(RNS)—Anabaptists around the world are commemorating 500 years since their founders performed the first adult baptisms outside Zürich and kicked off the Radical Reformation.

The Anabaptist tradition included Mennonites, Amish, Church of the Brethren, Hutterites and other small Christian groups—and significantly influenced Baptists.

The Anabaptist movement has long been defined by its belief in the separation of the church from the state, that it should be a voluntary decision to join the church and, for many, a commitment to nonviolence.

In North America, the top event is the Jan. 21 release of a new study Bible that incorporates the insight of almost 600 lay groups, but throughout the coming months, Anabaptists around the world will commemorate the anniversary with worship services, music, lectures and more.

Those events will culminate on May 29 with a daylong event hosted by the Mennonite World Conference in Zürich, which will feature workshops, concerts, a panel discussion, historical walking tours and an ecumenical worship service.

That event reflects the movement’s history in the area. In January 1525, a group of young people, some of whom later became the movement’s first martyrs, met in the home of Anna Manz to baptize each other in defiance of the local government.

Originally a negative label applied by outsiders, Anabaptist meant “rebaptizer,” as the group rejected the infant baptisms of other traditions.

Confessional and ecumenical commemoration

John Roth, a professor emeritus of history at Goshen College who is also coordinating global and North American 500th anniversary events, told RNS the 450th anniversary was “ a little bit simplistic” in its focus on a few key individuals and Zürich.

In contrast, Roth said, this commemoration would be “ much more nuanced, much more, I would say, humble, less nostalgic, more confessional and more ecumenical in its approach.”

In Costa Rica, members of all 25 churches will be celebrating a special worship service the weekend after the anniversary, with cultural performances and a presentation of Mennonite history in Costa Rica, as well as global Anabaptist history.

Cindy Alpízar Alpízar, pastor of Jesucristo es el Señor (“Jesus Christ is the Lord”) Church in Heredia, Costa Rica, who recently taught a course on Anabaptist history for pastors, said, “We are pointing out that radical following of Jesus, no matter what it costs.”

“To be pacifists is not only nonviolence and abstaining from violence, but instead to work for peace and above all the centrality of Jesus,” Alpízar said.

Churches throughout the United States will be marking the anniversary with their own events over the next months, including sermon series, hymn sings and historical presentations.

Bluffton University in Ohio will hold an extensive calendar of events through the spring including a film festival, various guest lectures, a Bible school, a theater performance, an exhibit of historic Anabaptist Bibles and two concerts.

Roth explained that, in a moment when “there are so many reasons not to hope for the future,” the Anabaptist tradition is “ready to let go of effectiveness,” believing in doing the right thing as “ God’s world is moving toward a meaningful conclusion.”

Study Bible designed to be read in community

Many North American Anabaptists began remembering the 500th anniversary in late 2022 and early 2023 by participating in one of the 597 Bible study groups for the Anabaptist Community Bible.

In 18 different Anabaptist faith groups, six to 10 people met to discuss a passage from the Old Testament, the New Testament and part of a Psalm, using a study guide that was available in English, German, Spanish, French, Amharic and Bahasa Indonesian.

The new study Bible features those reflections, in addition to insights from Bible scholars, as well as historians highlighting 16th-century Anabaptist writing.

“ Central to our understanding of how the Bible should be read is that it’s read in community,” said Roth, project director of MennoMedia’s Anabaptism at 500 project. The project also will be releasing two devotionals, a photo storybook and three children’s books over the coming months, all products of a process that began in 2020.

MennoMedia is the publishing company of Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA, but the company’s new Bible also incorporates study groups from more conservative Anabaptist communities, including Old Order Amish, LMC, Evana and the Mennonite Brethren, Roth told the Christian Century.

In order to be accessible to a wide variety of communities, including immigrant Anabaptist congregations, the Anabaptist Community Bible uses the Common English Bible translation. The study Bible also features 40 art pieces in linocut or woodcut styles.

The Anabaptist Community Bible was scheduled to be released at College Mennonite Church in Goshen, Ind., a hub for Mennonite life in the Midwest, with a worship service and fellowship time including the opportunity to take photos with a cutout of Menno Simons, a key 16th-century Anabaptist leader, holding the Anabaptist Community Bible.

Over the weekend, Alpízar kicked off a 90-hour livestream Bible read-a-thon featuring readers from 42 countries and many different languages. She also contributed a chapter to a devotional on the woman at the well.

“The word (of God) has a fundamental role in our congregations,” Alpízar, who takes a variety of national and regional leadership roles in the Costa Rican church, said of the importance of celebrating the anniversary with the read-a-thon. She emphasized that reading in many languages “speaks to the gospel, that it is without borders.”

Study process encourages questions

Multiple leaders praised the Bible study process that was used in the groups, which asked readers to reflect on what the passage taught them about God, about human beings, what Jesus might have to say about the passage, how they might live differently based on the passage and what questions the passage inspired.

Gerald Mast, a professor of communication at Bluffton University, said the students in his religious communication class were very enthusiastic about their experiences participating in the study group.

“ Those are interesting questions,” Mast said. “And they are questions that are not about closing down the conversation the way that I think the Bible is often used in some Christian circles.”

Mast said the space to grapple with the text “ got a lot of people interested in my congregation in Bible study who maybe wouldn’t have otherwise been interested in Bible study,” adding that a fellow member who’d said he wasn’t “a Bible-reading kind of guy” said he was “having a hard time putting (the Anabaptist Community Bible) down.”

“ This process is something that we can keep using,” said Deron Bergstresser, part of the pastoral team at Waterford Mennonite Church in Goshen, where four groups met. “I think it’s a really clear and open-ended and really accessible way for people to read the Bible together in a group.”

Michelle Burkholder, associate pastor at Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Maryland, read the passages assigned to the congregation’s adults with youth in grades six through 12.

“One of the gifts of an Anabaptist approach to encountering Scripture is that everyone is invited into that experience, including kids and youth,” they said, explaining that the youth “asked some really hard questions of the text and of the nature of God represented in the text.”

The text is “a giant puzzle that we are all invited to join in, to grapple with, to listen deeply, to test and try on different angles and perspectives and to boldly challenge or affirm what we encounter,” Burkholder said.

Bergstresser said he was using the anniversary to reflect on the history of Anabaptist resistance to and independence from the state and to continue to encourage his congregation “to take Jesus seriously” as compassionate and as a healer.

Mast, who led the process for creating the early Anabaptist marginal notes for the Anabaptist Community Bible, said he wanted to make sure the Bible represented some of the “rich body of testimony that is now available in English after about a century of translation work and archive work.”

For Mast, the early Anabaptists’ emphasis on love has been an important theme to reflect on with this anniversary.

But he emphasized the importance of commemorating the entire 500 years of Anabaptist history, including the more recent globalization of the movement, where the largest groups are now in Africa.

“ Much of the energy and newness and creativity of thinking is coming from the (Global) South,” he said.

One lesson Roth learned from the way Lutherans had celebrated their 500th anniversary was their decision after the anniversary events had begun to switch the language from “celebration” to “commemoration” after Catholics said, “ We’ve had 50 years of ecumenical conversation trying to put the pieces back together, and you’re celebrating this division.”

“ I’m aware that the birth of every group, which is worthy to be celebrated, is also a church division,” Roth said. “ We should acknowledge that in some way, even as we identify the distinctive gifts that this tradition has brought forward.”

