WASHINGTON (RNS)—For a small church, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Downingtown, Penn., has a surprising reach.

Most church members live in and around Downingtown, a small town about an hour west of Philadelphia. Some live as far away as Bermuda.

“But that’s one of the beauties that has come out of the pandemic,” Pastor Ivy Berry said. “We can meet in the sanctuary, but still maintain a worship presence via Zoom and on Facebook Live, so members who may not be able to travel to the sanctuary can still receive the same worship service.”

Expanded reach, made connections

A report on churches and technology during the pandemic found that by offering online services, churches were able to expand their reach, often connecting with people outside their community or reconnecting with former members who had moved away.

Even small congregations that had once struggled to reach outside the walls of the church were able to expand their reach, according to “When Pastors Put on the ‘Tech Hat,” a report from the Tech in Churches research project, led by Heidi Campbell, professor of communication at Texas A&M University.

“With the shift online, churches were shocked to discover the ways that an online service can become a wide-reaching net to whoever is interested in tuning in or watching,” according to researchers. “One pastor described this widening reach and shift as ‘shut-ins being no longer shut out.’”

For Anna Caudill, a special education advocate and adoptive mom from Nashville, Tenn., online church has been a godsend, a way to stay connected to her church even if she and her family can’t be there in person.

Caudill said she’s been part of a church her whole life. She’s taught Sunday school, gone on mission trips and cherishes belonging to a Christian community and gathering together on a weekly basis. That’s been difficult in recent years due to health concerns in her family, which have kept her from being as active as she’d like to be.

When COVID-19 hit, her pulmonologist told her to stay away from church and other public gatherings.

“Don’t go anywhere,” she recalled him saying.

While her church is meeting in person, masks aren’t required, though the church has set aside space for people who need masks or other precautions. That’s made meeting in person a point of tension, she said, and sent a message that people with disabilities or health concerns are a nuisance or problem to be handled, rather than full members of the community—something that happens all too often in churches, she said.

“There’s no deliberate, intentional consideration unless disabled people are in the room when decisions are made,” she said.

Is online worship a consumer experience?

A recent New York Times column suggested churches should drop online services, claiming that offering both online and in-person services risks turning Sunday worship into a consumer experience.

“Online church, while it was necessary for a season, diminishes worship and us as people,” wrote Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican Church in North America priest and award-winning author. “We seek to worship wholly—with heart, soul, mind and strength—and embodiment is an irreducible part of that wholeness.”

“I think people worshipping online is a diminishment if they could be in person,” Warren told Religion News Service.

Warren supported the decision by churches to offer online worship during the pandemic, saying it was important for public health and the spiritual well-being of congregations when meeting in person was not possible. But she argues emergency pastoral response should not become a regular part of the life of the church.

With vaccines and the return of in-person worship, she said, churches should rethink the practice of offering online worship as a regular option for everyone.

Instead, she said, pastors and churches could use streaming as an extension of their ministries to shut-ins and others who cannot attend services in person. Churches have long had a practice of pastors or volunteers bringing Communion to the elderly and those who are ill—and of distributing recordings of services as part of that ministry. That option could still be offered with streaming, she said, with a link given to those who need it as part of a conversation with a pastor.

Larger trend of exclusively online interaction

Her concern comes when Christians see online worship as a replacement for in-person services, which she sees as part of a larger trend of people interacting with one another online rather than face to face. Gathering in person to worship and partake of sacraments is an essential Christian practice that can’t be replicated online, she said.

Some recent data from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research suggests churches might want to keep streaming services even after returning to in-person worship. According to a study of pandemic responses by 2,700 congregations from 38 denominations, churches with a hybrid approach—with both in-person and online services—saw reported worship attendance growing by 4.5 percent. Churches that only met in person saw attendance decline by 15.7 percent, while those that only met online declined by 7.3 percent.

Still, the streaming of services has come with a cost.

The Tech in Churches report noted many pastors and volunteers were worn out by the demands put on them during the pandemic, including the “duties, tasks, and frustrations” involved in streaming services. Creating community online also required a different set of skills than those needed to create community in person, something pastors also struggled with, according to the report.

Still, pastors were aware that continuing online services would be important in the future, in order to serve congregation members who are not able to return in person.

“One pastor acknowledged how there was a more vulnerable group of congregants who, even after the COVID-19 pandemic, would still be required to watch online for whatever reason (those who are immunocompromised, elderly, etc.),” according to the report.

“This meant for church leaders that if they wanted to serve these communities, they still needed to be committed to online worship in one form or another so that people could tune in from home.”

Debate continues on pandemic impact on churches

The debate over online worship is part of a larger conversation about the ongoing fallout from COVID-19 on church life, which has left clergy and church leaders worn out and many churchgoers disconnected.

In October 2020, Episcopal priest Elizabeth Felicetti, rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Va., shared in The Atlantic a frank account of the stress of navigating pandemic life in a congregation. The commentary has evoked strong reactions, both pro and con, she said.

While people have accused her of wanting to hurt the Episcopal Church, she loves the denomination, she said. But, she added, if she wants to find a way to help, she needs to be honest.

She senses that some congregants have simply gotten out of the habit of Sunday morning church attendance, she said.

No turning back

After months of doing something else on Sunday morning, it’s hard to return to church. That’s particularly true, she added, when “church was presented as, you know, a place of potential transmission so it seemed like a dangerous place to go. And then people found other things to do or found that they like sleeping in and having brunch with their family.”

Becca Bruner, co-pastor of Paoli Presbyterian Church, northwest of Philadelphia, said holding services online and in person can be helpful and challenging.

Being in the same room with other worshippers prompts conversation and reflection, Bruner said. On the other hand, viewing a service online may be the first step of entering a community or a small group, where encounters can be as real as those in the flesh, she added.

“When you encounter people who really bother you, you have to learn to love them, even though they are difficult to love. That is church,” she said.

Scott Thumma, a professor of sociology of religion, said church leaders will need to continue to adapt in the future. There’s no going back to the past, he said.

“There are still an immense number of challenges for clergy going forward,” said Thumma, the director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University. “They can’t immediately snap back to situations and practices they thought worked. I keep telling clergy that they are going to have to remain open to change. There just isn’t any chance they can go back to the old ways.”

From worship, to children and youth ministry, to community outreach—how you do any of it is up for grabs, Thumma said.

“We live in a different world now.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—When asked to identify greatest needs, pastors say they’re most concerned about seeing their churchgoers grow spiritually and making connections with those outside of their churches.

After speaking directly with pastors to gather their perspectives on their ministry and personal challenges, Lifeway Research surveyed 1,000 U.S. pastors for the 2022 Greatest Needs of Pastors study to discover what they see as their most pressing issues.

“The pre-existing challenges of ministry were amplified by COVID, and it’s important we lean in and listen closely to pastors,” said Ben Mandrell, president of Lifeway Christian Resources.

“This project has shed light on critical needs they have and will point the way forward in how we partner with them to fuel their ministries and improve their health in multiple areas.”

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said his team began the study by speaking with more than 200 pastors, asking them to think beyond the current pandemic-related struggles and share some of the enduring needs of pastors and their churches today.

“Their responses to the challenges they face and the areas that are most important for them were then presented to more than 200 additional pastors,” McConnell explained. “Based on those responses, 1,000 pastors were asked about almost four dozen needs to measure the extent to which each is something they need to address today.”

Enduring needs identified

Of the 44 needs identified by pastors and included in the study, a majority selected 17 as an issue they need to address.

• Developing leaders and volunteers: 77 percent
• Fostering connections with unchurched people: 76 percent
• People’s apathy or lack of commitment: 75 percent
• Consistency in personal prayer: 72 percent
• Friendships and fellowship with others: 69 percent
• Training current leaders and volunteers: 68 percent
• Consistency of Bible reading not related to sermon or teaching preparation: 68 percent
• Trusting God: 66 percent
• Relationships with other pastors: 64 percent
• Consistency in taking a Sabbath: 64 percent
• Stress: 63 percent
• Personal disciple making: 63 percent
• Confessing and repenting from personal sin: 61 percent
• Consistency exercising: 59 percent
• Avoiding over-commitment and over-work: 55 percent
• Challenging people where they lack obedience: 55 percent
• Time management: 51 percent

“The number and breadth of needs pastors are currently facing is staggering,” McConnell said. “All seven spiritual needs asked about on the survey are a current concern for most pastors, as well as practical, mental, self-care, skill-development and needs around ministry difficulties. Clearly, pastors are not looking for shortcuts and are taking their roles as spiritual leaders in their church seriously.”

