by | Jul 24, 2024 | Uncategorized
The Book of Psalms reminds us that worship demands our unequivocal devotion and allegiance.
The Psalms capture the full range of human experience. Personal and collective, sorrowful and rejoicing, remembering God’s faithfulness and wondering what has become of it—the biblical book, prayed by generations of believers, invites us to enter God’s presence with piercing honesty.
For those of us weaned on the positivity of American evangelicalism, the psalms of lament can take us aback. The authenticity of their angst pushes the boundaries of what we have witnessed in corporate prayer. It calls us to reject toxic positivity and embrace godly grief. And while this wake-up call to embrace the psalms of lament is still badly needed, I suspect we need a similar reckoning when it comes to the psalms of praise.
The claim of the praise psalms is startlingly unique in its context and powerfully relevant in ours, especially in an election year that is charged with political energy. As candidates vie for our votes, Christians hotly debate which contender best reflects our values and which issues most deserve our attention. On top of this, as Jared Stacy noted in a recent article for CT, we are experiencing a rise in politically motivated violence.
While lament is surely appropriate in times like these, maybe the best thing we can do is engage in audacious praise!
I’ve often felt about the praise psalms the way a mom feels about getting a store-bought Mother’s Day card proclaiming in all caps that she is the “BEST MOM EVER.” We know the company has printed thousands of these cards—and I’m the only mom my children have ever had, so how would they know any better?
But when Israel exclaimed, “Praise the LORD!” they were making far more audacious claims than that of a generic …
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by | Jul 24, 2024 | Uncategorized
Meet Olympians who love God from around the world.
Many Olympics lovers learn that their favorite athletes love Jesus through social media posts or postgame interviews following their success on the field, court, or track or in the pool. But the overwhelming majority of Christians competing in the Games won’t end up on the podium.
For many, simply arriving at the Games will be a testament to overcoming injuries, mental health challenges, or grief due to the loss of loved ones. Below are the stories of Christian athletes from 13 sports and 20 nations, all eager to make their countries—and their Lord—proud.
With reporting by Annie Meldrum, Isabel Ong, Angela Lu Fulton, Franco Iacomini, Mariana Albuquerque, and Morgan Lee.
Badminton
Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Indonesia)
Known as badminton’s “Giant Killer” for defeating the sport’s greatest stars, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting took home the bronze medal for men’s badminton singles in Tokyo. This year, he’s headed back to the Olympics with fellow Indonesian and Christian badminton player Jonathan Christie.
Ginting was born in Cimahi in West Java and is of Karo ethnicity, a people group from North Sumatra where Christians make up 70 percent of the population. His father introduced him to badminton when he was five, and he started competing at age nine. Since then, he has medaled or won in numerous competitions.
On his Instagram account, Ginting isn’t shy about his faith. In a post from March, he noted finishing second to Christie at the All England Open, writing, “Thank you Jesus for your goodness. It was all beyond my expectation.” In response, Christie commented, “We made history together that we never …
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by | Jul 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
UPDATE: The chair of the board of trustees, Kevin Smith, has resigned.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) announced Monday evening that its president Brent Leatherwood suddenly lost his job—only to retract the statement the next morning.
The board of trustees stated on Tuesday that the decision had been made without an authorized meeting or vote and that Leatherwood “remains the President of the ERLC and has our support moving forward.”
The chair of the ERLC board of trustees, Kevin Smith, took responsibility for the unilateral move and has resigned.
In remarks to Baptist Press on Tuesday, Smith said he believed there was consensus to remove Leatherwood, and “in an effort to deal with it expeditiously, I acted in good faith but without a formal vote of the Executive Committee.”
“This was an error on my part, and I accept full responsibility,” he said.
The initial statement from the ERLC had given no reasoning for Leatherwood’s termination but came a day after he issued remarks applauding President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 race.
“I deeply appreciate everyone who has reached out, especially our trustees who were absolutely bewildered at what took place yesterday and jumped in to set the record straight,” Leatherwood wrote on X on Tuesday. “More to come.”
Leatherwood has been on staff with the ERLC—the public policy and advocacy arm for Southern Baptists—for the past seven years and has been president of the entity since 2021. Just a few hours before his termination was announced Monday evening, Leatherwood was still working and sharing ERLC resources on social media.
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by | Jul 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
In an absence of resources, leaders struggle to train pastors.
When Samuel Ndima was a student at a Bible college in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, he struggled to complete assignments in his theology courses. Though he grasped the material, he had to scramble when it came to anything requiring research.
Ndima’s seminary fees included only a few textbooks, but many papers required research from books, journals, and commentaries. Like most of his classmates, Ndima could barely pay tuition and had no money to buy additional books. The few copies of essential texts were perpetually checked out of the seminary’s small library, and online access required a credit card, which few students possessed. Ndima and his classmates were forced to share books, which often made it difficult to finish assignments on time.
Despite these obstacles, Ndima graduated in 2010 and now pastors a congregation of 200 people in Delft, in the Western Cape. But he remains frustrated that theological training on the entire continent of Africa is too often complicated by a lack of books.
“A lot of Africans want to study, but we can’t afford theological education, we lack knowledge of the Bible, and we need access to books,” said Ndima, who faced a similar situation at a seminary in Cape Town where he earned his honor’s degree in 2013. He would like to return to school to study for advanced degrees but worries about the continuing lack of resources in African seminaries.
With more than 700 million Christians, Africa is home to more believers than any other continent in the world. Yet up to 90 percent of African pastors are not formally trained, and the lack of theological books and resources is undercutting the efforts of seminaries, divinity schools, Bible colleges, and other preparatory …
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by | Jul 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
It’s not migrants. Christian shelters are seeing more single moms who can’t shoulder the cost of living.
It was 2:45 p.m., and people were lined up around the block in Tribeca, Manhattan, for the 3 p.m. intake at the emergency shelter of the Bowery Mission, a Christian nonprofit that has served New Yorkers since 1879.
“Am I on the list?” one woman called out to Lea Burrell, the Bowery manager. The woman had to get in a standby line. Just inside the doorway, a security guard, new to the job, started to cry when she saw the people lined up—she felt like she could have been in that line too.
Even though the shelter had a standby list, this was a light day. In January, the mission saw a 40 percent surge in people seeking shelter and food. Busloads of migrants were being dropped off on its doorsteps over the winter, and the organization had to pivot quickly.
It found a way to squeeze 16 more beds into its shelter, and now has a total of 148 beds for men and women. It has separate recovery programs and transitional housing. But staff have seen the migrant arrivals level off, while the heightened demand for shelter remains.
Other homeless ministries around the country said the same in interviews with CT: They are seeing big increases in those seeking shelter, but not from migrant arrivals.
“Nationally, what we’re seeing is that the highest area of homelessness is single moms and children,” said Tom De Vries, the CEO of Citygate Network, which represents more than 300 faith-based shelters across the country.
Asylum seekers are not as much of a factor in the increases, he added. He attributes the rise in single moms seeking shelter to inflation—and to a lack of thick community support a mom could lean on when she needs to work more or take care of her kids. He said more missions in the Citygate Network …
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