Many American churches are in a mess. Theologically they are indifferent, confused, or dangerously wrong. Liturgically they are the captives of superficial fads. Morally they live lives indistinguishable from the world. They often have a lot of people, money, and activities. But are they really churches, or have they degenerated into peculiar clubs?What has gone wrong? At the heart of the mess is a simple phenomenon: the churches seem to have lost a love for and confidence in the Word of God.

Megan Phelps-Roper did the unthinkable last week. The granddaughter of Fred Phelps—controversial leader of Westboro Baptist Church—packed her belongings into a few boxes and left Topeka, Kansas, for a small Midwestern town, leaving behind her family, her church, and her inflammatory picket signs.

Though the church where I was introduced to Jesus was odd and uncool and a bit uninformed about people of the world (like my family), it did offer one thing that compensated for all its shortcomings. It told me something I had never heard anywhere else: the gospel. The people there told me about Jesus. After eight months of attending the church, while reading my Bible one night, I came to faith in Christ. By then I knew people who would teach me the Bible, give me good books to read, and help me grow in my faith.

Do you know it’s possible to cultivate a more fruitful, satisfying life than you ever imagined? Think about it…everyone is searching for a life they hope will be filled with satisfaction, meaning and purpose. Cultivating that life we long for is possible, but I’m not going to offer easy platitudes…it is challenging. This past weekend, I spent two days at The Grove, the 12 acre organic lemon and avocado farm owned by The Grove Center for the Arts & Media.

An influential British evangelical, Rev. Steve Chalke of the Oasis Church in Waterloo (London), is calling on Christians to approve “faithful gay relationships.” He already performed a “dedication and blessing” for a homosexual couple’s civil partnership in fall 2012, he says. Chalke’s announcement has raised questions about British evangelical views of marriage and sexuality, and the extent to which Chalke is typical of evangelicals in the United Kingdom.

Face it, folks: the beard is back in a big way. Along with celebrities, bike messengers, and your local barista, pastors are no exception to the glories of facial hair. The ministry beard has a long and glorious history among preachers, theologians, and everyday men of the cloth. A skilled observer can identify nuances of theology, polity, and diet from a pastor's beard. Now you can too! A carefully groomed beard can make a powerful spiritual statement, and we’re here to interpret for you.

A look at a disturbing trend of bending the truth from the pulpit.

Any baptized man in good standing could be elected pope, according to canon law, a group of laws that guide the Catholic hierarchy. Women cannot be named pope because they are unable to become ordained priests in Catholicism. So if the only standard is a baptized man in good standing with the church, there are millions of possible papal successors – including Speaker of the House John Boehner, rock star Bono and, yes, comedian Stephen Colbert. The likelihood of that happening: not a chance.

We live in a day where many professing believers are being tempted to ditch the whole "church thing." In some cases, it's because they had a bad experience in a church. That is understandable….because it happens. Just as divorce takes place in marriages, pain is also experienced in certain church situations. So what's the solution? Should you dump church…or instead, get connected to one where you will grow?

For centuries, the job of a pope was a relatively manageable affair. Candidates were largely Italian, the flock Western. By contrast, the cardinals preparing to select a replacement for Pope Benedict XVI are seeking one whopper of a résumé. The role now calls for a spiritual figure able to inspire and unify a 1.1 billion-member global church that’s simultaneously booming and collapsing, and whose flock seems to agree on little. Management acumen is essential, Twitter fluency preferable. Hours: 24-7.