A North Carolina pastor who had been released on bond in a child sex crimes case has died. Waymon Jordan Sr. of Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Waxhaw was arrested on March 5 and charged with four counts of statutory sex offense with a child.

Editor’s note: This article refers to reports of child sex abuse that some readers might find triggering and/or disturbing.

While the cause of death has not been disclosed, authorities do not suspect foul play in Jordan’s death. Jordan was 79 years old. 

The special victim’s unit of the Union County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Jordan in February after receiving a report of child sex abuse. 

RELATED: Georgia Youth Pastor Charged With 6 Counts of Possessing Child Sex Abuse Material

He is accused of engaging in a “sexual act” with a child who was 15 years old or younger, according to WBTV. The crime is alleged to have occurred in 2022. 

Jordan was initially denied bond, but he was later released on a $200,000 bond. He had been scheduled to appear in court on March 25. 

Sometime after his release, Jordan was found dead outside of his church.

Jordan is still listed as the founder and senior pastor on Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church’s website. According to his profile, he was ordained in 1972. 

RELATED: NY Pastor Pleads Guilty to Sexual Exploitation of a Child, Faces up to 30 Years in Prison

ChurchLeaders has reached out to Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church for comment and will update this article in the event of a response. 

(RNS) — On a recent night, a mother in California found herself lying awake at 3:00 a.m., her mind racing. Unable to sleep, she tossed and turned for the next three hours, anxiously ruminating on the same question that has haunted her for years.

“All the time, I just think about it: How can I help my son?” she told Religion News Service in a recent interview. “I cannot think about anything else.”

It’s a personal agony that has long plagued Ava — which is not her real name, as she requested anonymity to be able to speak freely about her story — who is a refugee from Iran living in the U.S. While much of her family has resettled here, her eldest adult son remains in exile in Indonesia. A local church has sponsored his entry into the U.S., but he, like virtually all refugees seeking entry into the country, is currently in limbo after President Donald Trump’s decision to essentially freeze the U.S. refugee program entirely.

That includes people fleeing religious persecution. In her most trying moments, Ava says, she turns to that which has long given her family strength, even as it prevents her from ever returning to Iran, where she could face potential death: the Christian faith.

“I can pray,” Ava said. “We pray every day. We pray about it every night. Every day. Every morning. Every moment. We just pray for our son’s situation — to join us, and that God will open the doors for him to come with his family and start a new life in the United States.”

Ava and her family’s refugee story began roughly 20 years ago when her husband visited South Korea on a work trip. He joined a Christian church there and brought his newfound faith back with him to Iran, where he quietly participated in Bible studies. The family eventually fled to Indonesia, where Ava said she, too, converted to Christianity after a chance encounter in a shopping mall connected them to a Persian church, which they eventually joined.

“I decided to follow Jesus,” she said, adding that her younger son also came to embrace the faith while they lived there.

Over the next 10 years, the family lived in Indonesia while also seeking refugee status through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The process was agonizingly slow, but Ava’s family was eventually briefly resettled in Michigan before connecting with a church in California, leading them to finally put down roots on the West Coast.

But while Ava embraced their new beginning, it was tainted when her eldest son — who converted to Christianity and fled Iran to Indonesia later than the rest — was not initially approved for resettlement alongside the rest of his family.

Meanwhile, the family grew closer to their church congregation, with Ava and her husband joining a “home group.” It was through these gatherings they met fellow parishioners Taryn and Fernando Herrera.

“They are truly our family,” Fernando said, adding that Ava’s family has been “embraced by the congregation.”

Ava was equally effusive, describing her relationship with the church as “perfect,” and exclaiming, “we love them!”

Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, an outspoken Christian who recently was baptized and received a minister’s license, offered words of faith and encouragement last week to football players at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder.

Washington, 70, talked about some of his struggles, his roller-coaster relationship with God, and how he eventually realized that “God put me on this planet to preach.”

CU head coach Deion Sanders—also an outspoken Christian—opened a recent team meeting by playing a clip from Washington’s 2000 movie “Remember the Titans.” Then the man Sanders called “the greatest actor ever” appeared on a livestream to talk to and interact with players.

RELATED: ‘Don’t Play With God’: Denzel Washington Preaches During NY Times Interview

Denzel Washington ‘Deserted God’ But Received Mercy

Washington began by reciting Psalm 19:14, praying that his words would be pleasing to God. Then he described himself as “a man of God who’s been through every machination of faith, from faith to eff it.”

“I rejected God. I hated God,” he said. “I loved God. I appreciated God. I’ve had no patience with God, and God has had nothing but patience with me. That’s why they call it grace.”

