4 Lies Female Worship Leaders Believe

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January 19, 2022

It is easy for women to experience confusion in their roles as worship leader and/or background vocalists in the Church. Oftentimes, we simply believe that our role doesn’t matter at all.

The longer God allows me to lead worship and shepherd at The Austin Stone, the more I am convinced that He has called me to be here to actually lead His people. I have heard it clearly from Him and seen it in His Word.

There are plenty of lies that female worship leaders can believe but I want to take some time to specifically address four lies that we believe as the women that have been called into worship leadership.

I am praying this will encourage you and hopefully validate some of what you hear God saying to you in this season of ministry.

LIE # 1: I AM NOT REALLY A “ WORSHIP LEADER.”

Gosh, this is a huge lie that I have heard and battled in my role as a worship leader. You must know that God considers you a leader among His people and that is not something to take lightly. On any given Sunday, God has entrusted to us the calling of serving and being faithful with that call.

Leading God’s people in worship is not just singing—whether you are a background vocalist or you are leading out on a song, remember that you are leading people who are coming in beaten down, depressed, joyful, stressed, full of faith, confused or unbelieving to see Jesus for who He is and to worship Him rightly.

God says through Paul in Ephesians 2:10 that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand, that we should walk in them.” From this passage, you can trust that God hasn’t made a mistake in putting you before His people week to week. He has prepared for you to play a role in worshiping Him!

LIE # 2: WHAT I DO OFFSTAGE DOESN’T MATTER.

I think something that often falls by the wayside is the idea that what we do in our “ordinary-Monday-through-Saturday-lives” doesn’t matter. This is a big lie and Satan wants you to believe it.

The enemy wants us to believe that what we do at our 9-5 jobs or when we think no one is watching doesn’t have any bearing on what we do on Sundays. The truth is, whether you realize it or not, the people you lead see you and know you beyond Sundays. Living “above reproach” goes hand in hand with dying to self, and this is important for all believers, especially leaders in the local church. Satan is looking to take you down.

God told Cain in Genesis 4:7, “Sin is crouching at your door. It’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

We have to put boundaries in place to protect ourselves, our reputations and our ministries. For women this will look like evaluating ourselves day-to-day:

What am I wearing to work or to dinner with friends?
How do I speak and act toward friends and strangers?
Do I spend time in the Word daily?
Am I honoring my husband and kids?
Do I speak respectfully of my church?

When we take our church’s stage, we are saying with our presence that we agree with our church’s beliefs and convictions and that we support our leadership.

Understanding Proverbs – Great Video

By

Megan Briggs

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January 19, 2022

thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Instead of simply being a book of clever one-sentence sayings, the book of Proverbs helps people gain wisdom. This video explains us in understanding Proverbs how the writers of Proverbs saw wisdom, which is different from how we typically think of it. The book is designed the help the reader live a good and prosperous life, which is what wisdom will ultimately guide us toward.

Understanding Proverbs

Watch the video to learn the back story behind this amazing book of the Bible.

Watch this overview video on the book of Proverbs, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. The book of Proverbs invites people to live with wisdom and in the fear of the Lord in order to experience the good life. That’s why Understanding Proverbs is so important.

If you enjoyed this video from the Bible Project, you’ll like these as well:

Animated Explanation of ‘The Messiah’

Do You Understand the Psalms?

This Animated Description of Holiness Will Permanently Change the Way You Worship God

The Gospel of the Kingdom

BibleProject is a nonprofit ed-tech organization and animation studio that produces 100% free Bible videos, podcasts, blogs, classes, and educational Bible resources to help make the biblical story accessible to everyone, everywhere.

From page one to the final word, we believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. This diverse collection of ancient books overflows with wisdom for our modern world. As we let the biblical story speak for itself, we believe the message of Jesus will transform individuals and entire communities.

Many people have misunderstood the Bible as a collection of inspirational quotes or a divine instruction manual dropped from heaven. Most of us gravitate toward sections we enjoy while avoiding parts that are confusing or even disturbing.

TheirBible resources help people experience the Bible in a way that is approachable, engaging, and transformative. They do this by showcasing the literary art of the Scriptures and tracing the themes found in them from beginning to end. Rather than taking the stance of a specific tradition or denomination, we create materials to elevate the Bible for all people and draw our eyes to its unified message.

This video on understanding Proverbs originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

Bible Verse Coloring Pages: 16 Fun Resources for Kids of All Ages

By

Stephanie Martin

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January 18, 2022

Bible verse coloring pages are an easy and great way to encourage creativity while young learners discover the riches of God’s Word. Loads of printable Bible verse coloring pages are available online to download for free, often as PDFs. You can search by Scripture verse, Bible story, book of the Bible, Bible character and more.

Coloring pages are incredibly versatile, especially now that coloring is so trendy. “Kids” of all ages—from toddlers to adults—will enjoy filling in words and images with crayons, markers or colored pencils. Best of all, artists read live-changing truths from God’s holy Word. Plus, they can display the finished masterpieces for even more impact.

Sunday school teachers can use free Bible verse coloring pages as part of a lesson or as a time-filler at the end. They also can use the sheets as take-home papers. During or after worship services, you can provide coloring pages that match the sermon theme.

Downloadable pages also work well in mailings to sick children and homebound church members. Brighten someone’s day—and share the promises of Scripture—by providing Bible verse coloring pages (and maybe even a pack of crayons)!

Kids will love these 16 Bible verse coloring pages:

1. Promises, Promises

Share the good news that God keeps all his promises. This page features the words of Isaiah 38:7.

2. Bread of Life

This coloring page highlights Jesus’ nourishing role as the bread from heaven (John 6:35).

3. Feeding the Hungry

Nurture generosity to “the least of these,” as Jesus instructs in Matthew 25:35.

4. Measuring God’s Love

Kids can easily color in the “gospel in a nutshell”—the good news of the gospel from John 3:16.

