A report from Lifeway Research has revealed that a majority of Protestant pastors in the United States believe that the current state of the economy is negatively impacting their churches. While 52% of pastors said they believed the economy was negatively impacting their church, just 5% thought the economy was "somewhat positively" impacting their church and 2% said that it was "very positively" impacting their church. The survey found differences along denominational lines, with 58% of pastors affiliated with the Church of Christ selecting "very or somewhat negatively," compared to 39% of Pentecostal pastors. Pastors of congregations with fewer than 50 people were more likely than those from larger churches to describe the impact of the economy as being negative. When it came to giving, 35% of male pastors reported experiencing an increase in donations at their churches, compared to 22% of female pastors. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of Lutheran pastors indicated giving was "above 2021's offerings," with 39% of Pentecostals experiencing a similar increase. Read more.

A hearing to decide whether two 15-year-old boys will be tried as adults in the murder of a Tennessee pastor has been postponed until Oct. 24. The teens have been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes, including carjacking, following the July 18 murder of Rev. Autura Eason-Williams, who led Capleville United Methodist Church. A third suspect, 20-year-old Eduard G. Rodriguez Tabora, was also charged with first-degree murder. While Eason-Williams' husband says the teenagers should be tried as adults, the pastor's oldest child, Ayanna Hampton, disagrees, saying her mother was a child advocate who would have opposed it. Read more.

With many churches and ministries failing to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic, it is time for such churches to consider mergers, writes Oscar Amaechina. Thoughtful mergers between Bible-believing churches will enable those churches to become stronger and continue to evangelize for the Kingdom, saving small congregations from extinction, Amaechina says. Read more.

William Wolfe discusses why the transgender movement harms everyone, asserting that it is built on the lie that people can change their gender, which is impossible because it is impossible to change one's sex. Wolfe details why this movement ruins children, threatens churches, and poisons society, concluding, "If we have any hope of stopping it, it starts with realizing how many people are being truly harmed by transgenderism. And the only honest answer is everyone." Read more.

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Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker has vowed to pay the overdue rent owed by tenants of a building managed by Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock's church who have been threatened with eviction. Walker's comments came in response to a report from The Washington Free Beacon about the Atlanta-based Ebenezer Baptist Church’s efforts to evict tenants of an apartment building it owns. According to documents obtained by The Beacon, Columbia Tower at MLK Village serves as a home for the "chronically homeless" and people with "mental disabilities." Ebenezer Baptist, where Warnock serves as senior pastor, has a 99% ownership stake in the building. "I have never known a preacher that likes abortion even after birth, won’t pay his child support and evicts poor people to the street. I will pay the $4500 in past due rents listed in this news article to keep @ReverendWarnock from evicting these people," Walker tweeted. One tenant of Columbia Tower who spoke to The Beacon said of the building's management, "They treat me like s***" and "they’re not compassionate at all." Read more.

Pastor and author John Amanchukwu says that critical race theory and abortion are "twin evils" that "stem from the same diabolical monster: racism." Amanchukwu, a former football player for North Carolina University who is now a youth pastor at Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, N.C., has released a new book discussing how CRT is a "far-from-biblical way of thinking" that "has no place being preached in any pulpit." In a recent interview with The Christian Post, Amanchukwu discussed his new release, Eraced: Uncovering the Lies of Critical Race Theory and Abortion, asserting that CRT leads to dangerous rhetoric because through "false cross-disciplinary examination," it eliminates "the biblical truth which says when anyone, including white people, give their life to Jesus Christ they are a born again Christian, who can live lives free from certain sins, such as racism." Read the interview here.

Despite her Christian upbringing, Louisiana resident Emma Benoit recalls that her faith took a backseat during her teenage years in favor of popularity among her peers. The summer before her senior year, however, she felt as if she could no longer pretend to be "the always-happy-person" and attempted suicide by shooting herself in the chest with a firearm. She was left with injuries that disabled her, requiring the use of a wheelchair and a walker. Surviving the incident has brought her closer to God because she believes she was given another chance at life. Benoit partnered with the American Association of Christian Counselors for Suicide Prevention Month, which is observed every September, to create a video sharing her testimony in an effort to advance mental health awareness. "My faith has been super crucial for me in my recovery because I've been able to totally give everything to God," says Benoit. Since her suicide attempt, she has seen a therapist whom she says helps her navigate life alongside Jesus. "I believe that some tools that God equipped us with are: therapists, counselors, teachers, knowledge, education and medication—which are all wonderful things that can help lead to break through." Read more.