NASHVILLE, Tenn.—After enduring difficult economic seasons recently, churches are better prepared for financial rainy days than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Lifeway Research study on the financial health of U.S. Protestants found fewer congregations have less than two months of cash reserves compared to a previous study in 2016.

Additionally, most churches have undergone a financial audit in the past two years, and fewer than 1 in 10 have had someone embezzle funds from the congregation.

“When hardships impact an organization, financial leaders carefully watch how much cash is on hand and how quickly they are spending it,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.

“Very rarely does cash stop coming in completely, though some churches experienced that for a few weeks in 2020. But hardships such as a financial recession can impact church receipts and force the use of cash reserves to get by. While improved, there are still too many churches with too little money in the bank given the uncertainties of 2023.”

Prior to 2022, 2016 was the last year a majority of pastors said the economy was having a negative impact on their congregation, according to an annual Lifeway Research study. This time, however, churches seem more equipped to handle the storm.

Around 3 in 10 U.S. Protestant pastors (31 percent) are not sure how many weeks of cash reserves their church has. Among those who know, the percentage of churches with less than 16 weeks of reserves has fallen from 50 percent in 2016 to 44 percent.

Specifically, 20 percent of pastors say their cash reserves are seven weeks or less, down from 26 percent in 2016.

Slightly more churches today have reserves ranging from 16 to 51 weeks. In 2016, 27 percent said that was the case. Today, 32 percent have that amount on hand.

The percentage of pastors today who say their congregation has more than a year’s worth is similar to 2016 (23 percent in 2016, compared to 24 percent in 2022).

Some churches are more likely to have less in the bank than others. African American (52 percent) and Hispanic pastors (35 percent) are more likely than white pastors (17 percent) to say they have less than eight weeks of cash reserves.

Pastors at small and normative sized congregations are also among the most likely to have little to no reserves. Those at churches with worship service attendance of fewer than 50 (24 percent) and between 50 and 99 (21 percent) say they have seven weeks or less in reserves.

Additionally, 1 in 5 pastors at the largest churches, those with 250 or more in attendance, say they have less than two months of cash reserves.

Most pastors (58 percent) say they have had a complete audit of their church’s finances within the past two years, including 47 percent who say the audit occurred within the past year.

Fewer say the audit took place three to four years ago (7 percent) or five or more years ago (12 percent). One in 10 pastors say their church has never undergone a financial audit, while 12 percent are not sure. These are similar to the percentages in 2016.

“Some state laws require that nonprofit organizations of a certain size file audited financial statements, but most churches have an option,” McConnell said. “Many congregations prefer to have this review to ensure that financial processes are being followed and that trust is maintained.”

Pastors 65 and older (54 percent) are more likely than their youngest counterparts, pastors 18 to 44, (42 percent) to say their church had an audit within the last year. Additionally, those younger pastors are also the most likely to say they are not sure the last time their church underwent a complete financial audit (16 percent).

Mainline pastors are more likely than evangelical ones to say their church conducted an audit within the past year (55 percent, compared to 45 percent). Methodists (75 percent) are the most likely to say their last audit was that recent.

Relatively few pastors say their congregations have had someone embezzle money from them, but still around 1 in 13 churches (8 percent) have experienced this. More than 9 in 10 pastors (92 percent) say they are not aware of any past instances.

The rate is statistically unchanged from 2016 when 9 percent reported previous embezzlement and 91 percent were unaware of any.

“The misappropriation of funds is more likely when an organization lacks necessary processes so that multiple people are aware of every expenditure before it is made,” McConnell said. “Skipping some of those safeguards and streamlining financial accountability for the sake of ministry may sound easy to justify, but it can be a costly choice for a church.”

Restorationist movement pastors (16 percent) and those at Presbyterian/Reformed churches (14 percent) are among the most likely to know of an instance of someone embezzling funds from their church. Baptists (7 percent) and Pentecostals (4 percent) are among the least likely.

The phone survey of Protestant pastors was conducted Sept. 6-30, 2022. Researchers weighted responses by region and church size to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.2 percent. Margins of error are higher in subgroups.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A year after ousting its founders, the Preemptive Love Coalition announced March 16 that it has merged with the international peace-building nonprofit Search for Common Ground.

Search for Common Ground CEO Shamil Idriss called the merger a “strategic leap forward” that allows the work of Preemptive Love to continue while expanding the broader goals of the joint organizations.

“Preemptive Love’s rapid response capabilities and community development experience, paired with the established history and experience of Search, will greatly expand the ability of both organizations to serve the communities with whom we work,” he said.

Year of turmoil at Preemptive Love

The merger brings an end to a year of uncertainty for Preemptive Love.

Founded in 2007 by a pair of ex-missionaries living in Iraq, the group grew rapidly by rallying young supporters to provide funding, first for heart surgeries and then expanding to broader relief work in the Middle East and beyond.

Founders Jeremy and Jessica Courtney had a knack for convincing supporters they could play an active role in responding on the ground and were especially gifted at video storytelling and the use of social media.

Jeremy Courtney grew up in Leander as the grandson of a Baptist minister. He attended Howard Payne University and earned his Master of Divinity degree from Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.

Even though Preemptive Love is a secular organization, its work proved particularly attractive to Christian influencers and young Christians who were disillusioned with politicized religion and wanted to change the world. The founders saw delivering aid as a form of making peace, inspired by the teachings of Jesus.

In 2021, the founders were placed on leave due to concerns about an unhealthy, abusive culture at the organization and allegations they had misled donors. The board cut ties with the Courtneys in early 2022.

Need for organizational changes

Their departure led to a year of self-evaluation and the realization Preemptive Love needed to make significant organizational changes in order to survive. That led its leaders to seek a merger with a more established organization, according to Jen Meyerson, the chief program officer for Preemptive Love.

“We are a peacemaking organization, but we are so young,” said Meyerson. “To be able to partner with an organization that has more than 40 years of experience in this space brings a real sense of excitement and anticipation.”

Founded in 1982, Search for Common Ground works on defusing conflict and peacemaking in 31 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

The newly merged organization will have a combined budget of $76.5 million and about 800 staff.

Not all the staff of Preemptive Love will join the new organization, Meyerson said. Preemptive Love is working on transition plans for anyone let go due to the merger. The current board of Preemptive Love has dissolved, though at least one former Preemptive Love board member will join the Search for Common Ground board.

For now, Preemptive Love will still operate under its original name and most of its programs will remain intact, even though the two groups are now legally merged.

Importance of trust

Idriss said it will take time to communicate the changes in the organization to donors and the communities that Search for Common Ground serves.

“Trust is going to be No. 1 for us on all fronts,” he said. “Trust with the PLC staff who are coming over as well as those who will be transitioning. Trust with the donor base. Trust with the communities we work with on the ground.”

Idriss said that Search for Common Ground has been involved in direct aid in the past, though mostly working with partners. Adding the Preemptive Love staff will give the group added expertise.

He also hopes Search for Common Ground will benefit from Preemptive Love’s ability to engage with donors. Most of Search’s past funding has come from larger donors, such as governments, rather than individuals.

“On average, Search for Common Ground leverages every dollar we get from individuals to about $20 of funding from larger institutions,” he said. “But to be frank with you, it is a lot harder for us to raise that single dollar than it is to raise the institutional funding.

“For the PLC community of supporters, I think it’d be really exciting for them to know that not only is their contribution, financial and otherwise, going to go toward building peace, but we actually have a system for leveraging that into much more significant support.”

He said the two groups also have programs that complement each other. Preemptive Love has the ability to respond quickly in a crisis. Search for Common Ground has a long-term plan for community impact.

“PLC has this brilliant and motivating and inspiring way of coming in at the front end. And we have a very well-established way of continuing that sustained change across entire societies,” he said. “I don’t know any organization that brings both these things together right now in the peace-building sector.”

AMARILLO, Texas (BP)—Pro-life advocates and others are awaiting a Texas judge’s ruling on whether an abortion pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000 should be prescribed to women.

Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Christian and pro-life medical professionals and advocates urging a federal district judge to issue an injunction suspending or revoking Mifepristone while a court challenge to the pill’s safety proceeds.