Theology Professor Shares The Apostle Paul’s Long Hair Policy for Men; Twitter Refuses Haircut

By

Jesse T. Jackson

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January 18, 2022

Provost and Research Professor of Theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary, Owen Strachan, is making people lose their hair (literally) after posting an image of Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 11:14-15.

Strachan, who previously served as professor at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote, “Men: cut the man bun. Lop it off. Time to look like a man. No one wants to say this in an androgynous age, but in obedience to God, do it.”

“No perfect length, but cut that hair down your back,” Strachan said, and then told men to “hand that Scrunchie back to your little sister. Look manly. God’s glory is in it!”

In a follow up tweet, Strachan said, “Paul: long hair is a ‘disgrace’ for a man (1 Cor. 11:14). Do people still read, believe, and apply the Bible?”

One pastor told Strachan that he was honestly trying to understand the application of this passage, saying, “Context is instruction about head coverings in prayer, appropriate for a woman; inappropriate for a man. Then Paul mentions illustration of nature regarding hair length to bolster his point.”

The pastor then asked if these were correct applications regarding the passage, saying, “Men should always have a hair cut approved by Independent Baptists? Women should always have long hair (as defined by whom)? Bonus question: Is a godly woman in sin in modern times by short hair?”

“Did Samson have long hair? What about the Nazarite vow,” another one of Strachan’s followers asked. “There are some things that serve as nothing but a distraction and this is one of them, like asking Men from Scotland to give up their kilt, tell that to Dr. James White.” Another pointed out that Samson was perhaps the “manliest man in all of scripture.”

By contrast, one of Strachan’s followers wrote that the length of a man’s hair doesn’t determine his masculinity. “This is something I don’t necessarily agree with you on. I don’t have long hair and don’t plan on it, but I don’t think hair length determines masculinity. How is this argument any different from preachers in the 60’s who wanted men to shave their beards?”

Strachan, who recently released a book titled “Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel – and the Way to Stop It,” was asked if the women in the church he attends all wear head coverings in accordance with 1 Corinthians 11:5-7.

A woman wrote, “No. From the ladies; don’t cut that hair. #samson #absolom (sic)” She then criticized the professor for his post, saying, “And another thing: we got too much going on to worry about the length of someone’s d*mn hair.”

Even Strachan’s supporters took issue with his post, with one saying, “Yes let’s prooftext short hair from the Bible as some weird superiority complex.” He then told the professor, “You’re normally dead on but this is nonsense.”

“Remember how the Bible also said that men judge based on appearance but God judges the heart,” someone else wrote. “So, do you still read, believe, and apply the Bible? Or do you only read and apply the parts that secure a fragile and misrepresented understanding of masculinity?”

Thousands of Pastors Preach on Sexuality in Response to Canadian Law Banning Conversion Therapy

By

Stephanie Martin

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January 18, 2022

canadian bill — Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau at the Vancouver Pride Parade in 2018. GoToVan from Vancouver, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Across North America Sunday, thousands of Christian pastors preached about biblical sexual morality. Their coordinated messages from the pulpit were spurred by Canadian Bill C-4, an LGBTQ-related law that went into effect Jan. 7.

Many pastors fear that the vague wording of Bill C-4, which passed unanimously, could “criminalize Christianity.” They also warn that threats to religious freedom are quickly spreading throughout Western countries.

Why Canadian Bill C-4 Concerns Christian Pastors

As summarized by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Bill C-4 bans “the despicable and degrading practice of conversion therapy.” The law’s wording declares that such therapy “causes harm” and “propagates myths and stereotypes about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.” People who use or advertise conversion therapy, as well as those who force someone to undergo it, all face punishment under the law.

After Canadian pastor James Coates alerted U.S. Pastor John MacArthur about Bill C-4, MacArthur urged pastors to dedicate January 16 to addressing the topic. He encouraged church leaders to take “a stand for the truth of the saving gospel,” especially regarding biblical sexual morality. “Publicly preach a sermon,” MacArthur advised, “that specifically proclaims the biblical truth that homosexuality and transgenderism are serious sins condemned by the law of God that exclude a sinner from salvation without repentance.”

Juli Slattery: This Is How the Church Can Begin the LGBTQ Conversation

Pastor John MacArthur: Anti-Christian Legislation Will ‘Escalate’

MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, tells Fox News, “Ultimately, the dissenters, the ones who will not cave in, are going to be those who are faithful to the Bible. And that’s what’s already leading to laws made against doing what we are commanded to do in Scripture, which is to confront that sin. And that’s just going to escalate.”

Pointing to governmental responses to the pandemic, MacArthur adds, “The fact that [Bill C-4] identified [conversion therapy] as a criminal conduct that could give you as much as five years in prison takes it to a completely different level, because Canadian pastors have been put in jail for just having church services.”

MacArthur says legislation passed in some U.S. states points to a rise in religious persecution in America. “I think it’s reached a level there in Canada that it hasn’t yet reached here,” he says. “But it’s coming. It’s coming fast.”

Pastors Preach About Biblical Sexuality

Among the clergy advocating for Bible-based morality is Florida Pastor Tom Ascol, president of Founders Ministries. Last week he tweeted, “We are standing with our Canadian brothers & sisters,” adding that his January 16 sermon would be titled “How God Loudly Shouts About Sexual Immorality.”

In that sermon, Ascol pointed to Genesis 1:27 to show “there are only two sexes.” He said 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 warns about the “grave danger of sexual immorality,” adding that God, out of love, wants people to “turn from their sin and live.”

Georgia Pastor Josh Buice, president of G3 Ministries, also preached on the Canadian bill. “We live in a postmodern society that claims that what’s wrong for one generation may actually be right and acceptable to another generation,” he said. Buice, whose church recently left the Southern Baptist Convention, said Jesus frees his followers from slavery to sin. “He is a jealous God,” he added. “He will not share the throne with anyone else!”

