Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), will be nominated again this year to be the SBC’s president. Michael Criner, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas, announced on April 14 that he plans to nominate Pressley at the SBC’s 2025 annual meeting.

“I am honored to announce my intention to nominate @pastorclint as SBC President at our Annual Meeting in Dallas,” Criner said in an April 14 X post that included a Biblical Recorder article about the news. “Clint has done a fantastic job of joyfully serving Southern Baptists with humility & conviction. I hope you’ll join me in voting for him this June!”

I am honored to announce my intention to nominate @pastorclint as SBC President at our Annual Meeting in Dallas. Clint has done a fantastic job of joyfully serving Southern Baptists with humility & conviction. I hope you’ll join me in voting for him this June! https://t.co/63tsRGOpBH

— Michael Criner (@michaelcriner) April 14, 2025

Clint Pressley: It’s Been a ‘Really Positive Experience’

Clint Pressley was elected president of the SBC during last year’s annual meeting in Indianapolis after a second run-off vote. He was one of six candidates, the other five being David Allen, Bruce Frank, Mike Keahbone, Jared Moore, and Dan Spencer.

RELATED: North Carolina Pastor Clint Pressley Elected President of Southern Baptist Convention

Regarding his views on the responsibility of the SBC president, Pressley mentioned leading Southern Baptists to “support our confession” and “our commitment to the Great Commission.”

In a statement to Biblical Recorder, Criner said, “While this renomination is no surprise, it is coming after sincere prayer and ongoing conversations with a wide number of SBC pastors.”

“During his first year, Clint Pressley has displayed clarity, conviction, and courage,” said Criner. “One of the most admirable qualities of Clint is that in every environment where he has represented the SBC, he has joyfully pointed us to the very best of who we are and what we do: our confession and our cooperation for/towards the Great Commission.”

Pressley confirmed to Baptist Press (BP), the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, that he is willing to be nominated again for the role of SBC president, saying that his past year as president has “been a really positive experience all the way through.”

“Going to the seminaries, you see the education students are getting. I’ve met our entity heads and been a part of the IMB [International Mission Board] commissioning service,” Pressley told BP. “All of it has been a good reminder that Southern Baptists are a really good movement in the evangelical world and do a great job. It’s an honor to be a part of that.”

Two major topics of conversation in the SBC over the past several years have been sexual abuse reforms and women’s roles in church leadership. Pressley was a supporter of the Law Amendment, which did not gain enough votes to be ratified last year and would have enshrined in the SBC’s constitution a ban on ordaining women as pastors.

James River Church, a multisite megachurch headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, has announced its departure from the Assemblies of God denomination. 

James River Church was founded in 1991. The church is pastored by John Lindell and his wife Debbie and reports a weekly attendance in the tens of thousands. 

“Recently, the James River Church Board of Trustees reached the decision to discontinue our formal denominational affiliation with the Assemblies of God,” the church said in a statement given to KY3 this week. “We are thankful for the Assemblies of God, and we intend to continue partnering with the Assemblies of God in a variety of ways—including our continued support of missionaries and missions efforts to take the Gospel around the world.”

“James River Church is not changing its doctrine, and the church remains committed to preaching the Bible and impacting the local community and the world for the cause of Christ,” the statement added. 

RELATED: Assemblies of God Mobilizing Thousands of Volunteers To Serve and Evangelize Across the US Through ‘Seek and Save’ Initiative

Over the past three decades, James River Church has grown to become an influential church within the evangelical movement. In recent years, it has also been the subject of several controversial headlines. 

In 2023, John Lindell drew the ire of skeptics when he claimed that a woman miraculously began to regrow previously amputated toes after receiving prayer. The claim led to calls for visual proof. In a play on Missouri’s “Show Me State” nickname, someone launched a website called ShowMeTheToes.com.

In response to these calls for proof, Lindell said that he’s “less interested in proving to people what I know God did than I am in protecting sheep who are vulnerable,” citing that he wanted to protect the privacy of the woman whose toes purportedly grew back, as she is a survivor of domestic abuse.

In 2024, controversy erupted during the church’s Strong Men’s Conference, which featured a monster truck, a boxing match, and an acrobat who became the center of a public feud between Lindell and controversial Pastor Mark Driscoll.