In the unprecedented challenge to the FDA approval process, the groups contend the FDA illegally approved Mifepristone in 2000 and charge the drug is not safe for use.

The awaited ruling could impact the long-held FDA approval process used in vetting all drugs prescribed in the United States, according to legal experts. It also could halt the method used for 53 percent of all abortions in U.S. facilities in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

ERLC supports challenge

Southern Baptist ethicists support the court challenge that could suspend the use of the abortion pill nationwide, including those where abortion is still legal post-Roe v. Wade.

“The FDA has failed to protect the health, safety and welfare of women by wrongfully approving these harmful chemical abortion drugs and stripping away any safeguards for their use,” said Hannah Daniel, manager of public policy for the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

“The abortion pill not only ends the life of a precious, preborn child, but it poses serious health risks for women, who often take the drugs far away from available medical care.

“We urge the court to rule quickly to stop the widespread use of these harmful drugs for elective abortions to protect both women and their children.”

ADF Senior Counsel Erik Baptist argued against the drug in the Northern District Court of Texas on March 15 before Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed to the court in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump.

“Today, we asked the court to put the health and wellbeing of women and girls first by undoing the harms that FDA has caused by illegally approving dangerous chemical abortion drugs and removing necessary protections,” Baptist said in a press statement.

“The FDA’s approval of chemical abortion drugs over 20 years ago has always stood on shaky legal and moral ground, and after years of evading responsibility, it’s time for the government to do what it’s legally required to do: protect the health and safety of vulnerable women and girls.”

The FDA lifted certain longstanding restrictions in 2021 on the use of the drug combination for allowing telehealth prescriptions and mail delivery, restrictions that were lifted temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we stated in court, the FDA never had the authority to approve these drugs and remove important safeguards, despite the substantial evidence of the harms women and girls who undergo this dangerous drug regimen could suffer.”

FDA approval process

Kacsmaryk has said he will issue the ruling “as soon as possible.” But the immediate result of any ruling he issues in the case is not apparent, the Associated Press reported. FDA drugs generally are revoked through a process including public hearings and scientific deliberations that can extend for years.

Given under the brand name Mifeprex as the first dose in a two-drug combination to induce abortion, Mifepristone is also used for other purposes including treatment after miscarriage and, in another form called Korlym, to treat high blood sugar in people with a certain type of Cushing’s syndrome and type 2 diabetes, according to Medlineplus.com.

The abortion pill combination is available in 60 other countries, CNN reported.

In defending its approval of the drug, the FDA said the approval followed four years of deliberation and included extra safety restrictions, the Associated Press reported.

The FDA encourages women to seek medical care in the case of prolonged heavy bleeding and other complications.

“Although cramping and bleeding are an expected part of a pregnancy, rarely, serious and potentially life-threatening bleeding, infections, or other problems can occur following a miscarriage, surgical abortion, medical abortion or childbirth,” according to the FDA’s medication guide for the drug.

“Seeking medical attention as soon as possible is needed in these circumstances. Serious infection has resulted in death in a very small number of cases. There is no information that the use of Mifeprex and misoprostol caused these deaths. If you have any questions, concerns, or problems, or if you are worried about any side effects or symptoms, you should contact your healthcare provider,” the FDA guide says.

Challenging the abortion pill are the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and doctors Shaun Jester, Regina Frost-Clark, Tyler Johnson and George Delgado. They filed suit in November 2022.

Scott Lassman, an attorney in Washington, D.C., who specialized in FDA regulatory issues, told the Washington Post, “The FDA is virtually never reversed by a court on scientific decisions because courts invariably recognize that they don’t have the expertise to make scientific decisions.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—The rising popularity of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT is causing Christians to examine questions beyond the ethical nature of the technology, such as what it fundamentally means to be human.

ChatGPT, launched in November 2022 by the Artificial Intelligence company OpenAI, is a technology designed to provide information to users in a conversational manner.

Users give the technology a prompt or question, and ChatGPT will scan the internet to provide a dialogue-based response to the specific inquiry.

The realistic nature of the dialogue the technology produces is causing concern and caution among some Christians, but experts say ChatGPT is merely another advancement in already existing AI and not something to be feared in itself.

‘Like a very sophisticated parrot’

“It (ChatGPT) is an incremental step in a long line of artificial intelligence. Now everyone gets to play with it and see what it can do and what it can’t do,” said Ken Arnold, assistant professor of computer science at Calvin University.

Arnold, who holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard, said the technology works like an equation, where an input is entered into the system and an output is created via available online information.

 “The things behind ChatGPT are not human,” Arnold said. “The responses are not based on its own experience or emotion. Its behavior is not manually programmed. The systems don’t work on the basis of logic. They are a lot like a very sophisticated parrot.”

Arnold acknowledges there are serious questions and concerns about ChatGPT such as: potential biases or stereotypes it might propagate; the individualistic nature of the technology; what things it may be devaluing; and what type of world is to be envisioned in which ChatGPT is useful.

“It is an equation, and it is very difficult to understand how it is making the computation that it is making. There is a lot of complexity hidden in there. What is going to come out of it is something that is a reflection of information that it has gathered on the internet.”

Yet, he said some of the potential positive uses of ChatGPT include helping people communicate more clearly through writing and organizing large sums of information like emails and lists.

Some Christians have even theorized how this technology could be used positively for gospel influence, such as use in biblical translation.

Human element essential for gospel witness

Although many of these theories remain untested, ethicist Jason Thacker said the human element always will be necessary in effective gospel witness.

“Churches need to keep in mind gospel transformation is not about information transfer,” Thacker said.

Thacker is the chair of research in technology ethics and director of the research institute at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Technology constantly is advancing rapidly and can be very useful for things like education, he said. But artificial intelligence always will fall short, because it is a created thing, without the unique spiritual capabilities a human believer possesses.

“The gospel is not a mere transaction. It (ChatGPT) may be presenting the gospel, but it is not preaching the gospel,” Thacker said.

Arnold said he talks with computer science students about deeper questions like how to refine the definition of what it means to be human.

He theorizes there will be a day when technology will be able to perform any measurable task as good or even better than a human being can.

Whether it is collecting information, making a basketball shot or winning a race, there will be no measurable outcome technology could not complete as well as a human.

Still, he believes artificial intelligence will never be human, because it is not made in the image of God.

“We must not view humanity as a set of skills,” Arnold said. “Christians have a deep and rich sense of what it means to be human. We are created in God’s image, meaning we can love, feel and serve each other. We can do things that are good or sinful.”

He believes, for instance, people were created to care for others, not just offer an appearance of caring.

“We have reduced ourselves with an over-cognitive view of what it means to be human,” he said, “We must focus on the practice of what it means to be a believer. Doctrine is meant to be teaching in practice.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—As churches continue ministry in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many find it increasingly difficult to grow their small groups.

According to a Lifeway Research study on church health, the authority of Scripture is foundational to churches’ groups and discipleship strategies.

More than 9 in 10 (97 percent) U.S. Protestant pastors say Scripture is the authority for their church and their lives, with 89 percent strongly agreeing. Protestant pastors consistently have considered Scripture to be the authority for their church and their lives since Lifeway Research began asking this question in 2008.

Even as pastors hold to the authority of Scripture, it has become increasingly difficult for pastors to move worship attendees into small groups where they’ll study Scripture.

On average, Protestant churches say 44 percent of their current weekend worship attendees are involved in a small group, Sunday School or similar group, indicating a decline in average small group attendance since 2010 (49 percent).

Fewer than 1 in 5 (19 percent) say 75 percent or more of their worship attendees are involved in small groups.

About 1 in 3 (30 percent) say 50 percent to 74 percent of worship attendees are involved in small groups. A little more than one-fourth (27 percent) say 25 percent to 49 percent of attendees are in a small group.

About one-fourth (24 percent) say less than 25 percent are involved in a group. In comparison, 17 percent of pastors in 2008 reported less than one-fourth of worship attendees were involved in a small group.

“Small groups and Sunday School classes provide the relational glue that allows a local congregation to be a place where people love one another,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.