WASHINGTON (BP)—Laws in 20 states aimed at shielding minors from online pornography are under fire as the U.S. Supreme Court hears a legal challenge Jan. 15, with the Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission joining the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission among many interceding for the Texas law at the center of the case.

At issue in the case, Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, is Texas House Bill 1181, one of a string of 20 such laws passed since Louisiana began the charge in 2022 to require websites containing at least 33 percent pornographic materials to verify that a user is at least 18 years old.

The Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment industry trade association, is challenging the laws and has a hearing before the High Court, arguing the regulations endanger free speech and privacy rights of site users. The Texas case is appealed from the U.S. Fifth Circuit, which upheld for Texas.

The public policy organizations’ brief said the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit states from regulating materials that are obscene to minors and presented historical evidence dating to the 17th century.

“The Fifth Circuit’s decision aligns with the history of State regulation of obscenity and this Court’s tradition of respecting the broad police powers enjoyed by the States to protect minors from obscene entertainment,” the brief stated.

“While Texas might have done more, it legislated only as much as was necessary to protect children from exposure to harmful, obscene sexual materials. H.B. 1181 accords with the history of State regulation of material that is obscene for minors, and so it is plainly constitutional.”

Tennessee’s law, originally scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, was allowed to take effect late in the day on Jan. 13 when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stayed an injunction the Free Speech Coalition had secured in December to block the law’s implementation. In Georgia, a law passed in 2024 is set to take effect in July.

In response, the most-visited adult website Pornhub has blocked access to its site in most of the states where age verification laws have been passed, leaving access available in Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee, CNN reported.

Much support for Texas law

Nearly 60 lawmakers from 15 of the states where laws are in effect jointly filed an amici brief in support of the Texas law—and by extension their own.

“In sum, speech regulations are scrutinized more leniently, and First Amendment protections are at their weakest when children are at risk; where no criminal prosecution or total ban or prior restraint or viewpoint discrimination is present; where the law regulates conduct; and where the content is sexually graphic and is broadly disseminated in a manner that may expose children,” reads the brief submitted by lawmakers. “H.B. 1181 is just such a law. Its sole purpose is to restrict children’s access to sexually graphic material.”

Legislators signing the brief, filed Nov. 15, 2024, represented Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. In addition to the aforenamed states and Texas, similar laws are in effect in Virginia, South Dakota and Oklahoma.

“As articulated in their statement of faith, Southern Baptists believe that God gave all of humanity free choice when it comes to questions of morality,” the ERLC wrote. “But minors often lack the developmental capacity or moral maturity to know how to exercise that free choice responsibly.

“Thus, Southern Baptists believe it is important to structure society and society’s rules to maximize the ability to educate and train minors on their social and moral responsibilities.

“And while it is primarily the role of families to provide this education and training, the States certainly have an important role to play in this process—most significantly by protecting the ability of families to perform their role.”

Scholars from the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University and the Institute for Family Studies—affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—recently analyzed research studies of pornography use conducted over the last 20 years, documenting “trends in pornography use among children and teens and to identify how its use may be harmful to their development in significant ways,” a press release explained.

The researchers used their findings to submit an additional amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton.

The report, released Jan. 14, concludes that “not only is pornography linked to development risk for minors, but it is actually more dangerous for young people than acknowledged in some research studies,” the press release reads.

Laura Schlegel, a Republican Louisiana representative who authored the first successful online age verification law in the nation, is also a licensed professional counselor and certified sex addiction therapist. Exposure to porn harms children and adolescents, she said in her brief.

Girls who view pornography are more likely to see themselves as objects of male pleasure, struggle with self-esteem issues, have higher rates of self-harm and suffer more vulnerability to sexual exploitation. Boys develop unrealistic and harmful attitudes toward sex and relationships that lead to increased aggression and difficulties in forming genuine intimate connections, Schlegel said.

Anxiety, depression and engagement in risky sexual behavior are pronounced.

“Protecting minors from obscene content isn’t just a compelling interest legally,” Schlegel noted. “It is a compelling, bipartisan issue at every kitchen table in this country.”

With additional reporting by Calli Keener.

(RNS)—Bill McCartney, a former college football coach who became one of the most influential religious figures in American life during the 1990s after founding the Promise Keepers movement, died Jan. 10. He was 84.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Bill McCartney, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, who left this world peacefully at the age of 84 after a courageous journey with dementia,” his family said in a statement.

In March of 1990, not long after his University of Colorado Buffaloes missed a chance at the national championship by losing to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, McCartney hopped in a car with a friend, Dave Wardell. They drove from the university’s campus in Boulder to Pueblo, Colo., where he was scheduled to give a speech at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet.

While on the road, McCartney talked about his concerns that American men were losing their faith in God, and as a result, the nation’s families were suffering. During that drive, the idea of Promise Keepers was born.

Within a year, McCartney had grown Promise Keepers from a relatively small group of followers to a gathering of 4,000 men at the University of Colorado’s basketball arena. Along the way, he also led the Buffaloes to a national championship after beating Notre Dame in a rematch.

Promise Keepers drew tens of thousands to events

A few years later, Promise Keepers was drawing tens of thousands of worshippers to arenas and stadiums around the country—and eventually more than half a million men to the National Mall in Washington in 1997.

The group’s prominence sparked a national debate about the role of faith in public life and the evolving relationship between men and women, especially in religious communities.

During Promise Keepers gatherings, McCartney preached a mix of traditional Christian gender roles, known as complementarianism—with men as the spiritual leaders of their homes and societies—and a softer, kinder approach to masculinity, where men did the dishes, listened to their wives and were known for kindness rather than toughness.

“A real man, a man’s man, is a godly man,” McCartney said in a 1995 press conference before a packed-out event in Washington, D.C., The Washington Post reported. “A real man is a man of substance, a man that’s vulnerable, a man who loves his wife, a man that has a passion for God, and is willing to lay down his life for him.”

Butler said McCartney’s message resonated with both evangelical men and women—as it portrayed what the movement hoped to be at its best—but often clashed with the broader culture, especially with those who saw the group’s message as an attack on women’s rights.

“The Promise Keepers speak about taking back America for Christ, but they also mean to take back the rights of women,” Patricia Ireland, then president of the National Organization for Women, told The Washington Post in 1997, when Promise Keepers was at the height of its popularity.

“Their call for submission of women is one that doesn’t have a place in either the pulpit or the public sphere in the 1990s.”

Promise Keepers also was known for opposing LGBTQ rights, which also made McCartney controversial.

Strong emphasis on racial reconciliation

But the movement also stirred dissension in Christian circles for focusing on racial reconciliation, often in blunt terms.

“Racism is an insidious monster,” McCartney said in a 1996 rally for clergy in Atlanta, in announcing Promise Keepers’ move to focus on issues of race. “You can’t say you love God and not love your brother.”

He preached a similar message the following year before the rally in Washington, linking religious revival in the country with racial reconciliation.

“The church has been divided, and a house divided cannot stand,” he said, according to Religion News Service reporting at the time.

The movement faltered in the late 1990s, in part due to a move away from stadium events to smaller rallies in more places, which led to financial woes, as the income from the stadium events had paid the organization’s bills for years.

Less than a year after the “Stand in the Gap” event at the National Mall, the group laid off most of its staff. A move to focus on racial reconciliation proved less popular with evangelicals than the focus on how to be a good dad or husband, with some Christian leaders labeling it as “divisive.”