Only by God’s grace, Washington said, did he survive a rough upbringing. He sold drugs, shot up heroin at age 13, and saw people get killed. Even after being “filled with the Holy Spirit in the ’80s…I still wanted to go party,” he said. Washington also described the extreme highs and lows of fame and the world’s fickleness.

RELATED: Denzel Washington: Prayer and the Holy Spirit Have Protected Me

The actor told CU’s football team that people all have different platforms but one God-given purpose. “I’m here to tell you God did not put you here to play football,” Washington said. “He gave you that gift, but that’s not your purpose in life.” He urged listeners to have a solid foundation and to be rooted in faith.

Reading from the devotional book “Jesus First for Men,” Washington talked about Jesus’ parable of seeds sown on barren places—and what a rocky heart might look like. “I had a rocky place in my heart and deserted God,” the actor said, “but thank God he had mercy on me.”

Lola Sheen, daughter of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, has publicly shared her newfound faith in Christ. While she admitted that she has quite a bit to learn, Sheen vulnerably shared how God demonstrated his power during one of her worst panic attacks.

“I have been wanting to share how God has transformed my life for so long,” said Sheen in a recent YouTube video.

Lola Sheen Recognized She ‘Didn’t Give [Jesus] Time To Pour Into Me’ Before a Panic Attack

Lola Sheen came to know Christ last year and was recently baptized in a local church. Sheen’s Instagram profile describes her as “saved by His Grace,” and she started a podcast to share her journey with others.

“Jesus is the only reason why I’m here today and made my life worth living,” Sheen said.

With just two episodes, her “HeavenlyBonded” podcast is “about walking with Jesus and walking through life.” Sheen has committed to uploading a new video each Sunday. The second episode focuses on “God’s Strength In Our Weakness.”

Sheen recently traveled to New York City for several days to promote a new show on Bravo, “Denise Richards & Her Wild Things.” While many people would embrace and enjoy a full schedule, interviews, and hair and makeup sessions, Sheen found it daunting.

Sheen remembered, “I did not make enough time to pray and to really, really let God fill my mind with his truth.”

She described how she felt insecure around so many “people who constantly have eyes on you.” Combined with being in the large city and navigating a full day of press interviews, the insecurity led Sheen to experience growing anxiety that could lead to a panic attack.

“I never made enough time for Jesus because I was so busy,” admitted Sheen. She later reflected on how it’s “important to make sure that I’m putting God at the beginning of my day and the end of my day.”

RELATED: ‘It’s a Great Way To Start Your Day’—Actress Patricia Heaton Reflects on Reading the Bible in a Year

Sheen recognized a familiar cycle in her own life. She listens to the world, rather than God’s truth, and it creates such anxiety within her soul. In this instance, her natural tendency was to isolate herself. But she knew isolation is often a temptation from the enemy because “that’s when we’re the most vulnerable.” Rather than fixating on the negative thoughts and emotions, Sheen decided to embark on a fun day in the city with friends. Admittedly, she still had not spent time with God and “received God’s peace.”

A man who threatened Joel Osteen‘s Lakewood Church in Houston with a deadly gas attack on Christmas Eve has been indicted by a grand jury on a charge of federal terrorism. Aaron Suppes, 33, was arrested on Dec. 24 after making a bomb threat at Lakewood, where around 5,000 people were gathered for a candlelight service.

According to Chron, a court filing on March 5 says the jury determined that Suppes threatened “to commit an offense involving violence” against Lakewood’s head of security and that Suppes had “the intent to place a substantial group of the public in fear of serious bodily injury.” 

RELATED: Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church Receives Fake Bomb Threat on Christmas Eve

Lakewood Church Received Fake Bomb Threat in 2024

On Christmas Eve 2024, Aaron Suppes called the FBI tip line and said that he planned to release sarin nerve gas at Lakewood Church. The CDC says that sarin gas is “one of the most toxic and fast acting nerve agents.” Houston police and fire department officials showed up at the megachurch around 7 p.m. and coordinated with the church’s security team. 

Using security cameras, officers located and arrested Suppes. They were able to determine that there was no immediate threat to Lakewood Church; near the church’s entrance, they found duffel bags that Suppes allegedly brought to Lakewood. The bags, which contained clothing and electronic devices, did not contain hazardous materials. 

The next day, Suppes appeared in court, where he was charged with a third-degree felony terroristic threat. His bond was set for $15,000. Suppes reportedly was unemployed at the time of his arrest and had been unhoused for six months. 