“Groups and relationships that are centered on the Word of God unify a congregation and motivate people to work together on the mission of the church. Churches with few people participating in groups are not in a healthy position to be making more disciples.”

Small churches in particular face significant challenges when it comes to integrating worship attendees into small groups.

Pastors at the smallest churches, those with fewer than 50 attendees, are the most likely to say less than 25 percent of their attendees are involved in a small group (39 percent). More churches land in the 50 percent to 74 percent small group participation window than any other window.

But the smallest churches are least likely to be in this category (21 percent), and the largest churches (attendance over 250) are the most likely (52 percent).

Mainline churches are more likely to struggle with small group participation than evangelical churches. Pastors of mainline churches (28 percent) are more likely than evangelical pastors (21 percent) to report less than 25 percent of attendees involved in groups.

Fewer reporting commitments to Christ

As churches have struggled to develop small group attendees, large numbers of new commitments to Christ are becoming less common. In the past 12 months, Protestant churches have seen an average of 15 new commitments to Christ.

Churches are most likely to say they’ve seen one to four new commitments in the past year (29 percent). Around 1 in 5 say they have seen five to nine (21 percent) or 10 to 19 (20 percent) new commitments. Fewer are on the extremes of having no new commitments (17 percent) or 20 or more (13 percent). Compared to 2010, fewer churches today are seeing at least 20 new commitments in a year (20 percent v. 13 percent).

“Previous research has shown people who regularly attend groups share with others how to become a Christian and invite people to church more often,” McConnell said. “As we see less participation in groups, it is not surprising that churches see fewer people coming to Christ.”

On average, 79 percent of new commitments to Christ become active in the life of the church. More than half of Protestant churches (56 percent) retained all new commitments.

This indicates a slight improvement since 2008 when 51 percent of churches retained all new commitments.

Once again, mainline churches are more likely than evangelical churches to struggle to gain new commitments. Mainline pastors are more likely than evangelicals to report no new commitments (23 percent v. 15 percent).

Church size is a significant factor for new commitments and retaining those commitments in the church. Pastors at churches with attendance of fewer than 50 are most likely to report no new commitments (32 percent). And pastors at churches with attendance of 250 or more are most likely to report at least 20 new commitments (57 percent).

However, pastors of the largest churches (attendance of 250 or greater) are the least likely to have retained all new commitments (35 percent).

As pastors continue to report new commitments to Christ, 9 in 10 Protestant pastors say they consistently hear reports of changed lives in their church (90 percent), with 36 percent strongly agreeing. Around 1 in 10 disagree (10 percent). Another 1 percent are not sure.

When considering reports of changed lives, church size continues to be one of the primary factors. Pastors at churches with attendance of 100 to 249 (96 percent) and 250 or more (99 percent) are more likely than those with attendance of 50 to 99 (90 percent) or fewer than 50 (82 percent) to say they consistently hear reports of changed lives at their church. Pastors at churches with fewer than 50 attendees are the most likely to disagree (17 percent).

How many volunteer?

The percentage of adults who attend church at least monthly and have regular responsibilities at the church varies greatly. On average, 42 percent of adults in Protestant churches volunteer regularly.

Most churches say at least 20 percent of adults in their congregations serve regularly in the church. Around 1 in 4 pastors say 20 to 39 percent (28 percent), 40 to 59 percent (25 percent) or 60 percent or more (28 percent) of the adults in their churches volunteer regularly in the church.

But 18 percent of pastors say less than 20 percent of adults in their churches regularly volunteer. That’s a substantial increase from the 13 percent of pastors who said the same in 2008.

Small churches have an interesting relationship with volunteers. Pastors at churches with attendance fewer than 50 are simultaneously the most likely to say less than 20 percent of their adults volunteer in the church (24 percent) and among the most likely to say at least 60 percent of adults in their church volunteer regularly (35 percent).

“Some of the smallest churches are hanging on, often for many years, in an unhealthy position of letting a few people serve. In contrast, other churches have an all-hands-on-deck culture,” McConnell said. “The entire tone of a small church can swing quickly if just a handful more people volunteer.”

Compared to the number of volunteers in the church, fewer monthly Protestant church attendees are involved in ministries or projects outside of the church that serve people in their communities.

On average, 27 percent of adults in the church are serving in their communities. Still, this is an increase from 2010 when 22 percent said the same.

More than 2 in 5 (42 percent) pastors say less than 20 percent of the adults in their church are serving in the community. Fewer than 1 in 3 (31 percent) say 20 percent to 39 percent of adults serve in the community. And even fewer say 40 percent to 59 percent (16 percent) or 60 percent or more (12 percent).

But today, more churches have at least 40 percent of their congregation serving in their community than in 2008 (28 percent v. 21 percent).

When it comes to serving in the community, evangelical pastors are less likely than mainline pastors to report a large percentage of participation. While 15 percent of mainline pastors say at least 60 percent of adults in their church engage in community service, 9 percent of evangelical pastors can say the same.

Lifeway Research conducted a phone survey of Protestant pastors Sept. 6-30, 2022. Analysts weighted responses by region and church size to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.2 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Debido a que muchas iglesias estadounidenses se esmeran por alcanzar a niños y a estudiantes o a poder retener a los jóvenes adultos en la iglesia, un tercio (35%) de la iglesia protestante hispana de los Estados Unidos tiene menos de 30 años, incluyendo al 18% que tiene menos de 18 años.

Los pastores de esas congregaciones acreditan la oración, las prioridades y los programas de la iglesia por su capacidad de poder alcanzar y mantener en la iglesia a la próxima generación.

“Las iglesias hispanas en los Estados Unidos tienden a estar compuestas de miembros de diferentes nacionalidades y culturas”, dijo Giancarlo Montemayor, vicepresidente de publicaciones globales de Lifeway.

“A pesar de compartir un idioma común, dichas nacionalidades y culturas tienen desafíos y necesidades únicas y singulares. Si agregamos a la ecuación que los hijos de los miembros de la iglesia probablemente prefieren el inglés como su idioma principal, tenemos como resultado un ministerio complejo y a la vez muy hermoso”.

Cuando se les pidió específicamente que eligieran las cinco razones más importantes por la cual su iglesia ha podido alcanzar a los jóvenes y a los jóvenes adultos, la mayoría de los pastores dijeron que su congregación oró específicamente por ellos (57%) y comunicó la importancia de poder alcanzarlos (56%). Casi la mitad de ellos (46%) dicen que incluyen eventos especiales en el calendario de la iglesia.

Alrededor de dos de cada cinco pastores dijeron que tomaron el tiempo necesario para poder reunirse personalmente uno a uno con las personas (41%), alistaron y reclutaron a alguien que hablara inglés lo suficientemente bien para poder enseñar a esas edades (39%), y los miembros más adultos demostraron que los miembros más jóvenes son una prioridad (38%).

Alrededor de uno de cada tres pastores preparó sermones específicamente con ellos en mente (34%) y apartó un presupuesto y recursos necesarios para poder alcanzarlos (33%). Solo uno de cada cinco pastores dijo que ellos intencionalmente le dieron prioridad a alcanzar a los jóvenes y a los jóvenes adultos por encima de las otras edades.

“Las iglesias hispanas son proactivas en alcanzar a los adultos en su propio idioma y expresiones culturales, pero también tienen actividades que ofrecen en inglés para alcanzar a la segunda y a la tercera generación”, dijo Montemayor. “Esta es una de las razones por la cual las iglesias hispanas han tenido éxito y han sido intencionales en alcanzar a las siguientes generaciones”.

Una vez que un joven se ha conectado con la iglesia, los pastores dicen que relacionarse e involucrarse con ellos son las claves para mantenerlos en la iglesia.

Los factores que más de 9 de cada 10 pastores de iglesias protestantes hispanas de los Estados Unidos dicen que son extremadamente o muy importantes para ayudar a los jóvenes, y jóvenes adultos a mantenerse involucrados en la iglesia y crecer espiritualmente son que los miembros de la próxima generación asistan a los servicios de adoración regularmente (94%), ser recibido con aceptación y no con juicio (93%), y poder desarrollar amistades con compañeros cristianos en la iglesia (92%).

