Celebrations of Christmas often feature traditional performances with soft music, choirs, and Bible costumes. But Peter and Jennifer Emerson have revolutionized this concept with their groundbreaking production, “He Rules the World,” a rock-pop experience that masterfully tells the nativity story while delivering an energetic, family-friendly show.

“He Rules the World” blends high-energy rock guitars, classically-trained vocals, and even the sound of a pop synth keytar with the Christian message of Jesus’ birth.

Peter was inspired to write “He Rules the World” after attending a Trans-Siberian Orchestra performance. Impressed by the spectacular lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, and the sheer energy of the show, he felt the call to create something similar—but with one key difference: a focus on Christ.

RELATED: Anne Wilson Praises God for Opening Doors for Her To Take the ‘Gospel to Country Music’

“Their Christmas show was Christmas adjacent, but it wasn’t really about Christ. I wanted to do something that was both a spectacle and God-centered,” Peter said.

Peter told ChurchLeaders that his inspiration led to a six-month creative period in 2019, during which he wrote the music for the show. “God just pushed it through me,” Peter shared, crediting divine inspiration for the seamless and powerful composition of the show’s 17 songs. This rock opera, in its entirety, tells the nativity story in a way that’s vibrant and modern, yet faithful to the biblical narrative.

Those who attend “He Rules the World” will be immersed in an experience that combines Christmas music with stunning visuals, intricate lighting, and animated narrations by famous “Hercules” actor Kevin Sorbo. “I’m a very visual person,” Peter said. “I wanted something that was as interesting to watch as it was to listen to.”

The Emersons shared how they approached Sorbo. After a one-hour Zoom call with the couple sharing their vision for “He Rules the World,” Peter said that the “Hercules” actor was instantly on board, telling them, “Yeah, I’m in. What’s next?”

Jennifer emphasized the importance of creating a show that parents can feel good about sharing with their children. “I’m always looking for high-quality, fun, engaging activities that are family-friendly but also meaningful,” she explained. “He Rules the World” delivers the perfect balance between entertainment and spiritual depth.

“The older generations are going to enjoy a lot of the influences of music they grew up listening to—Styx, Steely Dan, and Tom Petty—while the younger kids are going to find themselves humming along to familiar Christmas melodies that they know,” Jennifer added.

RELATED: ‘God Perfectly Orchestrated My Career’—Forrest Frank Shares How He Balances Faith and Success

Jennifer recalled how a 12-year-old boy who attended 2022’s show said, “Man, this is the best concert I’ve ever been to! People need to come see this. The keytar is amazing!”

Officials are investigating a “suspicious” fire at Tabernacle of Faith Church in North Las Vegas. The fire occurred around 2:20 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17. No one in the building or among the fire crew was injured. 

“We are growing in faith through the Word of God & teaching others to do the same,” says the church on its Facebook page, which adds that Tabernacle of Faith was founded in 1993 “under the leadership [of] Bishop Corine W Claiborne.” It is now led by Rev. Dr. Fredrick Johnson.

North Las Vegas Church Fire Under Investigation

According to reports, the fire took place in an exterior wall of the North Las Vegas church. When fire crews arrived on scene, they saw smoke coming out of the building’s gable vents. Upon entering the church building, they saw the fire was burning in the exterior wall and successfully contained it before it spread elsewhere. 

The North Las Vegas fire and police departments are working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the fire’s cause. 

In a June 2024 interview on CTNVegas, Tabernacle of Faith’s pastor, Fredrick Johnson, discussed his spiritual journey, his ministry, and how he came to lead the church. Johnson shared that he was Claiborne’s assistant pastor at first and has been Tabernacle of Faith’s lead pastor since 2017. 

The pastor, who grew up in a “Baptist environment” and did not learn about the Holy Spirit until moving to Las Vegas, said that he did not always know God but perceives that God has always had his hand on Johnson’s life.

RELATED: ‘Wow, Look at God!’—Police Return Thousands of Dollars of Stolen Items to KS Congregation After Receiving a Tip

Johnson said he went to seminary because God told him to; while there, he met the CTNVegas interviewer, Dauda Presley.

Citing 1 Corinthians 13, Johnson said that when people visit his church, “I want you to feel the love of God.” Following God, he said, is not a “task” but a “privilege.”

After his 10th-inning walk-off home run in the American League Championship Series (ALCS) Thursday night (Oct. 17), David Fry praised God and admitted he had relied on help from above. “All glory to God,” the 28-year-old Cleveland Guardians catcher told a reporter, following the 7-5 game-three victory over the New York Yankees.

