Marriage, parenting and the young church
RSS for Family
On a narrow street in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo District sits a glass-fronted building that looks like an ordinary café. A neon-lit staircase descends to a dim performance space where lyrics flash across a large screen as driving music fills the room. Young ministers and attendees mov
John Anderson, the Country Music Hall of Fame singer whose unmistakable voice brought audiences “Swingin’,” “Straight Tequila Night,” and “Seminole Wind,” died Oct. 21. He was 71. Anderson died peacefully in his sleep, according to his representatives at Absolute Publicity. The c
‘IF WE HATE, HATRED WILL DEVOUR US’ The leader of the Anglican Church of Australia has urged Australians to guard their hearts against hatred, as the country mourns an attack on Indi MP Helen Haines. Bishop Mark Short, Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, offered prayers
Last month I took my kids to visit a small family cemetery where my father and brother are buried. My 4-year-old, full of questions, had never seen a tombstone before. Her total ignorance reminded me that we live in a world where death exists mostly as an abstraction: We may ackn
Vos consistently makes the gospel clear in language kids can understand. All who teach children should emulate her boldness and clarity.
A Minnesota church community is grieving after a young pastor and his 3-year-old son were killed in a devastating interstate accident that left his pregnant wife seriously injured. Stephen Clayton, 31, a pastor at Becker Evangelical Free Church, and his son, David, died Oct. 12 w
Elementary school students returning from Bible instruction were told to keep their Bibles and worksheets inside sealed envelopes. Now, their Washington school district has agreed to publicly apologize, provide religious liberty training and pay $275,000 in attorney’s fees, accor
Two teenagers are mourning both parents after gunmen killed a Calvary Chapel pastor and his wife outside their home in Irapuato, Mexico, shortly after he officiated a funeral. Ángel González, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Irapuato in Guanajuato state, and his wife, Irán Montes,
Pastor Benjamin Graham, the great-nephew of Rev. Billy Graham, passed away on Wednesday after a battle with cancer. Pastor Roy Fields announced the death of Graham, 47, on Facebook. “Ben was led by the Holy Spirit. He loved Jesus, loved his family, and loved people,” Fields wrote
Jesus’s heavenly dominion is the best news for my parenting, and for my children too.
Just before dawn every school day, Demitilla Namagembe, 14, gathers her notebooks, pens, and pencils in her backpack as she prepares to leave her home in Kakamega, in western Kenya. She treks for 3.5 miles along the dusty streets until she arrives at Makunga Secondary School. Dem
A Christian teacher from the United Kingdom says she lost her job for doing something that should hardly be controversial: answering a student’s question about her beliefs. Now, her dismissal is igniting a legal battle over religious freedom and raising a troubling question about
NBC “Today” host Craig Melvin took three passes at getting Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy to recant the company’s past support for traditional marriage, but the business leader didn’t take the bait. Melvin first observed in an interview with Cathy, which aired on Wednesday, that Ch
Tessa Bulzan, a Marine veteran, left her six-figure job to homeschool two of her five children. In doing so, she chose Christian-based curriculum from Abeka and Classical Conversations. “Number one reason is it aligned with my faith, and the number two is the academic rigor for b
In the three years since my biography of Elisabeth Elliot was published, I’ve gradually tidied away my notes and research materials. I finished the last such task early this year: cleaning up my typed copies of Elliot’s family letters so the Wheaton Archives can make them accessi
A heartbreaking double cancer battle is unfolding within the family of Pope Leo XIV, as the pontiff recovers from lung cancer surgery. At the same time, his older brother fights a recurrence of a different form of the disease. According to Reuters, Pope Leo, 71, underwent surgery
(RNS) — Michel Abs of the Middle East Council of Churches discusses his organization’s emergency response in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.
Ruth LePage, director of refugee services at Arrive Ministries, a refugee resettlement agency in Minnesota, said she misses late-night airport welcomes. In refugee family reunification cases, the normally quiet arrivals hall is filled with family members dressed as if they’re goi
When Victor Wanjala lost his job in 2010, he lost everything, including his marriage and savings. The father of eight from Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya, worked nearly four decades as a customs officer. His job enabled him to pay for his children’s education, support relatives financ
Sunday school was nearly empty. Our teachers prepared lessons every week and announced them in the church newsletter. Yet three years after the pandemic, adult attendance averaged about 15 in a church with over 300 members. And sometimes, there were no children. “Zero kids?” I as
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV urged bishops to accompany struggling families, acknowledging 'a growing distance' between how sex and intimacy are lived and the Christian vision of marriage.
A Washington state Foursquare pastor who helped launch a youth camp with his wife and recently began mentoring young leaders nationwide died Sunday after collapsing during the Portland Marathon, days before his 25th birthday. Treyton “Trey” Lara, 24, collapsed near mile 20 after
(RNS) — One of the most prominent centers of theological education in the country, Vanderbilt Divinity School has been known for its social justice advocacy. Now students, faculty and alumni wonder what the future holds.