Driscoll is the pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, a church he founded after resigning as pastor of the now defunct Mars Hills Church in Seattle amid accusations of being an abusive leader.

RELATED: NewSpring Church Voluntarily Leaves SBC Amid Controversy Over Female Pastors

During the conference, Driscoll directly criticized the performance of Alex Magala, a sword-swallowing acrobat who scaled a large pole with a sword in his mouth. Driscoll went as far as to suggest that the performance was sexual in nature.

Comedian Nate Bargatze had the “highest-grossing comedy tour of 2024.” Better yet, his content is clean—for the entire family to enjoy together.

“I have a lot of grandmothers come to my shows, and they love me,” Bargatze recently admitted. “I don’t think there’s much being made that they could go to—certainly not stand-up comedy.”

‘This Can’t Be About Me,’ Says Nate Bargatze of Astonishingly Successful and Clean Comedy Career

Known for his “clean and relatable comedy,” Nate Bargatze doesn’t want his personal faith in God to be a barrier between him and his audience. He writes his content for “everybody.”

“I just want to make something that all of them can be in the room together,” he said.

RELATED: ‘God Has a Path’—Nate Bargatze Talks to Anjelah Johnson-Reyes About How God Has Guided His Comedy Career

Bargatze recently sat down with David Marchese, co-host of “The Interview,” a podcast of The New York Times. The podcast regularly features “influential people” from all cultures.

While entertainment often lacks authenticity, Bargatze brings “a regular person on a screen.” He grew up with two siblings in a Christian home in Nashville, Tennessee. His father was a teacher and part-time clown/magician, and his mother worked in the ticket office for the Vanderbilt Commodores.

The Grammy-nominated comedian agreed that he felt compelled to create moments for families to enjoy together as part of his service to God.

“It’s a big belief to be ‘I am second,'” explained Bargatze. “Being second to God, second to your family, second to—I believe—the audience, second to everybody.”

In his new book, “Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind,” Bargatze reflects on his life as a “non-genius,” childhood aspirations, and stories from his Christian upbringing.

“You live to serve,” Bargatze said. “It’s very much a calling in that aspect.”

The renowned comedian wanted to make a clear distinction and not be labeled as “faith-based” as he feels the content behind that label can often be dismissed.

Instead, he writes comedy that’s relatable and clean for the entire family, which he finds lacking in the entertainment industry.

Judy Henderson, a mother of two, spent more than 35 years in prison after being convicted of murder at the age of 32. Now, she is sharing her story through her new book, “When the Light Finds Us: From a Life Sentence to a Life Transformed.”

Henderson hopes that her story will encourage others to persevere through hardships and show that a mother’s love for her children can never be broken.

While she was in prison, Henderson earned her GED and paralegal certification and pioneered programs connecting incarcerated mothers with their children. Henderson’s advocacy work led to landmark legislation recognizing battered women’s syndrome as a legal defense in Missouri.

RELATED: NC Pastor Receives Full Pardon, Now Eligible for $400,000 in Restitution for Wrongful Imprisonment

Henderson, who was granted clemency by Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in 2017, recently spoke with ChurchLeaders to share more about how her faith was strengthened while she was in prison.

“At first I was very angry and very angry at God, because God is the Almighty God [who] has all the power, so I questioned why didn’t he stop this,” Henderson said. She shared that she was a Christian before being sentenced to life in prison, but her relationship with Jesus was estranged. “I got married and I was in an abusive relationship for 12 years, so I drifted away from the church,” she said.

“Being a battered woman, my addiction was love,” she said. “It wasn’t drugs, it wasn’t alcohol. I found out, through years of therapy while I was incarcerated, that I had a love addiction.”

“And I needed to address why I remained a battered woman,” she said, “why I remained in these relationships, why I attracted guys that could use me and manipulate me and I wouldn’t question their behavior.”

Henderson divorced her abusive husband to protect her children. She then found a new boyfriend who she said manipulated her into helping him rob a jeweler in Springfield, Missouri. When the jeweler refused to cooperate with the boyfriend’s demands, the boyfriend fired a gun multiple times, killing the jeweler and wounding Henderson.

RELATED: Once Behind Bars, a Pastor Advocates for Giving Released Prisoners a Clean Slate

Both Henderson and her boyfriend were charged with murder but only Henderson was convicted.