“I had a really bad first at-bat and strikeout,” Fry said. “And I just told God, I said, ‘Take it, man. Just take the at-bat.’” Later, during his post-game press conference, the night’s hero reiterated those comments. “I just told God, ‘Hey man, take this. It’s a tough matchup. Just try to have fun and you take the at-bat.’”

.@laurenjbara catches up with David Fry of @CleGuardians following his massive walk-off HR in Game 3 of the #ALCS ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/eySu0wGOS5

— TNT Sports U.S. PR (@TNTSportsUS) October 18, 2024

Fry, a Christian who partners with Jesus Won Apparel, spoke about the role his faith plays in high-stakes sports moments. “I try to give it to God, and I’m just trying to have the slowest heartbeat I can,” he said. “It’s tough in those situations to try to stay within yourself.”

The Guardians, who now trail the Yankees 2-1 in the best-of-seven ALCS, will try to even the series tonight at home. Cleveland hasn’t won a World Series since 1948, the longest current title drought in Major League Baseball.

RELATED: Faith on the Field: Celebrating Christian Baseball Players

Cleveland Guardians Pitcher: God Writes the Script

During five innings Thursday, Guardians starting pitcher Matt Boyd allowed one run and two hits. The 33-year-old, who signed with the team in June, walked three batters and struck out four.

In his nine years in the majors, Boyd, an outspoken Christian, has faced injuries, surgeries, and many team changes. After having Tommy John surgery in June 2023, he went more than a year without a big-league start. Boyd also faced the uncertainty of being a free agent after last season.

Before his Oct. 12 game-five start in the American League Divisional Series (ALDS) against the Detroit Tigers, his most recent team, Boyd spoke about the turn of events. “I don’t write the script,” he said. “But the One who does writes it a lot better than me, as I’ve said many times.”

After Cleveland advanced to the ALCS, the veteran pitcher expressed appreciation for getting another chance to play baseball. Boyd said while he recovered from surgery, his daughter repeatedly asked when he’d be part of a new team. “When God shows us who to sign with, we’ll do that,” he told her.

RELATED: Pittsburgh Pirates Outfielder Andrew McCutchen: ‘God Is More Important’ Than Baseball

Pitcher Matt Boyd Says He Is God’s ‘Handiwork’

On social media, Boyd proclaims that he is “playing for an audience of one.” The pitcher and his wife, Ashley, founded Kingdom Home in 2018 to fight sex slavery. The organization rescues children from the sex trade in Uganda and also works to prevent human trafficking.

A North Carolina pastor has been arrested and charged with sexual exploitation of a minor following a two-month investigation. Timothy Charles Rupard, 44, believed that he was communicating online with a 16-year-old girl. 

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

Rupard is pastor of Temple Baptist Church, an independent KJV-only Baptist congregation in Newland, North Carolina.

According to WCYB, an investigator received a message in August from Rupard on an undercover social media account. In the message, Rupard, who reportedly utilized the fake username “David Eller,” allegedly solicited sex from a 16-year-old girl. 

RELATED: Florida Pastor, Previously Convicted in Sex Abuse Case, Under Investigation as Authorities Seek To Identify Other Victims

The account received more messages of a similar nature through September. In October, the investigator obtained a search warrant and determined that the account belonged to Rupard. 

“Rupard had been in consistent communication with what he believed to be a sixteen-year-old female,” the Elizabethton Police Department in Elizabethton, Tennessee, said in a release. “Throughout these conversations, Rupard had repeatedly expressed his desire to engage in sexual acts with the minor female.”

When Rupard expressed his desire to see the girl, adding that he was willing to drive to her home, police set up an operation to arrest him. The “girl” told Rupard that she was on fall break from school and that her mother would be working during the day. 

In addition to expressing his desire to engage in sex acts with the minor, Rupard also said that he would bring THC vape pens so that the two could get high together. 

RELATED: Kenosha Pastor Re-Arrested at Hearing for Another Allegation of Stealing an ‘Intimate’ Photo

On Oct. 11, Rupard messaged the girl saying that he was en route to the her location at an apartment complex in Elizabethton, sending pictures of a road accident that resulted in him being stuck in traffic. He also spoke with someone he believed was the girl twice on the phone via the David Eller social media account. 

(RNS) — Bishop David D. Daniels III, a scholar and ecumenist who sought to build understanding of historical African and Black Pentecostal contributions to Christianity, has died at age 70.

Daniels, a professor of world Christianity and church history at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, died on Oct. 10 after a “courageous battle with cancer,” said the Rev. Eric Lewis Williams, director of the Office of Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School, who was Daniels’ colleague and former student.