Every time I return to Kenya, it feels a bit like coming home. Which is weird—I’m an American who lives in Burundi. But my family lived in Kenya years ago, and we still visit frequently. We walk out of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, and I remember my fender bende
President Donald Trump urged supporters to help secure America’s future at a Mobile, Alabama, rally where Pastor Travis Johnson honored Jesus Christ and prayed for the church to wake up. Trump pressed voters to support Republican candidates and pledged lasting action on issues in
For several years, I taught an undergraduate course on spiritual formation. Part of the class included readings from the desert fathers and mothers, who, following the example of Jesus (Luke 5:16), withdrew from society and went into the wilderness, embracing a life of self-denia
Reading is dead, and screens are the culprit. That’s one side of James Marriott’s thesis in The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society. It’s a claim you’ve heard before, and you probably half agree. You’ve seen the teens with slack faces wat
“Why aren’t you Catholic?” my friend from divinity school asks. It’s a valid question. As a kid, I had my feet planted on both sides of the Tiber. I’d go to Mass with my dad on Saturdays and attend a Baptist church with my whole family on Sundays. Eventually, I settled into Prote
(RNS) — 'I don't want my children absorbing a watered-down cultural Christianity message. In many ways, the actions of our Texas politicians feel like an infringement on my religious liberty.'
When A. Raju died July 17 in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a three-day standoff over his rights as a Dalit held up his burial. As the family of the 89-year-old Catholic grieved, higher-caste Christian groups objected to having him laid to rest in their village’s common
ALEXANDRIA, La. (RNS and Verite News) — Part of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations, the facility — which will hold unaccompanied minors and families — is situated beside an airport that has become known as the country’s busiest hub for deportation flights.
Two Christian student ministries are suing Virginia State University, alleging the public university stripped them of their independence, placed them under the authority of a university-appointed minister and exempted a Muslim organization from the same restrictions. Alliance Def
Lilly Endowment Inc.
Christianity Today has been part of David Gieser’s life since its very beginning. His family knew Billy Graham before Graham ever conceived of the magazine—and that connection gave David a front-row seat to the ministry and vision that would become Christianity Today. David’s par
(RNS) — While the youth greeted the pope like a rockstar, European representatives welcomed him as a respected leader who supports multilateralism, reconciliation, justice and peace.
More than 150 Virginia pastors are taking biblical truth beyond the walls of their churches and into the public square, urging voters to reject two proposed constitutional amendments involving abortion and same-sex marriage. The pastors signed an open letter opposing Question 1 a
The Syllabus is a column that features student opinions on timely national and international topics. We aim to highlight how evangelical students in the US are thinking about important issues and how the Christian faith informs their worldview. Students should use this link to su
For decades, on campuses across the country, the math wars have been raging with a knockdown, drag-out brutality perhaps only rivaled by national politics. Public shouting matches, lawsuits, and character assassinations have surrounded a debate about how to teach students algebra
North Korean defector Yeonmi Park is firing back after American students told the survivor of communism and human trafficking that she does not “understand oppression.” “They have no idea that I was, at 13 years old, being sold as a sex slave in China for two years of my life,” P
NAIROBI (RNS) — More than 2,000 former LRA captives and returnees gathered in northern Uganda for prayer and reconciliation, confronting a painful question: How do communities receive people who are both victims and victimizers?
I live in a safe neighborhood. It’s a new-build community filled with young families, and my kids ride their bikes up and down all the streets. As long as they’ve got their helmets on, I’m not concerned for their safety here. Yet as they ride their bikes—or as our family walks to
PARIS, France (RNS) — As France sees a surge in adult and youth baptisms, Pope Leo XIV urged the church to welcome new Catholics into parish life and called for reverence in worship without letting liturgical preferences divide the faithful.
Right Reverend Dr Moses Tay Leng Kong, the seventh Bishop of Singapore and the first Archbishop of the Province of Anglican Church in South East Asia, was called home to the Lord on the night of September 24. He was 88. He is survived by his wife of four decades, Cynthia, two chi
A University of Missouri student openly endorsed killing people for exercising their freedom of speech during a confrontation at a Turning Point USA table Wednesday. Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” stripped the disturbing encounter down to its spirit
A criminal investigation is underway in Canada after a controversial case of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in which the family of an 83-year-old Christian grandmother is questioning the ethics and legality of her death. The woman was euthanized even though she opposed euthan
At 18 months old, Arthur Bailly was too young to understand why his family’s small 10th-floor apartment in the north central French city of Orléans baked in late June. During France’s hottest summer on record, the building’s cement construction absorbed accumulating heat. The lac
This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here. Last week, I taught a university class on respect for the conscience. One smart young student talked to me afterward and said she sometimes had difficulty telling the difference between her conscience and the
Earlier this summer, Nehad Hasan decided to travel from his home in Lebanon to Syria for a family vacation. He wanted his children to meet extended family and to see their ancestral homeland of Afrin, a Kurdish-majority region in northwest Syria. As the pastor of a Kurdish church
Dear GSFA Family and Friends, Faithful witness to Jesus Christ always requires courage, especially when God calls us to do new things. This exhortation at the end of Psalm 31 recalls the word of the Lord to Joshua as the Israelites prepared to enter the Promised Land and David’s
Michael Keller joins Collin Hansen to discuss cultural narratives and how parents can pursue integrity and honesty with their children.