Más de cuatro de cada cinco pastores señalan la importancia de que ese grupo de edad tenga padres que aman al Señor (89%), que participen regularmente en compañerismos (89%), que se unan a un grupo pequeño de estudios bíblicos o a una clase de la Escuela Dominical (83%), que desarrollen amistades con los adultos en la iglesia que se preocupan por ellos (81%), y que reciban ayuda tangible de los miembros de la iglesia durante una crisis personal (81%).

Dos de cada tres pastores (65%) dicen que pasar tiempo individual uno a uno con el pastor para responder preguntas es importante, mientras que alrededor de la mitad (49%) cree que es importante realizar las actividades en inglés.

La mayoría de los pastores de las iglesias protestantes hispanas dicen que involucran a la próxima generación en el ministerio de su iglesia y son estratégicos en cómo alcanzar a esa generación.

Nueve de cada diez pastores (90%) involucran a los jóvenes adultos en la enseñanza, el servicio y en las áreas de liderazgo del ministerio. Un porcentaje similar (88%) hace lo mismo con los jóvenes.

Tres de cada cuatro pastores (77%) intencionalmente llevan a cabo programas para alcanzar a los jóvenes y a los jóvenes adultos, mientras que el 73% dice que los jóvenes de su iglesia invitan regularmente a amigos a las actividades de la iglesia.

Además, el 63% de los pastores dice que tienen estrategias para alcanzar a los jóvenes y a los jóvenes adultos.

“Casi nueve de cada diez congregaciones hispanas ofrecen alguna actividad para alcanzar a los niños, y casi ocho de cada diez congregaciones tienen actividades para alcanzar a los estudiantes”, dijo Scott McConnell, director ejecutivo de Lifeway Research. “Las iglesias hispanas no solo son iglesias jóvenes, sino que también están activas y trabajan intencionalmente para poder alcanzar a la próxima generación con el evangelio”.

Actividades efectivas

Aunque ninguna actividad individual se realizó para los niños o estudiantes en la mayoría de las iglesias hispanas de los Estados Unidos, la mayoría de las congregaciones dicen que hicieron algo para alcanzar a esos grupos de edad el año pasado. Era más probable que ellos hicieran un evento para alcanzar a los niños que para alcanzar a los estudiantes.

Entre las actividades para los niños, la Escuela Bíblica de Vacaciones (EBV/VBS, 48%) fue la más popular, seguida por la iglesia para los niños o servicios de adoración de los niños (47%), organizando una fiesta comunitaria (44%), y tener una reunión social o de compañerismo (42%).

Menos iglesias realizaron noches para las familias (25%), obras de teatro / dramas o programas musicales (21%), actividades recreativas como eventos deportivos o parques de atracciones (21%), campamentos para los niños (19%), viajes y actividades al aire libre como acampar o pescar (16%), algún tipo de club para los niños (14%), o un torneo deportivo (8%). Alrededor de 1 de cada 10 pastores (11%) dice que no realizó ninguna de esas actividades el año pasado.

Cuando se les preguntó cuál de las actividades de los niños ha sido la más efectiva para fomentar un crecimiento espiritual significativo, la Escuela Bíblica de Vacaciones (EBV/VBS, 26%) encabezó la lista, con una cuarta parte de las iglesias. Alrededor de uno de cada cinco pastores (19%) señaló a la iglesia de los niños. Ningún otro evento para los niños fue considerado el más efectivo por más de uno de cada diez pastores en las congregaciones protestantes hispanas.

Las actividades más populares realizadas el año pasado por las iglesias para alcanzar a los estudiantes incluyen reuniones sociales o de compañerismo (41%), un evento local o regional con otras iglesias (37%), noches de alabanza y adoración para jóvenes (32%), organizar una fiesta comunitaria (28%), llevar a los jóvenes a un campamento cristiano dirigido por otra persona / iglesia (27%), un viaje para realizar actividades recreativas (27%), noches de juegos en la iglesia (23%), retiros para los jóvenes (22%) y campamentos para jóvenes dirigidos por la iglesia (21%).

Un grupo más pequeño de pastores dijo que su iglesia organizó torneos deportivos (13%), obras de teatro / dramas o programas musicales (12%) o viajes misioneros con los jóvenes (9%). Más de uno de cada cinco pastores (21%) dijo que no realizó ninguna de estas actividades el año pasado para alcanzar al cuerpo estudiantil.

Los pastores identifican que las actividades más efectivas para fomentar un crecimiento espiritual significativo entre sus estudiantes son las noches de adoración y alabanza con los jóvenes (16%), campamentos para jóvenes dirigidos por la iglesia (12%), campamentos cristianos dirigidos por otra persona / iglesia (10%), eventos locales o regionales con otras iglesias (10%) y reuniones sociales o de compañerismo (10%).

Además de todas las actividades que realizan las iglesias para alcanzar a los niños y a los estudiantes, la mayoría de las congregaciones hispanas fomentan el crecimiento espiritual de los niños con clases semanales de Escuela Dominical o grupos pequeños (52%). Menos de la mitad (45%) tiene clases semanales de Escuela Dominical o grupos pequeños para estudiantes.

As many American churches struggle to reach children and students or retain young adults, a third of the average U.S. Hispanic Protestant church is under 30, including 18 percent under 18, according to a Lifeway Research survey.

Pastors at those congregations credit prayer, priorities, and programs for their ability to reach and keep the next generation.

“Hispanic churches in the U.S. tend to be comprised of members of different nationalities and cultures,” said Giancarlo Montemayor, director of global publishing for Lifeway Recursos.

“Despite sharing a common language, those nationalities and cultures have unique challenges and needs. If you add to the equation that kids of the church members will likely prefer English as their main language, you end up with a complex, messy, but beautiful ministry.”

Reasons churches are able to reach youth

When asked specifically to choose up to five of the most important reasons their church has been able to reach youth and young adults, most pastors surveyed said their congregation prayed specifically for them (57 percent) and communicated the importance of reaching them (56 percent). Close to half (46 percent) said they put special events on the calendar.

Around 2 in 5 said they took time to meet one-on-one with individuals (41 percent), enlisted someone who spoke English well enough to teach those ages (39 percent), and older members demonstrated younger members are a priority (38 percent).

Around 1 in 3 specifically prepared sermons with them in mind (34 percent) and set aside budget and resources to reach them (33 percent). Only 1 in 5 said they intentionally prioritized reaching youth and young adults over other age groups.

“Hispanic churches are proactive in reaching out to adults in their own language and cultural expressions, but they also have activities to offer in English to reach the second and third generations,” Montemayor said. “This is one of the reasons Hispanic churches have been successful and intentional when it comes to ministry outreach.”

Once a young person has connected with the church, pastors said relationships and being involved are keys to keeping them.

Nine out of 10 pastors of U.S. Hispanic Protestant churches identified several factors extremely important or very important to helping youth and young adults stay involved in the church and grow spiritually. Those factors are for members of the next generation to attend worship services regularly (94 percent), be received with acceptance and not judgment (93 percent), and develop friendships with Christian peers at church (92 percent).

More than 4 in 5 pointed to the importance of that age group having parents who love the Lord (89 percent), participating regularly in fellowships (89 percent), joining a small group Bible study or Sunday School class (83 percent), developing friendships with caring adults at church (81 percent), and receiving tangible help from members during a personal crisis (81 percent).

Two in three (65 percent) pointed to giving young people one-on-one time with the pastor to answer their questions, while around half (49 percent) believe it’s important to conduct activities in English.

Involving the next generation in ministry

Most pastors at Hispanic Protestant churches said they’re involving the next generation in the ministry of their church and are strategic about how they reach them.

Nine in 10 (90 percent) involve young adults in teaching, serving and leading areas of ministry. A similar percentage (88 percent) do the same with youth. More than 3 in 4 (77 percent) intentionally conduct youth and young adult outreach, while 73 percent say their youth regularly invite friends to church activities.

