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The "Hour of Power," Crystal Cathedral's landmark television program, will air its first new episode Sunday under new leadership, after the church's founding family, the Schullers, quit the ministry. However, in some markets, the long-running program will be cut to just half an hour.

"You can sense a growing excitement in our congregation," John Charles, CEO and President of Crystal Cathedral Ministries, said in a statement emailed to The Christian Post. "Attendance has been up since we returned to the traditional worship style on which the ministry was founded."

The popular televised ministry program, which has been on the air since 1970, will also air a shortened, 30-minute version, for the first time on the Discovery Channel, church officials said. The traditional 60-minute version will continue to air on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The version aired on Lifetime will shift from 60 to 30 minutes on May 13. The shorter version will include the entire sermon and a few minutes of worship through music, church leaders said. more >>

Sheila Schuller Coleman, lead pastor of Hope Center of Christ, the congregation she founded with members who broke away from the Crystal Cathedral church in Garden Grove, Calif., preached about "looking forward" in this past Sunday's service, temporarily being held at a hotel.

Schuller Coleman's Sunday sermon, titled "Staying Salty" and based on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, touched upon the trials and tribulations of maintaining a positive attitude and approach to life's complications, and emphaszied the importance of coming through those issues to remain a "mountain top dweller."

The sermon echoed themes relevant to what Schuller Coleman herself has been experiencing over the past few weeks, having left the iconic Crystal Cathedral church her father, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founded decades ago. As previously reported by The Christian Post, Schuller Coleman departed from the ministry and congregation to build a new church from scratch due to internal discord over theological, financial and intellectual rights related to Crystal Cathedral Ministries and its long-running "Hour of Power" televangelism broadcasts.  more >>

Magic Johnson's Dodgers deal is in the works for the highest amount of money ever paid for a franchise – a record $2 billion.

A Magic Jonhson-led group of investors is reportedly buying the Los Angeles Dodgers with the help of baseball executive Stan Kasten. The team is now controlled in the majority by Mark Walter, chief executive officer of financial firm Guggenheim Partners, but Johnson is functioning as the more public face of the deal so far.

"I am thrilled to be part of the historic Dodger franchise," the Lakers legend said in a statement. Johnson assured reporters that the new owners "intend to build on the fantastic foundation laid by Frank McCourt as we drive the Dodgers back to the front page of the sports section in our wonderful community of Los Angeles." more >>

A Christian academy in Southern Oregon believes it has been overcharged on its utility bills for nearly 25 years.

For several months, the Canyonville Christian Academy has unsuccessfully tried to resolve its bill issues with Canyonville city officials, hoping to repeal the extra fees placed on tax-exempt organizations like their boarding school and also get at least a partial refund for their past payments amounting to an estimated $200,000.

Making no headway with the city council, which rejected the school's request for a partial refund and refused to repeal the fees, the CCA filed a lawsuit against the city last month in the Douglas County Circuit Court in Roseburg. more >>

The U.S. Supreme Court will not review Idaho's ban on books and documents in public schools deemed to be religious, it was announced Monday.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, asked the Supreme Court late last year to review a case in Idaho in which judges ruled that a publicly-funded charter school was violating the state constitution for using the Bible as a textbook in a secular history class.

The Idaho Public Charter School Commission issued a ban in 2009 on all religious texts after Nampa Classical Academy attempted to instruct students with the Bible. The ban was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit earlier in 2011, which said in its decision that because NCA is a publicly-funded school, it is "subject to the supervision and control of the state, and exists at the state's mercy," and therefore can be restricted in which textbooks it uses in the classroom. more >>

While GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney is not known for a willingness to discuss his Mormon faith in detail, at least during his political speeches, a family member and former Mormon has come out to accuse The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of being a cult and a fraud.

"I became convinced that it's a fraud," Park Romney, an ex-Mormon high priest and Romney's cousin, shared with the BBC. "I am alienated from my family. Their doctrine, their protocol and their culture as enforced by bishops encourages the families to disassociate themselves from the apostate."

Expanding on his reasons for why he was led to believe the LDS Church is a fraud, the Republican's cousin revealed: more >>