Church Bodies

A 3-day pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry designed to illuminate what the Bible says about male leadership turned to the subject of what the role for women should be in the Christian community during a panel discussion on the last day of the event.

On Wednesday, evangelist John Piper and other conference guest speakers were asked to tackle the question, "What is biblical femininity?" Piper had declared a day earlier that God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel."

What is viewed by society as traditional male and female attributes are a "cultural thing, not a Bible thing," said panelist Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey in Saint Louis, Mo. "So, we have adopted that and then kind of spit that out as masculinity and femininity." more >>

While many churches will be observing Super Bowl Sunday with watch parties, one Florida congregation will doing something considerably different.

Church of Hope, a recently established nondenominational church in Ocala, will be canceling service and doing charitable work on Feb. 5 in an event titled "3G Sunday," the G's standing for "Gather, Go, Give."

"When we trust God no matter what's happening around us, we can love anyone inside the church and in our community," said Emily Cummins, communications assistant for Church of Hope and daughter of Hope's Pastor Mark Cummins, in an interview with The Christian Post. more >>

God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel," evangelist John Piper declared on Tuesday.

"God revealed Himself in the Bible pervasively as king not queen; father not mother," Piper said at this year's annual pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry. "Second person of the Trinity is revealed as the eternal Son not daughter; the Father and the Son create man and woman in His image and give them the name man, the name of the male."

He continued, "God appoints all the priests in the Old Testament to be men; the Son of God came into the world to be a man; He chose 12 men to be His apostles; the apostles appointed that the overseers of the Church be men; and when it came to marriage they taught that the husband should be the head." more >>

Compared to other religious groups in the U.S., mainline denominations had the slowest growth rate with only 19 percent of their congregations reporting growth between 2005 and 2010, according to a researcher from The Episcopal Church.

By contrast, conservative Protestant churches had the highest growth rate at 43 percent, followed by non-Christian congregations with 33 percent.

C. Kirk Hardaway, Congregational Research Officer for the Episcopal Church and chairman of the research task force for the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, presented the findings on Tuesday. more >>

Have Sunday morning services become a chore to "get done" at the beginning of the day, simply to be checked off a long list of many weekend to-dos?

If so, attending or resurrecting an evening service may help transform the mindset of many Christians today.

Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor at University Reformed Church, recently revealed a few reasons why congregants should consider "keeping ... going to ... or even starting" an evening service at the church on The Gospel Coalition website. more >>

Pastor Steve Reynolds of Capital Baptist Church in Annandale, Va., is offering parishioners who seek to lose weight a motivation that's higher than simply wanting to look good: honoring God.

"I want to show people – all types of people, especially Christian people – that we're made by God, but we're also made for God, and we need to honor him with our bodies," the pastor told TODAY.com.

Reynolds heads a weight loss competition program called "Bod4God" at Capital Baptist Church that has assisted members of his congregation in losing over 12,000 pounds since 2007, TODAY reported. Reynolds himself has lost a whopping 120 pounds with the program. more >>