Additionally, 63 percent of pastors said they have strategies to reach youth and young adults.

“Almost 9 in 10 Hispanic congregations are providing some activity to reach kids, and almost 8 in 10 have activities to reach students,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Hispanic churches are not just young, they are actively and intentionally working to reach the next generation with the gospel.”

While no single activity for children or teens happened in a majority of U.S. Hispanic churches, most surveyed pastors said their congregations did something to reach those age groups last year. They were more likely to do an outreach event for kids than students.

Among activities for children, Vacation Bible School (48 percent) was the most popular, followed by children’s church or children’s worship services (47 percent), hosting a community party (44 percent), and having a social or fellowship gathering (42 percent).

Fewer churches held family nights (25 percent), dramas or musical programs (21 percent), recreational activities like sporting events or amusement parks (21 percent), children’s camp (19 percent), outdoor trip like camping or fishing (16 percent), some type of kids’ club (14 percent), or a sports tournament (8 percent). Around 1 in 10 (11 percent) say they didn’t do any of those last year.

When asked which of those children’s activities has been most effective at fostering meaningful spiritual growth, VBS (26 percent) topped the list of a quarter of churches.

Around 1 in 5 (19 percent) pointed to children’s church. No other kids’ event was deemed the most effective by more than 1 in 10 pastors at Hispanic Protestant congregations.

The most popular activities conducted by churches to reach students last year include a social or fellowship gathering (41 percent), a local or regional event with other churches (37 percent), youth praise and worship nights (32 percent), hosting a community party (28 percent), taking youth to a Christian camp run by someone else (27 percent), recreational activity trip (27 percent), game nights at the church (23 percent), youth retreats (22 percent), and youth camp run by the church (21 percent).

Fewer pastors said their church held sports tournaments (13 percent), dramas or musical programs (12 percent), or youth mission trips (9 percent). More than 1 in 5 (21 percent) said they didn’t do any of those activities in the past year to reach students.

Pastors identified the activities most effective at fostering meaningful spiritual growth among their students as youth praise and worship night (16 percent), youth camp run by the church (12 percent), taking youth to a Christian camp run by someone else (10 percent), local or regional event with other churches (10 percent), and social or fellowship gatherings (10 percent).

In addition to the many activities churches do to reach kids and students, most Hispanic congregations encourage the spiritual growth of children with weekly Sunday School classes or small groups (52 percent). A little less than half (45 percent) have weekly Sunday School classes or small groups for students.

The online survey of 692 pastors of Hispanic congregations in the United States was conducted Sept. 6 to Nov. 1, 2022. The sample provides 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 5 percent.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—There’s a downside to going someplace where everyone knows your name. Author and Bible teacher Beth Moore discovered that reality in the months after making a public break with the Southern Baptist Convention, which had been her spiritual home since childhood.

Whenever she and her husband, Keith, would visit a new church, the results were the same. People were welcoming. But they knew who she was—and would probably prefer if she went elsewhere.

Once the very model of the modern evangelical woman, she was now a reminder of the denomination’s controversies surrounding Donald Trump, sexism, racism and the mistreatment of sexual abuse survivors.

When Moore no longer could remain silent about such things, she became too much trouble to have around—even in church.

“I was a loaded presence,” she told RNS in a recent interview.

‘The power of a welcome’

In her recently released memoir, All My Knotted-Up Life, Moore recounts how the couple ended up at an Anglican church in Houston.

Their initial visit occurred largely at the suggestion of Keith Moore, who’d grown up Catholic and felt more at home in a liturgical tradition.

When they walked in, the rector greeted them and asked their names.

When she told him who she was, the rector brightened up.

“Oh,” he said, with a smile, “Like Beth Moore.”

Having no idea who he was talking to, he added: “Come right in. We’re glad to have you.”

After the service, a handful of women who had gone through one of Moore’s best-selling Bible studies, gathered around her. They knew who she was and wanted Moore to know she was safe in that place and that there was plenty of room for her in the community.

“Can I simply ask if you’re OK?” Moore recalls one of the women saying.

In that moment of kindness, Moore said she felt seen and at home in the small congregation, which became her new church. She could just be herself, not defined by the controversies she’d been through.

“Never underestimate the power of a welcome,” she said.

Chaos at home, refuge at church

The kindness of ordinary church people has long sustained Moore—providing a refuge and believing in her, even when she did not believe in herself.

Raised by an abusive father and a mother who struggled with mental illness, Moore has long said that church was a safe haven from the chaos of her home life. In her new memoir, Moore gives a glimpse into that troubled childhood and the faith—and people—who rescued her.

Displaying the skills that made her a bestselling author, Moore tells her story with grace and humor and with charity toward the family that raised her, despite their many flaws and the pain they all experienced.

Moore introduces her late mother, a lifelong chain smoker, with: “I was raised by a cloudy pillar by day and a lighter by night.”

She sums up her late father’s abusive behavior in a simple but poignant sentence: “No kind of good dad does what my dad did to me.”

Confronting father’s infidelity

Moore also tells the story of how she and her sister Gay saved their parents’ marriage when their whole world was falling apart. Moore’s mother had long suspected her father of infidelity. He had always denied it and claimed Moore’s mother, who suffered from severe depression, was crazy and unstable.

Then Gay found a love letter from her dad’s mistress taped to the underside of a drawer in his desk. The two girls sprang into action, calling their father’s lover and telling her to stay away.

It was an act of desperation, Moore told Religion News Service, born out of fear the family would break apart and they’d be left homeless.

“More than anything it was a way to exercise what little power we had,” Moore said, who dedicated her memoir to her husband and siblings, including Gay and her older brother Wayne, a retired composer who died two weeks before the memoir was due to be published.

That call, which Moore credits to her “fearless” sister Gay, changed the course of the family’s life. Knowing the truth about her father’s infidelity gave her mom confidence after doubting herself for years.

Moore said her mother’s story resonates with people who have experienced abuse in church—or know that something is not right in their congregation—and have faced opposition. In many cases, their suspicions were correct, she said.

“But they were told they were unspiritual—that they were trying to destroy (the church),” she said. “It’s what we know now as gaslighting.”

Giving thanks to mentors

One of the most gracious parts of her memoir comes when Moore gives thanks to two of her mentors. The first was Marge Caldwell, a legendary women’s Bible teacher and speaker. Caldwell met her when Moore was first starting out, giving devotions while also teaching an aerobics class at First Baptist Church in Houston.

Caldwell said God was going to raise Moore up to teach the Bible and have an influential ministry. For years, Moore said, Caldwell attended her classes, even though her style was very different from her mentor.

“I would read the expression on her face—wondering, ‘How on earth did this happen?’” Moore said, laughing at the memory. “I knew she loved me so much.”

The other mentor was Buddy Walters, a former college football player who taught no-nonsense, in-depth Bible studies in Texas for years and who instilled in Moore a love for biblical scholarship.

When she met Walter, Moore was filling in for a women’s Bible study teacher at her church who had gone on maternity leave. Under Walter’s tutelage, what started as a temporary assignment became a lifelong passion for Moore.

“I don’t think he would have picked me as a student,” she said. “It just was that I could not get enough.”

Opening up about struggles

In the memoir, Moore, who historically has been very private about her family life, also opens up about the struggles she and her husband have faced. In the past, Moore had made comments about getting married young, and that they had struggled, but gave few details.

With Keith’s permission, she shared more in this memoir, in particular about a family crisis that was going on behind the scenes as her public ministry imploded.

In 2014, two years before his wife clashed with Southern Baptist leaders over Donald Trump, Keith had been saltwater fishing, near the border of Texas and Louisiana.

While hauling in a redfish—also known as a red drum—Keith cut his hand on the fish’s spine. What seemed like a minor injury led to a life-threatening infection. As part of his treatment, Keith had to go off all other medications, including ones he had taken to manage mental illness and PTSD from a traumatic childhood accident in which his younger brother was killed.

That sent him into a tailspin that lasted for years—one the couple kept private until now. They decided to disclose it in the memoir, she said, because discussing mental illness remains taboo in churches.