The 44 identified needs fall into seven broader categories. Subsequent releases in Lifeway Research’s 2022 Greatest Needs of Pastors study will explore each of the categories and the related needs specifically.

Needs requiring attention

When asked to narrow down their list to the single greatest need requiring their attention, pastors’ responses varied. At least one pastor surveyed picked each of the 44 possible needs, while 23 needs garnered at least 2 percent of pastors. Eight needs were chosen by more than 3 percent of pastors, and one reached double digits.

• People’s apathy or lack of commitment: 10 percent
• Personal disciple-making: 9 percent
• Fostering connections with unchurched people: 8 percent
• Developing leaders and volunteers: 7 percent
• Establishing a compelling vision: 5 percent
• Technology: 4 percent
• Consistency in personal prayer: 4 percent
• Consistency exercising: 4 percent

“When asked to prioritize their own greatest need, pastors tend to put the needs of their church’s ministry ahead of personal needs,” McConnell said. “Personally making disciples, developing leaders, connecting with those outside the church and mobilizing the people in their church are the most common ‘greatest needs’ and are among the most common needs pastors want to make a priority.”

When thinking about getting help with their needs, pastors want to hear from their fellow clergy who have been through the same struggles.

Three in 4 U.S. pastors (75 percent) say they would be interested in getting advice or guidance on the issues they are facing from other pastors who have already been through those problems. Similar numbers (74 percent) would like to hear from those who understand churches like theirs.

Another 70 percent would listen to other pastors who are currently facing the same needs. Slightly fewer (57 percent) want to hear from experts on those types of needs. Older pastors are the least likely to say they’d like advice from any of those sources.

“The most monumental needs of pastors are not new to this generation of pastors,” McConnell said. “They know other pastors and pastors who have gone before them are best positioned to understand and help them with the wide variety of ministry and personal needs a pastor faces.”

Still, previous Lifeway Research shows not all pastors actively are seeking out advice from their fellow clergy. More than 8 in 10 U.S. Protestant pastors say they feel supported by other pastors in their area. Fewer than half (46 percent), however, know and spend time with 10 or more other local pastors, according to a 2020 Lifeway Research survey.

Most pastors (54 percent) have those relationships with fewer than 10 other area clergy, including 1 in 20 (5 percent) who aren’t connected with any area pastors and 8 percent who have relationships with only one or two other ministers.

Seek wisdom from retired ministers

Pastors may also look to retired pastors for advice and wisdom for navigating common challenges. A 2019 Lifeway Research study of retired Protestant pastors, ministers and missionaries found some have struggled with the transition into retirement and are looking for ways to serve and connect with others.

More than 4 in 5 retired ministry workers (86 percent) say they have continued to make new friends in recent years, but 29 percent admit they feel lonely or isolated.

When asked what resources would most help them with their relationships today, most say they want to make additional ministry connections: 25 percent say making friends who have similar experience in ministry, 23 percent making friends who live near me, 20 percent relating to a church in which I am not in leadership and 17 percent making friends who have had similar experience in leadership.

“Retired pastors and other ministry workers still want to serve the church,” McConnell said. “When Lifeway Research asked them how ministries could best serve those like them who are retired from full-time ministry, the most common response was to provide them with opportunities to serve or minister (16 percent). Current pastors looking for guidance may find retired pastors ready and willing to help.”

The phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors was conducted March 30 to April 22, 2021. Each survey was completed by the senior or sole pastor or a minister at the church. Analysts weighted responses by region and church size to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample of 1,000 surveys provides 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.1 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

MILWAUKEE (RNS)—Asher Imtiaz is the kind of person who always seems to be wandering into a great story.

Like the time in 2017, when the Pakistani American computer scientist and documentary photographer walked into a Target in Nebraska and ended up being invited to a wedding thrown by Yazidi refugees from the Middle East.

Imtiaz had gone to Nebraska to shoot pictures of life in small-town America, far from the country’s urban centers. Among his portfolio from the time is another Yazidi family, dressed in patriotic garb and heading to a Fourth of July picnic.

“I went to see America and found these new Americans,” said Imtiaz at a coffee shop on the north side of Milwaukee last year.

Imtiaz fits right in at Eastbrook Church, a multi-ethnic congregation where he serves as a volunteer leader at an outreach ministry for international students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus nearby.

Eastbrook is a bit of an outlier these days—a place where refugees, immigrants and international students are welcome at a time when American evangelicals increasingly are suspicious of newcomers to the United States.

According to data from the Public Religion Research Institute’s Immigration Policies Survey, nearly 6-in-10 (59 percent) white evangelical Protestants agreed with the statement “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” By contrast, only 31 percent of Americans overall agreed with that statement.

Intentional outreach to international students

At an outdoor service at Eastbrook in August, Imtiaz wandered through the congregation greeting friends and exchanging hugs as a diverse worship team led the congregation through a mix of traditional and contemporary songs.

The service started with the singing of the traditional Doxology, which begins, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” followed by songs like “You Are Good” and “Way Maker,” by Nigerian gospel singer Sinach.

That was followed by a reading of Psalm 23 in English, Spanish and Yoruba.

The church was founded in 1979 by members of Elmbrook Church, a megachurch about 20 miles to the west. Elmbrook’s pastor at the time was hoping to get church members more involved in the communities where they lived. Dubbed Eastbrook, it was led for three decades by former missionaries Marc and Nancy Erickson. For the past 11 years, the pastor has been Matt Erickson (no relation).

The proximity of the university campus led to an intentional outreach to college students, especially those from overseas, which continues four decades later.

Every fall, church members give tours of Milwaukee to newly arrived international students, who are then invited to have dinner at the homes of church members. Many of those students come from Christian backgrounds and are seeking to connect with a church, said Imtiaz, who was raised as an Anglican in Pakistan, a country where only about 2 percent of the population is Christian.

Those students are also looking for friendship. Imtiaz pointed to a 2012 study of international students in the South and Northeast, which found 40 percent of those students had no close friendships with Americans. Through the outreach at Eastbrook, their students often make friends in their first days in the country. Many of them end up spending holidays with church members and making longtime friendships.

“It’s basically providing a home away from home,” he said.

‘Don’t lose sight of the people involved’

The church also operates an International Community Center on the south side of the city, where a number of recent refugees and other immigrants have settled. The center teaches English as a Second Language classes and provides support with issues like housing and education. About 30 people drop by the center most days, Dan Ryan, senior director of mission at the church, said in an interview in early January 2022.

The church is helping resettle some recent refugees from Afghanistan, Ryan said. He understands that some of his fellow evangelicals around the country are resistant to the idea of resettling refugees. Since refugees are here in the United States, he said, churches need to reach out in love.

“Yes, have your political ideas,” he said. “But don’t lose sight of the people involved.”

Ryan said that the church and the center are very open about the Christian motivations for their outreach efforts. But they also steer clear of proselytizing. Their main goal, Ryan said, is to show love and welcome to their new neighbors, a point echoed by Matt Erickson.

“It’s a ministry of care and concern, and tangible ways of loving people welcoming people,” he said.

‘Treasured by God and valuable in his sight’

“These folks are treasured by God and valuable in his sight,” said Erickson, who spent several years on the staff of World Relief, a Christian organization that helps resettle refugees in the United States.

While he’s not shy about talking about faith, Imtiaz doesn’t see himself as a “Christian photographer.” He said Christians in the United States sometimes see their neighbors as “projects” or prospective converts, rather than seeing them as people first. He takes a slower approach, trying to befriend people and see them as a neighbor who is valuable in God’s sight.

As a photographer, Imtiaz practices something he calls “God at ‘I’ level”—trying to connect with the people he photographs as human beings, long before taking their picture.

Like many churches in the United States, Eastbrook has felt the pressure of the country’s political polarization inside the church. Erickson said Eastbrook always has tried to bring together people from different backgrounds, a task made more difficult by the broader conflicts in American public life over race, politics and increasingly, COVID-19.

He often turns to a verse from the New Testament book of Galatians, in which the Apostle Paul urges his readers to “bear one another’s burdens.”

“The last couple of years have given us lots of opportunities to live that out,” he said. “Sometimes we are doing it well and sometimes we are not. Part of being a body is that we have to learn to talk with each other, and we have to learn how to understand each other.”

Give more time to Scripture than social media

During his sermon at the outdoor service in August, Erickson urged church members to ground their lives in the Bible and its message of love, rather than on the noise of the outside world. Without that solid foundation, he said, their lives won’t reflect the kind of love God wants them to share.