A police spokesperson said that Suppes had made a strange 911 call earlier that day “stating that him and his sister were being microwaved from overseas, whatever that means, so obviously having some mental issues.”

The spokesperson added, “At the end of the day, the threat was fake.” 

Suppes also claimed that he was a pastor in Florida, Harris County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Courtney Fischer, told Chron. Suppes made a county court appearance in January, where he was appointed an attorney and charged with making a terroristic threat.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (RNS) — Back in December, a group of migrants, released just hours before from detention centers or Customs and Border Protection processing, sat beside a large photo of Nazareth in the sanctuary of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville, ready to participate in Wednesday night worship.

After a dinner of spaghetti, pizza and Coca-Cola prepared by women from this Southern Baptist church, the Rev. Carlos Navarro hoped they could turn their attention to Jesus. The group of 15 migrants joined about 40 regular congregants for a Bible study and worship service in a sanctuary decked out with Christmas decorations, images of Israel and declarations in Spanish that “Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church.”

In a sermon on Psalm 140, a prayer for protection from the evildoers, Navarro told the newly arrived migrants and his congregants to rely on God for protection against evil people surrounding them, whether bosses or family members. “When God wants to protect me because he knows that there is something that could happen, he takes away that person that I am sure had something planned against me. Deliver us Lord from all evil,” he preached in Spanish before encouraging the migrants to accept Jesus in a silent prayer.

Where the “government sees a threat, a problem, society sees a danger with people that they don’t know, we see an opportunity to share the Gospel,” Navarro, a 64-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1982 and a decade later became pastor of the West Brownsville church, told RNS in English in December.

In 2017, Navarro began Ministerio Golán, a ministry of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville named after the biblical Golan Heights — a nod to the congregation’s devotion to Israel. Since then, the church has worked with government authorities, who would tell Navarro when they were releasing migrants from their custody. The church would briefly host them for food, supplies and evangelization before dropping them off to sleep at the airport, on their way to their final destinations in the U.S.

But now, with President Donald Trump having shut down the Biden-era app that allowed migrants to make appointments to seek asylum and curtailed other asylum opportunities, the Baptist church is only serving the slow trickle of unaccompanied minors released from the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services after their 18th birthday, as well as six migrant families who have chosen to stay in Brownsville, hearing there won’t be work in other U.S. cities.

“The word ‘migrants’ will be forgotten soon,” said Navarro in a March 5 phone call with RNS, describing the recent shuttering of migrant services along the border.

Volunteers from the Spanish-speaking church, which has about 300 congregants attending Sunday services, has historically served dinner to migrants all throughout the week. They also have a street evangelization ministry and ministries to people experiencing homelessness and those in nursing homes. Behind the church, with offices and worship space for the congregation of first- and second-generation Latinos, sits a one-story building with space to house up to 18 migrants who experience problems in reaching their final destination.

On that December night, Lindsey, a Guatemalan migrant just released who said she was going to meet an aunt she had not seen since she was 2 years old, told RNS that without Ministerio Golán, she would have spent the night at the airport crying by herself. (RNS is only using migrants’ first names to protect their safety should they return to their countries of origin.)

Instead, she stood beside Carla, a fellow Guatemalan migrant, as both agreed that their time at Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville had been “a blessing,” reinforcing that “God is good.”

The migrants at West Brownsville Baptist church told RNS they were fleeing political instability, police corruption, economic turmoil and domestic violence. One woman said she was fleeing a partner who had imprisoned her and beaten her, even while pregnant.

“The safety, it changes everything,” Oswal, a Venezuelan migrant among the small group of migrants staying in longer-term housing on Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville’s campus.

Like other migrants in Ministerio Golán, Oswal said he was determined to do things the legal way — by using the CBP One app — and that he hoped to find work quickly. He told RNS he had decided to leave Venezuela after his small business was repeatedly extorted by police, but his journey to the U.S. had presented new dangers.

Oswal, as well as Daniela and Verónica, two other Venezuelans who had stayed in Casa Golán’s housing, recounted their harrowing trips through the Darien Gap, a jungle route between Colombia to Panama. They described being on high alert for criminal groups who assault and rob migrants. Daniela said her journey to the U.S. took over a year due to sickness and lack of funds. Verónica recalled almost drowning during a river crossing, and the other two said they had seen or heard of other migrants who had.

For Verónica, it was her first time becoming close to a church. “It’s different to what I thought,” Verónica, whom Navarro enlisted as his assistant while her husband began working after their arrival last spring, told RNS. “I always thought other ugly things about the church, about people from the church, because of what you see in the news.”

