Illinois

Willow Creek Community Church-Huntley, one of the seven campuses of the Chicago-area megachurch, recently welcomed its first pastor, Craig Springer.

Springer actually came to Christ through Willow Creek Community Church in 1994. He has held various leadership roles at Willow Creek after accepting Christ, and also spent several years planting a church in Prague, Czech Republic, with his wife, Sarah. He was officially announced as Huntley's campus pastor on Jan. 29.

"Craig Springer brings a strong balance of character and competence to the role of campus pastor at Willow Huntley," Susan DeLay, a Willow Creek spokesperson, told The Christian Post on Tuesday. "He has served well Willow Creek and God's Kingdom in many areas of ministry and he has a deep-seated passion to live out Philippians 3:8 – to make Christ known." more >>

Atheist groups are targeting African-American communities by asking them to think about leaving their church during Black History Month – but a number of pastors and scholars are saying that is not going to happen any time soon. 

National ad campaigns launched by atheist organizations have been growing in regularity in the U.S., but a new initiative by African-Americans for Humanism (AAH) is targeting black Americans in particular who have historically been strongly linked with religion.

"A lot of people think there's one black experience. A lot of people think that if someone's black it means that they're religious. So we want to be able to show people that that's not true, that there are non-religious people out there," said Debbie Goddard, director of AAH, referring to the billboards asking "Doubts about religion? You're one of many." The billboards feature images of famous historical black freethinkers alongside photos of a contemporary black atheist leader. more >>

Every pastor is susceptible to burnout, Wayne Cordeiro, pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship, told a group of seven influential church leaders Wednesday.

Cordeiro was speaking at an event called the Elephant Room in Aurora, Ill., which featured "conversation's you never thought you'd hear from pastors." The Honolulu pastor acknowledged that getting burned out isn't an issue many pastors discuss publicly from the pulpit. But he recently released a book called Leading on Empty that centers on a period of burnout he went through in the ministry.

"It doesn't matter if you are in a small church or a big church," it can happen to anyone, he said at the conference, which was broadcast to over 60 locations across the U.S. Cordeiro explained that when he first started feeling burned out he didn't acknowledge it, and tried to keep going. more >>

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In round two of The Elephant Room conference, a series of "blunt conversations" between influential megachurch pastors held in Aurora, Ill., Wednesday, the non-negotiables for presenting the Gospel were discussed.

The seven pastors participating in the event all agreed that in a Gospel presentation there are five elements that are key: recognition of sin, that Jesus lived without sin, Jesus' death and resurrection, repentance, and faith.

But discussion mediator James MacDonald said even with that agreement, there is still "a lot of talk these days about the Gospel" and how to present it. He asked Crawford Loritts of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Ga., and Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, N.C., to weigh in on the topic. more >>

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Seven influential megachurch pastors took part in live unscripted discussions on different approaches to ministry in the second round of The Elephant Room – an event billed as "conversations you never thought you'd hear" from pastors.

Held in Aurora, Ill., and broadcast to over 70 locations around the U.S., the discussions were mediated by James MacDonald of Chicago's Harvest Bible Chapel and Mark Driscoll of Seattle's Mars Hill Church.

With nondenominational churches growing across the county, the role of denominations and church networks was the first topic discussed. more >>

African-American talk show host and Barack Obama critic Tavis Smiley expressed disappointment with an Illinois employee group’s decision to drop him as the guest speaker of its Jan. 16 Martin Luther King luncheon after another local group threatened to boycott the function.

Smiley, a liberal, told Fox News Monday morning, “Something is wrong with this country that so often the political right, and I am no defender of the political right … gets accused of playing the game of political correctness. What this underscores is that those on the left, the Democrats can play that game of political correctness as well.”

Alma Brown, an organizer for the Public Employees for Community Concerns’ luncheon, told the Peoria Journal Star it dropped its contract with Smiley last week over ticket sale concerns. more >>