The Rev. Maisha Handy, McCormick’s president, said her institution was “deeply enriched” by Daniels’ work and legacy. “His contributions to theological education are significant and timeless,” she said in a statement. “He will be missed by our village.”

Bishop J. Drew Sheard, the presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ, said in a statement that Daniels was “not only a tremendous individual in the Church of God in Christ but also an influential figure in the body of Christ.”

Sheard said Daniels’ “wisdom, scholarship, and unwavering dedication to the ministry made him one of the most astute and respected leaders among us. As a profound historian of the Church Of God In Christ, Bishop Daniels’ contributions to the preservation of our rich legacy are unparalleled.”

In his work, Daniels drew attention to individuals, such as the late Mother Mary P. Patterson, who preserved a sense of COGIC’s place in the United States. Patterson helped erect historical markers in the South that chronicle the denomination’s history. Daniels also highlighted the work of Sherry Sherrod DuPree, a former president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies whose Library of Congress collection includes 1930s issues of COGIC’s The Whole Truth newspaper.

Daniels, also a former SPS president, is himself known for fostering greater understanding of the denomination and other Pentecostal traditions in wider Christian circles.

“Daniels was very interested in getting Pentecostals engaged, especially Black Pentecostals, … in a number of the ecumenical dialogues,” said Williams, reached as he arrived in Switzerland for a joint consultation with leaders of the global Pentecostal movement and the World Council of Churches. “But the work was so much that he would begin to get others from the tradition engaged.”

The Chicago seminary noted that Daniels’ contributions included lecturing widely, while remaining committed to his colleagues and students in academia.

“Devastated to hear of the passing of someone who was a scholar, teacher, and mentor for so many: Bishop Dr. David D. Daniels, III,” said the Rev. Yolanda Pierce, dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School, on the social media platform X. “A loss for (the Church of God in Christ), McCormick, and so many other institutions.”

In a 2017 column published in the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, Daniels critiqued celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation that year that often occurred “without any reference to African Christians.” In that essay, Daniels wrote about reformer Martin Luther’s interest in the Christians of Ethiopia.

(RNS) — This past Sunday, worshippers returned to Biltmore Church, a megachurch in Asheville, North Carolina, for the first time in person after Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina. It was bittersweet, said Bruce Frank, the church’s pastor. People were glad to be together, even as many are still grieving. “There is a lot of loss,” Frank said simply in his sermon.

Among the lost were Nora and Michael Drye, lay leaders at Biltmore, and their 7-year-old grandson, Micah, who became trapped on their roof and drowned in Helene’s flooding. Others in the church had lost loved ones, homes and their livelihoods.

Church members have rallied to support those affected, offering their parking lot to disaster relief groups and state workers and organizing drive-by centers where people can pick up water, ice, diapers and food for those affected by the disaster, said Frank.

The coming months, he said, will be like a “stay-at-home mission trip” for church members, as they’ll be helping others near home.

With the one-two punch of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton within two weeks of one another, faith-based disaster groups are getting ready for a long, slow recovery that may take years. “It’s going to take a long time,” said Frank, whose church is working closely with North Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief. Volunteers have already cooked more than 100,000 meals in the church parking lot.

Two hours away, in Boone, North Carolina, staff and volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical humanitarian group led by the evangelist Franklin Graham, have been working to clear debris, set up water filtration systems and deliver food and other supplies by helicopter to communities cut off by the storm.

In rural communities the group has set up some 50 Starlink kits to restore internet service and has furnished generators to supply power. “We’ve also set up oxygen shelters,” said Graham, for patients unable to receive their usual supplies, “and refilled more than 1,000 oxygen tanks.”

So far, said Graham, more than 16,000 volunteers have shown up to help, with more expected. The group is working at sites from Georgia to Florida in Helene recovery, as well as close to home in North Carolina. More help will be needed in the months to come, said Graham.

But Graham said plans are already underway for long-term rebuilding, primarily recruiting leaders for that work and arranging with suppliers for rebuilding materials. Meanwhile, volunteers already on the scene are installing culverts to drain water and helping to temporarily restore gravel roads washed out by the storm.

Graham, a supporter of Donald Trump, nonetheless expressed relief the election has taken a back seat to disaster relief. “Nobody’s talking about Democrats or Republicans,” he said. “It’s kind of refreshing. Politics is not an issue. It’s about getting people back up and running again.”

The nondenominational Christian volunteer group Eight Days of Hope has been working on rapid response to both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, setting up mobile feeding sites as well as trailers with laundry and shower equipment.