“Brothers and sisters, I just want to ask us today, are we giving more time to the news, are we giving more time to social media than we are to the word of God and letting it sink into our lives?” he said. “I’m not trying to be legalistic. I’m just sick of us being brainwashed and want us to stand in the kingdom.”

Among the people at Eastbrook that Sunday were Mahitha Voola and Manna Konduri, both originally from India, who came to Eastbrook through the church’s outreach to international students and ended up staying after graduation.

From the beginning, people at the church made them feel at home.

“They say, ‘Oh, taste and see the Lord is good,’” Voola said, quoting a verse from the Psalms. “I’ve tasted that love of God through these people and through the church. I feel very blessed to be part of it.”

The two said they hope to pass on the welcome they have received.

“Today we are the recipients of this love,” Konduri said. “Tomorrow, maybe we will be the ones to show that to someone else.”

Eastbrook’s ethic of welcome, Imtiaz said, has been as much a boon for him as it is for the newcomers.

He’s particularly interested in documenting the story of immigrants and refugees, whom he likes to refer to as “new Americans.” For several years he lived in an apartment complex where newly resettled refugees were living so that he could get to know them. He ended up photographing a number of neighbors after building friendships.

When he got COVID-19—a mild case—one of his former neighbors, a woman from Iraq, would send him soup.

Imtiaz hopes his photographs and work at the church will inspire people to get to know their neighbors, no matter where they come from.

“If I can go to Nebraska and go to Target and meet 400 Yazidis, anybody else can,” he said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Preemptive Love, a nonprofit long championed by Christian influencers and celebrities for its work in Iraq and elsewhere, plans to cut ties with its founders after former employees complained of an abusive work environment and misleading fundraising practices.

Jeremy and Jessica Courtney, former missionaries who founded the Preemptive Love Coalition in 2007, were placed on leave in the summer of 2021 to allow the charity’s board of directors to address concerns raised in a letter from more than two dozen former employees.

After reviewing the preliminary findings of an investigation by Guidepost Solutions, a consulting firm hired to review the former employees’ allegations, the board resolved that the Courtneys would not return from their leave of absence and no longer have a role with the organization, a representative of Preemptive Love confirmed to Religion News Service.

In a statement posted on the Preemptive Love website, the board promised to work to improve the organization’s culture and to improve its transparency.

“The board cannot ask staff members to serve others with excellence in the name of peacemaking if the organizational culture itself is not healthy and vibrant. We must invest in our own community with the same heart and compassion that we invest in vulnerable communities around the world,” the statement read.

The board also asked for patience as it makes changes to Preemptive Love and promised that more details about its future would be forthcoming.

“We are asking for the trust of staff, of partners, of supporters and our broader community dedicated to the important peacemaking and humanitarian work accomplished every day by this organization,” the statement read.

In mid-December, Ben Irwin, a former director of communications for Preemptive Love, posted a long article on Medium.com detailing his concerns about the Courtneys, presenting a starkly contrasting picture than the mission outlined by Preemptive Love’s leadership.

Stated goal to ‘unmake violence’

According to its website, the organization does relief work in the Middle East and Latin America as part of a broader goal of “working together to unmake violence and create the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.”

Jeremy Courtney, who grew up in Leander as the grandson of a Baptist minister, attended Howard Payne University and earned his Master of Divinity degree from Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.

In speeches and conversations with donors, he long has said Preemptive Love began with a cup of chai and the story of a girl with a broken heart. Courtney, who had moved to the Middle East intending to be a missionary after 9/11, had relocated to Iraq in 2007 to work on humanitarian relief.

As Courtney sat in a hotel, a man approached and told Courtney that his cousin’s daughter had a heart defect and no local doctor could treat her.

“You are an American. Is there something you can do?” Courtney recalled the man saying in a 2011 TED Talk given in Baghdad. “Ultimately, I decided to help this little girl,” he told the TED audience. “I decided to suspend my questions and to jump in and love first.”

That meeting led the Courtneys and some friends to form a nonprofit that would raise money to provide heart surgeries for Iraqi children. The group’s name was the Preemptive Love Coalition. “Now, unlike a preemptive strike, where I seek to get you before you get me,” Courtney explained in his TED Talk, “preemptive love is where I jump forward to love you before you love me.”

Preemptive love also meant trying to help people even if you lacked the expertise to solve their problems. That can-do attitude worked, and by March 2009, Preemptive Love had raised more than $220,000 to provide 26 heart surgeries for Iraqi children.

The following year, the organization raised about $300,000 to provide surgery for 23 more children, along with follow-up care. Preemptive Love would eventually pay for surgeries for hundreds of children and set up a program to train local doctors to perform lifesaving surgery.

Shift in focus to refugee relief

After the rise of the Islamic State group, Preemptive Love shifted to providing relief for refugees in Iraq and other war-torn countries such as Syria. In 2020, Preemptive Love had its best year ever—raising more than $13 million to support a team of “global peacemakers” who provide food and water and other assistance while spreading the gospel of loving first.

The Courtneys’ work proved particularly attractive to Christian influencers and young Christians such as Dane Barnett, who were disillusioned with politics and wanted to change the world. A secular organization, Preemptive seemed to be infused with faith.

Barnett began raising funds for Preemptive Love in 2011, while a student at Cedarville University, a Christian school in Ohio. Barnett, who said he’d been born with a congenital heart defect, was drawn by the organization’s aid to heart patients.

“If I had been born in Iraq, I’d need a place like Preemptive Love to save my life,” he said.

Barnett had also grown concerned about the evangelical subculture he had grown up in, feeling it was too focused on power and not enough on living like Jesus. Preemptive Love, he said, offered a way to find meaning by helping others.

“The concepts of preemptive love—of loving anyway, loving your enemies, loving first, all those taglines that we used in marketing and fundraising over the years—really did feel like an alternative to the way the American church was running,” he said.

He eventually spent five years on staff.

Concerns voiced about the organization

Despite the success of Preemptive Love, Barnett had concerns about the way the organization was run. Anyone who disagreed with the Courtneys was belittled or pushed out.

Amanda Donnelly, the group’s former chief marketing officer, said she was fired by Jeremy Courtney after she disagreed with his wife, Jessica, the charity’s chief program officer.

“The minute I crossed her it was over for me,” she said.

Donnelly, who was based in the United States, said she and other senior leaders had been summoned to a meeting in Iraq with the Courtneys in early June with a week’s notice, purportedly to work out their differences.

The meeting, which would have included visits to refugee camps, was supposed to help leaders regain trust and to put the “fire of God” in their bones, according to an email from Courtney that was obtained by Religion News Service.

When Donnelly balked, she was let go. She also filed a formal human resources complaint.

In an email, Courtney told the staff at Preemptive Love that Donnelly and other leaders were not “fast in crisis,” a term the charity uses to describe its work.

“There will not be two classes of ‘citizens’ in this community,” he wrote. “Our top leadership team won’t be allowed to earn money off the pain and accomplishments of those they are unwilling to walk with face to face in the places where the substance of our work is taking place.”

Overstated work in the field

Along with her concerns about the work culture at Preemptive Love, Donnelly and other staffers worried that Preemptive Love’s marketing overplayed the organization’s work in the field.

In December 2019, World magazine, an evangelical publication, raised questions about Preemptive Love’s work in Syria, reporting the claims made in fundraising appeals did not match the work being done on the ground. The charity has long denied the assertion, though it did admit misstating the scope of some of its work in Syria.

A report on the Preemptive Love website states that its work in Syria began in March 2016 and ramped up after the fall of Aleppo in December of that year. A letter on the charity’s website also claims in the final weeks of 2016, after Aleppo fell, Preemptive Love raised $6 million more than it had projected. According to a representative from Preemptive Love, $2.6 million of those funds were restricted.

However, while it was raising millions for its work in Syria, Preemptive Love did not hire its first staffer in that country until February 2017. The charity now has three staffers there.

Most of the initial relief work by Preemptive Love in Syria was done by partner organizations, despite claims by Courtney that “our team” was on the ground.

Michelle Fisher, chair of Preemptive Love’s board and a longtime friend of the Courtneys, told RNS in an email information about its partners was withheld to protect their safety.

“Because Preemptive Love’s mission is to serve vulnerable people in some of the most difficult and dangerous places, the organization has chosen to protect our partners by not publicly identifying them, especially on the internet,” she told RNS in an email response.

“The regions where partners are located are often religiously, socially and geopolitically complex. There are many scenarios where working with a U.S. organization can put people and the partner organization itself at risk.”

