Since “no one person can replace” Willow Creek Community Church founder Bill Hybels, the influential megachurch has named two people: its current executive pastor Heather Larson and teaching pastor Steve Carter. The historic transition will make Willow Creek one of the largest churches in America with a woman in the lead pastor position, as well as the only major evangelical megachurch with male-female lead pastors who aren’t married.

At least 10 new breweries have opened in old churches across the country since 2011, and at least four more are slated to open in the next year. The trend started after the 2007 recession as churches merged or closed because of dwindling membership.

I am the pastor of a small to medium-sized rural church. Nothing about us is mega. We aren’t cutting edge. We still do Sunday School, have a meet-and-greet, and have kids come down front during the Sunday morning service for a children’s sermon. I’m sure that there are things that we do that would make church growth experts cringe. But we are still a part of the body of Christ.

For many, the answer to this question seems palpably obvious. The ministers of the church are those blokes we pay and call ministers, aren’t they? They’re the guys we look up to and expect to do ‘the work of ministry’. Interestingly, this isn’t something that scripture recognises.

A mass shooting is a test for any religious institution, and a massacre like the one that left 58 dead and hundreds injured in Las Vegas, even more so. Hope Church, a growing multi-ethnic congregation that attracts 3,000 people each weekend, says it’s up to the challenge.

I don’t want to do youth ministry anymore. After ten years of work in churches and private Christian schools, I am now 34 and I require a trip to chiropractor to fully recover from overnight trips. But that’s not why I’m done. I have a growing number of students who have graduated from ministries I’ve led, students who were active participants, who no longer believe in the mission of the local church.

The Village Church, the multisite Texas megachurch led by Matt Chandler, will transition from several campuses across the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex to individual autonomous churches within the next five years, leaving behind a multisite model for a deeper commitment to local ministry and church planting.

Just how many Christians were there in 200? Around 197, Tertullian’s Apology made extravagant claims for the scale of Christian numbers. He spoke of “the immense number of Christians … almost all the inhabitants of your various cities being followers of Christ.” His numerical claims for the overall number of Christians are ludicrous, but his statement points to the extreme concentration of Christian numbers in some centers.

When Christianity is whitewashed, when the church becomes associated with suburban country clubs, when our celebrated leaders and theologians throughout time have almost exclusively white faces, when Hollywood confirms that Noah looked like Russell Crowe and Moses like Christian Bale, when Jesus is seen as lead candidate for a political party, when the Father is the old white man in the sky who blesses white faces behind white picket fences, minority souls close their ears to the gospel and die in their sins.

Most of us complain about church life at some point. Some of us complain a lot. All of us need to read this stunning short essay by Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican (ACNA) pastor, about what she has endured over these last six months … and how her church has helped her through it.