Skillet Brings the Fire—Literally—at Winter Jam; Cooper Warns Against Fake Christianity

By

Jesse T. Jackson

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January 18, 2022

Skillet Winter Jam Tour — Photo credit: ChurchLeaders

Winter Jam, one of the most successful annual Christian music tours, returned this year for a 40-city east coast tour, after taking a brief hiatus last year due to the pandemic.

This year’s lineup includes a mixture of worship, hip-hop, R&B, and rock, and concert goers will get performances from Colton Dixon (American Idol), Tauren Wells (Lakewood Church), KB, I Am They, Kevin Quinn (Disney), Abby Robertson, Bayside Worship, Megan Duke, Winter Jam founders NewSong, and hard rocking headliner Skillet.

It’s been 27 years since the first Winter Jam took place, and unlike the last few years, the tour has gone back to charging only $10 a person for over five hours of gospel infused entertainment. NewSong’s Russ Lee said that people called him “crazy” when they announced they were going back to charging $10 instead of $15. Lee explained that he trusts God will provide the funds needed to travel from show to show, because sharing the gospel is more important than ever.

ChurchLeaders asked Skillet’s John Cooper if he had any concerns performing with COVID-19 still being a threat, and Cooper said that he had no hesitancy saying yes to headlining Winter Jam in the midst of a pandemic.

“I’m excited to be playing concerts again. People need it. They need community. People need that social aspect,” Cooper said.

Skillet’s frontman has seen how live music can affect people, and he said, “You can see in their faces when they’re all out there singing [and] having a good time. Winter Jam is a great time to be playing music and sharing the gospel. I believe this is going to be a year of people responding to the good news of Jesus Christ.”

The pandemic has caused many people to search for a “reason to live,” Cooper said. “They are wondering where meaning is going to be found because all of the sudden you’re in a pandemic and no one knows what tomorrow holds, so everyone is wondering what that means for the future so it is a good time to get the message of Christ out.”

Winter Jam Encourages Youth Leaders

Winter Jam invites all of the youth pastors and leaders in attendance to join them in the back for a special encouragement during each show. Lee, who was once a youth leader himself, shared with them, “Our prayer is that God will get a hold of you and refresh you and fill you with His Spirit. Don’t forget that when you feel a little tattered and ragged, that’s when the light shines through you the best sometimes. So don’t get overwhelmed by what God has called you to do, because He who called you and equipped you is faithful to help you complete the task that He’s put in your hands and your heart.”

This year’s tour pastor is Zane Black, who has been a speaker the last few years at Winter Jam. He currently serves as student pastor at Grace Church in Minnesota. Black told the youth leaders how important their ministry is and shared that it was a volunteer youth leader that first shared the gospel with him when he was 19-years-old. Black was a drug dealer in high school before Jesus saved his life, and Black credited God using that youth leader and his family as the reason he was standing there that day.

Younger Evangelicals More Likely Than Older to Want In-Depth Sermons, Survey Finds

By

Jessica Lea

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January 18, 2022

Younger evangelicals are not necessarily looking for short, superficial sermons when they go to church, according to a new report. Findings indicate that younger evangelicals who attend church regularly are more likely than their older counterparts to crave in-depth teaching.

“I’ve actually gotten lots of feedback that YOUNG PEOPLE want more in-depth sermons,” said pastor and public theologian Jake Doberenz in a tweet about some of the report’s findings. “So many young people have told me Sunday sermons are practically useless for their spiritual development because they are half an inch deep.”

I’ve actually gotten lots of feedback that YOUNG PEOPLE want more in-depth sermons. So many young people have told me Sunday sermons are practically useless for their spiritual development because they are half an inch deep. https://t.co/nxFQ2Il2Tp

— Jake Doberenz in Digital (@JakeDoberenz) January 18, 2022

Younger Evangelicals Want Depth in Church

Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts collaborated on “The Congregational Scorecard: What Evangelicals Want in a Church,” which was released Jan. 7. Researchers surveyed more than 1,000 American evangelical Protestants, specifically focusing on the 89 percent who attend church, and respondents gave feedback on 14 different aspects of church life.

An “evangelical” was defined as “someone who agrees strongly” with the following:

-The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe
-It is important for me to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior
-Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin
-Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation

“The Congregational Scorecard” offers a number of interesting findings, some of which center on younger people, that is, evangelicals under the age of 40. “Some people have advocated for short sermons for the younger generation,” write the authors, “with the idea being that younger adults have shorter attention spans. Yet only 10 percent of evangelicals under age 40 would prefer shorter sermons at their church.”

Looking at evangelical churchgoers as a whole, 85 percent are content with the average length of a sermon. Seven percent prefer sermons to be shorter, and eight percent prefer them to be longer. The group with the highest percentage of people (11 percent) who prefer shorter sermons is actually evangelicals age 70 and older. The group with the highest percentage of people (11 percent) who would like sermons to be longer is evangelicals age 40 to 54.

Another surprising finding about younger churchgoers was that, “The younger the evangelical, the more likely he or she is to want more in-depth teaching at church.” Seventy percent of evangelical churchgoers like the teaching in their churches as it currently is. The other 30 percent want the teaching to have more depth to it. Say the authors, “Among the three out of ten evangelicals who want something different, it is almost unanimous: give us more in-depth teaching.” And younger evangelicals “are twice as likely as the oldest evangelicals to call for more in-depth teaching at church (39 percent to 20 percent).”

One more finding about evangelicals under the age of 40 that is somewhat unexpected is their preferences regarding music style in worship services. “As might be expected,” say the authors, “the oldest evangelicals are far more likely to call for more traditional music in their church rather than more contemporary music (23 percent to 9 percent). What may be rather surprising, however, is that the youngest evangelicals are equally split on this issue, with 18 percent wanting the music to be more contemporary, but 17 percent wishing to hear more traditional music in their church.”

Conservative Activist Group Uses MLK Quote in Support of Capitol Riot

By

Dale Chamberlain

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January 18, 2022

On Monday, America celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As is a common practice for the occasion, many individuals and organizations published articles, blogs, and social media posts with their favorite MLK quotes and remarks about King’s legacy of fighting for the cause of racial justice through nonviolent resistance.