The group went through several attempts to reinvent itself—including a partisan turn during the Trump era—but has long failed to regain its former influence.

‘A shift in the American religious landscape’

Paul Emory Putz, assistant director of Truett Seminary’s Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University, and author of The Spirit of the Game, said that there had long been a connection between Christianity and football.

 But until McCartney, few sports figures from the charismatic movement in evangelicalism had much of a public presence. But McCartney, who had been part of a charismatic Catholic parish and called himself a “born-again Catholic” and was later part of a Vineyard church, brought that community into the sports world.

“He marked a shift in the American religious landscape where that form of faith became more mainstream,” Putz said.

Putz also said McCartney lived out his beliefs, leaving the University of Colorado in order to pay more attention to his family

Born Aug. 22, 1940, McCartney grew up in Riverview, Mich., where he played football, basketball and baseball in high school, before getting a scholarship to play football at the University of Missouri.

After graduating from Missouri in 1962, McCartney coached high school in Joplin, Mo., before becoming coach of the basketball team at Holy Redeemer High School in Detroit and then football coach at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Mich.

His success at the high school level led to an assistant coach job at the University of Michigan. In 1982, McCartney, known as “Coach Mac,” was named the football coach at the University of Colorado, where he led the team to 10 winning seasons in a row and made the Buffaloes a national powerhouse.

He resigned as coach in 1994, in part due to his wife’s ill health. He would step down as leader of Promise Keepers in 2003 but returned for a while in 2008.

His last season with the Buffaloes was 1994, when the team went 11-1 behind a roster that included Kordell Stewart, Michael Westbrook and the late Rashaan Salaam.

That season featured the “Miracle in Michigan,” with Westbrook hauling in a 64-yard touchdown catch from Stewart on a Hail Mary as time expired in a road win over the Wolverines, according to The Associated Press. Salaam also rushed for 2,055 yards and won the Heisman Trophy.

Praised as coach and role model

A conversion experience in his 30s changed the course of McCartney’s life, his family said in announcing the former coach’s death, and led him to devote the remainder of his life to living out his Christian faith.

Former colleagues and players testified to McCartney’s impact on their lives as both a coach and a role model.

“Coach Mac was an incredible man who taught me about the importance of faith, family and being a good husband, father and grandfather,” Rich George, University of Colorado athletic director, said on the university’s website.

Alfred Williams, a star player for the Buffaloes who later went on to win Super Bowls in the NFL as a member of the Denver Broncos, also paid tribute to McCartney.

“His unwavering faith and deep love for his family were the foundation of his life—values that always mattered more to him than the game itself,” Williams posted on X. “Coach Mac will be forever missed and deeply loved by all who had the privilege of knowing him.”

McCartney has been mostly out of public view in recent years. His family announced in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

“Coach Mac touched countless lives with his unwavering faith, boundless compassion and enduring legacy as a leader, mentor and advocate for family, community and faith,” the family said.

“As a trailblazer and visionary, his impact was felt both on and off the field, and his spirit will forever remain in the hearts of those he inspired.”

McCartney remains the winningest coach in Colorado history, with a record of 93-55-5. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

He was preceded in death by Lynne, his wife of 50 years, who died in 2013. Survivors include four children, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

(RNS)—Richard Hays, a renowned New Testament scholar and former dean of Duke Divinity School known for his influential books on Christian ethics and his change of mind about same-sex marriage, died Jan. 3, at his home in Nashville, Tenn., from pancreatic cancer. Hays was 76.

A former English teacher and pastor, Hays was a graduate of Yale University and Yale Divinity School and earned his doctorate from Emory University in 1981. He then returned to teach New Testament at Yale from 1981 to 1991 and then at Duke Divinity School until his retirement in 2018.

For much of his career, he was perhaps best known for his 1996 book, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, in which he argued same-sex relationships were “one among many tragic signs that we are a broken people, alienated from God’s loving purpose.”

His well-respected scholarly work was cited by Christian leaders who viewed same-sex relationships as sinful and who opposed LGBTQ affirmation in churches.

Last year, Hays publicly changed his mind—in what he described as an act of repentance for the way his work had been used to harm LGBTQ people and to divide Christians—in a new book, The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story, co-authored with his son, Christopher Hays, an Old Testament scholar.

In the book’s introduction, Richard Hays recounts how his brother initially balked at attending their mother’s funeral, because her church, where the service would be held, affirmed same-sex relationships. That prompted him to reflect on the place of LGBTQ Christians in the church.

Since 1996, Hays had been rethinking his interpretation of the biblical texts barring same-sex relations because of his experience of teaching gay students in seminary and seeing the faithful service of gay Christians in local churches, he told Pete Wehner in a New York Times interview last year, including Hays’ own congregation.

 “The present book is, for me, an effort to offer contrition and to set the record straight on where I now stand. … I am deeply sorry,” he told RNS in 2024. “The present book can’t undo past damage, but I pray that it may be of some help.”

The new book was seen as a betrayal by conservatives who agreed with his former book. But Hays told National Public Radio he was at peace with his change of mind, though he knew it would cause controversy.

“So, there’s a sense in which I’m eating some of my own words, and I’m concerned that it will perhaps burn some bridges and break some relationships that I’ve cherished,” he told NPR. “But as I age, I wanted my final word on the subject to be out there. And so there it is.”

Hays initially was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2015 and at the time had been given a dire prognosis. But surgery and chemotherapy put his cancer into remission until 2022, when it returned. Despite more treatment, the cancer had spread by the summer of 2023, and eventually he went into hospice care.

This past fall, he wrote a health update asking for prayer, knowing the cancer would likely soon take his life.

“Over these past nine years, Judy and I have become practiced in looking death in the face,” he wrote. “We continue to trust that we are in the hands of a merciful God who loves us. And we continue to anticipate the power of the resurrection.

“It’s a hard thing to know with some certainty that I will not be here to watch my grandchildren grow up. But as in years before, we remain grateful for each new day in which we can join the Psalmist in proclaiming: ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.’”

Hays is survived by his wife, Judy, and children Christopher and Sarah.

For the Baptist Standard’s response to Hayes’ book, The Widening of God’s Mercy see: Voices: Response to The Widening of God’s Mercy, Part I; Voices: Response to The Widening of God’s Mercy, Part II; and Voices: Three responses to The Widening of God’s Mercy.

(RNS)—In a May 2023 advisory, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called attention to the “public health crisis of loneliness, isolation and lack of connection in the U.S. today.”

In his plan to address this crisis, he listed faith groups as key players in the solution: “Religious or faith-based groups can be a source for regular social contact, serve as a community of support, provide meaning and purpose, create a sense of belonging around shared values and beliefs, and are associated with reduced risk-taking behaviors.”

While the directive was meant more generally, faith leaders and mental health experts say religious traditions and faith communities can play a key role in helping people get through the winter holidays, when rates of depression and anxiety are proven to increase.

From food drives to special services, like “lessons and carols,” to extra events and gatherings that often include a shared meal, many houses of worship are bustling with activity and opportunities to engage with community in December.

Showing up

“During the holidays, we are practicing relational spirituality and engaging in our awakened brain,” said Lisa Miller, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “We are actually showing up for one another to be loving, to be holding, to be guiding and never leave anyone alone.”