Preferred dramatic story to telling the truth

Former staffers told RNS they believe in the work being done by Preemptive Love and that the funds collected by the charity are used to help people in desperate situations. But they are concerned that Preemptive Love has preferred a dramatic story to the truth.

In his Medium post, Irwin linked to a pair of videos that he said were misleading. One details a food delivery in the city of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2016, after the city was retaken from ISIS. In the video, aid workers in Preemptive Love T-shirts distribute bags of food. At one point, Jeremy Courtney breaks in, saying that the distribution was interrupted by a clash between religious and tribal leaders.

“That has settled down now and we’ve been allowed to come back in and continue the distribution and so we have now distributed 52,000 pounds of food, 24,000 liters of water to about 500 families who were in desperate need of this kind of support,” Courtney says in the video.

In reality, said Irwin, Courtney was 200 miles away from the violence and edited his narration into footage of the event.

Another video shows Courtney near a bombed-out mosque in Mosul when the sound of an air strike is heard, followed by an explosion and shaky footage of people taking cover. Courtney tells the camera that there was an explosion a few meters away and that “shrapnel flew everywhere.”

That too was edited—the strike landed at some distance away. Raw footage posted by Irwin shows people milling about, relatively unconcerned.

“He didn’t need to sensationalize it,” said Irwin.

Fisher told RNS both Courtney and Irwin approved the edits.

“The time-stamped raw footage from the trip in question indicates that this video was intentionally edited to have a broader interpretation by the viewer than the actual events that transpired,” she told RNS.

Putting safeguards in place

The board “has already begun implementing safeguards to ensure that this issue is never repeated,” she added.

Fisher also told RNS Preemptive Love is committed to transparency about its work. She admitted the group’s leadership had not always presented information in the most transparent way.

“As a board, we have determined that while the impact of the actual work by the field teams and partners often exceeds the public narrative, there have been some instances where leadership has made the decision to present material in a way that is ambiguous and potentially allows for some misinterpretation of context or surrounding events,” she said in an email.

Gene Tempel, founding dean emeritus of the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, said storytelling is an essential part of fundraising. Stories draw people in and help them connect with those being helped by a charity, he said.

“But we would like to see honesty in the storytelling and not exaggeration,” he said.

Tempel advocates for brutal honesty and transparency in fundraising—telling people how their donations will be used and why they are needed.

Tempel said that fundraisers who stretch the truth don’t only hurt their own organization, they undermine other charities by sending a message to donors that nonprofits can’t be trusted.

“Transparency and accountability are the two buzzwords in philanthropy,” he said. “So be transparent and hold yourself accountable.”

La Rev. Dra. Loida I. Martell recuerda un momento crítico de vida o muerte que enfrentó mientras realizaba un doctorado en teología de la Universidad de Fordham.

El consejero de posgrado de Martell había rechazado repetidamente su propuesta de investigación de tesis. La demora amenazaba con estropear una beca que le había sido otorgada a Martell por la Iniciativa Teológica Hispana (HTI, por sus siglas en inglés) para completar su tesis.

“Siguió poniendo obstáculos”, dijo Martell sobre su asesor. Estaba frustrada y consternada porque sus planes de convertirse en profesora de teología a nivel universitario estaban fracasando.

Fue entonces cuando Martell se enteró de que HTI hacía más que otorgar ayuda financiera a los estudiantes de posgrado hispanos. Los académicos de HTI defendieron su propuesta de investigación, presionando a los funcionarios de Fordham hasta que revisaron su propuesta nuevamente.

Fue aprobada.

Martell obtuvo su Ph.D. en 2005 y actualmente es vicepresidenta de asuntos académicos y decana del Seminario Teológico de Lexington en Lexington, Kentucky. Martell, quien es ministra bautista ordenada y veterinaria, fue pionera en el estudio de la teología evangélica.

“Si no hubiera sido por HTI, no estoy segura de haber podido completar el programa”, dijo Martell. “Aquí estoy hoy, profesora titular y decana”.

Triunfar en conjunto

Según todos los informes, obtener un título de doctorado en los EE. UU. puede ser arduo, lento y agotador desde el punto de vista financiero. En algunos campos, como el Ph.D. [nivel más alto de doctorado religioso], el promedio de finalización puede ser inferior al 50 por ciento, según el Consejo de Educación de Posgrado.

Sin embargo, la HTI, que celebra su 25 aniversario este año, ha estado ampliando las filas de latinos con doctorados en religión y teología. La iniciativa cuenta con una tasa de finalización del 93 por ciento, con estudiantes que terminan en un promedio de 5,5 años. En octubre, su consorcio colaborativo, integrado por 24 instituciones de educación superior teológica, celebró su graduación número 150.

Lilly Endowment Inc., en su informe anual de 2020, señaló la importancia de ampliar el número de profesores teológicos latinos, cuya representación en las escuelas teológicas estadounidenses es actualmente inferior al 5%.

Sin embargo, ya en 2012, la Asociación de Escuelas Teológicas (ATS, por sus siglas en inglés) informó que los estudiantes de color representaban más de un tercio de la matrícula total en las escuelas que son parte de la ATS; un aumento del 55% durante un período de 20 años.

Con ese crecimiento y “con la composición racial o étnica de la población general de EE. UU., proyectada para crecer hasta alcanzar el estatus de mayoría para 2040, esta tendencia justifica una respuesta reflexiva para garantizar que las escuelas, y sus graduados, tengan la capacidad de servir a un mundo cada vez más multirracial y multicultural”, decía el informe de la  ATS.

David Nirenberg, decano de la Escuela de Divinidad de la Universidad de Chicago, dijo en un video de aniversario en las redes sociales que HTI está abordando esta brecha apoyando a nuevos y jóvenes académicos de diversas maneras.

“HTI ha pensado en…cómo proporcionar a los estudiantes no solo las finanzas, no solo la ayuda editorial, la ayuda integral, [sino] también las redes, lo espiritual y lo familiar”, dijo Nirenberg. “Es por eso que tantos estudiantes de HTI hablan de ‘la familia’”.

La iniciativa rodea y apoya a los estudiantes desde el comienzo de su educación de posgrado hasta sus primeras experiencias laborales. Lo que HTI ofrece ahora incluye becas, tutoría, asistencia editorial, una conferencia de desarrollo profesional y fondos para la creación de redes. Una vez que los graduados son contratados, reciben apoyo cuando comienzan sus primeros puestos. Y un nuevo programa apoya a las mujeres que aspiran al liderazgo.

HTI también ha establecido un blog público de teología, una revista bilingüe revisada por colegas, un premio a un libro, una colección de disertaciones y otros recursos. [Entre las disertaciones está la de Martell: Liberating News: An Emerging U.S. Hispanic/Latina Soteriology of the Crossroads (Noticias liberadoras: Una emergente soteriología de las encrucijadas entre las hispanas y/o latinas en los EE. UU.]

Los exalumnos de HTI ahora se pueden encontrar en todos los niveles de educación superior teológica, en todas las denominaciones y más allá de los miembros del consorcio, dijo Joanne Rodríguez, directora ejecutiva de HTI.

“Tenemos académicos que ahora son presidentes de instituciones académicas, decanos, profesores titulares y profesores de tiempo completo”, dijo.

HTI cuenta con esos mismos exalumnos para ejecutar la parte del programa que casi todos describen como el “corazón del esfuerzo”: la tutoría.

Los académicos séniores ayudan a los estudiantes a navegar los programas de doctorado, incluida la colaboración con los asesores de doctorado de los estudiantes y para abogar por ellos cuando sea necesario.

Los estudiantes que se inscriben en el primer, segundo o tercer año (el año del examen integral) de estudio son puestos con mentores durante un máximo de tres años, y muchos han desarrollado fuertes vínculos personales y profesionales.

En un podcast reciente de HTI, la estudiante de Ph.D. Victoria Pérez Rivera agradeció a su mentora, la profesora adjunta del Seminario Fuller Sophia A. Magallanes.

“Por primera vez, me vi a mí misma; vi lo que podría llegar a ser algún día”, dijo Rivera. “La tutoría de muchos de nosotros ha jugado un papel fundamental en nuestras vidas, especialmente en la mía”.

Los líderes de HTI dicen que la organización lleva la tutoría a un nuevo nivel al crear una comunidad de académicos que trabajan juntos —un enfoque que llaman “en conjunto”—, para garantizar el éxito de cada graduado.