One of those organizations was the Republicans for National Renewal (RNR), a conservative activist group with a populist vision for American politics. The quote that RNR selected to commemorate the day was one of King’s more controversial: “Riot is the language of the unheard.”

What made the post unique from others is that RNR overlaid King’s quote on a photograph from the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021. In so doing, RNR facetiously implied that King’s explanation about why riots occur served as an endorsement of sorts for the violence that took place when a large mob of people forcibly entered the U.S. Capitol building in an effort to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

RNR tweeted the image with the simple caption, “Happy MLK Day.”

According to their website, RNR “is dedicated to working to promote a new conservative vision fit for 21st century America. In line with the spirit of the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, RNR seeks to advance bold ideas with a foundation in American nationalism and populism.” RNR’s talking points include limiting immigration, regulating Big Tech, and implementing an “America First” philosophy of international trade and military intervention.

On the one year anniversary of the Capitol riot, RNR tweeted several updates, one of which argued that the violence of that day was instigated by FBI plants and others that continued to question the integrity of the 2020 election results, despite the overwhelming lack of evidence that the election results were falsified.

Nevertheless, RNR leveraged the popular Martin Luther King Jr. quote as evidence that the violence of January 6 was justified.

Happy MLK Day#mlkday pic.twitter.com/8zuSYBnwDD

— Republicans for National Renewal (@RNRenewal) January 17, 2022

Texas Synagogue Hostage-Taker Had Stayed in Area Shelters

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AP News

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January 18, 2022

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) — An armed man who took four people hostage during a 10-hour standoff at a Texas synagogue had spent time in area homeless shelters in the two weeks leading up to the attack, and was dropped off at one by someone he appeared to know.

Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen who authorities identified as the hostage-taker, was brought to the shelter in downtown Dallas on Jan. 2 by a man who hugged him and had conversations with him, said Wayne Walker, CEO and pastor of OurCalling, which provides services to homeless people.

“He was dropped off by somebody that looked like he had a relationship with him,” said Walker, who said they’d turned photos and video over to the FBI.

An FBI spokeswoman said late Monday that they did not have any information they could confirm regarding Akram’s stay at the OurCalling facility. The agency has said there was no early indication that anyone else was involved in the hostage-taking.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker told “ CBS Mornings” that he’d let Akram into Congregation Beth Israel on Saturday morning because he appeared to need shelter. The synagogue is in Colleyville, a city of about 26,000 people located 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Dallas.

Cytron-Walker said the man wasn’t threatening or suspicious at first, but later he heard a gun click as he was praying.

The rabbi and three other men were participating in the service that was being livestreamed when they were taken hostage. The first hostage was released shortly before 5 p.m. Cytron-Walker and two others escaped around 9 p.m., when Cytron-Walker threw a chair at the gunman.

“The exit wasn’t too far away,” Cytron-Walker said. “I told them to go. I threw a chair at the gunman, and I headed for the door. And all three of us were able to get out without even a shot being fired.”

Akram was killed after the hostages ran out. Authorities have declined to say who shot Akram, saying it was still under investigation.

Video of the standoff’s end from Dallas TV station WFAA showed people running out a door of the synagogue, and then a man holding a gun opening the same door just seconds later before he turned around and closed it. Moments later, several shots and then an explosion could be heard.

The FBI on Sunday night issued a statement calling the ordeal “a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted” and said the Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating. The agency noted that Akram spoke repeatedly during negotiations about a prisoner who is serving an 86-year sentence in the U.S. The statement followed comments Saturday from the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office that the hostage-taker was focused on an issue “not specifically related to the Jewish community.”

Cold Case Team Shines New Light on Betrayal of Anne Frank

By

Mike Corder

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January 18, 2022

AMSTERDAM (AP) — A cold case team that combed through evidence for five years in a bid to unravel one of World War II’s enduring mysteries has reached what it calls the “most likely scenario” of who betrayed Jewish teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family.

Their answer, outlined in a new book called “The Betrayal of Anne Frank A Cold Case Investigation,” by Canadian academic and author Rosemary Sullivan, is that it could have been a prominent Jewish notary called Arnold van den Bergh, who disclosed the secret annex hiding place of the Frank family to German occupiers to save his own family from deportation and murder in Nazi concentration camps.

“We have investigated over 30 suspects in 20 different scenarios, leaving one scenario we like to refer to as the most likely scenario,” said film maker Thijs Bayens, who had the idea to put together the cold case team, that was led by retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke, to forensically examine the evidence.

Bayens was quick to add that, “we don’t have 100% certainty.”

“There is no smoking gun because betrayal is circumstantial,” Bayens told The Associated Press on Monday.

The Franks and four other Jews hid in the annex, reached by a secret staircase hidden behind a bookcase, from July 1942 until they were discovered in August 1944 and deported to concentration camps.

Only Anne’s father, Otto Frank, survived the war. Anne and her sister died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Anne was 15.

The diary Anne wrote while in hiding was published after the war and became a symbol of hope and resilience that has been translated into dozens of languages and read by millions.

But the identity of the person who gave away the location of their hiding place has always remained a mystery, despite previous investigations.

The team’s findings suggest that Otto Frank was one of the first to hear about the possible involvement of Van den Bergh, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Amsterdam.

A brief note, a typed copy of an anonymous tip delivered to Otto Frank after the war, names Van den Bergh, who died in 1950, as the person who informed German authorities in Amsterdam where to find the Frank family, the researchers say.

The note was an overlooked part of a decades-old Amsterdam police investigation that was reviewed by the team, which used artificial intelligence to analyze and draw links between archives around the world.