For many, the winter holidays are a time of grief, loss or perhaps heightened levels of depression and anxiety. A poll by the American Psychological Association found 41 percent of adults in the United States say their stress increases during the holidays.

Additionally, the National Alliance on Mental Illness found 64 percent of people living with a mental illness reported their conditions worsen around the holidays.

Miller, who founded the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, described the winter holiday season as the “Sabbath of the year” and said spirituality is a “clear antidote” to the unprecedented rise in so-called diseases of despair—alcoholism, drug use and suicide—in the United States.

This is the time when all those activities houses of worship engage in can really shine, Miller says: creating space for people to come share their feelings, singing together, participating in a prayer and inviting people to give back to their community through charity.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, both religion and spirituality can have a positive impact on mental health, though often in different ways.

In general, religion gives people something to believe in, provides a sense of structure and typically connects people with similar beliefs. Meanwhile, the group describes spirituality as a sense of connection to something bigger, aiding in self-reflection and exploration of how one fits into the rest of the world.

While the research has been mixed on the connection between religiosity and overall health, a 2019 Pew Research Study found more than one-third of “actively religious” adults say they are “very happy” compared to a quarter of religiously inactive and unaffiliated Americans.

Sarah Lund, the minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice at the United Church of Christ, agreed faith communities are considered some of the key places to improve the mental health of Americans.

Gift of connection

“We don’t realize what a gift it is to be connected to each other and to have weekly gatherings where we share space, share community, break bread together, have friendships and build relationships through prayer, through Bible study and through worship,” Lund said.

And for people struggling with grief, disability or mental health during the holidays, Lund said support from a community, like a congregation, can help. She noted that some churches offer “Blue Christmas” services—opportunities to honor people who have lost loved ones and are experiencing grief—and expressed hope that congregations might consider ways to incorporate such acknowledgements all year.

Meadowbrook Baptist Church in Robinson held its first “Blue Christmas” service this year, called “A Service of Peace: Reflecting on Loss in a Season of Hopeful Anticipation.”

Meadowbrook Executive Pastor David Cozart explained the pastoral team wrestled for some time with knowing there was a need to offer such a service, but not knowing exactly “how to do it in a way that created an intentional pause, without forcing people to relive some of their most painful moments.”

They determined last year they were going to make sure it was accomplished this year, he said. Those who came to the intimate service expressed gratitude, noting while they didn’t know what to expect, they also didn’t know how much they needed it.

Cozart said he hopes it’s a service the church continues to offer every Christmas.

First Baptist Church in Allen has held similar services in past years, but because they are in an interim season, only offered the annual GriefShare: Surviving the Holidays event this year. The event offered video presentations from grief experts and discussion—as a typical grief group session would—but was open to anyone in the church or community dealing with loss, Jimmy Smith, generations pastor at the church, explained.

For some in attendance, it would be their first holiday without the person whose loss brought them to the event. Others were more seasoned in grief, but they all were able to share their struggles and personal grief journey through the holidays.

Smith described it as “a beautiful and sacred time, as we get to hear from one another, encourage one another and support one another.

“Every participant was given a workbook that had devotionals and helps for the holidays and a cross ornament they could put on their tree as a way to remember and honor their loved one,” Smith explained.

Continuing the work

“After the holidays is when people feel that kind of letdown,” Lund said. “As people of faith, there’s an opportunity to continue the intentional work about inclusion and supporting people’s mental health and accommodating the needs of people who have disabilities.”

“A strong spiritual life is more protective against addiction, more protective against depression, more protective even against suicide than anything else known to the social or medical sciences,” Miller said.

“When we look at hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, we see that the magnitude of the protective benefits of spiritual life are pointing to a way forward for our country.”

With additional reporting by Calli Keener.

PHILADELPHIA (BP)—Bible-engaged Christians are the most charitable people in the United States, and giving increases happiness among the generous, the American Bible Society said in releasing the last chapter of the 2024 State of the Bible.

“People who consistently read the Bible and live by its teachings are more likely to give to charity,” American Bible Society Chief Innovation Officer John Plake said in releasing the results.

“Our data shows that they also give far more—not only to their churches, but also to religious and non-religious charities. At a national level, we could say that scripture-engaged people form a massive engine of generosity and philanthropy.”

Evangelical households top the chart in the average amount donated, the percentage of people donating and the percentage given to their church or any religious charity, researchers said. Only 20 percent of evangelicals don’t give at all, and 40 percent give all of their contributions to their church.

But while evangelicals give more as a dollar amount, only the lowest income earners give at least 10 percent of their income to charity, researchers said.

“Nonprofits naturally look first to the top-line dollars donated, but God looks at the heart. And giving proportions may be a better window there,” researchers wrote. “Those blessed with great wealth often give from their surplus. It takes a deeper commitment to give sacrificially.

“Our survey shows that donors at the lowest income levels give the greatest percentage of their income to church or charity.”

Families earning under $20,000 a year give as much as 11 percent of their income to charity. But percentage giving largely decreases as income increases, dropping to 5.4 percent for families that earn just under $50,000, researchers said.

Giving rises as high as 8.5 percent of income for families earning between $50,000 and just under $100,000, but drops to the lowest proportion of 2.9 percent for those who earn between $100,000 and $150,000.

It is more blessed to give

In each income bracket, those who give are happier than those who don’t, based on the Life and Happiness Domain of the Human Flourishing Scale the American Bible Society introduced in this year’s State of the Bible.

On the 0-to-10 scale, with 10 indicating the highest level of happiness, givers scored nearly 7.2, while nongivers scored a full point less at 6.1.

“The lowest satisfaction score (5.2) comes among non-givers in the poorest households, those making less than $30,000 a year. But givers at that same income level have a satisfaction score of 6.5, rivaling non-givers making up to $100,000,” researchers wrote. “You might say the joy of giving is better than getting a $50,000 raise.”

The chapter was the final release of the 2024 State of the Bible, a comprehensive report which tracked such topics as faith in technology, human flourishing, love, Americans’ perceptions of church, Gen Z, nones and nominals, and loneliness.

State of the Bible is based on a nationally representative survey conducted for the American Bible Society by NORC at the University of Chicago, using the AmeriSpeak panel. Findings are based on 2,506 online interviews conducted in January 2024 with adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Faith leaders are reacting with concern to a report President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind a long-standing policy that discourages immigration officials from conducting raids at churches, schools and hospitals.

According to a report from NBC News Dec. 11, the incoming Trump administration plans to do away with a policy outlined in an internal 2011 U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement memo by then-ICE director John Morton. The policy discourages government agents from making arrests at or near “sensitive locations,” such as houses of worship.

The news comes amid Trump’s campaign pledge to enact the “largest deportation” in U.S. history, which he has said could begin soon after he assumes office. He suggested in an interview over the weekend U.S. citizens could be deported with undocumented family members.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request to confirm the president-elect’s intent to change the policy, but Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said news of the policy change was “sending a deep chill down the spine of the Latino evangelical church.”

In a separate interview, Salguero noted he recently completed a “know your rights” training with 82 Hispanic evangelical bishops, many of whom have immigrants—undocumented and otherwise—in their congregations. He called the proposed change “a fear-based policy” and voiced concern about whether it will respect religious liberty.

“How are they going to execute these raids in ways that respect religious liberty and in ways that do not strike fear into children who are worshipping in Sunday school? I have 30 kids in a Sunday school class—I don’t know who is documented and undocumented,” Salguero said.

Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and one of Trump’s evangelical advisers, maintained in an email the policy change is narrower in intent, and he is “convinced the incoming Trump administration will focus on criminal illegal immigrants.”

He insisted the policy “serves as a warning” to undocumented immigrants who engage in criminal activity, such as “sex, human and drug traffickers” or “rapist gang members.”

“I do not foresee in any way, the administration targeting or going into schools or churches, pursuing God-fearing law-abiding immigrants who have been here for 15 years or more, and whose children were born or raised here,” Rodriguez said.

Different situation now

But other faith leaders are not as sure, such as those who participate in the New Sanctuary Movement, a faith-based effort that began under President Barack Obama’s administration and expanded greatly during Trump’s first term.

Participants in the movement—which includes members of many faiths—allow undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation to take up residence in houses of worship, hoping to pressure immigration officials into dropping their deportation orders.

Some immigrants have lived in churches for years, until eventually leaving after deportation orders were rescinded or changed.

Umstead Park United Church of Christ in Raleigh was one of a half dozen North Carolina churches that sheltered undocumented immigrants during the first Trump administration. Doug Long—former pastor of Umstead, now retired—suggested he wasn’t entirely surprised by the proposed change, which activists feared would occur during Trump’s first term.

“If they are making that announcement, I think it brings some clarity because we assumed it was already going to happen,” Long said.

When former North Carolina-based sanctuary leaders met last month, he added, the activists concluded churches wanting to help undocumented immigrants would need to pursue new avenues.

“It’s a very different situation than it was five, six years ago,” Long said.

Commitment to ‘love the stranger’ remains

Still, church leaders said they did not expect to retreat from their commitment to protecting undocumented people, a position they said is grounded in the scriptural call to love the stranger.

“When Jesus told us to love our neighbors, he didn’t also tell us to make sure that they were documented,” said Isaac Villegas, a Mennonite—whose church, the Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, gave sanctuary to an undocumented immigrant during the first Trump administration.

 “He just said love and care for your neighbors. Full stop. Not, oh, check their documentation status while you’re at it.”

Longtime immigrant rights advocate Noel Andersen, a United Church of Christ minister and national field director at Church World Service, a group that helps resettle refugees, expressed outrage over reports of the policy change.

“The right for all people to find safety, refuge and rest in houses of worship is fundamental to our nation’s history of religious freedom and our longstanding values,” he said.

“No one should face fear of deportation when going to houses of worship, seeking medical care, social services, at public demonstrations or taking their kids to school.

“Regardless of what policy the Trump administration rescinds or puts forth, faith communities will continue to look to our sacred texts and centuries of tradition to live out our faith by welcoming immigrants and protecting the most vulnerable among us.”

Andersen added: “We must lead with compassion and love instead of cruelty or fear to keep families together and to ensure that all people are treated with their God given dignity.”

Other religious groups appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to the news.

Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement the group of prelates is “aware of the various proposals being discussed with regards to immigration, and are preparing to deal with a range of policies, and will engage appropriately when public policies are put forth by the office holders.”

Representatives for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination that declared itself a “sanctuary church body” at its 2019 Churchwide Assembly and whose members taped “9.5 theses” expressing their concern for immigrants to the door of an ICE building in Milwaukee, declined to comment.

The New Sanctuary Movement is an extension of an earlier effort that occurred in the 1980s, when churches along the U.S.-Mexico border opened their doors to an uptick in migrants, especially those fleeing El Salvador and Guatemala, whom the government largely denied requests for asylum.

In 1986, the FBI infiltrated the movement and indicted 16 activists before ultimately convicting nine. The movement is credited with pressuring President Ronald Reagan’s administration to do more to help Guatemalans and Salvadorans.

Religious activists associated with the movement also pushed San Francisco to pass a “city of refuge” ordinance in 1989 that ended local cooperation with federal immigration officials. The law change was the first example of a “sanctuary city,” a movement that expanded during Trump’s first term—and that he has repeatedly condemned.

As for reports of Trump ending the “sensitive locations” policy, Salguero said he especially was troubled the news came amid the Christian season of Advent. Jesus Christ, he said, was a “refugee fleeing violence.”

“During the highest of our holy days, now we have to talk to our families about this,” Salguero said.

Even so, he remained steadfast in his desire to aid immigrants.

“For us, this is not a political thing,” he said. “This is not a partisan thing. We have to do what Christ has called us to do.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—Twelve years ago, Randall Goodgame’s family was in the thick of homeschooling. His wife Amy struggled to help the kids memorize their weekly Scripture verses. Goodgame decided to help in a way that came naturally to him—writing songs.

It worked.

“It worked so well that … within a few weeks I realized, well, this seems important,” Goodgame said in a recent interview with Baptist Press.

Songwriter Randall Goodgame introduced his Scripture Hymnal in front of a live audience in October. “There’s something about music that allows us to experience something more than just the information,” he said.

What started as a project to help his kids soon turned into a new phase of his ministry as a music artist. Now, Goodgame’s Scripture songs fill a new hymnal—aptly titled Scripture Hymnal—which Goodgame hopes will help churchgoers internalize God’s word.

“Music helps people remember things,” Goodgame writes in the hymnal’s introduction. “And music memories conjure much more than just information. … In the time it takes to hear a melody, a whole world can flood our consciousness.”

Music involves more than just the intellect, he told BP, which makes it an effective teacher.

“God gave us these emotions, and we are spiritual people,” he said. “We are these eternal creatures trapped in these glorious gifts that we call bodies that were made in the image of the creator. And there’s something about music that allows us to experience something more than just the information.”

And even more than that, we are called to sing together.

“First and foremost, [singing is] an act of obedience,” Goodgame said. “The Lord only requires us to do things that are good for us. He sanctioned it. We know that means it’s good for us. … There’s something so powerful about proclaiming the truth of what’s real and what we depend on about this God that we serve and trust—proclaiming it together through song.”

A labor of love

The hymnal opens with “In the Beginning,” based on Genesis 1:1. Hymn No. 55, “Unless You Change,” is based on Matthew 18:3-5. “Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak”—hymn No. 95—is based on James 1:19.

There are 106 songs, all taken directly from Scripture, plus accompanying Scripture readings and indexes listing the songs by topic, musical style, Scripture passage and more.

Scripture Hymnal contains 106 songs, which all have corresponding studio recordings online.

The team of 12 writers who collaborated on the songs committed not to change the Scripture text in any way. They used mostly the NIV, ESV and CSB translations, choosing what they considered the most lyrical translation for a given passage.

Word-for-word rendering made the songwriting more challenging, but Goodgame had strategies for making the songs easy to learn and sing.

First, he simply immersed himself in the verses, reading them very slowly, praying and letting the passage’s theme and text dictate the feel and form of the song.

He took a cue from traditional hymns for the structure of the songs.

“Old hymns were built for unmusical people to sing together,” he said, adding that usually means one syllable per beat.

“I really made an effort to try to be aware of the syllables and where they fell on the beat,” he said. “And then once you’ve constrained yourself to that, then you have to find melodies that sound appealing within that restriction. Then it’s just kind of problem solving and listening and praying.”

Much of his inspiration for which passages to use for songs came from his own Bible study, but Goodgame also asked friends, including several pastors, “If there were one verse that your congregation would be able to sing to each other and to the Lord, what would that one verse be?”

