Starting two years ago at the 18,000 member St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church in New  Orleans, a new Black Pentecostal movement is now spreading across the nation. Headed by the dynamic leadership of Bishop Paul S. Morton, the loosely aligned Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship now claims membership of over l,000 churches coast to coast. Each […]

Spiritual counselors are finding a following for their blend of  self-help and generic spirituality, much to the consternation of clergy and psychotherapists. Newsday (May 26) reports that an increasing number of people are paying high fees to “receive guidance from self-proclaimed spiritual advisers, medical intuitives or psychics. These unusual counselors say they are able to guide people […]

Christian television is in a state of upheaval with several broadcasters selling their network to secular companies and rethinking the nature of their ministries,  reports Charisma magazine (June). The Christian broadcasters presence on prime-time TV is decreasing because of a growing number of sellouts to secular networks. Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (renamed the Family Channel in 1990) […]

Recent events have brought up the specter of a major split in the United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. The talk of schism came to a head last month when a United Methodist Church court failed to discipline a Nebraska pastor, the Rev. Jimmy Creech, for performing a marriage ceremony […]

A “religious revival,”  as well as a new burst of religious freedom for Muslims, is growing in Iraq, according to the Washington Post (April 5). Under orders from Sadam Hussein, the long-time secular country has rescinded restrictions against Shiite Islam, the sect accounting for the majority of Muslims in the nation in order to build morale and discourage […]

Casual dress is becoming more common during religious services in congregations — both Christian and Jewish — though not without resistance, reports the Wall Street Journal (April 7). The practice of “dress-down Fridays” has changed the workplace and many people are asking “why can’t churches and synagogues follow suit on Saturdays and Sundays,” write Angelo Henderson and Robert […]

Books holding to a “can-do,” practical spirituality are replacing New Age spirituality for many readers, reports Publishers Weekly (April 13). Continued sales in spirituality and personal  growth books shows on all the charts. But by contrast to a few years ago when the more esoteric themes of reincarnation, crystal healing, and channeling were popular, what clearly attracts readers […]

A clear indication that the religiously-allied men’s movement is continuing its growth is found in the increasing sales of books on that general subject and the rapidly growing popularity of Christian retreats centering on rites of passage and initiation. Although the Promise Keepers was written off by much of the media as a dying revival movement […]

Even as the male-led Promise Keepers draw national attention with their rollercoaster financial operations, a significant number of church-related women’s groups are quietly attaining new strength. Groups such as Women of Faith, Aspiring Women, Renewing the Heart (of Focus on the Family) and Time Out are drawing women by the tens of thousands. Largely evangelical […]

Many Catholic and Protestant churches are adding prayer and chant practices from the ecumenical Taize community to draw in young people, according to the Wall Street Journal (April 3). The Taize services, imported from the ecumenical community in France, are loosely structured and take place in dark rooms illuminated by candles. “A small group usually […]