said, referencing the national organization, not the movement. “How they lean toward Marxism and they’ve said some negative things about the nuclear family. I just can’t get on board with that.”

Coonrod, who made his Major League Baseball debut in 2019, said he “meant no ill will by it.”

“I don’t think I’m better than anybody. I’m just a Christian. I believe I can’t kneel before anything but God, Jesus Christ. I chose not to kneel. I feel if I did kneel I’d be a hypocrite. I don’t want to be a hypocrite.”

Coonrod’s comments reflect a debate among the wider Christian community over the organization’s stances. Black Lives Matter, founded in 2013, says on its website: “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another.”…

A campaign created by the Trump administration is reaching out to veterans and Americans who are feeling suicidal. Houses of worship are also being encouraged to collaborate by spreading the message amongst its members.

In a recent interview with CBN News, the Second Lady of the United States, Karen Pence, discussed her role as an ambassador in the PREVENT effort. PREVENT stands for “President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide.”

President Trump signed an executive order concerning PREVENT last March as a means to empower veterans and stop them from committing suicide.

“PREVENTS seeks to change the culture surrounding mental health and suicide prevention through enhanced community integration, prioritized research activities, and implementation strategies that emphasize improved overall health and well-being,” the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs states.

“I saw my role as a way to say, let’s end the stigma, and let’s start the conversation,” Pence told CBN News Chief Political Analyst David Brody. “Everybody has risk factors for suicide, every single one of us.”

More than 47,000 people commit suicide each year in the U.S., and more than 6,000 are veterans. Each day, about 20 veterans commit suicide. According to CBN News, the rate of suicide among veterans is two times higher than the rate among the general population.

PREVENT also…

(RNS) — Remote learning will be the rule for schoolchildren in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for at least nine weeks this fall as the city tries to stem a surging coronavirus caseload. 

But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll all be staying home.

Some could be in church instead.

That’s the vision at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, one of several churches in Winston-Salem hoping to host remote-learning sites for small groups of socially distanced kids.

If the bishop approves the idea, as many as 30 students would gather daily — spread across three buildings at St. Timothy’s campus — in the mornings.

Church volunteers would enforce health protocols, tutor and lead prayers to begin and end the day.

“We know in our faith that it’s not good for us to be alone,” said St. Timothy’s Rector, the Rev. Steven Rice, in a reference to the Bible’s Book of Genesis. “Some socialization among people of their own age will be a great benefit (to the students). And if both parents have to work, at least half the day is better than nothing.”

From Connecticut to Hawaii, congregations are seeking ways to support families still smarting from last spring’s sudden adjustment to home-based learning during the pandemic lockdown. They’re exploring how underutilized church buildings might be put to a new use that allows education to continue while freeing up parents…

Christianity is a faith with a long and detailed history, with numerous events of lasting significance occurring throughout the ages.

Each week brings the anniversaries of great milestones, horrid tragedies, amazing triumphs, and everything in between.

Here are three things that happened this week, July 26–Aug. 1, in Church history. They include a Scottish preacher being martyred, the founder of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church being born, and a Lutheran missionary arriving in India.