La teología en la comunidad latina se hace con un espíritu colaborativo, dijo Martell. “Nadie es insignificante; nadie es silenciado; nadie es ignorado”.

Se crean nuevos conductos

Las primeras becas de HTI se otorgaron en 1996. Un año antes, HTI había sido lanzada en la Universidad de Emory por un grupo de dedicados académicos latinos en teología.

Ana María Pineda, teóloga de la Universidad de Santa Clara, fue una de esas pioneras. El grupo, dijo, tenía motivos para hacer algo debido a la falta de teólogos latinos.

“Los conductos era pequeños en ese entonces”, dijo Pineda, quien copresidió un comité con el renombrado historiador de la Iglesia Justo González, autor del histórico estudio de 1988 La educación teológica de los hispanos.

Fue una de las primeras publicaciones en identificar la necesidad de más profesores latinos en instituciones dedicadas a la educación teológica, junto con una mayor interacción en esas instituciones entre compañeros, teólogos, maestros y académicos latinos.

El comité de Pineda se reunió varias veces, en Chicago y nuevamente en Puerto Rico, dijo, para exponer la visión de HTI. Hizo hincapié en que los miembros del comité querían asegurarse de que los esfuerzos siguieran siendo ecuménicos.

Ellos prepararon un informe — La encuesta nacional de educación teológica hispana/latina— y lo enviaron a Pew Charitable Trusts (Fondos de Caridad Pew), que acordó proporcionar una importante subvención inicial.

Efraín Agosto formó parte del primer comité de selección de becarios de HTI y luego, en 1999, se convirtió en el tercer becario postdoctoral de la misma iniciativa.

Sin mentores u otros latinos para el apoyo colaborativo, dijo Agosto, le tomó una década —de 1985 a 1996—obtener su doctorado en Estudios del Nuevo Testamento de la Universidad de Boston.

“Fue perjudicial para mí tratar de completar el programa esencialmente solo”, dijo Agosto, quien ahora es Profesor Croghan Bicentennial en Estudios Bíblicos y Cristianos Tempranos en Williams College.

Desde entonces, Agosto ha colaborado en proyectos con otros graduados de HTI, incluida la edición de un volumen recopilado en 2018.

“Debido a que HTI ha hecho un trabajo maravilloso al fomentar una comunidad colaborativa para que las personas trabajen en conjunto, hizo más fácil el trabajo cuando se trataba de elaborar un libro como este”, dijo Agosto en una entrevista de Journeys (Jornadas), el boletín de HTI, en 2019.

“Fue fácil unir a las personas para trabajar de manera fructífera, porque teníamos una red y un conjunto de prácticas comunes”.

Martell estuvo de acuerdo.

“Lo que muchos de nosotros experimentamos en nuestras instituciones —la necesidad de luchar con uñas y dientes para ser escuchados y respetados—, nos damos cuenta de que cuando llegamos a HTI, ya no necesitamos luchar más”, dijo. “Estamos en un lugar donde ‘encajamos’ y donde posteriormente funcionamos.

“Pero más que función, donde prosperamos y, por lo tanto, nos convertimos en regalos los unos para los otros y para la comunidad en general”.

El consorcio

A lo largo de los años, el modelo comercial de HTI fue revisada a medida que la organización buscaba una mejor base financiera.

En 1999, la HTI trasladó su sede al Seminario Teológico de Princeton, y el seminario proporcionó fondos operativos básicos. Rodríguez abrió la oficina como subdirectora; luego se convirtió en directora ejecutiva en 2002.

El consorcio se lanzó en 2007; ahora hay 24 escuelas que son parte del consorcio.

En 2016, Princeton ofreció $100.000 en apoyo anual, y la tarifa de membresía de cada escuela se fijó en $6.500 para el primer estudiante y $3.500 por cada estudiante adicional. Para cubrir el costo total de alrededor de $8.500 por estudiante, el personal comenzó a recaudar fondos enérgicamente y recibió subvenciones de Lilly Endowment Inc., la Fundación Henry Luce, la Fundación W.K. Kellogg y Trinity Church Wall Street.

“Comenzamos a experimentar un crecimiento después de 2016, cuando introdujimos las becas de disertación, financiadas por Lilly”, dijo Rodríguez. En ese momento, había alrededor de 41 estudiantes; el año pasado, HTI alcanzó su nivel más alto de inscripción con 64.

“HTI ha demostrado su valía”, dijo Edgardo A. Colón-Emeric, decano de Duke Divinity School.

En videos en Facebook y Twitter que conmemoran el 25 aniversario de HTI, los líderes de las instituciones del consorcio elogiaron a la organización por su enfoque, tasa de finalización y graduados de alta calidad.

“La cantidad de académicos de HTI que han tenido éxito en obtener puestos de enseñanza ha sido tan notable”, dijo Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan, presidente de la Escuela de Teología de Claremont. Señaló que en la última década, siete académicos de HTI de Claremont han encontrado trabajo en el campo.

Nirenberg, de la Universidad de Chicago, dijo que otros en la educación superior que estén realmente interesados ​​en la diversidad, la equidad y la inclusión deberían considerar replicar el enfoque de HTI.

“Este es un modelo que toda institución que se toma en serio la diversidad debe implementar en todos los niveles”, dijo. “Esto es lo que se necesita, en conjunto, esto es lo que se necesita para tener éxito en lo que todos decimos que queremos tener”.

Los próximos 25 años

Frank Yamada, director ejecutivo de la Asociación de Escuelas Teológicas, dijo que HTI ha creado un “espacio seguro” para que los estudiantes latinos de posgrado reciban opiniones de otros sin ser malinterpretados.

HTI ha comenzado a expandir este espacio seguro y su alcance.

En 2019, la organización lanzó Open Plaza (Plaza Abierta), un foro en línea con un blog, un podcast y charlas conversacionales.

“HTI siempre ha sido mucho más que el hecho de graduar a un estudiante; queremos que prosperen y contribuyan al panorama más amplio de la educación teológica y religiosa”, dijo Rodríguez.

La subvención Lilly ayudó a lanzar un programa de pasantías para estudiantes que están en las etapas anteriores a su disertación y otro llamado Orientación Profesional Temprana (o ECO por sus siglas en inglés), que proporciona mentores para ayudar a los graduados de HTI a tener éxito en sus primeros trabajos de enseñanza.

José Francisco Morales Torres, profesor asistente de estudios latinos y religión en el Seminario Teológico de Chicago, es parte del nuevo programa.

“Ahora estoy viviendo mi llamado a enseñar con audacia y coraje, gracias a HTI y su ECO”, escribió en un testimonio en línea. “Estoy eternamente agradecido”.

Tito Madrazo, director del programa en la división de religión de Lilly Endowment Inc., es un graduado más reciente que participa en HTI. Se unió a HTI en 2013 después de que Colón-Emeric, su profesor en Duke Divinity School, lo presentara a la organización.

“Ser parte de la comunidad fue un regalo increíble”, dijo Madrazo, quien se graduó en 2018 con un Th.D. en homilética. “Ayudó a dar forma a mi investigación y me introdujo a mentores sabios, así como a compañeros estudiantes de doctorado con lo que me podía identificar”.

Uno de esos mentores fue Martell, quien “sigue siendo una amiga cercana”, dijo Madrazo. “Como pastor y académico, ella comparte mis compromisos tanto con la iglesia como con la academia. Loida me ayudó a ver la historia más amplia y el panorama de las homilías hispanas/ latinas.

HTI espera tener pronto más latinas como Martell gracias a la beca Lilly. Lilly también está financiando Latinas in Leadership (Latinas en Liderazgo), un programa solo por invitación para ayudar a las mujeres a prepararse para puestos superiores.

Martell está entusiasmada con el esfuerzo de las latinas, porque estima que el número de latinas en puestos de enseñanza de tiempo completo en las escuelas que son parte del ATS es menos de 40.

“Sin embargo, gracias a HTI, estamos avanzando”, dijo Martell.

Este artículo fue traducido y publicado con el permiso de Faith & Leadership: https://faithandleadership.com

Usada con permiso.  https://t.e2ma.net/click/djqs3k/l5waqto/xukflyd

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Cooper Young, a second-year seminary student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, knew he felt called to become a minister. But like many students in the past two years, his education has become a journey. Classes went from on campus and in person to online from home, and back again.

Meanwhile, since graduating from Syracuse University in 2020, Young has gone through other significant changes. He got married and, after an internship in Massachusetts, was hired as an assistant minister by his childhood church in Chittenango, N.Y. On the downside, he’d contracted COVID-19.