Through therapy, Henderson realized that she was still angry with God. Henderson told ChurchLeaders she came to the conclusion that she had two choices. She could “get bitter” or she could “get better.” Through God’s grace, she chose to get better.

On Tuesday (April 22), the new Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the federal government met for the first time. Behind closed doors, attendees shared stories of alleged harm caused by the “anti-Christian sentiment” of the Biden administration.

President Trump created the new interagency task force in February via executive order. U.S. Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi, who heads the group, said in opening remarks Tuesday that members will address the previous administration’s “egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.”

RELATED: ‘Capital Punishment Is Biblical’—Pastor Robert Jeffress Praises Attorney General Bondi for Seeking Death Penalty Against Luigi Mangione

After Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke briefly about the task force, media members were sent out of the room. During a closed-door session, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, the task force heard from senior Cabinet officials and several “peaceful Christian Americans who were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration for their religious beliefs.”

Attorney General: First Amendment Is ‘Cornerstone’ of American Liberty

In Pam Bondi’s opening remarks, the AG listed some examples of alleged abuses. She said Biden’s DOJ targeted pro-life Christians by arresting peaceful protesters, “the FBI spied on traditional Catholics in their parishes, President Biden declared Easter Sunday to be Transgender Day of Visibility, [and] vandalism against churches was eight times higher in 2023 than it was in 2018.”

Bondi also touted the new administration’s swift moves to end anti-Christian abuse. After Trump’s second inauguration, the DOJ dropped three cases against pro-life advocates and “redefined the FACE Act to ensure that abuse would not continue,” the AG said. The DOJ also recently convicted an Arizona man for plotting to bomb Christian churches.

The goal of the task force is to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights, said Bondi, who called that amendment “the cornerstone of our American liberty.” She added, “Protecting Christians from bias is not favoritism. It’s upholding the rule of law and fulfilling the constitutional promise.”

Before dismissing reporters, Deputy AG Blanche said every American “has the freedom to choose their religious faith, and once made, that choice should never be subject to discrimination or bias from our government.” He cited “troubling signs” from the past few years, with Democratic “policies that frankly strip people of their unalienable rights.”

America’s government is a “constitutional republic, not a pure democracy,” Blanche emphasized. “This distinction matters because in a republic, individual rights are protected even when unpopular.” Institutions and the media “misrepresent our founding principles,” said the deputy AG. “Our government’s purpose is to secure rights, not restrict them.”

Dr. Jamal Bryant of Atlanta-area New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is expanding his charge to “fast” from Target, which he urged Christians to do during Lent, to a “full out boycott.”

The end of the Target fast was conditional on the company meeting four demands. When Bryant announced on Easter Sunday, April 20, that the Target boycott would be ongoing, he said that Target had met only one of the four requirements.

“I had to share with Target that we gave [the company] 40 days to answer four, not one,” said Bryant. “And they only came back with one. So I told them what I’m getting ready to tell you: We ain’t going back in there.”

RELATED: Pastor Jamal Bryant Urges Christians To Boycott Target During Lent Over DEI Changes

Jamal Bryant: We Are in the ‘New Civil Rights Movement’

Various corporations, including Target, have pulled back on their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives because of President Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI. In a statement published Friday, Jan. 24, titled “Target’s Belonging at the Bullseye Strategy,” Target said it was committed to inclusion and that it would make several changes this year, including “concluding our three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals.” 

In April 2021, Target had announced a “commitment to spend more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by the end of 2025.”

“This investment builds upon Target’s previous commitments, including increasing Target’s representation of Black team members by 20% over the next three years,” said the announcement, “and committing $10 million from Target and the Target Foundation to support nonprofit partners focused on addressing the systemic and structural barriers facing Black communities.”

On Feb. 2, Jamal Bryant called on the congregation of his megachurch, as well as the “conscientious Christian community all over this country,” to use the season of Lent to participate in a 40-day “fast” from shopping at Target.

Lent is a period in the church calendar prior to Easter when many Christians practice self-denial. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which fell on March 5 this year, and ends on Maundy Thursday, a few days before Easter.

Bryant had a goal of getting 100,000 Christians to make their commitment to the Target fast official by signing a form at targetfast.org. The Target Fast website, which has since been changed, listed Target as committing the “highest insult” out of a number of companies rolling back DEI initiatives; the reason given was that Target had “pledged spending over 2 billion with black owned business [sic] by the end of 2025.”

