Growing up, Carrie Sheffield witnessed firsthand how religion can be used to justify evil. Her father, a Mormon cult leader, believed he was a prophet destined to become president, and, after being excommunicated from the LDS church, continuously moved his wife and eight children around the country to avoid both religious and state authorities.
![[Interview] Shifting paradigms: the Great Commission as a promise God will fulfill, not a task we need to achieve](/media/cache/thumbnail/0/03/359sp_320w_210h_1x_1y.jpg)
We can too easily embody cultural expectations, often reinforced by common sayings that are accepted as wisdom or truth but turn out to be unhelpful, and sometimes even destructive. We are wise to question whether our cultural 'truth' matches Jesus' truth.
Among many of us there is a quiet yet unsettling recognition that the ways we’ve tried to broker good in the world often feel hurried, fragmented, and unsatisfying. A we try to live at a machine pace, the Kingdom moves like seed in soil, quietly, organically, sometimes unseen for a season, yet full of divine potential. To be a true blessing and effective witness it requires wise charity.
Water is a true wonder we easily take for granted. It is so essential for life on planet Earth, and so rare in the known universe that it deserves the utmost respect from us all. The characteristics of water provide us with a great example of grace. As we contemplate the wonder of water, let us give praise for God's glorious grace.
Across Africa, millions of children are growing up in rapidly changing communities filled with tremendous opportunities and significant challenges. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to reach the next generation with the gospel.
The Church of Pakistan has announced its commitment to take action on climate change in line with the Lambeth Declaration, reiterating that the climate emergency was not just a physical crisis, but also a spiritual one.
Following the discovery of more than 400 victims buried in shallow graves in a remote forest in eastern Kenya, a cult leader has been charged with murder. Paul Mackenzie and 29 other defendants pled not guilty when they appeared in court in the coastal town of Malindi. Mackenzie is accused of torturing children, committing acts of terror, accusations that he denied.
Is the idea of “gentle parenting” compatible with biblical doctrines? That is the question at the heart of a debate between a Gospel Coalition author and Christian proponents of the increasingly popular parenting method, highlighting a growing conversation about discipline, love and theological interpretation in the realm of parenting.
On November 3, 2023, more than ten thousand people gathered for the event and heard Dr. Michael Youssef of Leading the Way ministries openly share the gospel. The meeting also included a simultaneous gathering of thousands of children.
![[Interview] “Harmony isn’t the absence of tension,” says global mission leader commenting on major trends today](/media/cache/thumbnail/0/03/307sp_240w_170h_1x_1y.jpg)
Relationships define reality for us. Everything is interrelated. The interconnectivity of all things, physical and spiritual, are held together by relationships. So much so, that I believe in and started to develop a relational hermeneutic of Scripture that can better help us understand the purposes of God in the world today.
Congregations within the United Methodist Church continue to leave the mainline Protestant denomination, even after an official disaffiliation process expired at the end of last year. From 2019 to 2023, the UMC Book of Discipline included a measure known as Paragraph 2553, which created a process for disaffiliating from the denomination due to its years-long debate over whether to bless same-sex unions and ordain noncelibate homosexuals.
Following attacks on clergy in Sudan’s South Kordofan state last month, another church leader in Heiban town was abducted last week, according to sources.