Vatican No. 2 and Deputy Both Positive for COVID-19

By

AP News

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January 18, 2022

COVID-19 Vatican — FILE - Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin smiles during a meeting at the Bellevue palace in Berlin, Germany on June 29, 2021. The Vatican press office says that The Vatican secretary-of-state and his deputy have both tested positive for the new coronavirus. Officials said Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pope’s No. 2, has “very light” symptoms, while Mons. Edgar Pena Parrra is asymptomatic. These are the first cases of COVID confirmed so high up in the Vatican hierarchy since the pandemic began. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican secretary of state and his deputy have both tested positive for the coronavirus, Vatican officials said Tuesday.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who serves as the Vatican’s secretary of state and the pope’s No. 2, has “very light” symptoms, while Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra is asymptomatic, officials said.

There was no immediate comment on their last contact with Pope Francis. It wasn’t clear if Francis has received a booster shot, which has been administered to his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

These are the first cases of COVID-19 confirmed so high up in the Vatican hierarchy since the pandemic began.

This article originally appeared here.

R.C. Sproul: We Cannot Love God if We Do Not Love His Word

By

R.C. Sproul

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January 18, 2022

Emil Brunner, the twentieth-century Swiss theologian and one of the fathers of neoorthodox theology, wrote a little book titled Truth as Encounter. His thesis was that when we study the things of God, we are not studying truth in the abstract. We want to understand theology not merely so that we can make an A on a theology exam. We want to understand the doctrine of God so that we can understand God, so that we can meet the living God in His Word and deepen our personal relationship with Him. But we cannot deepen a relationship with someone if we do not know anything about him. So, the propositions of Scripture are not an end in themselves but a means to an end. However, they are a necessary means to the end. Thus, to say Christianity is not about propositions but about relationships is to establish an extremely dangerous false dichotomy. It is to insult the Spirit of truth, whose propositions they are. These propositions should be our very meat and drink, for they define the Christian life.

Recently I read some letters to the editor of a Christian magazine. One of them disparaged Christian scholars with advanced degrees. The letter writer charged that such men would enjoy digging into word studies of Christ’s teachings in the ancient languages in order to demonstrate that He did not really say what He seems to say in our English Bibles. Obviously there was a negative attitude toward any serious study of the Word of God. Of course, there are scholars who are like this, who study a word in six different languages and still end up missing its meaning, but that does not mean we must not engage in any serious study of the Word of God lest we end up like these ungodly scholars. Another letter writer expressed the view that people who engage in the study of doctrine are not concerned about the pain people experience in this world. In my experience, however, it is virtually impossible to experience pain and not ask questions about truth. We all want to know the truth about suffering, and specifically, where is God in our pain. That is a theological concern. The answer comes to us from the Scriptures, which reveal the mind of God Himself through the agency of the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of truth. We cannot love God at all if we do not love His truth.

It is very sad to me that in today’s sophisticated Western culture, people are more familiar with the twelve signs of the Zodiac than with the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve Apostles. Our world likes to see itself as sophisticated and technological, but it remains filled with superstition. Christians are not immune to this. We, too, can succumb to the new-age desire for the power to manipulate our environment. We do not have to go as far as accepting the foolish idea that the courses of the stars determine our destinies, our prosperity, our achievements, and our successes. However, it is equally superstitious to equate our feelings and inclinations with the leading of the Holy Spirit. It seems so much more exciting to live with a freewheeling openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit rather than practicing the laborious discipline of mastering His Word. This is exceedingly dangerous ground. If we want to do the will of the Father, we need to study the Word of the Father—and leave the magic to the astrologers.

This article about loving God by loving His Word originally appeared here and is used by permission.

Combat Porn: Heed This Helpful Advice From Anti-Porn Advocates

By

Jessica Lea

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January 17, 2022

Unfortunately, parents and youth leaders in the digital age must be aware of the need to combat porn. That’s because it’s prevalent online and on teenagers’ phones.

In a Boston Globe column, anti-porn advocate Gail Dines explains how the two most popular social media apps among teens, Instagram and Snapchat, can be gateways to pornography. Today’s teens don’t need to go looking for porn because they have apps that deliver it. With the internet and social media, pornography is out to find whether kids want to see it or not.

On Instagram, porn is often hidden behind hashtags and emojis that appear innocuous but are used as secret code to tag and search for particular types of porn…[on Snapchat] a whole ecosystem of online businesses help budding entrepreneurs manage and monetize “premium” pornographic accounts.

Instagram’s community guidelines specify that the platform doesn’t allow inappropriate content or nudity (with some exceptions). Snapchat has a similar policy. However, from how easy it is to access explicit content, these policies are ultimately ineffective. They really don’t do anything to prevent or combat porn.

How Do People Find It?

If users search the eggplant and/or peach emojis on Instagram, for example, a range of inappropriate content appears. And people don’t have to be looking for such content to run across it. I’ve encountered explicit images on Instagram because I searched an unrelated hashtag (say, #california). How? Someone placed that hashtag on an inappropriate image.

According to Dines, on Snapchat premium pornographic accounts are:

linked to a more innocuous “teaser” Snapchat account and other platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. One of the biggest companies, FanCentro, serves as a channel to a whole universe of private Snapchat accounts and boasts that if one account is taken down, it will seamlessly set up another and redirect traffic. FanCentro also facilitates links from Snapchat to Pornhub, the major pornography site, in just a couple of clicks.

Porn stars are increasingly turning to social media to market themselves directly to users. That’s a change from working with sites such as Pornhub. One adult-film industry consultant says, “All of this is a shift away from the (movie) studio system to a system controlled by performers… These (personal accounts) have really exploded in the past year, and some performers are making a ton of money.”

For example, one star says she relies primarily on Snapchat for marketing. Users pay a subscriber fee to watch her through her account. And she makes more than $1,000 per day!

As America Celebrates the Legacy of MLK, Evangelicals Remain Divided on Race

By

Dale Chamberlain

-

January 17, 2022

On Monday (January 17), America commemorates the birthday of legendary civil rights figure Martin Luther King, Jr. The federal holiday, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and first observed three years later, is meant to be a celebration of the pivotal role King played in dismantling American segregation through nonviolent activism.