“To stop the program at the start of the year is betrayal,” said the site. It was not clear from Target’s January statement that it was ending or that it was committed to fulfilling its pledge to give Black-owned businesses $2 billion dollars by the end of this year. 

The website listed four requirements for Target to fulfill in order for the fast to end, including honoring its $2 billion pledge and reiterating its commitment to DEI. The other two requirements were giving $250 million to Black banks and supporting “pipeline community centers at 10 HBCU [historically Black colleges and universities] to teach retail business at every level.” 

The Target fast movement offered 300 Black-owned businesses as alternative places where consumers could shop. Bryant said he was announcing the fast a month before Lent in order to give time for Black business owners to remove their products from Target and join the National Black Chamber of Commerce.

Targetfast.org now offers a t-shirt for sale that shows Target’s bullseye logo crossed out and has the words “stay on target.” The site also features a “Black Wall Street Ticker” displaying a list of companies to boycott and a list of approved companies to “buycott.”

“Not since the Montgomery bus boycott has Black America come together in such a unified vision, unified focus, and a unified front,” Bryant told worshipers on Easter as people wearing the Target fast t-shirt stood behind him. “And we’ve done it, ladies and gentlemen, we have done it for 10 weeks, for 10 weeks,” he said as people applauded. “We’ve stayed out of Target.”

RELATED: On ‘Jamal Bryant Podcast,’ Dante Bowe Discusses How He ‘Accidentally’ Posted a Nude Selfie

The pastor told congregants that the boycott didn’t start with New Birth as there was already a “grassroots movement afoot that was doing a Target boycott.” 

“We came along just as one church and said that the Body of Christ needed to be a part of it and that we were going to take fasting as a spiritual principle,” said Bryant, “because we understand that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty under God for the pulling down of strongholds.”

An Arkansas pastor has been sentenced with more than a century of prison time after pleading guilty to 11 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

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

James Vincent Henry, formerly of Crossroads Assembly of God Church in Delight, Arkansas, was originally charged with 100 counts of possession, viewing, and distribution of CSAM.

Henry, 43, was sentenced to 10 years in prison per count to which he pleaded guilty, with the sentences to be served consecutively. 

RELATED: MI Worship Pastor Pleads Guilty to 15 Charges Related to Hiding Camera in Church Bathroom

Authorities initially arrested Henry in October after receiving two tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about Henry’s activity on Snapchat and Kik, two social messaging apps. 

“During the investigation, agents reviewed digital evidence collected from the search warrant and information drawn from social media messaging apps,” the Arkansas State Police said in a statement at the time.

Henry was married at the time of his arrest and has three children. 

RELATED: Former Children’s Pastor Sentenced to Nearly 30 Years in Prison for Attempting To Murder His Family

In addition to pastoring Crossroads Assembly of God Church, Henry and his wife reportedly were foster parents at New Beginnings Children’s Home outside of Centerton, Arkansas, and served there for six years.

(RNS) — Department of Veteran Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins has instructed the agency’s employees to report any instances of anti-Christian bias, including any policies that are “hostile to Christian views” or punishments for displaying Christian symbols.

“The VA Task Force now requests all VA employees to submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination to Anti ChristianBiasReporting@va.gov,” Collins wrote in an email to employees on Tuesday (April 22). “Submissions should include sufficient identifiers such as names, dates, and locations.”

Those submissions will be given to a VA task force set up in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump on eradicating anti-Christian bias, according to that email.

The email from Collins, a former Southern Baptist pastor and Air Force chaplain turned politician, lists 11 kinds of bias or discrimination — three of which specifically name Christianity — ranging from retaliation in response to requests for religious holidays or religious accommodations to discipline against chaplains in response to their sermons. The email also says the task force will “review all instances of anti-Christian bias” but makes no mention of how to report discrimination of any other faiths.

In his executive order, Trump set up a Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the Justice Department, which included the attorney general and members of Trump’s Cabinet. Like Collins’ order, it makes no mention of any other faiths by name.

“My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified,” Trump wrote in his order.

The VA media relations office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier this month, Politico reported that the State Department had sent out similar instructions on how to report anti-Christian bias.