Saying she jumps in to help wherever needed, Verónica cooked dinner for Casa Golán while speaking with RNS and then became a photographer when the group of new migrants arrived hours later. Oswal and Daniela also said they looked for any opportunity to give back to the church that had supported them.

Tracking the stats under the title “Hosting Angels” on their Facebook page, Navarro told RNS in March that the church had, since 2019, assisted more than 91,000 migrants materially and seen more than 26,000 make “decisions for Christ” — by praying to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. Another 3,461 migrants have stayed overnight in the church’s respite center, and the ministry has given out over 25,000 Bibles.

(RNS) — Bishop George Edward Battle Jr., an advocate for education and health and the former senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, died on Sunday (March 9) in Charlotte, North Carolina, after an undisclosed illness. He was 77.

“Having served as an active bishop for 29 years, Bishop George Edward Battle Jr. will take his place in history as one of our longest-serving active bishops,” the AME Zion Church’s board of bishops said in a statement. “He was not only an evangelist, pastor, bishop and Christian servant, he was a great philanthropist, a community leader, a champion for education and a social justice advocate.”

Battle retired in 2021. In one of his last acts as AME Zion Church’s senior bishop, he oversaw a mortgage-burning ceremony to celebrate the historically Black denomination paying off its debts. The denomination dates back to 1796 and is headquartered in Charlotte.

The church had refinanced a $3.9 million loan to be paid off in quarterly payments from 2015 through 2022, but its chief financial officer announced at a 2021 hybrid meeting in Atlanta it completed the payments early.

Battle said during that quadrennial denominational meeting: “We loved our church and we wanted to make sure that when we came to General Conference, we would have enough money saved by making these transactions, so when we came here the bills would be paid.”

Battle, a native of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, served churches in North and South Carolina starting in the 1960s. After he was elected bishop in 1992, he oversaw churches in the Carolinas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northeast.

He was especially remembered for his work as a mentor to students and clergy.

The Rev. Monte Witherspoon-Brown, an at-large member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, cited Battle’s 17 years on the school board, including four as board chair, at its meeting on Tuesday.

“His years of service were both critical and transformative for our district,” Witherspoon-Brown said in his tribute. “As a faith leader and advocate for education, Bishop Battle founded the Greater Enrichment Program in 1975, which has provided quality after-school enrichment for thousands of students and continues to operate in multiple locations.”

Witherspoon-Brown said Battle was his longtime mentor and helped prevent him from dropping out of school as a ninth grader, ensured he received financial support to attend Livingstone College, an AME-Zion affiliated school in Salisbury, North Carolina, and appointed him to three of the four churches where he served as pastor. Battle also counseled Witherspoon when he decided to run for the school board position.

“‘You have to make sure that all children get a good education,’” Witherspoon-Brown recalled Battle telling him. “And he paused for a moment and then emphasized ‘all children.’”

A Georgia youth pastor has been arrested and charged with six counts of possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Daniel Menelaou had been serving as a youth pastor for the Alpharetta campus of Futures Church. He has since been terminated. 

Editor’s note: This article refers to reports of child sex abuse that some readers might find triggering and/or disturbing.

Menelaou’s arrest came following an investigation by Roswell Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit.

The investigation began in February after authorities received an online tip. On March 11, Menelaou was taken into custody after authorities executed a search warrant on Menelaou’s residence, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.

Investigators seized multiple devices from Menelaou’s home. Melelaou, 28, now faces six felony charges related to possession of CSAM. 

RELATED: NY Pastor Pleads Guilty to Sexual Exploitation of a Child, Faces up to 30 Years in Prison

“It’s egregious behavior regardless of who is engaged in it, in particular somebody that has connections to young people and it raises the threat level to another degree,” said Roswell Police Officer Tim Lupo.

Futures Church, formerly Influencers Church, is a global multisite megachurch affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination. The church has locations in Australia and the United States. 

Leaders of Futures Church Alpharetta expressed shock following Menelaou’s arrest. 

“The charges against Daniel Menelaou are abhorrent, appalling, and completely contrary to everything we stand for,” the church said in a statement emailed to ChurchLeaders. “We are horrified by what has been revealed and categorically condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms.”

RELATED: Pastor Charged With Swindling ‘Long-Time Friends,’ Another Church out of More Than $230,000

The church said that prior to Menelaou’s arrest, leadership “had no prior knowledge of any allegations or indication of wrongdoing. The details outlined in the arrest warrant are deeply disturbing and stand in total opposition to our unwavering commitment to protecting children.”