“I was still in my first year of marriage, but then on top of that, it’s a new job at a church of predominantly people over 55,” Young recalled.

Charged with bringing in younger people in the middle of a pandemic, Young said he found himself fighting resistance to his ideas for growth while also fielding the congregation’s objections to the church leadership’s mask policies.

“It didn’t seem like a lot was working,” he said.

The torrent of experiences—compounded by the fuzzy consciousness known as “COVID fog”—eventually impacted his mental health.

“I was having a panic attack at one point—the only time it’s ever happened in my life before,” Young said.

Taking a toll on mental health

For many seminarians, Young is a harbinger of the difficulties many of them will face as they graduate into a religious landscape that has been transformed—spiritually, physically, politically and logistically—by COVID-19, and of the toll this new reality is taking on their mental health.

According to a recent Barna Group survey, pastors have increasingly been contemplating quitting their jobs since the beginning of 2021. In the same poll, female clergy members, like women across all industries, were found to be more likely to quit their jobs than male clergy.

Seminaries, like other institutions of higher education, have stepped up mental health services. But how much help students get can depend on the cultural climate of the school, as some schools may offer more services than others.

“Our school is pretty open about it if you have mental health needs and we have mental health needs, and we talk about it quite openly,” said Su Yon Pak, a dean and associate professor of integrative and field-based education at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

But the pandemic has put a greater focus on those struggling with their mental health, Pak said. “Because of all the constraints, the restraints, the quarantine, the fear of dying, people dying in the families, not being able to connect, absolutely. It’s not just students. We all struggled through it. It was really hard. And as a school we tried to put that upfront.”

Increasing stress on ministers

Jay-Paul Hinds of Princeton Theological Seminary explained that the range of issues facing students preparing for graduation only begins with the pandemic.

“The isolation of COVID has something to do with it, the racial tension in this country, the political uncertainty has a lot to do with it. And for many people, the declining role of the church in our society is of major concern,” Hinds said.

These increasing stressors of being a pastor in a pandemic are affecting the way many seminarians are thinking about their careers.

“It can put those who feel drawn to it at a crossroads when it comes to future employment, especially those looking to become ministers in the traditional sense of leading a congregation,” Hinds said.

One of Hinds’ colleagues, Kenda Creasy Dean, a United Methodist minister and a professor of youth, church and culture, said those concerns are causing seminarians to look for other uses for their degrees.

“Our students are far less likely to equate ministry with pastoring a church. They are very likely to see it as working with nonprofits and doing entrepreneurial stuff and … being in the helping professions in other ways, social work and other stuff,” she said.

But given the needs of the church, and the inevitability that seminarians will hold a church job sooner or later, prospective clergy themselves are looking for ways to safeguard their mental health.

Young believes schools can do more to help their students’ mental health in this period by adjusting curriculum and workload.

“I would love for there to be a ‘Less is more’ mentality,” he said, noting that some seminary texts essentially glorify unhealthily long hours.

Adjust expectations

Seminaries could design their programs to meet students where they are in their lives, Young said. Students with young children or other responsibilities at home as well as a job, he suggested, might be allowed to take classes without the additional work required outside of the classroom, and to move through the curriculum at their own pace.

But Young also offered that those making the transition from seminary to full-time work need to emphasize the positive. After his panic attack, he said: “I kind of readjusted my expectations and my attitude. I honestly came in pretty ignorant and not too gung-ho but wanting a quick fix instead of having to persevere.”

The turning point for Young was the young adult group that he and his wife started together, which they called Do Good, “not just for our church but for anyone who wants to come.”

Before long, he said, “people in the area I didn’t even know were checking out the church.” At the same time, he said, the uproar about mask wearing subsided as well.

“God was definitely moving and doing things,” Young said.

NASHVILLE (BP)—When Brentwood Benson announced last month it was shutting down, it became the latest in a line of major church music publishers closing their doors.

Last year saw the bankruptcy of Lorenz Corp., which had purchased choral giant Word Music in 2017. Then a few months ago, Lifeway released its last box of new choral offerings for churches.

While several companies still offer hard copies of sheet music, the landscape looks very different than it did even a few years ago.

If the church music publishing industry saw a step or two of decline in the 21st century, the COVID-19 pandemic took it down an octave.

“I think COVID probably was that final nail in the coffin for a lot of our publishers, because suddenly, there weren’t choirs meeting. There was no need for new music. The composers were sitting on the side with nothing to do,” said Kenny Lamm, worship ministries strategist for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

A blow for small-church choirs

Longtime worship leader Kirk Kirkland, who also has worked as an arranger and recording vocalist for both Lifeway and Brentwood Benson, said the closures are a blow for small churches that don’t have fulltime music staff or a lot of time for rehearsal. Brentwood Benson’s Ready to Sing series has been a longtime staple for small-church choirs.

“[It was] one of the best church music resources on the market, and their sales proved it,” said Kirkland, worship leader at Judson Baptist Church in Nashville. “For that to go away, I know is going to impact the church. … Where are they going to get what they need? There are other publishers that exist, but those places those churches have traditionally gone to get what they need are disappearing quickly.”

Daniel Semsen is one of a handful of smaller, independent publishers attempting to fill the void. He and his wife Christy had been creating new products for Word Music when they got word last year Word’s parent company was filing for bankruptcy and their contract was over.

Semsen, worship leader at Village Church in Burbank, Calif., knew churches still would need the products these companies offer. So, he started Semsen Music, a digital-only publishing house, where churches can download and print their own copies.

“We care about the choir, about the way the church choir gives an opportunity for people to belong somewhere—for people to join into worship. That’s our passion and our heart,” Semsen said.

“We want to step into this space where these giant publishers were, so we can provide resources for people like us.

“We love the choir so much. We don’t want it to go away. We need new music. We don’t want to just get it from Praisecharts or use old music. We want well-crafted music that fits a certain purpose: Performance-type music, not just four-part harmony of a worship song. [Pieces] like Word and Lifeway and Brentwood Benson have been offering for decades.”

‘Emerging from COVID without choirs’

Brian Brown, director of Lifeway Worship, said the changes are inevitable.

“Brentwood Benson largely served small- and medium-size churches, and many of them went into COVID with choirs, and they’re emerging from COVID without choirs,” Brown said.

He cited a Duke University study showing by 2012, fewer than half of all churches had a choir at all—a number that has shrunk since then.

“[Lifeway is] doing far, far less in the choral space, because church practice has changed,” Brown said. “We have to focus our resources to serve the most churches with the limited resources we have.”

Not that Lifeway has completely stopped providing for choirs, though.

People are using choirs as large praise teams, Brown said. So, Lifeway has begun adding bass lines to vocal charts for worship songs to make them usable by four-part groups.

Lifeway will continue to publish pieces specifically for choir, but it will be in digital format only —no physical product. Churches will have to download and print the sheet music themselves, or issue each singer a tablet, something Brown said is a small but growing trend.

Acquiring music digitally already was common but accelerated during the pandemic. It’s now the norm, Brown said, adding: “Churches that have resisted have had to embrace it.”

Diverse choirs draw congregations into worship

Regardless of trends, all the people Baptist Press interviewed said a choir can be an effective part of a service, drawing a congregation into worship.

“I think about the people that walk into the church and they see five beautiful young people leading worship. I think there’s maybe a disconnect there. As opposed to walking into a church and seeing 40 or 100 people up there of all different ages and backgrounds. All different kinds of cultures worshiping together,” Samsen said.

“You see a 15-year-old worshiping with a 75-year-old. … People that look completely different from one another worshiping together. I think it’s powerful. … People tend to join in to sing with the big mass of people that is already singing on stage. The choir is an important part of worship, because it says to everybody, ‘Come and sing with us.’”

Kirkland, who uses the term “large-group worship team” rather than “choir,” said featuring all sorts of people is integral to the worship at Judson.

“Who is on the platform should reflect the congregation,” Kirkland said. “Everybody in a seat should be able to see someone who looks like them up on the platform.”

Lamm agrees there is something unique and irreplaceable that a choir can add. He organized a mass choir for one of the sessions of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s annual meeting last fall and said the service was “one of the best nights of worship that I’ve experienced,” adding that it set the tone for the rest of the meeting.

“Somebody said when they walked in, they could feel the presence of the Spirit of God,” he said. “I worked with [the choir] on worshiping with their whole being and not just the neck up. It was an amazing transformation. It bled into the congregation even more to light that fire of worship.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—More than half of Christian congregations say they have started a new ministry or expanded an existing one during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey.

