This edition is sponsored by Zondervan Reflective
Today’s Briefing
A new report finds that only 3 percent of missionaries are serving among people who haven’t been reached with the gospel.
Christian leaders in the Middle East see signs of revival among converts from Islam and believers who risk persecution to share their faith.
CT shares dispatches from Incheon, South Korea, where thousands of evangelicals are gathering for the Lausanne Congress.
The story of the Exodus meets the mockumentary sitcom style of The Office in a new series from some of the team from The Chosen.
CT’s South Asia editor shares her testimony of turning away from her family’s polytheistic Sikh tradition to follow the “God of the Christians.”
Referring to a “Jezebel spirit” has become a lazy and misused shorthand to blame women.
Behind the Story
From news editor Daniel Silliman: If you’ve ever been in a large group that can’t decide where to go for dinner, you know one of the deep frustrations of democracy. Decision-making processes can be so shambolic that you start to call for a dictator: “Someone just decide.”
But if a deliberative body is run a little better than that and there’s some structure, plus some trust and patience, people can actually come together, work through a process, and make really complicated decisions. It’s kind of a miracle.
Reporting on the Global Methodist Church’s convening General Conference in Costa Rica this week, one of my favorite moments was watching a delegate withdraw a second, so that someone else could withdraw an amendment to an amendment, so that someone could withdraw another second, so that someone could withdraw the original amendment. More than 300 delegates from 33 different countries worked together. It was a feat of parliamentary procedure. A testament to goodwill and democracy.
And then the church passed a constitution. I’ve never been in a room where people passed a constitution before. The weight of it inspired a little awe.
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In Other News
- North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson said God was using him “like David” in a speech at a church days before CNN uncovered alleged comments he made on a porn site.
- More than 200 evangelical churches in Ukraine have been destroyed since the Russian military invasion.
- Christian Solidarity International reported that Islamic militants killed hundreds of civilians in Burkina Faso over two days, including 26 worshipers at a church service.
- The Assemblies of God’s Samoan fellowship in the US is growing quickly. As CT has previously reported, the Pentecostal denomination has been bucking recent trends and seeing continued growth.
Today in Christian History
September 26, 1460: Pope Pius II assembles European leaders, then delivers a three-hour sermon to inspire them to launch a new crusade against the Turks. The speech works, but then another speaker, Cardinal Bessarion, adds a three-hour sermon of his own. After six hours of preaching, the European princes lose all interest in the cause; they never mount the called-for crusade.
in case you missed it
I love the church, but I can’t say I always understand or even like it. And in my more than half a century inside it, I can’t remember a time…
Today, more than 40 percent of the world has not yet been evangelized. Yet about 97 percent of the current global total of 450,000 Christian missionaries are sent to people…
If you’re in the midst of launching a child into adulthood, preparing them to keep the faith as they grow up, you’ve probably already begun to train them in apologetics.…
Donald Trump’s manifold sins and acts of wickedness are so numerous that they are almost too tedious to repeat. He is a danger to democracy, a would-be fascist who has…
in the magazine
Our September/October issue explores themes in spiritual formation and uncovers what’s really discipling us. Bonnie Kristian argues that the biblical vision for the institutions that form us is renewal, not replacement—even when they fail us. Mike Cosper examines what fuels political fervor around Donald Trump and assesses the ways people have understood and misunderstood the movement. Harvest Prude reports on how partisan distrust has turned the electoral process into a minefield and how those on the frontlines—election officials and volunteers—are motivated by their faith as they work. Read about Christian renewal in intellectual spaces and the “yearners”—those who find themselves in the borderlands between faith and disbelief. And find out how God is moving among his kingdom in Europe, as well as what our advice columnists say about budget-conscious fellowship meals, a kid in Sunday school who hits, and a dating app dilemma.
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