Megachurch

Prominent media coverage of many of the nation's leading Christian pastors often places their lives and actions under the public microscope. From Joel Osteen's recent CNN interview, to last week's Elephant Room conferences, the very public lives of the country's top religious leaders frequently bring strong criticism. With many of these pastors leading churches with exploding congregations, and with many having best-selling books, one of the most vulnerable areas for criticism for them stems from their finances.

A recent article by The Huffington Post highlighted this issue, and it was claimed that the best paid pastors in America can receive hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars each year.

However, looking at the clergy jobs in America as a whole reveals they are layered like much of the rest of the country – only a select few pastors take in a large annual income; but those who do tend to contribute hugely to a wide range of charities and community outreach efforts. more >>

Some congregation members of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries have failed in their last-minute attempt to keep the signature Garden Grove, Calif., property by claiming a 99-year lease, as the Santa Ana bankruptcy court ordered Monday to proceed with the sale to a Catholic Diocese.

In an unexpected twist to the story of the long bankruptcy suit of the famous ministry that launched the first televangelical show, "The Hour of Power," members of the congregation board launched in late January an attempt to block the sale of the signature glass building at an eleventh hour, The Orange County Register reports.

On Jan. 25 members of the church apparently asserted the existence of a 99-year lease that the congregation was to hold. If the existence of such lease was proven, it could potentially halt the sale. But the U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kwan rejected the claims Monday for lack of sufficient proof, the Register reported. more >>

Men are the head of their wives despite what some in the church and those outside of it argue, Mark Driscoll recently affirmed during his latest "Real Marriage" sermon series based on his controversial book.

Speaking to the men in his congregation, the Mars Hill Church pastor declared, "You are the head of your wife as Christ is the head of the Church. It's not a not. It's an is."

"We get into a lot of trouble when God says we are something and then we debate as to whether or not we should be," he said, referring to the many debates people have had over the years because of the very question, which is to him, simply a biblical fact. more >>

Prominent evangelical pastor John Piper along with other church leaders plan to tackle the issues of men becoming strong Christian leaders in today's world during the Desiring God ministry's annual pastors conference held Monday to Wednesday at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Joining Piper at this year's conference, titled, "God, Manhood & Ministry – Building Men for the Body of Christ," will be Doug Wilson, Crawford Loritts, Darren Patrick, and Ramez Atallah. The main sessions –which begin with Wilson's message, "'Father Hunger,' in Leading the Home" – are Webcast for free at www.desiringgod.org starting at 7 p.m. EST.

In a short video clip introducing the conference, Piper said, "It seems to us that a really important thing to us is helping men be men – Helping men discover what is [their] unique contribution to life, church, family, mission as man, not just as human, but what is God calling [them] to be as a man." more >>

Voddie Baucham, Pastor of Preaching at Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, has released a blog post in which he explains why he turned down an invitation to participate in the second round of The Elephant Room, held Jan. 25, and left another conference hosted by James MacDonald without fulfilling his speaking duties.

The Elephant Room, a theological roundtable featuring blunt conversations among seven influential pastors, generated a noted level of controversy due to the invitation of Bishop T.D. Jakes, founder and senior pastor of The Potter's House in Dallas, to participate in the discussions. Jakes has been accused of heresy by some in the Christian community for his affiliation with modalism, which explains the Godhead in non-Trinitarian terms.

Modalism, a 3rd-century teaching accredited to theologian Sabellius, purports that the members of the Trinity are not three distinct, eternally co-existing persons, but that instead God, a singular spirit, manifests Himself at different times in three modes – a doctrine espoused by Oneness Apostolic Pentecostal and United Pentecostal Church International denominations. more >>

The Anabaptist Conference will feature Rick Warren and Paige Patterson, just two of the religious figures scheduled to speak at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, Jan. 30-31.

Speakers at the conference, focused on "Anabaptism and Contemporary Baptists," will draw connections between the 16th century Anabaptist movement and 21st century Baptist life and theology, thus asserting the spiritual kinship of the two movements.

During the Anabaptism Movement of the 16th Century, Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation rejected infant baptism and only baptized believers – advocating social and economic reforms. more >>