Goodgame premiered the hymnal in a live concert Oct. 11 in Franklin, Tenn., where the capacity crowd was able to sing along with the songs pretty much right away. The lines from the hymnal appearing on the screens helped those who could read music, but even those who couldn’t were able to follow along quickly.

“The goal is you want people to feel like this is how a melody was supposed to be written for these words,” Goodgame said.

What he’s called to do

For more than a decade, Randall Goodgame has been writing songs using the Bible for lyrics.

Goodgame is no stranger to using music to instill important truths. Over the last 20 years, he’s built a kids’ and family music brand called Slugs & Bugs, releasing the first album along with singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson in 2006.

The albums are equal parts silly and serious, with songs like “God Made You” and “May the Lord Bless You and Keep You” appearing alongside ones like “Tractor Tractor” and “Chicken Wiggle.”

But the one thing they all have in common is quality music and production. It’s the kind of kids’ music that parents keep listening to on their way to work after they drop the kids off at school.

After Goodgame’s success in writing songs to help his kids memorize Scripture, he began focusing on using Scripture alone for his lyrics, and the Slugs & Bugs Sing the Bible series was born. Sing the Bible Volume 1 came out in 2014. There have been four others since then.

“It’s what the Lord called me to for well over a decade,” he said. “And I think if I hadn’t had all those five Sing the Bible albums under my belt, I wouldn’t have been prepared to have done what I just did with the Scripture Hymnal. … I’ve done it for long enough that I’ve just gotten better at it. Like you do when you do the same thing over and over.”

A priceless opportunity

The Scripture Hymnal is not for kids, though the songs are singable enough that kids can easily learn them. And for those who don’t read music or who prefer to learn them aurally, there is a studio recording of each song online.

A QR code in the front of the hymnal takes the user to the recordings. The recordings also are being compiled into albums, the second of which released Nov. 29. There will be nine albums in all.

“Even though it was written for congregational singing, I really do hope people also see the value of just personal devotion with it,” Goodgame said. “They don’t have to read music; they can just go to the song through the QR code and flip to the page of the song they want to sing and sing along with the music.”

Goodgame said a main inspiration for the hymnal project was learning how his Sing the Bible CDs helped people internalize the word of God.

“I always have heard for years and years from people, ‘The Lord will bring the song that I need to my mind right when I need it.’ I just hear it over and over again,” he said. “To carry around God’s word with you is just priceless.”

Ultimately, he hopes the Scripture Hymnal will help the church be the church.

Singing together is proclaiming God’s faithfulness “right next to people that you know are going through hard things,” he said. “You are going through something hard, and you’re affirming it, proclaiming it, choosing to believe or at least try to believe by singing what you know is true with a whole room of other people that are doing the same thing.”

And how much more so when the words believers are singing are taken straight from Scripture.

“Every time we engage with the word, we have an opportunity to meet Jesus,” Goodgame said. “And it’s in Jesus that we are redeemed, and we are sanctified, and that dim little spark brightens, and we become lights in the world, caring less about ourselves and more about other people.

“And his kingdom grows because of the outpouring of his love through us to other people. And his word is the beginning of all of that.”

WACO—“How can we disciple our young people well on matters of biblical sexuality?” Gary Stidham, director of training for Texas Baptists’ Center for Collegiate Ministry, asked a Texas Baptist group.

Stidham raised the question during a breakout session held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting last month.

Stidham credited Sean McDowell, a professor at Talbot School of Theology, with observing that prior generations wanted to know about Christianity, “Is it true?” But Generation Z is asking, “Is it good?”

The shift from intellectual questions to moral questions among young people means churches must be sensitive in how they discuss matters of sexual identity, if they want to reach Gen Z.

Today’s critique of the church by those outside the faith isn’t so much that Christianity is illogical or unreasonable, but that it is unloving and uncaring toward people on the margins—particularly women, immigrants, people of color and those in the LGBTQ community, Stidham noted.

But if church leaders want to help students and young families love the gospel, the church and the word of God, “we have to tackle issues around sexual morality, because that’s where the culture has gotten so far off the rails in the last few decades,” Stidham said.

Stidham suggested to address this conversation, Christian leaders should talk about the subject of sexuality holistically, starting with Genesis; make affirming marriage a priority; celebrate chastity, singleness and celibacy; teach wise dating; and fight pornography aggressively.

Stidham served as a campus missionary with Baptist Student Ministries at the University of Texas in Arlington for 21 years. He now oversees 60 campus missionary interns for their first couple of years out of college serving with BSM. His doctoral work focused on LGBTQ issues.

He noted 12 years ago, after a time when the BSM at UT Arlington had “gotten really good at gathering large groups” but was not seeing very many college students come to Christ, “God led us to shepherd a really powerful evangelistic movement.”

As a result, the BSM began to see at least one student a week come to Christ, a trend, Stidham noted, “that continues to this day.”

One thing his team at UT Arlington began to realize was these new Christians’ “lives were messy,” and they came with “a lot of baggage to unpack, and a lot of that baggage had to do with gender and sexuality issues.”

While Stidham acknowledged issues about sexuality “have always been around,” the increased cultural focus on sexuality and gender identity means issues around sexuality are even more present and complex. In fact, sexual confusion and brokenness permeate Gen Z.

Increasing numbers

Gallup reported this year 19 percent of Gen Z (ages 12-27) identify as LGBTQ, compared to about 10 percent of Millennials, 5 percent of Gen X and 2 percent of Baby Boomers.

A recent Barna poll reflects an even higher percentage, with 39 percent identifying as LGBTQ and half of that number identifying as bisexual.

But more Gen Z identify as same-sex-attracted than who act upon that attraction, Stidham pointed out. Most of this generation who claim a bisexual identity only date the opposite sex. They “want that identity, so they say they’re bisexual, even though they don’t act upon it.”

What has led to the burgeoning numbers who identify as LGBTQ? First, Stidham noted, is the “straight-up reality that there are people who are same-sex attracted.”

From ancient times all the way up until now, in a “complicated mix of nature and nurture,” he said, there are people “who didn’t ask for it” or “wake up and decide one morning, ‘I’m going to like people like me (same sex).’”

Another factor is the epidemic of loneliness affecting this generation. Sexual identity has coalesced into a “movement of belonging for disaffected youth,” where they can find connections that eluded them outside of the LGBTQ community.

Another contributor is social pressure, especially for people who in years past would have been described as “tomboys” or “sensitive boys.” Now, there is pressure for such natural personality differences to be understood as signifiers of homosexuality or gender nonconformity, he explained.

Mental health and LGBTQ are related, Stidham noted, pointing out there is a “tremendous correlation” between anxiety and depression and LGBTQ identity. And neurodivergence—autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder—has an even higher correlation to LGBTQ identity than anxiety.

“Almost every one of the reasons means what these young adults don’t need is our scorn and a wagging finger. What they typically need is our arms welcoming them in.

“They need patience. They need help meeting Jesus, so that with discipleship they can unpack all the confusion,” he noted.

Trying to “own the liberals” isn’t the way to love LGBTQ people. Instead, loving the teenagers who struggle with confusing messages about sexuality is how to reach LGBTQ people, he said.