“So if you need a warm shower or you need your laundry done, you could come and do that and get a warm meal while you were there,” said Hannah Fletcher, a spokesperson for the group. Having just wrapped up its Milton response, Eight Days of Hope planned to continue responding for much of October in areas affected by Helene, while making plans to return for rebuilding work once communities have a long-term plan in place.

James Vincent Henry, pastor of Crossroads Assembly of God in Delight, Arkansas, has been charged with 100 counts of possessing, viewing, and distributing 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.

According to the church’s website, the 43-year-old pastor has been married to his wife Brittney for 12 years, and the couple has three children.

Henry’s wife is also listed as a pastor of Crossroads Assembly of God.

Before becoming pastor of Crossroads Assembly of God, Henry served as a youth pastor at four different churches: Lacey Assembly of God, McGehee First Assembly of God, Mountain Pine First Assembly of God, and Newsong Church in Centerton, Arkansas.

RELATED: Christian Ethics Professor Arrested for Alleged Possession of Child Sex Abuse Material

“An Arkansas State Police (ASP) Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigation led to the arrest yesterday (Oct. 15) of James Vincent Henry, 43, of Delight, for 100 counts of crimes related to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM),” ASP said in a statement. “Henry is the pastor of [a] church in Delight.”

ASP reported that on Wednesday, Sept. 25, “Special Agents with the ASP ICAC Task Force executed a search warrant in Delight in reference to two cyber tips from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children made through the online messaging applications Snapchat and Kik.”

Agents then reviewed “digital evidence” before obtaining an arrest warrant on Monday (Oct. 14). Pike County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Henry less than 24 hours later.

Henry has been charged with “100 counts of Possession, Viewing, and Distribution of Child Pornography (CSAM).”

RELATED: 86-Year-Old Pastor Charged in Child Sex Abuse Material Case Still Appears To Be Preaching

Henry currently remains in custody at the Pike County Detention Center.

The Satanic Temple (TST), which considers abortion a “religious reproductive right,” has launched a second facility offering telehealth abortion services. The Virginia clinic, named the Right To Your Life Satanic Abortion Clinic, is similar to the virtual clinic in New Mexico, named Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.

TST opened its New Mexico clinic in February 2023, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade the previous summer. After a draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s Dobbs ruling leaked in 2022, TST pledged to “protect religious abortion access for our members.” Since then, the organization has taken aim at strict abortion laws in Indiana and Idaho.

RELATED: The Satanic Temple Will Protect ‘Religious Abortion Access’ If Roe Is Overturned

As ChurchLeaders has reported, The Satanic Temple differs from the Church of Satan. Members don’t worship or believe in the biblical devil. The organization’s mission includes “rejecting tyrannical authority,” “opposing injustice,” and fighting for “bodily autonomy.” In 2019, the IRS recognized The Satanic Temple as a tax-exempt church.

Satanic Abortion Clinic Relies on Abortion Pill

TST Health, the group’s “religious reproductive health arm,” described its new clinic as an expansion of “low-cost, safe, and reliable abortion care” in America. The Virginia clinic, which opened with the help of donor funding, works with a third-party online pharmacy to supply abortion medication.

TST has helped cover medication and travel costs for people experiencing financial hardships. “We’re honored to have made a positive impact on so many lives during what can be a difficult time,” the group said.

During virtual consultations with TST Health, patients learn about potential risks of the abortion pill and what to do if complications arise. “We do not agree with the notion that telehealth care puts patients at risk,” said Erin Helian, TST’s executive director. “Instead, we argue that by expanding care and access, telehealth clinics, like ours, can save lives.”

TST Health staff, who are available online 24/7, schedule a series of virtual appointments with each patient and follow up afterward.

“Our new clinic presents a rare opportunity to provide vital medical care in an area that, thanks to lawmakers, is a virtual reproductive care desert,” Helian said. “Our second clinic is just the beginning of our expansion of easy [abortion] access.”

The Satanic Temple Calls Abortion a Religious Ritual

On its website, TST describes its “religious abortion ritual,” which protects members from “medically unnecessary and unscientific regulations.” During the so-called “destruction ritual,” people recite two TST tenets, including one that states, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.” Next, they state this personal affirmation: “By my body, my blood. By my will, it is done.”

RELATED: ‘I’m Greatly Concerned’—Rep. Jon Dunwell Talks to ChurchLeaders About The Satanic Temple Controversy

To prepare for the ritual, patients are instructed to ponder “the scientific reality regarding abortion” and recall “the struggle to establish the reproductive rights we have today.” Other people’s stories “may subdue stigmas you might feel from those who oppose abortion,” TST states. “Be proud of pursuing what you want for your life despite opposition.”