In the half century since King’s assassination in 1968, the Baptist minister turned activist and Noble Peace Prize winner has become almost universally beloved among Americans as an icon of racial justice and peace. However, disagreement about how, and by whom, his name and legacy should be leveraged to further the cause of justice in our own time has become a contentious debate.

In recent years, evangelicals have continued to be divided when it comes to race. From disagreements about Critical Race Theory to the issues of voting rights and equitable policing, the various groups within American Christianity often have clashing visions for a nation of people who will be “judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others in 2020, a wave of civil unrest broke out around the country. Amid the demonstrations, which often turned violent, the values of racial justice and “law and order” were regularly pitted against each other as though mutually exclusive.

During this time, Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 “The Other America” speech became as relevant as the day it was given.

“Let me say as I’ve always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating,” King said in 1967. “But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met…And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay.”

For some evangelicals, King’s words about riots being socially destructive and self-defeating were the main takeaway, as they rounding and vocally condemned protests around the country. But for others, they questioned what it is that America had been failing to hear.

It is this key difference in emphases that has been at the heart of many of the fissures regarding race among evangelicals, whether on the streets, in the classroom, or among the pews.

Such a fissure was on display at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in June of 2021, which centered on a conflict about Critical Race Theory (CRT) at least two years in the making.

In 2019, the denomination adopted a resolution that became controversial for referring to CRT and Intersectionality as “analytical tools [that] can aid in evaluating a variety of human experiences,” even though they “alone are insufficient to diagnose and redress the root causes of the social ills that they identify, which result from sin.”

Well-Known Pastor Draws Criticism for Rubbing Spit on Brother’s Face As a Sermon Illustration

By

Jessica Lea

-

January 17, 2022

michael todd — Screen grab from YouTube: @Transformation Church

A pastor’s decision to illustrate his sermon by smearing mucus and saliva on his brother’s face on stage has drawn widespread criticism from Christians and non-Christians alike. In his Jan. 16 sermon on having God’s vision for our lives, Pastor Michael Todd gave an object lesson from Mark 8 where Jesus uses spit to heal a blind man.

“That Mike Todd video has so many layers of terribleness wrapped up in it, I don’t know even where to start,” tweeted Christian author Danté Stewart. “The audacity. The cult energy. The spiritual and theological abusiveness. The hocking and rubbing and spitting and deflecting. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Ain’t no way.”

Stewart continued, “This is more than terrible theology or performance or arrogant view’s [sic] of one’s self and power. I don’t know a word for this but it ain’t nice or holy or pastoral or good.”

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but this is demonic and manipulative.

Mike Todd even tried to manipulate the crowd into feeling bad over reacting to him dehumanizing a man live on stage.

We’re watching abuse and humiliation to boost another’s ego and profile. Disgusting. https://t.co/ZsfTFUI1J1

— Ameen (@Ameen_HGA) January 17, 2022

Michael Todd: Receiving Vision Could Be ‘Nasty’

Michael Todd and his wife, Natalie, co-pastor Transformation Church in Tulsa, Okla., where they have been lead pastors since 2015. Todd’s Jan. 16 sermon was titled, “Clearly // The Vision For Invasion // Vision Sunday 2022.” The beginning of his sermon focused on the importance of believers submitting themselves to God in order to have a clear vision from him for their lives in the coming year.

“You should be asking God to touch every area of your life this year,” said the pastor, giving examples that included deciding who to date, a college major, and where to go on vacation. An absence of clarity from God will lead to confusion and compromise, he said.

After expounding on the need for clear vision from God, Todd turned to the account in Mark 8:22-30 of Jesus healing a blind man, which Jesus does by spitting on his eyes. The pastor spent about 15 minutes developing various points based on this passage and had his brother, Brentom Todd, come on stage to represent the blind man.

Michael Todd’s sermon points included 1) we need Jesus to touch us as he touched the blind man and 2) God will take us outside of our comfort zones as Jesus took the blind man outside of the village. When Todd got to the part about Jesus spitting on the man’s eyes in order to heal him, the pastor noted that spitting on someone “seems to the natural eye as degrading.” It could be, however, that God will put us in a position that seems degrading in order to humble us so that we are ready to receive the miracle he wants to do in our lives.

As Todd built up to his illustration, he began hocking mucus into his hand, as well as spitting into it. Each time he did this, congregants groaned and exclaimed out loud. “This is where most people would not face Jesus any more,” said Todd, as his brother turned away to demonstrate the point. “What most people would do is turn away.”

Ironically, before Todd was about to put spit on his brother’s face, he said, “Now this is Jesus ya’ll…don’t let nobody else spit on you, but I’m just saying, like, this is Jesus, like this was a mode of healing people.” Todd also noted that Jesus didn’t embarrass the blind man by spitting on him in front of other people.

“What I’m telling you,” said the pastor, “is just as he’s [Brentom] physically standing here, knowing what’s coming, God is saying, ‘Can you physically and spiritually and emotionally be able to stand when getting the vision or receiving it might get nasty?’…Receiving vision from God might get nasty.”

Todd then rubbed the phlegm and saliva in between his hands before rubbing it over his brother’s face as the audience reacted in shock. The pastor drew a connection between the revulsion people were expressing and the point of his sermon. “So many of you right now are so bothered,” he said. But just as the congregants were reacting in disgust at Todd’s illustration, some people will be repulsed at God’s work in the life of another.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: “Paul’s Letter to American Christians (From MLK)”

By

Ed Stetzer

-

January 17, 2022

In the spirit of the letters of Paul, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an imaginary letter from the Apostle Paul to American Christians. It is patterned after the letter to Romans, a church Paul had not yet visited. He delivered the letter to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, on November 4, 1956.

Each year, on Martin Luther King Day, I like to publish one of King’s letters. The following excerpt is worth reading again on this day when we remember Dr. King.

You can read the entire letter here.

I, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you who are in America, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For many years I have longed to be able to come to see you. I have heard so much of you and of what you are doing. I have heard of the fascinating and astounding advances that you have made in the scientific realm. I have heard of your dashing subways and flashing airplanes. Through your scientific genius you have been able to dwarf distance and place time in chains. You have been able to carve highways through the stratosphere. So in your world you have made it possible to eat breakfast in New York City and dinner in Paris, France. I have also heard of your skyscraping buildings with their prodigious towers steeping heavenward. I have heard of your great medical advances, which have resulted in the curing of many dread plagues and diseases, and thereby prolonged your lives and made for greater security and physical well-being. All of that is marvelous. You can do so many things in your day that I could not do in the Greco-Roman world of my day. In your age you can travel distances in one day that took me three months to travel. That is wonderful. You have made tremendous strides in the area of scientific and technological development.

But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It seems to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress. Your poet Thoreau used to talk about “improved means to an unimproved end.” How often this is true. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture. Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. So America, I would urge you to keep your moral advances abreast with your scientific advances.

I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unChristian world. That is what I had to do. That is what every Christian has to do. But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: “everybody is doing it, so it must be alright.” For so many of you Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup poll of the majority opinion. How many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

But American Christians, I must say to you as I said to the Roman Christians years ago, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Or, as I said to the Philippian Christians, “Ye are a colony of heaven.” This means that although you live in the colony of time, your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry. You live both in time and eternity; both in heaven and earth. Therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God’s will it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God. . . .

At Many Churches, Pandemic Hits Collection Plates, Budgets

By

Holly Meyer and Haleluya Hadero

-

January 17, 2022

collection plates — This photo provided by the Rev. Lucy Robbins shows a "For Sale" sign in front of the Biltmore United Methodist Church in Asheville, N.C. in July 2021. Already financially strapped because of shrinking membership and a struggling preschool, the congregation was dealt a crushing blow by the coronavirus. Attendance plummeted, with many staying home or switching to other churches that stayed open the whole time. Gone, too, is the revenue the church formerly got from renting its space for events and meetings. (Rev. Lucy Robbins via AP)

Biltmore United Methodist Church of Asheville, North Carolina, is for sale.

Already financially strapped because of shrinking membership and a struggling preschool, the congregation was dealt a crushing blow by the coronavirus. Attendance plummeted, with many staying home or switching to other churches that stayed open the whole time. Gone, too, is the revenue the church formerly got from renting its space for events and meetings.

“Our maintenance costs are just exorbitant,” said the Rev. Lucy Robbins, senior pastor. “And we just don’t have the resources financially that we used to have to be able to do the kind of ministry work that we would like.”

Biltmore is just one of an untold number of congregations across the country that have struggled to stay afloat financially and minister to their flocks during the pandemic, though others have managed to weather the storm, often with help from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, and sustained levels of member donations.

The coronavirus hit at a time when already fewer Americans were going to worship services — with at least half of the nearly 15,300 congregations surveyed in a 2020 report by Faith Communities Today reporting weekly attendance of 65 or less — and exacerbated the problems at smaller churches where increasingly lean budgets often hindered them from things like hiring full-time clergy.

“The pandemic didn’t change those patterns, it only made them a little bit worse,” said Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research and co-chair of Faith Communities Today.

Attendance has been a persistent challenge. As faith leaders moved to return to in-person worship, first the highly transmissible delta variant and now the even faster-spreading omicron have thrown a wrench into such efforts, with some churches going back online and others still open reporting fewer souls in the pews.

At Biltmore, for example, attendance at weekly services are down from around 70 pre-pandemic to just about 25 today, counting both in-person and online worship.

After congregants voted last May to put the church property, a two-building campus perched on a verdant knoll just off Interstate 40, on the market, church leaders are still figuring out what comes next, including where the congregation will call home. But they hope to use some of the proceeds from the property sale to support marginalized communities and causes like affordable housing.

Unlike Biltmore, Franklin Community Church, about 20 miles outside of Nashville, Tennessee, doesn’t have its own sanctuary, holding services instead at a public school. That turned out to be a blessing during the pandemic, with no need to worry about a mortgage, upkeep, insurance or utilities.

“We wouldn’t have survived if we’d had all that,” said the Rev. Kevin Riggs, the church’s pastor.

85-Year-Old on Walker Takes to Streets in Gospel to Every Home

By

Diana Chandler

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January 17, 2022

HEBRON, Ky. (BP) – Letha Owens would like to make it back to the 34 neighborhood homes she visited a few months ago to share the Gospel. But at 85 and using a walker to steady herself, she rarely gets out.

“I used a walker actually when I went. I can hardly walk at all,” said Owens, a member of Hebron Baptist Church. “So for me to get out and visit, I can’t go too far. I mean God just gave me the strength to actually do this at the time.”

Owens was emboldened by the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s (KBC) Gospel to Every Home outreach aimed at placing Gospel resources at each of Kentucky’s 1.73 million homes in 2021. Owens was among the first members of Hebron Baptist Church to participate in reaching the 5,000 homes in the church’s 40148 zip code. Outreaches across the state are continuing this year.

“I didn’t even know my next-door neighbor,” Owens said. “First thing I asked him, I asked him if he was a Christian. He even went over the plan of salvation and everything, so I knew he was a Christian. But that was the first thing I wanted to know, and it gave me the courage to ask that.”

Accompanied by a friend last July, Owens left Gospel packets at every home in her neighborhood, talked with neighbors, made new friends and gathered prayer requests.

“I’d like to actually be able to go back and visit with them,” Owens said. “I did pray for them and I’ve found out that’s one of the best things I can do anyway. … I’m hoping that I made an impression on them to want to get to know their neighbors and maybe find out something about them, because if you don’t know your next-door neighbor, that’s pretty bad.”

Rob Patterson, KBC evangelism team leader, recounted his conversation with Owens after meeting her at Hebron Baptist last year.