Powerful forces, talked about in Colossians 2:8, are working to indoctrinate Gen Z. In every generation, Satan wants to capture the minds of the people and move people away from God. Stidham sees the increase in LGBTQ identities as evidence of an ongoing spiritual battle with “elemental forces.”

Stidham pointed to “radical individual autonomy” that came out of the sexual revolution of the 1960s as being at the heart of why LGBTQ has become such a heated issue. So, he cautioned pastors against playing into a “nobody can tell me what to do mindset.”

Core identity realignment

For a good many people, sexuality has become the ultimate identity, seen as being at the very core of who they are.

“I’m not a man who happens to be same-sex attracted. I’m a gay man,” Stidham gave as an example to clarify this idea.

Because sexuality has assumed such a preeminent place in identities, in order to disciple young people, church leaders must learn how to speak thoughtfully and with nuance about these issues.

Christian students want to talk about these issues, Stidham noted. They want to know the truth concerning sexuality. In fact, “they’re more eager to hear than we are to share.”

These conversations should be approached by church leaders with genuine questions, seeking to understand what students are hearing and feeling about matters of sexuality and identity.

“We are ministers and missionaries, not political pundits,” Stidham noted. There is a culture war happening, “but don’t be a culture warrior,” Stidham urged. “The reason we talk about these issues is to help people come to Jesus.”

1 Corinthian 6:18-20 demonstrates sexual morality is profoundly important to our spirituality, he said.

When Christian leaders are discipling students on matters of sexuality, they should stress the flourishing that can come when identities are found not in sexuality, but in Christ.

(RNS)—Despite the incessant tracking of evangelical Christian, Latino Catholic, Muslim and other religious groups through the recently ended election season, a study released on Election Day by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research showed that most congregations are politically inactive, with nearly half actively avoiding discussing politics at their gatherings.

The Hartford report, “Politics in the Pews? Analyzing Congregational Political Engagement,” focused on how congregations as a whole deal with politics, not religious individuals or their clergy alone.

“Congregations often get left out of conversations about religion and politics but are inferred to be influential,” the report states.

Even if members are politically active and many leaders are often outspoken about issues and candidates they support, most congregations make great efforts to keep politics out of the church.

“When they come together as a spiritual community, they don’t want politics directly involved. There’s a lot of pushback from the people in the pews,” said Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, who co-wrote the report with Charissa Mikoski, an assistant research professor.

The study’s data was drawn from a larger project developed by the institute to track congregational change, Faith Communities Today. It relies on surveys of 15,278 congregations conducted in early 2020. Responses were given by congregation leaders on behalf of their assemblies.

According to the report, 23 percent of congregation leaders identified their congregation as politically active, but only 40 percent engaged in what the report calls “overtly political activities” over 12 months, mostly infrequently.

The report measured congregations’ level of political engagement by looking at seven categories of political activities, including distributing voter guides, organizing protests in support or opposition of a policy, and inviting a candidate to address the congregation.

A minority of congregations engage in any of the above; 22 percent handed out voter guides; 7 percent asked a candidate to speak to the congregations; and 10 percent lobbied for elected officials.

Pastors see political discussion as tricky business

In nearly half of congregations—45 percent—their leaders thought most participants didn’t share the same political views, making politics a sometimes treacherous topic. Discussing politics is also tricky for pastors, the report found, as they risk offending members whose views don’t align.

Not surprisingly, “purple congregations,” in which both political parties are represented in the pews, were more likely to avoid political discussion than politically homogenous ones, per the report. Congregations where politics previously spurred conflicts—the case in 10 percent of the congregations surveyed—were less likely to engage in any of these activities again.

The results clash with the general narrative about Christians’ political engagement, especially stories of evangelicals’ avid political engagement. According to Hartford’s report, however, Catholic and Orthodox parishes are more engaged than Protestant churches.

“Further, the congregations who are engaged in these kinds of political activities do not fit the broader narrative of Evangelical Protestants being more politically active,” the report said. “While these connections are present at the individual level, it does not appear to be happening at the organizational (congregational) level.”

Instead of directly addressing political issues, the closest most congregations get to political discussion tends to be sermons that uphold specific values associated with particular political issues, such as immigration or abortion.

Congregations whose membership is more than 50 percent Black or African-American are more likely to be politically active, reflecting Black churches’ historical political involvement, especially in the fight for racial justice.

“It’s almost built into the DNA of an African American congregation to have that kind of activism approach,” Thumma said.

Since these congregations are more homogenous, members may also feel more comfortable addressing politics, assuming other congregants have the same politics.

The survey sample included 2,000 multi-ethnic congregations and churches, where 20 percent of participants were not of the dominant race. Their results were similar to those of non-multiracial churches, with 60 percent reporting having no involvement in politics.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.—As Americans make their Christmas plans, slightly less than half say they usually attend a church service during the holiday season.

A Lifeway Research study finds U.S. adults are split on whether they’ll be at church sometime this Christmas—47 percent say they typically attend church at Christmastime, while 48 percent say they do not, and 5 percent aren’t sure.

“The very name ‘Christmas’ originates in the church’s celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. In the mid-14th century, the words ‘Christ’s Mass’ were first merged as a single term for this celebration,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.

“While 9 in 10 Americans do something to celebrate Christmas, less than half typically attend church at Christmastime today.”

Pastors plan for larger crowds during the Christmas season. In 2023, Lifeway Research found U.S. Protestant pastors say they usually plan four events or activities at their churches to celebrate Christmas.

About 4 in 5 pastors (81 percent) say Christmas is one of their three highest attendance worship services, according to a 2024 Lifeway Research study. Specifically, 28 percent say Christmas draws the most people to their church.

During the season, churches see more people at their Christmas Eve service than other worship services, a 2022 Lifeway Research study revealed.

Who is most likely to attend?

This Christmas season, 47 percent of Americans say attending church is part of their usual holiday traditions, but some are more likely to show up than others.

Not surprisingly, those who attend church most often—more than once a week—are the most likely (95 percent) to be there for Christmas.

Protestants (57 percent), Catholics (56 percent) and those from other religions (53 percent) are more likely than the religiously unaffiliated (21 percent) to report usually attending a church service. The religiously unaffiliated are the most likely to say no (71 percent).

Americans with evangelical beliefs are far more likely than those without such beliefs to show up to church during Christmas (72 percent v. 40 percent).

What prompts Christmas church attendance?

Most of those attending church at Christmastime say they do so primarily because of their faith. Three in 5 (60 percent) of those who typically attend church during this season say they do so to honor Jesus.

Fewer say their church attendance comes from a desire to observe tradition (16 percent), to be with family and friends (15 percent) or to get in the Christmas spirit (8 percent). Few (1 percent) aren’t sure what motivates their attendance.

“While church services draw more people in the Christmas season, their prime motivation isn’t unified. The majority are drawn to celebrate the birth of Jesus, honoring him as the Christ or promised Messiah. But others mostly join in because of the importance of family, their embrace of Christmas church tradition or to jumpstart Christmas vibes,” McConnell said.

Christians who attend church less often are more likely to say their Christmas attendance comes from tradition. Those who rarely or never attend (22 percent) and those who attend once or twice a month or only on religious holidays (27 percent) are more likely than those who attend about once a week (10 percent) and those who attend more than once a week (6 percent) to say they show up to observe tradition.

Americans with evangelical beliefs are more likely than other Americans to say they attend services to honor Jesus (74 percent v. 53 percent). The religiously unaffiliated are the most likely to say they attend to be with family and friends (42 percent) and to get in the Christmas spirit (21 percent).

