February 18, 2020

A Badge of Disgrace: The Fall of the Boy Scouts

It’s one of the saddest, most predictable “I-told-you-so” moments of our generation. The Boy Scouts, where future moon walkers and presidents learned the virtues and value of leadership, has finally collapsed. Turns out, the decade of compromise hasn’t been kind to the Scouts, who turned in their moral compass seven years ago to chase the approval of critics it could never win. Now, deep into the BSA’s self-imposed identity crisis, the group is filing for bankruptcy — an unhappy ending we all warned was coming. READ MORE

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Bringing Order to the Border

Monday, I led a group of California pastors to the San Diego border sector to see firsthand what’s actually happening on our southern border. It was an eye-opening experience for the pastors, as it was for me when I made my first trip to border last year. While there’s no denying that there was a crisis at the border last year when thousands tried to enter the U.S. illegal or gain asylum, the liberal and media’s narrative is a far cry from reality. READ MORE

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Pastors rank issues facing them today

A survey of American pastors finds that the cultural shift to a secular age is a major hindrance for those who are called to deliver the good news of the gospel. READ MORE

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Msg to SBC leader: ‘Gospel’ isn’t an adjective

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention dropped a strange term this week while attending a meeting with the denomination’s Executive Committee. READ MORE

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BARNA GROUP 

Barna Update: Five Trends Defining Americans’ Relationship to Churches

Churchgoing is a dynamic part of U.S. society. New research from Barna Group shows the ways in which Americans are maintaining—and renegotiating—their connections with the churches that they attend. The State of the Church 2020 study is a year-long examination of the spiritual and religious trends that define American life these days.

How many Christians are “church hopping?” What is the emotional climate of church services? Do people still embrace formal church membership programs? What is the public perception of the Church’s impact and relevance? New Barna data looks at these questions and more as we explore five trends that are essential in understanding the Church’s place in the U.S. READ MORE