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, expressed concerns with the focus on anti-Christian bias but not religious liberty when Trump issued his executive order in early February.

“We have strong concerns that this new task force could be weaponized to enforce a theological conformity that will harm everyone’s religious freedom, including those of Christians,” she said. “Today’s action is consistent with inflaming the completely unfounded claims of rampant Christian persecution in a majority-Christian nation.”

Hemant Mehta, an atheist blogger and activist, first reported Collins’ email on Twitter, followed by the Federal News Network.

(This is a breaking story and will be updated.) This article originally appeared here. 

(RNS) — Easter Sunday is one of the rare days of the church year when the archbishop of Canterbury preaches at the main service of the day at the neo-Gothic Canterbury cathedral, speaking as head of the Church of England and the first prelate among equals in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Not this year. Four months after the Rt. Rev. Justin Welby stepped down and six months after he tendered his resignation for failing to do enough to report a known child abuser, there is no sign of a successor. Indeed, the Catholic hierarchy is likely to name a new pope before Anglican leaders manage to issue a job description for Welby’s replacement. One indication of how complicated the process of replacing him is: Lord Evans, the man heading the effort, is a former head of MI5, the British equivalent of homeland security secretary.

RELATED: Pope Francis, Charismatic Reformer and Disruptor, Dies at 88

As Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the bishop of Dover, offered the good news of the Resurrection at Canterbury — and to the nation, as BBC broadcast the Easter service live — conversations in the pews likely strayed on Easter to the extended search for a replacement for Hudson-Wilkin’s former boss, and the church’s struggle to fill other prominent bishoprics. (Locals were also bound to be talking about the financial struggles of their parishes: Under pressure to send substantial sums to their dioceses, many are fighting to keep their own doors open as repairs to many of their ancient, beautiful buildings eat up money.)

Despite these challenges, Lord Evans and the Canterbury search committee are mindful that the new archbishop will not only need to lead the British church, but play a significant role in the Anglican Communion. For the first time, the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission will include five international Communion representatives.

But as of Good Friday, none of the Anglican Communion reps have been named. Nor have committee members from the Church of England’s General Synod, nor those from the Diocese of Canterbury members selected from the diocese’s Vacancy in See Committee, which itself has become embroiled in legal battles over whom to send.

Conservatives believe that the Vacancy in See Committee has been formed in such a way that it favors church liberals, while liberals accuse conservatives of slow-walking the filling of critical episcopal vacancies by refusing to back candidates they consider not orthodox enough on sexuality. The stakes in the decision to replace Welby are much higher. “When the prize is appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury, is it such a stretch,” said Tim Wyatt, a leading commentator on the Church of England via his Substack, “The Critical Friend,” “to imagine your devious opponents might also stoop to stitching up the complicated procedures?”

According to Wyatt, “The conspiracy theorists are out in force.”

The divisions were especially evident during Holy Week, the most sacred time in the church calendar as Christians prepare for Easter Day. Across the United Kingdom, bishops customarily preside at a Chrism Mass, at which special oils used in rituals from baptisms to last rites are blessed and priests renew their ordination vows.

But in London, a separate Chrism Mass was held for clergy who don’t accept women as priests or bishops – 31 years after women’s ordination was first introduced, and in a diocese whose bishop is a woman. Some parishes belonging to the church’s evangelical wing offer alternatives to Chrism Masses for those who object to the way the church is changing.

In the past, the selection of an archbishop of Canterbury preserved the peace alternating between the evangelical and Anglo-Catholic wings of the church. After George Carey (1991-2002), an evangelical, came Rowan Williams (2002-12), Anglo-Catholic; then Welby, evangelical. At one time, money would have been put on Graham Usher, bishop of Norwich, to claim the post, but he has now been elected to the Crowns Nominations Commission for Canterbury, which would seem to rule him out.

An intriguing candidate would be Guli Francis-Dehqani, bishop of Chelmsford. Hers is not a high-profile diocese, but Francis-Dehqani, the daughter of a former Anglican bishop of Iran whose family came to the U.K. as refugees in the 1980s, has been impressive in speaking for the Church of England on housing. Francis-Dehqani has also managed to avoid becoming part of Welbyism — a pejorative for those obsessed with making the church more corporate. But is the Church of England — or the wider Anglican Communion — ready for a woman in the top job?