After months of deliberation, the board of the embattled International House of Prayer Kansas City has decided that their vaunted 24/7 Prayer Room will not be operated under the umbrella of any church following the shuttering of several arms of the ministry, including the Forerunner Church, in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal involving founder Mike Bickle. ... Read full Story
The former chairman of the board of trustees for the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has issued an apology for his attempt to remove Brent Leatherwood from the presidency. ... Read full Story
Pastor Steven Furtick’s multi-campus Elevation Church, headquartered in North Carolina, collected more than $108 million in tithes and offerings in 2023, as in-person church attendance soared to more than 17,000 worshipers weekly with three new campuses, according to the megachurch’s 2023 annual report. ... Read full Story
A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Colorado town from prohibiting a church from housing homeless individuals in RVs on their church property. ... Read full Story
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood is not resigning from his position, according to the Southern Baptist Convention body, contradicting an earlier announcement. ... Read full Story
Three days after his grandson allegedly murdered his wife and four children in their home on Thursday night, Allan Kendrick, lead pastor of Oasis of Praise Church in Bessemer, Alabama, revealed how his family had been struggling to get help with his mental illness from multiple government agencies, including with Medicaid, to pay for his care. ... Read full Story
First Baptist Dallas gathered in the Dallas Convention Center on Sunday to mourn the recent loss of their historic sanctuary, though several members expressed hope that God will use the tragedy for good. ... Read full Story
Pastor Robert Jeffress said former President Donald Trump sent him a note after he was informed that the historic sanctuary of First Baptist Dallas was engulfed in flames. ... Read full Story
Events that occurred this week in Christian history include Albert Schweitzer being licensed in theology, Dionysius becoming pope, and Word of Faith Fellowship being accused of labor exploitation. ... Read full Story
A four-alarm fire Friday evening caused significant damage and a roof collapse to the historic sanctuary of First Baptist Dallas in Texas, an influential Southern Baptist megachurch with connections to many prominent Christian leaders. ... Read full Story
Stephen LeBlanc, a former Gateway Church pastor in Texas who has known the church’s founder Robert Morris since the 1980s, says he was shocked to learn about recent allegations that Morris sexually abused Cindy Clemishire over multiple years in the 1980s beginning when she was 12. ... Read full Story
Former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt, who previously admitted to engaging in "kissing and some awkward fondling" with the wife of a younger minister who accused him of sexual assault while on a beach vacation with his family in Panama City, Florida, in 2010, says he was stalked and seduced by the woman. ... Read full Story
A Chicago church performed a wedding ceremony in which six Venezuelan and one Mexican couple sdecided to “do things right” and formalize their relationships in accordance with Scripture through marriage. ... Read full Story
The nondenominational Eternal Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, has fired longtime Pastor Donald Logan after it was revealed that he is a registered sex offender convicted of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl 27 years ago. ... Read full Story
The Village Church Denton, a former campus of Pastor Matt Chandler's The Village Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, reportedly hired Chandler's father, Steve Chandler, to work as the church's custodian and kept him on staff for five years after he confessed to child sexual abuse. ... Read full Story
The United Methodist Church’s first bishop to be in a same-sex marriage will be retiring in September, eight years after being elected in defiance of the denomination’s rules at the time. ... Read full Story
Conservative media personality Todd Starnes has come under fire from a number of pastors after he urged Christians to leave their church if their pastor didn't address the assassination attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump from their pulpits on Sunday. ... Read full Story
A United Methodist Church organization dedicated to providing financial support for the families of deceased pastors has dropped over 30 members from its program due to their leaving the denomination. ... Read full Story
Megachurch Pastor Jack Hibbs says the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life on Saturday is a warning shot from God urging him to “bow the knee” and truly get to know the Lord. ... Read full Story
At least 1,003 churches in North Carolina have pledged to participate in ServeNC, a statewide initiative calling on church members to complete service projects in their own communities. ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 26, 2024 is:
herald \HAIR-uld\ verb
Herald is a verb meaning "to give notice of"; it is synonymous with announce, publicize, and foreshadow. Herald may also mean "to greet especially with enthusiasm."
// The appearance of robins heralded the advent of spring.
// She is being heralded as the year's best new author.
"Trumpets herald the arrival of the players at the arena." — Simon Webster, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2023
Did you know?
While herald the verb is more common today, herald the noun is older. When the word was first welcomed into English in the early 14th century, it referred to an official at a tournament (one of those knightly sporting events the Middle Ages are famous for). The herald's duties included making announcements, hence the word's uses relating to announcements both literal and metaphorical. The word is ultimately Germanic in origin, though like so many words of 14th century vintage, it came to English by way of Anglo-French. The resemblance between herald and the name Harold is not coincidental: Harold is a modern form of Chariovalda, the name of a 1st century C.E. leader of the Batavi, a tribe who lived on the lower Rhine. The Germanic source of Chariovalda, haria-, is also the source of herald.