On average, in fact, these Christian houses of worship began or broadened more than three of their outreach activities in response to the pandemic.

“The level of new and intensified social outreach and community ministry undertaken by the nation’s churches is monumental,” reads the report by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

The second installment in a five-year project that began earlier this year called “Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations,” it is based on a collaboration among 13 denominations from the Faith Communities Today cooperative partnership and institute staffers.

If their findings are representative of the roughly 320,000 Christian congregations in the country, the institute said, the researchers estimate nearly 175,000 churches launched or expanded ministries, funds and supplies in response to the pandemic over the past two years.

Overall, almost three-quarters (74 percent) of churches have offered social support during the pandemic and close to two-thirds of congregations say they have been involved in new ministries.

Evidence of changing attitudes

The new findings, a November survey drawn from 820 responses from representatives of 38 Christian denominational groups, showed significant changes in congregations’ attitudes toward change, particularly increasing diversity.

Less than three-quarters (73 percent) agreed in 2020 that their congregations were willing to change to meet new challenges. That increased to 86 percent in November.

There also seemed to be greater interest in striving to be diverse, with 38 percent describing themselves as doing so in November compared with 28 percent in summer of 2021 and 26 percent before the pandemic and before the majority of the 2020 protests spurred by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

But even as congregations considered new ways of operating, an increasing number are concerned about their future, with 23 percent saying they are worried about their ability to continue, compared to 16 percent in the summer.

The institute’s researchers also estimated about 200,000 church members have lost their lives due to COVID-19.

The percentage of churches reporting deaths within their membership increased from 17 percent in the summer to 28 percent in November, when the second survey was conducted. The average number of deaths among those reporting losses in their congregation was 2.3, up slightly from 2 in the summer.

“This is a sobering picture. However, we would have expected an even greater loss, given the aging population of regular churchgoers,” Allison Norton, co-investigator of the study, told Religion News Service in an email.

The project’s first report, based on responses from summer 2021, showed about a third of congregations had increased requests for food. About a quarter received more requests for financial assistance during the pandemic.

Churches ‘have risen to the occasion’

The November survey found 22 percent said they had added or increased food distribution and 21 percent had enhanced or begun financial assistance for their community.

Norton said churches “have risen to the occasion,” during a difficult time for the country.

“There is a willingness in many churches to respond to the challenges of this time with experimentation and change,” she said.

A larger percentage—about 28 percent—have started or expanded community support ministries, using phone trees to inform and encourage members and nonmembers or offering elder care options, such as providing rides to medical appointments.

Even as sanctuaries were closed to in-person worship and other meetings moved online, about a quarter of congregations expanded the use of their buildings for other activities, from helping homeless people to offering child care and tutoring.

About a fifth of congregations were involved in ministries specifically tied to the pandemic, such as hosting vaccine clinics, making masks or holding celebrations for front-line workers.

Twelve percent started or increased mental health ministries, and 6 percent said they had new or expanded ministries related to social action, with some involving voter registration or anti-racism initiatives.

Hard to predict the future

In a finding similar to the first study, most congregations said they are using a hybrid form of worship, with 85 percent offering both in-person and virtual options. Fifteen percent of those surveyed in November said they were solely gathering in person and 3 percent opted only to meet virtually.

While attendance remains depressed, the survey found the rate of attendance decline between 2019 and 2021 was 9 percent. It had been down 12 percent in the summer.

The number of congregations reporting a severe decline of 25 percent or more fell from 35.2 percent in the summer to 30.3 percent in November. And the number reporting growth of 5 percent or more increased from 28 percent to 37 percent.

With the omicron variant contributing to the continuing pandemic, researchers acknowledge it is hard to predict future plans for activities such as fellowship events and religious education, which were still below pre-pandemic levels.

“For many churches, their situation will never be the same,” the report concludes. “They will never be the same because of the loved ones and members that they have lost. They will never be the same because of the ministries that they have started and expanded.”

The findings in the new report, “Congregational Response to the Pandemic: Extraordinary Social Outreach in a Time of Crisis,” have an estimated overall margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It is part of a multiyear project funded by the Lilly Endowment.

NASHVILLE (RNS)—For Mark Lowry, almost every day is Christmas.

Whenever the storyteller and singer takes the stage for a concert, he always closes the show with the same song—“Mary Did You Know?”—no matter what time of year it is.

“When you have one hit, you better end with it,” Lowry said in a recent phone interview.

Lowry co-wrote “Mary Did You Know?” with Buddy Greene, a well-respected songwriter and instrumentalist, in 1991, while both were on tour with famed gospel singers Bill and Gloria Gaither.

Recorded first by Christian singer Michael English, the song has become a modern Christmas staple, covered by some of the biggest names in the business: Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd, Kathy Mattea, Mary J. Blige, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood and the a cappella vocal group Pentatonix.

How it all began

The idea for the song dates back to conversations the 63-year-old had with his mother about Jesus and Mary. Most revolved around the question: What was it like to raise the son of God?

“Literally, what was it like teaching the word of God to talk,” he said. “What was it like to give him a haircut? Did she ever walk into his room and say, ‘Clean this mess up?’”

He added that most of the questions he had did not make their way into the song—only the ones that rhymed made it.

Those conversations also touched on spiritual topics, like the mystery of the incarnation, said Lowry. They eventually inspired a series of short monologues Lowry wrote in 1984 for a Christmas concert at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., then led by Jerry Falwell. Those monologues were the glue that held the show together, serving as a transition from one Christmas song to another.

They stuck with Lowry, who thought they might work for a song if he could find the right music. Several musicians tried to come up with melodies, but none fit, said Lowry.

Then, while on tour with the Gaithers, he showed the lyrics to Greene and asked him to have a go. Greene took them home and started working on some music.

Lowry recalls that Greene, who could not be reached, had spent a day listening to Christmas carols written in minor keys, like “What Child is This?” and “We Three Kings” before composing the melody for “Mary Did You Know?”

“It was beautiful,” he said. “It was haunting, and it made the song work. It didn’t take away from the message. It elevated the message.”

While writing lyrics, Lowry said he imagined himself as an overly enthusiastic angel who showed up at the manger during the Christmas story and was filled with questions. He used the phrase, “Did you know” to express that enthusiasm—as if the angel was bubbling over with joy for what the birth of Jesus meant. The questions in the song are the questions Lowry would have asked if he had been there.

Assused of ‘theological mansplaining’

But that phrase has gotten Lowry in trouble in recent years—seen as a kind of theological mansplaining.

“Listeners have complained that, yes, Mary knew that she was going to bear the Messiah, the promised salvation of Israel, and that, therefore, the rhetorical question upon which the song rests is either redundant or condescending,” author Joy Clarkson, host of the “Speaking with Joy” podcast, wrote in a 2018 article entitled, “Yes, Mary Knew.”

That phrase has also inspired a series of sarcastic social media posts. “Mary did you know … that there’s a boy on his way to gift your newborn with a drum solo,” tweeted author and pastor Courtney Ellis. “Mary did you know we’ve been trying to reach you about your extended warranty,” tweeted Texas attorney Robert Callahan II. There’s even a satire of the song, “Mary Freaking Knew.”

Lowry is pretty good-natured about the criticism of the song. He’s quick to admit it has shortcomings, which he thinks are more evident to his fellow Christians who are more familiar with theology than the average person who hears the song. The last thing he wanted to do was to insult Mary or anger his fellow believers.

“I never meant for it to start a war or irritate people,” he said. “I definitely didn’t want that.”

That response fits Lowry’s character. He’s long used humor to help his fellow evangelicals lighten up, preferring laughter to a fight any day.

Still, he’s grateful for what he called the “miracle of the song.” Lowry, who has never been married, views his songs as his children. None of them, he said, has grown and had a life of their own the way “Mary Did You Know” has.

Most of all, he hopes the song will point people to the story of the baby Jesus and what his arrival would mean.

“I hope the song makes people think about the baby Jesus,” he said. “I hope it sends them running to Luke 1 to find out what Mary knew.”

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. (RNS)—A camel sent police scrambling in a Kansas City suburb. The dromedary in question escaped a Nativity scene in Bonner Springs, Kan.

The incident is the latest chapter in the colorful and often chaotic history of camels in the United States.

The animal was part of a drive-thru Nativity scene at the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame when its halter broke. Chased soon after on foot, the camel managed to avoid its pursuers.

The next day the animal traversed parts of the K-7 Highway, and despite being spotted by many motorists, it again eluded capture. Images and videos of the animal soon went viral. Police officials suggested on Facebook that the situation could “only be described as a scene out of another cop movie.”

