Most people “hurt by the church” were hurt by individuals in a local congregation. Once we establish that, then we’re then left to help them think through whether the offense occurred knowingly and intentionally or unknowingly and accidentally. I’m surprised how often the individuals or churches that “hurt” someone have no idea an offense has occurred.

The Vatican is asking Catholics to take up evangelizing, to speak openly of one’s faith in order to spread it. While such personal sharing has long been the province of, well, evangelical Protestants, it means a paradigm shift for Catholics, whose spiritual lives have been largely centered inside the parish. But with Catholicism in the West facing major losses and what Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl — a Vatican point man on the new request — calls a “tsunami of secularism,” the church this year is pouring resources into a massive campaign dubbed “the new evangelization.”

Revivals have been a large part of American religious culture since the 1700s. A preacher would come to a town and attract thousands—ranging from the illiterate to the literati (like Benjamin Franklin)—to hear about getting religion. These events often lasted days, and many who produced them became masters at holding a crowd’s attention. By the early 1900s, many revivals began to look more like Vaudeville and the circus than a church service. The novelist Stephen King, in an interview on his most recent thriller, Joyland, eulogizes the church’s simulation of “carny” culture.

"We need to recognize that it may be time to quit worrying so much about the tax code and start thinking more about the truth of the living God, and if it means that we give up tax-exempt status and tax deductions for charitable contributions, I choose freedom more than I choose a deduction that the government gives me permission to say what God wants me to say.” Former pastor and former governor Mike Huckabee speaking on the issue of religious freedom at the Southern Baptist Convention in Houston.

Too often we drink the sweet, syrupy Christian cocktails, rather than reading the Bible and knowing His truth.

Many preachers just want to be ‘nice.’ They cherish being winsome above being earnest. They desire popularity above faithfulness. They tremble more at the thought of offending their congregation, than they fear the thought of offending their God. In the words of Dr Lawson: there are just too many “pretty boy preachers.”

Pope Francis said a “gay lobby” exists inside the Vatican, a surprising disclosure from a pope who has already delivered his share of stunners, and a resurrection of church conflicts that had bedeviled his predecessor's papacy. “In the Curia,” Francis said, referring to Catholicism’s central bureaucracy, “there are holy people. But there is also a stream of corruption.” “The 'gay lobby' is mentioned, and it is true, it is there,” Francis continued. “We need to see what we can do.”

As politicians wrestle over America’s immigration policies, a profound spiritual transformation is unfolding among Hispanics: They are joining evangelical churches in droves. Many conservative denominations in the United States have realized that the growing Hispanic population now represents one of their greatest evangelistic opportunities, and churches are making creative accommodations to reach Hispanics across the country.

If we're serious about passing the gospel to the next generation, what do we need to learn from youth about how we preach? Here are six suggestions youth would offer to their pastors.

You may not have noticed, but it seems a lot of people have stopped showing up on time at your church. Maybe you’re one of them. Which might explain why you haven’t noticed.