“It’s such a common challenge and a crisis and yet we are all scared to talk about it,” Moore said. “We asked each other, ‘What do we have to lose at this point?’”

Despite the challenges of the past few years, Moore said, she has not given up on the church, because it had for so long been her refuge.

She knows other people have different experiences and have suffered abuse or mistreatment at the hands of fellow Christians, something she remains all too aware of.

Yet, she can’t let go.

“I can’t answer how it was that even as a child, I was able to discern the difference between the Jesus who is trustworthy with children, and my churchgoing, prancing-around father who was not,” she said.

“There were enough people that loved me well, and in a trustworthy way, that it just won out. I can’t imagine not having a community of faith. That was too important to me to let any crisis take it away.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Want to be considered a regular at a local church by those behind the pulpit and in the pews? Try showing up in person at least a couple times a month.

A Lifeway Research study finds a majority of both U.S. Protestant pastors and churchgoers consider someone to be a regular church attender if they attend twice a month or more. Most also say that’s based on how often they attend a worship service, not other church activities.

“There has likely never been unanimity on what qualifies someone as a regular churchgoer,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “But the question piqued our interest recently as we have heard church leaders speculating that churchgoers are attending less often and that their mindset of who is a regular attender may be changing.”

Church attendance has decreased in the United States, according to studies from multiple research organizations. Those trends were already pointing downward prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which only accelerated the churchgoing declines for many. Last fall, Lifeway Research found the average church is currently at 85 percent of their pre-pandemic attendance levels.

What does it mean to be a regular churchgoer?

Emerging from a period when most U.S. Protestant churches paused physical worship services for a time, pastors and church attendees are now considering what it means to be a regular churchgoer.

For U.S. Protestant pastors to consider someone in their congregation a regular churchgoer, 3 in 5 expect attendance at least twice a month, while 1 in 10 include those who attend less than monthly.

Pastors who define regular attendance as less than monthly include those who attend at least once a year (2 percent), two or three times a year (2 percent), four or five times a year (2 percent) or six to 10 times a year (4 percent).

Around a quarter (24 percent) see those who attend once a month as regular, while a plurality (30 percent) places the threshold at twice a month.

Others have a higher standard for a regular churchgoer. Around 1 in 7 (15 percent) say three times a month, and 13 percent say weekly. For 3 percent of pastors, only those who attend more than once a week qualify as a regular attender at their church. Another 3 percent aren’t sure.

 “There are practical implications to how often someone attends church,” said McConnell. “Those attending a few times a year are there enough to be known. Whereas those attending weekly likely have deeper relationships and can be counted on to serve. Those at church half the time can only serve if some rotation system is in place.”

Demographic and geographic differences

The oldest pastors are most likely to have the highest threshold, as 22 percent of pastors 65 and older say a regular churchgoer attends weekly or more. African American (36 percent) and Hispanic pastors (25 percent) are more likely than white pastors (14 percent) to say at least weekly attendance is the standard for a regular church attender.

Those in the South (20 percent) are more likely than pastors in the Northeast (12 percent) or Midwest (11 percent) to say only those who attend weekly or more are regular churchgoers.

Denominationally, Pentecostal (26 percent), Restorationist Movement (26 percent) and Baptist pastors (23 percent) are more likely than Methodist (11 percent), Lutheran (4 percent) and Presbyterian/Reformed pastors (4 percent) to consider only those who attend weekly or more as a regular attender in their congregation.

On the other end of the spectrum, mainline pastors (30 percent) are more likely than their evangelical counterparts (20 percent) to include those who attend once a month among regular churchgoers.

Additionally, pastors at small and normative-sized churches are among the most likely to believe monthly attendance makes someone a regular attender. Around a quarter of those at churches with less than 50 people (27 percent) and those at congregations of 50 to 99 (27 percent) say someone who attends once a month is a regular churchgoer.

Worship attendance or other involvement?

When thinking about what exactly someone must attend to be considered an attender, most pastors look to church services rather than other activities.

Six in 10 U.S. Protestant pastors (61 percent) say they base their idea of a regular churchgoer on how often someone attends a church service. Less than 2 in 5 pastors (37 percent) consider strictly in-person attendance, while around 1 in 4 (24 percent) also factor in online attendance.

A third (33 percent) look at how often they attend any church activity, with 9 percent pointing to in-person attendance and 24 percent basing it on physical or online involvement. Few (6 percent) say they aren’t sure.

Younger pastors, those 18-44, are among the most likely to base their churchgoer definition on attending church services in person (42 percent) and among the least likely to include online worship service attendance (17 percent). Evangelical pastors (45 percent) are also more likely than mainline pastors (25 percent) to point to physically attending church services.

Churchgoers themselves are likely to place the standard of regular church attendance near their own frequency. In a study of those who attend church at least once a month, 86 percent say a regular churchgoer is someone who attends once a month or more.

Specifically, 60 percent of respondents attend weekly or more, and 68 percent of those who attend weekly or more consider someone to be a regular churchgoer if they attend with the same regularity.

The more frequently a churchgoer attends services the more likely they are to place a higher threshold for being considered a regular church attender.

Yet, even among those who attend less than weekly, a large portion identify weekly or more as the standard for a regular attendee. More than 2 in 5 of those who attend one time a month (47 percent), two times a month (41 percent) or three times a month (48 percent) point to the weekly or more standard.

“The study of churchgoers only provides insights from those attending each month, but there seems to be a consensus among that group that a regular churchgoer should be involved in the life of a congregation more often than not,” McConnell said. “Pastors’ perceptions of a regular churchgoer often appear broader, while those in the pew lean closer to a weekly standard.”

Hispanic (21 percent) and African American churchgoers (20 percent) are around twice as likely as white churchgoers (11 percent) to say being a regular churchgoer requires attending more than once a week. Churchgoers with evangelical beliefs (55 percent) are more likely than those without evangelical beliefs (38 percent) to say the standard is weekly attendance.

Similarly to pastors, churchgoers are more likely to connect being a regular church attender with attending church services rather than other activities. Most (57 percent) use the church service as their basis, including 29 percent who focus exclusively on in-person attendance and 28 percent who include attending services online.

Around a third (34 percent) focus on any type of church activity, with 14 percent pointing to only in-person attendance and 20 percent including online attendance. Around 1 in 10 (9 percent) aren’t sure.

Churchgoers with evangelical beliefs (33 percent) are more likely than those without (26 percent) to base regular churchgoing on how often someone attends church services in person.

The phone survey of Protestant pastors was conducted Sept. 6-30, 2022. Each interview was completed by the senior or sole pastor or a minister at the church. Analysts weighted responses by region and church size to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.2 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

The online survey of American Protestant churchgoers was conducted Sept. 19-29, 2022, using a national pre-recruited panel. The completed sample is 1,002 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence the sampling error from the panel does not exceed plus or minus 3.3 percent.

WILMORE, Kentucky (RNS)—After an estimated 50,000 Christian worshippers, celebrity pastors and onlookers flocked to a rolling revival meeting at Asbury University over the course of 13 days, the school’s administration announced a new, limited schedule for prayer services in hopes of restoring order to the campus in this tiny Central Kentucky town.

Asbury University President Kevin Brown made the announcement Feb. 19, telling those attending the revival: “We had authorities that had to redirect traffic away from Wilmore. Our town’s institutions and our town’s infrastructure is just not in a place to absorb the influx of the blessed guests that we have had.”

This unprecedented number of people coming to Wilmore, a town of about 6,000, has caused safety concerns. Asbury administration said it had no other option but to enforce more regulations.

Some 7,000 people arrived the previous day alone, according to authorities. More than 3,000 of them waited outside in line in 30 to 40 degree weather watching a simulcast on outdoor screens of the proceedings inside Asbury’s Hughes Auditorium.

“This is unprecedented for our university,” said Mark Whitworth, Asbury’s vice president for intercollegiate athletics and university communications.

“It is obvious that God’s hand is on this. We’ve seen that in just how he’s met our needs spiritually and even logistically.” he added. Whitworth pointed to the state police and deputies from sheriff’s departments from neighboring counties who came to assist the overwhelmed Wilmore police force.