“Brother Rob, the Lord just really convicted me,” Patterson recalled Owens saying. “There have been several families who have moved into our community that I have not yet met. … The Holy Spirit said to me, ‘Letha, how can you ask your church family to go invite your own neighbors to come to church and to give their lives to Jesus when you’ve never tried.’

“The Gospel to Every Home was never about a program but about people – people like precious Letha loving their neighbors enough to cross the street, become involved in their lives, and to tell them about Jesus.”

The KBC provides free training and resources to equip churches to participate in the outreach. Laypersons, pastors and associational mission strategists share stories of the Gospel to Every Home bearing fruit in large and small churches across the commonwealth, in cities and in rural communities.

“The number of homes adopted actually exceeded our goal as the ministry fields of several of our churches cross state lines, especially into Tennessee and Indiana,” Patterson said. “Tracking how many homes have actually been visited and received Gospel resources is somewhat more challenging as many churches are doing the work but perhaps not reporting back to the state level. However, the fact that more than 1.8 million-plus homes have been formally adopted by a local church is a huge Kingdom win.”

Fund To Preserve, Assist Black Churches Gets $20m Donation

By

Jay Reeves

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January 17, 2022

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A new effort to preserve historic Black churches in the United States has received a $20 million donation that will go to help congregations including one that was slammed during the tornado that killed more than 20 people in Mayfield, Kentucky, last month.

Lilly Endowment Inc., which supports religious, educational and charitable causes, contributed the money to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund as seed funding for the Preserving Black Churches Project, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which launched the fund.

The announcement about the donation from the Lilly Endowment was timed to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday on Monday.

Rather than simply replacing broken windows or straightening rafters, the project will provide assistance with things including asset management and helping historic churches tell their own stories, said Brent Leggs, executive director of the fund.

St. James AME Church, founded in 1868 just three years after the Civil War and crumpled by the Mayfield twister, will receive $100,000 as the first recipient of the project’s special emergency funding, Leggs said.

With its sanctuary virtually destroyed and only 15 or so active members, all of whom are older, St. James AME needs all the help it can get, said the Rev. Ralph Johnson, presiding elder of a church district that includes the congregation. Black churches served a vital role after the war ended and Black people no longer were considered the property of white people.

“Once the slaves were freed one of the things they wanted to start was a church home. They wanted to work out their spiritual salvation and have a place to congregate, and they also were used as schools and other things,” he said.

Black churches have been a key element of the African American community through generations of faith and struggle, and preserving them isn’t just a brick-and-mortar issue but one of civil rights and racial justice, Leggs said in an interview.

“Historically Black churches deserve the same admiration and stewardship as the National Cathedral in Washington or New York’s Trinity Church,” he said. Trinity, where Alexander Hamilton and other historic figures are buried, was near Ground Zero and became a national touchstone after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In all, the project plans to assist more than 50 Black churches nationwide over the next three years, including some that are vacant or set for demolition or are struggling with inadequate funding, aging members and dwindling membership. While active congregations are the main priority, funding can also go to old church buildings that now house projects like community centers or treatment programs, Leggs said.

“It still stewards the legacy of the Black church but for a new purpose,” he said.

The fund previously has assisted congregations including Mother Emmanuel AME Church, where white supremacist killed nine parishioners during a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, and Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, a stalwart of the civil rights movement which was bombed in the 1950s.

The Action Fund, which has raised more than $70 million, has assisted with more than 200 preservation projects nationally. It was started by the National Trust for Historic Preservation after clashes between white supremacists and protesters during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

The fund calls itself the largest-ever attempt to preserve sites linked to African American history.

Reeves is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team.

This article originally appeared here.

Hostages Safe, Invader Dead as Standoff at Dallas-Area Synagogue Ends

By

Yonat Shimron

-

January 17, 2022

hostages dallas area synagogue — A Texas state trooper blocks traffic on a road leading to a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue where a man apparently took hostages Jan. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Jake Bleiberg)

(RNS) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Saturday night that all hostages were safe after an 11-hour standoff inside a Dallas-area synagogue.

“Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe,” Abbott tweeted at 9:33 p.m. Central Saturday (Jan. 15). Details about the rescue were not clear, but a source at the scene said the hostage taker is dead.

Abbott’s tweet came not long after a loud bang and what sounded like gunfire was heard coming from the synagogue, according to The Associated Press.

Police officers, FBI and a SWAT team were called to Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, shortly after noon following reports that a man had apparently taken four people hostage, including the rabbi. The hostage-taker’s identity had not been released as of Saturday evening.

Police were alerted by a rabbi in New York City, who had received a call from the rabbi believed to be held hostage in the synagogue, a law enforcement official told AP. The rabbi in New York called 911 to report the call.

Congregation Beth Israel had been holding online services when a man could be heard shouting on the livestream. Residents in the immediate area were evacuated.

An interfaith team of local clergy worked with the negotiators and assisted relatives of the hostages throughout the ordeal, including Pastor Bob Roberts, a co-founder of Multi-Faith Neighbors Network; Rabbi Andrew Paley of Temple Shalom Dallas; and Imam Omar Suleiman, president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. Suleiman is a columnist for Religion News Service.

Shortly after 5 p.m. police reported that one hostage had been freed and did not require medical attention. That person was not the rabbi.

Authorities are still trying to discern a precise motive for the intruder’s actions. According to AP, the hostage-taker was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected of having ties to al-Qaida, who was convicted of trying to kill U.S. military officers while in custody in Afghanistan. The intruder also said he wanted to be able to speak with her, according to the officials. Siddiqui is in federal prison in Texas.

Initial reports that the hostage-taker was related to Siddiqui were incorrect, according to a source close to the case.

The congregation, on Pleasant Run Road, is a Reform synagogue of about 125 families. Its first and only rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, has been with the synagogue since 2006. He was apparently conducting virtual services along with three others when the intruder walked in.

Texas resident Victoria Francis told the AP that she watched about an hour of the livestream before it cut out. She said she heard the man rant against America and claim he had a bomb.

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