Some are just waiting to be invited

Those who don’t typically show up at Christmas may simply be waiting on an invitation. Most (56 percent) say they likely would attend church if someone they know invited them to attend with them at Christmas time, including 17 percent who are very likely.

Around a third (36 percent) say they’re unlikely, including 24 percent who are very unlikely. Another 8 percent say they’re not sure.

“More than 1 in 8 Americans are convinced they would not attend a Christmas service if an acquaintance invited them. However, the majority of Americans who do not typically attend church at Christmastime say they probably would if they were invited by someone they know,” McConnell said.

“But anticipating a positive response may not be the best motivation for a churchgoer to invite people to a Christmas service. A different motivation in the chorus of an African American spiritual appeals to everybody: ‘Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.’ This chorus suggests that the Hallelujah-inspiring good news of Jesus being born is reason enough to tell it on the mountain or on the city wall.”

Catholics (71 percent), Protestants (65 percent) and Americans of other religions (58 percent) who don’t typically attend during Christmas are more likely than the religiously unaffiliated (40 percent) to say they’re likely to attend a service if invited. The religiously unaffiliated are the most likely to say they are unlikely to attend if invited (55 percent).

Christians who already attend church at least occasionally are more likely to show up this time of year if invited. Christians who attend a worship service about once a week (76 percent) and those who attend once or twice a month or only on religious holidays (69 percent) are more likely than those who rarely or never attend (52 percent) to say they’re likely to show up if invited.

Christmas invitations also may be effective for women (61 percent say they’re likely to attend), Hispanics (72 percent), those in Midwest (65 percent) and Northeast (60 percent) and those with evangelical beliefs (69 percent).

Older Americans who don’t typically attend aren’t looking for an opportunity to start. Those 65 and older (48 percent) are the most likely to say they are unlikely to go to a church service with a friend if invited during Christmas.

The online survey was conducted Aug. 14-30, 2024, using a national pre-recruited panel.  Researchers used quotas and slight weights to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education, religion and evangelical beliefs to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,200 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence the sampling error from the panel does not exceed plus or minus 3.3 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—At the First Baptist Church of Suitland, just across the District of Columbia border in Maryland, a typical Sunday service includes coffee and pastries, warm greetings and a sermon delivered by Pastor Quintin Few Sr., in an auditorium with a full band and speaker system.

At the side of the stage as the service proceeds are two people translating Few’s words into American Sign Language to help Deaf and hard of hearing parishioners. They are part of a program at the church known as the Holy Hands ministry.

With their hands flowing from one sign to the next, the interpreters bring the pastor’s words to life, which can be no easy task.

“One missed sign or one missed concept can prevent others from working out their salvation on that day,” said Bronte Stewart, who founded the program with the church’s leadership and music director in 2014.

Because Stewart sees every service as an opportunity to strengthen one’s faith, the ministry, she believes, offers more than access. It is inspired by a shared conviction among members that including anyone who might walk through the church’s doors is a fundamental part of living their Christian values.

“We were intentional in making sure that the Deaf community was integrated into the life of the church and to see them as part of us, irrespective of their disability,” said Few. “I think that is so important when you are ministering to any community.”

Interpreted services rare

Churches that offer interpreted services are still relatively rare in the United States. The Deaf Bible Society, a nonprofit that works to make the Bible accessible to Deaf people, lists nearly 30 houses of worship in the state that are “Deaf Churches” (led by Deaf people) or “Interpreted Churches.”

That’s likely an undercount—First Baptist doesn’t appear on its list—but with more than 5,000 churches in the state, it’s most likely only a tiny minority provide ASL services. Meanwhile, estimates put the share of Americans who are Deaf or hard of hearing at 11 million, or about 3.6 percent.

Responding to the call

At First Baptist Suitland, the Holy Hands ministry was born out of a conversation that took place in January 2014, when a Deaf woman named Sharone Ligon walked into First Baptist Suitland, interested in joining the church.

“There was a woman there explaining how the Sunday school works,” said Ligon, who was in a group with other prospective members but could not hear what was being said. A church member noticed Ligon had not been speaking much and approached her.

“He said, ‘Are you deaf?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And so that’s when he called Bronte to come over,” Ligon recalled.

Stewart, a long-time church member, said: “I knew basic sign language. I wouldn’t even say at a ‘101’ level. It was probably like a level 99,” explained Stewart.

Others in the church encouraged Stewart to learn more sign language in hopes she could become an ASL interpreter, but she was hesitant.

“You know, when the Lord taps you on your shoulder, sometimes you miss it,” she said. “I thought to myself: ‘Oh no, not me, Lord. You couldn’t possibly be calling on me to do this task.’ I didn’t hear that.”

But not long afterward, one of First Baptist’s ministry directors approached her to say the church would send her to school to learn ASL if she would interpret at services.

“I said, ‘Oh, OK, if the Lord’s going to equip me, yeah, I’m going,’” said Stewart, who then enrolled in ASL classes at a local community college.

Standards for ASL interpreters

Becoming a certified ASL interpreter can take years of rigorous examinations, and interpreters are required to meet standards set by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, a body that provides guidance for those interpreting in various settings, including religious ones.

RID’s Standard Practice Paper, a document that “provides a framework for basic and respectable standards,” outlines the specialized skills needed for interpretation in religious settings.

“Knowledge of a source language of an original text found in scripture such as Arabic, Hebrew, Latin or others would enhance the overall interpretation,” it points out. “It is ideal for the interpreter to have familiarity with the sacred text; however, the interpreter may need to work with an English translation.”

Due to the intimate nature of religious services, the Standard Practice Paper encourages interpreters to “enhance their skills by working with a religious mentor who is a seasoned and/or certified interpreter before working independently.”

Starting the ministry

Stewart would go on to receive a bachelor’s degree in interpretation studies and gain certification, but in the early days of the Holy Hands ministry, Stewart and Ligon worked to understand the Bible better.

“If she wanted to know about certain signs, she would find words, and then we would talk about how they were meant to be communicated. She would ask me, ‘What’s the sign for this?’And I would show her, and then we would keep going from there,” said Ligon.

Eventually the two collaborated to teach a course at the church for members interested in learning ASL.

Stewart remains steadfast in her goal to interpret in church because of three core values: “community, culture, language, that’s what’s playing out in my head, those three things,” she said. “Before understanding the culture, you need to know that this language is communication access for that community. Without those three things, your message is not going to come across clearly in a religious setting.”

New leadership

There are now seven church members working in the Holy Hands ministry, carrying on Stewart’s legacy of service, though Stewart has turned leadership over to a member of the congregation named Sharon Ford. A hearing woman who joined Holy Hands early on, Ford witnessed the moment when Ligon and her husband were baptized in the church, as Holy Hands members interpretated.

“They came to know the Lord and have a relationship with him. They joined the church and were baptized here,” she said. “So, the congregation got to see that we were doing God’s work by spreading the gospel and making sure that everyone could understand it regardless of any differences.”

In reflecting on her journey, Stewart often punctuates her sentences with the phrase: “Look at God.”

“God has laid out a plan for his people, and every time something happens in my life or the lives of others, I hearken back to his promises. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He always lights our pathways, and so anytime God shows up, I give him the glory, and I say, ‘Look at God.’”