The largest number of visitors Wilmore has hosted in recent memory are the 20,000 who attended the annual Ichthus music festival in the summer of 2004, according to an article on the Asbury Seminary website.

Monday was the last day that revival services in Hughes were open to the public. Tuesday and Wednesday, only those age 25 and younger are allowed in Hughes for services at 7:30 p.m. The public may watch services from other simulcast venues or from a livestream on Asbury’s website.

Services in Hughes will end on Thursday, which is National Collegiate Day of Prayer, with a service at 8 p.m. for anyone 25 and younger. Updates to the schedule and other information is available here.

Out of respect for people still traveling to Kentucky, Brown said continued services will be held at other venues in Central Kentucky, yet to be announced.

Take revival home to other communities

University officials hoped that those who have attended will bring revival into their own communities.

“Jesus calls us to go out, so now that we have come in and received amazing filling up, it’s truly time to go out and share the gospel, and carry the light and fire into our local communities, our local homes, our local churches, schools, and workplaces,” said Asbury Vice President of Enrollment and Marketing Jennifer McChord.

The revival broke out spontaneously on Feb. 8. after a routine chapel service, which Asbury students attend three times a week.

Campus Pastor Zach Meerkreebs spoke that day about what it means to love one another.

“If you want to love others the way Jesus wants us to, we need to experience his love; we can’t do it on our own,” Meerkreebs said. “Become the love of God by experiencing the love of God.”

After the chapel service, a few dozen students stayed to continue worshipping and praying. Word spread throughout the day that students were still in Hughes, and more and more students returned.

As word spread, first on social media and then in news reports, including a segment on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” people from surrounding communities came to experience what people were calling a revival, and Hughes’ 1,489 wooden seats soon filled up, with newcomers replacing those in a steady stream as people left.

Sitting and standing, some with hands raised in prayer, others jumping, dancing or kneeling, prayer has been constant inside the room. Groups of people gather in circles around the room to pray, often offering to pray for strangers they have just met. Lines form at the front of the room, as some seek prayer at the altar. A small group of musicians on stage plays familiar worship songs.

“Oh, how he loves us,” the crowd sang in unison at one point on Saturday.

Unity and a sense of God’s presence

Attendees attested to a sense of unity in the room and an intense feeling of the presence of God.

“I walked into Hughes and the peace I felt was immediate,” said Anna Lauren Jacobs, a 2022 Asbury graduate and current law student at the University of Kentucky who came to experience the revival. “It’s a kind of joyous peace that is transcendent, and just invites you into a deeper understanding of what it means to partake in Heaven.”

On Feb. 12, Asbury Seminary, a sister institution across the street, opened an overflow location in its Estes Chapel. By the evening of Feb. 14, two more overflow locations were opened and filled, and a long line formed outside of Hughes. For eight days, worship continued 24 hours a day. Early in the morning on Feb. 16, the auditorium was closed for the first time, but as soon as it reopened, more people flooded in and services continued.

Hundreds of staff, faculty, students, alumni, community members and nearby church members volunteered their time to keep the revival going, with staff from Asbury’s enrollment office leading volunteer efforts. Administrators and faculty stayed in Hughes late into the night to work behind the scenes, keep things organized and speak on stage.

McChord said everything shared on stage is planned the day-of, and some even in the moment.

“There is not a planned sermon; it is truly led by prayer and led by what Jesus wants to share,” she said.

Throughout the day, students have gone on stage to share testimonies of how God changed their hearts during revival. They talked about how God set them free from addictions, repaired relationships and showed love to them.

Jacobs, like others, stayed to deliver food and water to hungry attendees and volunteers, getting Bibles to people and leading worship.

Bigger than previous revivals at Asbury

The revival has dwarfed similar revivals in the school’s history. “The 1970 revival was probably the biggest swell of people, but that was all students and community members,” McChord said. “The difference between that one and this one is the social media influence.”

A group of students from the University of Cincinnati, 100 miles away, said they saw the buzz on social media and came to witness the Holy Spirit. “We wanted to spend time with the community and worship God,” Cincinnati student Zane Ramsey said.

Gianni Cotteta and his family drove from Blue Bell, Penn., on Feb. 18. He said they made the 10-hour drive because of prompting from his sister-in-law, Genevieve, and because of Jesus.

“I didn’t necessarily want to drive 10 hours, because I travel a lot and I like relaxing during the weekends. But I had a conviction when I heard what it was for, and I immediately put what I wanted to do aside and said, ‘For you, Jesus, I’ll go,’” Gianni said. “It’s not about believing in Jesus, it’s about following him.”

McChord said she and other volunteers have talked to people from Finland, Portugal, the Philippines, California, Oregon, Florida, Hawaii, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Texas and Canada, among other states and countries.

Several Christian celebrities have attended the revival, McChord said. Among them were evangelist Nick Hall; Greg Locke, the pastor of Global Vision Baptist Church; and Kari Jobe, a Christian singer and worship leader.

None of the nationally known figures were invited to speak, however. McChord explained that they have kept the focus on students, in part by establishing a separate line for people 25 and younger to give them priority over other visitors.

Ben Stille from Commerce, Ga., made a six-hour drive to experience the revival on Feb. 18 and was able to get in through the 25-and-younger line.

“I heard about (the revival) and was like, ‘If God’s there, I want to go,’” Stille said.

He said he experienced answers to prayers and advice about personal struggles during the evening.

“I’ve been dealing with a lot of things in my life, little things that have been adding up and hurting me,” Stille said. “Tonight has just been a call to lay everything back at his feet.”

Other revivals have reportedly broken out at other colleges throughout the country, including Lee University, Ohio Christian University, Western Kentucky University, the University of Michigan and Samford University.

Despite the attempts to bring the Asbury revival to an end, said McChord: “I believe that this will absolutely grow, and I believe where it will grow from is our college students and our high school-age students. That generation is truly leading this. I believe God has something super special for Generation Z, and I believe he’s moving them into a place to be leaders.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—For decades, hospital chaplains have offered hope and solace to patients and family alike as they navigate the trauma of being in the intensive care unit. But the impact of those efforts is often intangible, hard to measure and generally anecdotal.

But thanks to a new study of ICU patients’ family members and loved ones, data now confirms what many chaplains already know: Proactive, enhanced spiritual care leads to better spiritual and psychological outcomes.

“We wanted to improve the well-being of ICU family members because there’s so much distress that they face, and we were one of the very few studies that have been able to successfully do that,” said Dr. Alexia Torke, who led the study conducted by the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine.

The randomized, single-blind trial took place across an Indiana medical center’s five ICUs from August 2018 until November 2021. The 128 participants who completed the trial were surrogate decision-makers whose loved ones were ICU patients unable to make medical decisions.

The study found that surrogates who received intensive spiritual care had more spiritual well-being and satisfaction with spiritual care and were “less likely to have anxiety and spiritual distress compared to those in the control group,” according to Torke, a research scientist at Indiana University Center for Aging Research.

Surrogates in the intervention group were “three times more likely to have a clinically important reduction in anxiety,” according to the study.

Hard data affirms what chaplains know

When Paul Galchutt, a research chaplain at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, heard the trial’s results, he told Religion News Service, “I clicked my heels a few times.”

Galchutt described this kind of data “like a V8 engine for the kind of work we do,” because it provides hard numbers to tell the story of what chaplains do and why it matters.

The trial studied two groups: a control group receiving typical care from the medical center’s chaplains, and an intervention group that would receive intensive spiritual care from one of five outside chaplains.

In the first group, surrogates saw a chaplain an average of two times during their relative’s stay, whereas the second group had an average of four visits per stay.

Chaplains in the enhanced spiritual care group also made proactive contact to schedule visits and implemented a spiritual care assessment and intervention framework to evaluate surrogates in several areas, including relationships, self-worth and meaning.

During their first visit, chaplains asked at least one pre-written question from each of the categories, then adapted the conversation to best suit the surrogate’s needs.

“It really led me to ask questions that I might have sort of skipped over other times or might have put on sort of the back burner for another conversation or a follow-up visit,” said Shelley Varner Perez, a research chaplain at Indiana University Health and one of the chaplains in the study.

