Eric "Doc" Benson is hoping America won't let him go without food for 40 days, but he is willing to do it if necessary to raise funds to complete a movie highlighting the struggle many small and mid-sized churches are having with change in America today.

The former pastor, now working as a filmmaker, has pledged to fast for 40 days or less, whichever comes first, until he raises $12,200 through a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo.com to finish the movie project about a church's struggle to deal with change in its congregation. The $12,200 will be used to cover post-production expenses that Benson is unable to meet alone. Once finished, the movie will be shown at some festivals and movie theaters.

"I poured every hour, every dollar I could spare into making this movie happen," Benson explained in a release on Monday. "My wife, Annette, my boys, and I have emptied out our savings and invested our time and talents, because we feel God wants this film to be a blessing to people. Now, the only thing I have left to give is...myself," he said. more >>

A new Gallup poll released on Monday revealed that young Hispanics appear to be abandoning the traditional Catholic faith of their parents and turning more often to Protestant alternatives.

"A majority of Hispanics in America continue to identify as Catholic, although the Catholic percentage among Hispanics appears to be decreasing and the youngest Hispanics in America today are less likely to be Catholic than those who are older," Gallup stated about the implications of the results.

"Additionally, those Hispanics who are Catholic are much less religious than those who are Protestant." more >>

Indiana's largest megachurch, and America's 15th biggest congregation, the Family Christian Center, is now facing a new foreclosure case for a bank debt of more than $600,000.

Citing information from documents filed in Lake Superior Court last Tuesday, an nwitimes report said the First National Bank of Illinois filed the mortgage foreclosure case against the church, senior pastor Steve Munsey, the Internal Revenue Service and Sutton Place Condominiums. The church owed the bank $604,447.02, as of Jan. 4, according to the court records seen by nwitimes.

The Christian Post searched for the court documents on the county website, but the dockets were no longer available. more >>

Employees of megachurches located in the South are the highest paid group of megachurch workers in America, according to the recently released 2012 Large Church Salary Report by the Leadership Network.

The Leadership Network, which seeks to promote church innovation and growth, conducted a survey of 209 influential churches across America with at least 2,000 members, and identified a number of factors that determined the salaries of their employees.

Typical benchmarks used to determine their total compensation package included: church income, attendance, growth rate, geographical setting, education, prior experience, years of service at church and gender. The most influential of these factors is the church's size measured by its budget and worship service attendance. more >>

A new report by Leadership Network titled "The Economic Outlook of Very Large Churches" has projected some positive statistics concerning the growth of evangelical churches, particularly megachurches, across America.

"Among evangelical churches, overall attendance is up. Further, looking at growth by categories of church size, the majority of megachurches are growing as this report indicates," Warren Bird, Ph.D., director of Research and Intellectual Capital Development at the Leadership Network, shared with The Christian Post in an email on Friday.

According to the report, the recession that hit America in 2008 did not slow the growth of most megachurches. In fact, the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, will complete the largest church building campaign in modern American history when it opens its new $130 million building on Easter Sunday, March 31. more >>

Congregants of the First Baptist Church of Dallas will be praising God in a gleaming $130 million facility come Easter Sunday, March 31, when the church opens its new state-of-the-art campus after nearly two years under construction.

The church, led by Pastor Robert Jeffress – most popularly known for making headlines after calling Mormonism a cult when Mitt Romney was running for president in 2011 – will complete the largest church building campaign in modern history, according to a recent update from First Baptist Church.

"At a time when suburban megachurches are the norm and research shows that many people no longer feel the Church is relevant, First Baptist is committed to the Bible and to downtown Dallas," said Jeffress in a statement. "People are hungry not for religion but for the Word of God. First Baptist Dallas is built on the Bible, and because of that we are growing." more >>