At one point, Bonner Springs Police Department pursued the camel on golf carts after it strayed onto a golf course. The camel visited several neighborhoods before being cornered and lassoed by an animal control officer. Its owner then arrived to take possession of the nomadic creature.

“The camel was reunited with its owners and will go back to doing camel things,” the Bonner Springs Police Department said in a statement posted on Facebook.

This isn’t the first time Kansas police officers have had to respond to an escaped camel over the holiday season. In December 2019, police in Goddard, Kan., reported a traveling animal trio consisting of a camel, a cow and a donkey. Shortly thereafter the camel was reunited with its owners, but not before viral photo comparisons to a real-life Nativity scene.

Similar incidents have not always ended so tamely. In 1997, a camel that escaped mid-performance from a Kent Island, Md., Nativity pageant was struck and killed by a passing automobile.

A 2010 dress rehearsal for a Nativity play at First Baptist Church in West Palm Beach went awry when a camel slipped and went crashing into the congregation. Neither the camel nor the actor portraying one of the magi was injured in the fall, though the camel, known as Lula Bell, was withdrawn from the actual performance “for safety reasons.”

Animal rights groups long have complained of the use of live animals in Nativity scenes. Due to their size, camels have drawn particular concern. A two-humped Bactrian camel can weigh more than 2,000 pounds.

“Camels aren’t even fully mature until 7 years of age,” said PETA in a 2020 statement condemning the use of all live animals in Nativity scenes. “But many are forced into performances well before that. In nature, these gentle, social animals, who softly blow in one another’s faces to say hello, would be traveling with their family herds.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—After several former employees of Preemptive Love Coalition accused co-founders Jeremy and Jessica Courtney of misleading donors and abusing staff, the board of directors of the popular international aid group has hired the investigative firm Guidepost Solutions to look into the allegations.

Founded by the Courtneys in 2008, Preemptive Love raises millions of dollars each year for relief work in several countries including Iraq, Syria and Mexico.

On Dec. 16, Preemptive Love’s former communications director, Ben Irwin, published an article on the online platform Medium that accuses the Courtneys of verbally and psychologically abusing staff and running the organization “like a cult” by demanding absolute loyalty and punishing dissent.

The next day, Preemptive Love’s board published an open letter saying they received “serious complaints” from a number of former employees about the Courtneys involving “race, gender and power dynamics.” The complaints, which came in the form of a letter sent in August and signed by more than two dozen former employees, led the board to launch the investigation.

Founders placed on leave of absence

According to the board’s letter, the Courtneys will take a leave of absence during the investigation, but the board allowed them to retain “a small number of carve-outs for which Jeremy and Jessica could remain partially engaged with their duties.” The Courtneys have been removed from direct management and financial decisions.

The Courtneys are former missionaries who have kept close ties with Christian donors and leaders. Irwin wrote that, while many think Preemptive Love is a Christian charity, it is technically not religously affiliated.

Jeremy Courtney, who grew up in Leander as the grandson of a Baptist minister, attended Howard Payne University and earned his Master of Divinity degree from Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.

In his Medium article, Irwin accused the Courtneys of deceptive messaging aimed at donors. He included a picture of a since-removed Instagram post from August in which Preemptive Love used the Haitian earthquake to solicit donations, despite having no programming in Haiti.

Irwin also claimed that Jeremy Courtney edited video footage to make it appear that he was caught in an airstrike in Mosul, Iraq, in 2017. Irwin alleged that while Courtney was present in the city at the time, the explosion effects were added post-production to exaggerate his proximity to danger.

Allegations of questionable spending

Irwin also claimed he observed questionable spending practices. Early in the pandemic, according to Irwin, Jeremy publicly announced waiving his $165,000 a year salary to preserve staff and programming, only to reinstate his pay months later. Irwin also wrote that in 2021, Preemptive Love spent $208,000 to send packages with “designer-quality” shirts to thousands of monthly donors while seeming to mislead staff about how they were paid for.

Irwin, who worked for Preemptive Love six years, resigned on July 26, the same day he filed a whistleblower complaint to the board.

Following Irwin’s post on Medium, former employee Audrey White recently posted on Twitter asking the public to hold the Courtneys and the board accountable for abuse of power and exploitation of vulnerable people. “I saw them humiliate the refugees they claimed to be empowering, abuse and bully the local (Iraqi) female staff while preaching about ‘loving anyway’ online,” White wrote.

Former Preemptive Love writer Courtney Christenson also wrote an open letter to the Courtneys, which she posted online. “I cannot sit by and watch you preach peace while you bully, gaslight, and abuse the peacemakers on your team until they give up and quit,” Christenson wrote.

The board is currently awaiting the results of the investigation and expects them “very soon,” according to their letter.

“No matter what we learn, the board is committed to making all necessary decisions, no matter how difficult, to rectify any past missteps, renew our commitment to care for every team member, and ensure that PLC becomes a healthier organization,” they wrote.

Irwin thinks that the Courtneys need to step down if the organization is to be a true force for good.

“Before I left, I said there was only one way forward, and that was facing rather than trying to bury the harm that was caused, or gaslighting the people you’ve hurt,” Irwin told RNS. “There is still only one way forward. ‘Love anyway’ is a powerful vision. But it does not eliminate the need for accountability and justice.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Next week, most Americans will celebrate Christmas, marking the birth of Jesus. But a new poll from Pew shows the share of U.S. adults who consider themselves Christian is falling.

Only 63 percent of Americans self-identify as Christian this year, a marked drop from 75 percent 10 years ago.

The declining percentage of Americans who say they are Christian is offset by a growing number of people who call themselves atheist, agnostic or people of no particular faith. These unaffiliated Americans make up a full 29 percent of the U.S. population, up from 19 percent in 2011.

“The secularizing shifts evident in American society so far in the 21st century show no signs of slowing,” the Pew researchers concluded. “The religiously unaffiliated share of the public is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago and 10 points higher than a decade ago.”

Though Christians are still a healthy majority, their decline is perhaps best reflected in two questions from the poll: how often people pray and how important religion is in their lives.

Only 45 percent of U.S. adults said they pray on a daily basis (down from 58 percent in a similar 2007 survey).

And the number of Americans who say religion is “very important” in their lives is also falling: 41 percent of Americans consider religion “very important” in their lives, down from 56 percent in 2007.

Politic environment a factor

Protestants account for most of the decline—down 4 percentage points from five years ago and 10 percentage points since a decade ago, with both evangelical and nonevangelical Protestants declining overall to 40 percent of U.S. adults. Catholics held relatively steady at 21 percent.

“This is at least in part a reaction to the political environment,” said David Campbell, professor of American democracy at the University of Notre Dame who has written about American secularization.

“Many people turning away from religion do so because they think of religion as an expression of political conservatism, or as a wing of the Republican Party. That’s especially true of white Americans. The more religion is wrapped up in a political view, the more people who don’t share that political view say, ‘That’s not for me.’”

There was no corresponding rise in the number of Americans adhering to other faiths. A total of 6 percent of Americans identify with non-Christian faiths, including 1 percent who describe themselves as Jewish, 1 percent Muslim, 1 percent Buddhist, 1 percent who are Hindu and 2 percent who identify with a wide variety of other faiths.

But notably, the number of atheists and agnostics in the survey roughly doubled in the past decade to 4 percent and 5 percent respectively, up from 2 percent and 3 percent in 2011.

Bigger culturally than numerically

Some scholars said this doubling may not be as big a shift numerically as it is culturally.

“There’s less stigma attached to being an atheist,” said Ryan Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and the author of a book about the “nones,” or the religiously unaffiliated. “It’s revealing of what’s been there for a long time, rather than a big shift. People may not have answered honestly 20, 30 years ago.”

But Burge said the decline of Protestant Christianity from 52 percent in 2007 to 40 percent today is significant.

“It’s more evidence that America is going to be much different,” Burge said. “Think of American history. For a plurality of Americans to say religion is not important, that’s a big shift in how we think about ourselves.”

A survey released by PRRI during the summer found that the religiously unaffiliated had lost ground, making up just 23 percent of the country. But the Pew poll found little to support that conclusion. The number of people with no religion grew steadily from 16 percent in 2007 to 29 percent in 2021, Pew indicated.

The poll was part of the National Public Opinion Reference Survey conducted by Pew online and by mail between May and August. The survey was conducted among 3,937 respondents, who took the poll on their own (not in response to an interviewer). It has a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.