“I think that really helped me learn about things that were important I might have missed in my usual practice.”

Chaplains bridge the gap

One in 4 Americans have been served by a chaplain, according to a March 2022 Gallup poll for Brandeis University’s Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, with half of those people encountering chaplains in a health care setting. But despite their high exposure to chaplains, many Americans’ understanding of chaplaincy is fuzzy at best.

“People have this stereotype that they come for Christian prayer and at end of life,” said Torke. “They do those things, absolutely, but the chaplains are trained to care for people of any religion and people of no religion. And that’s because the chaplains define spirituality broadly, to include those questions of meaning, purpose, transcendence and relationships that are universal.”

Kate Kozinski, a hospice chaplain in Maine who was involved in the pilot and first year of the study’s trial, told RNS she regularly sees the impact of spiritual care in health care settings as patients and their loved ones contemplate difficult decisions—and mortality.

“They’re kind of teasing apart, frequently, their lived experience of God or of the Divine with what sometimes the religious institutions they belong to have told them about that. And sometimes there’s a disconnect between their lived experience and what they’ve been taught to believe about God and how God functions,” Kozinski said.

“I have an opportunity as a chaplain to sit with people to kind of bridge that gap.”

She added that while anecdotal evidence about the impact of chaplaincy is enough to motivate her work, it’s been rewarding to be part of a project that demonstrates its efficacy.

Wendy Cadge, a sociology professor at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., and founder of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, said she hopes the study helps health care executives see the value of investing in and understanding chaplaincy.

“Through the lab and other avenues, we have spent a lot of time trying to make sure that chaplains are trained well to do the work,” Cadge said. “But if the decision-makers in health care either are not aware of the work or have a different understanding than chaplains themselves, or just don’t have the dollars, then people can be perfectly trained, but they’re still not going to be able to do their best work.”

Varner Perez said that as a chaplain in the study, she saw the value of proactively contacting families even if they’re not able to physically visit their loved one due to their jobs, child care responsibilities, transportation costs or economic barriers. She added that when COVID-19 broke out, the chaplains had to pivot to offering care by phone. To her surprise, that form of care was both accessible and effective.

Participants in the study skewed Christian: About 70 percent were Protestant, 13 percent Catholic and 12 percent had no religion, along with a smattering of other religions. About 78 percent of the surrogates were white and 21 percent were Black.

Torke attributed the limited religious and racial diversity to the study’s location in the Midwest but said she is planning on a larger, multicenter study that will enroll more diverse participants.

“We want to make sure our research is reducing disparities in the experience of different groups, and so we are going to look at that in our next study,” she said.

For Torke, the distress that family members face in the ICU is a matter of public health. Too often, they experience anxiety, depression, spiritual distress and post-traumatic distress. But this study shows “there is something we can do about it.”

“Amid tragedy and trauma, everybody wants to be able to know somebody cared about them and their loved one and can do so in a skillful way. We do that,” Galchutt said about chaplains. “And now I’m glad there’s some data that helps us say that, as well.”

WILMORE, Ky. (RNS)—Students at Asbury University gathered for their biweekly chapel service in the 1,500-seat Hughes Auditorium on Feb 8 to sing, listen to a sermon and pray.

A week later, many of them are still there.

“This has been an extraordinary time for us,” Asbury President Kevin Brown said during a gathering Feb. 13, more than 120 hours into what participants have referred to as a spiritual revival.

The revival has disrupted life and brought national attention to Asbury, an evangelical Christian school in Wilmore, Ky., about a half-hour outside of Lexington.

Videos of students singing, weeping and praying have been posted on social media, leading to both criticism and praise from onlookers.

News of the revival has also drawn students and other visitors to the campus to take part in the ongoing prayer and worship.

“We’ve been here in Hughes Auditorium for over a hundred hours—praying, crying, worshipping and uniting—because of Love,” wrote Alexandra Presta, editor of The Asbury Collegian, the school’s student newspaper, who has been chronicling the services on campus. “We’ve even expanded into Estes Chapel across the street at Asbury Theological Seminary and beyond. I can proclaim that Love boldly because God is Love.”

The ongoing meetings in the chapel—which have none of the flashing lights, fog machines or other trappings that accompany many modern worship services—have also brought back memories of a similar revival in the 1970s, which is recounted in a video produced by the university.

The gatherings also come at a time when many young Americans have lost faith in organized religion, with a recent study finding 43 percent of adults under 30 say they never attend service.

Officials at Asbury did not respond to requests for comment.

Revivals part of Methodist tradition

Michael McKenzie, associate professor of religion and philosophy at Keuka College in upstate New York, said revivals have long been a staple in the Methodist tradition that Asbury belongs to. The school is named for Francis Asbury, a circuit-riding preacher who helped Methodism grow from modest beginnings to the largest Christian group in America during the 1800s.

The denomination often grew through revivals, large group meetings that stressed a personal experience of God and a return to the basics of Christianity. One of the most famous revivals in American history took place in Cane Ridge, Ky., about an hour northwest of Asbury, where thousands gathered in 1801.

Methodists in America have fallen on hard times in recent decades, with the largest denomination in the tradition—the United Methodist Church—declining precipitously in membership and facing a schism over LGBTQ inclusion.

McKenzie, who has studied early Methodist revivals, said revivals often happened when people felt things had gone wrong and were trying to recapture something that had been lost.

Online accounts of the meetings at Asbury, he said, seem to “fit all the historical signposts of previous revivals.”

“I think a lot of people sense that America and American Christianity have lost its way,” he said. “And they seem to me that they are looking to get back to Jesus in a profound experiential way.”

Like revivals in the past, the one at Asbury seems to have happened spontaneously, McKenzie said. They often bypass leaders and start from the grassroots. That makes them harder to predict or control. They can also be a way of separating spiritual experience from the baggage of organized religion, McKenzie added.

Historical precedent for student revivals

Many of the nation’s colleges were founded by church groups that hoped revivals would be a regular experience in the lives of students, said Andrea Turpin, associate professor of history at Baylor University. For some students, she said, the revivals were a place to experience religious conversion, while others may have experienced a deepening of their faith at such revivals.

“You would cancel classes, you’d have prayer meetings and it would sweep through the school about once a year,” said Turpin, who studies religion and higher education.

An 1806 revival at Williams College in Massachusetts, known as the “Haystack Prayer Meeting,” helped launch the modern international missions movement in the United States. At Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, founded in the 1800s as a seminary for women, many of the school’s early students went on to work in Christian service, often prompted by revivals, said Turpin.

For Pastor Matt Erickson of Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee, a five-day campus revival at Wheaton College in the mid-1990s was a life-changing event. Erickson had come to the school in hopes of preparing for the ministry, but that calling had faded during his studies.

During a campus missions conference, students began coming forward to ask for prayer and for spiritual renewal, he recalled. That led first to an all-night prayer service and then to a series of evening meetings that ran late into the night.

The last evening of the revival was a commissioning service for people who wanted to go into the ministry. Erickson said that experience led many of his friends into the pastorate or other Christian work.

“There was a sense of the presence of God,” he said, adding that it went beyond simply an emotional experience. He said he hopes what’s happening at Asbury can lead students there into lives of service to God and others.

Erickson said he’s been a bit dismayed at some of the social media criticism of the revival, saying it will take time to see if the gatherings lead to real change in people’s lives.

Author and activist Shane Claiborne is optimistic. He has been following the revivals and talking to students from afar and said a revival can lead to action. Claiborne, who has friends on the Asbury campus, pointed to the revivals of Charles Finney in the 1800s. Many of the people who responded to Finney’s altar calls for salvation also joined the abolitionist movement.

“I believe in social transformation,” he said. “I also believe in personal and spiritual transformation.”

Howard Snyder, a retired professor of the history and theology of mission at Asbury Theological Seminary, said revivals can provide hope in difficult times. They become real if they lead to people living out the values of Jesus’ teaching.

“Authentic revivals return the church to what it is supposed to be,” he said in an email. “The people of God faithfully following Jesus.”