Texas Baptist Men disaster relief workers donated more than 3,000 hours of volunteer labor in the aftermath of flooding in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Between Aug. 24 and Sept. 7, TBM volunteers completed 26 flood-recovery projects. They prepared 465 meals for volunteers and the public, provided access to 170 showers, washed 64 loads of laundry and distributed 277 storage boxes to residents. They distributed 82 Bibles and recorded 21 professions of faith in Christ.

Howard Payne University’s School of Education and office of alumni relations recognized more than 160 alumni who serve as teachers and administrators in the six school districts within Brown County. Each educator received an HPU t-shirt, delivered to his or her school at the beginning of the school year, with a note of encouragement. The goal of the initiative was to celebrate the impact the teachers and administrators have in the Brown County area. “We knew our alumni teachers have a big impact in the community, but realizing the actual number of individuals was truly remarkable,” said Kalie Lowrie, assistant vice president for alumni relations. “We wanted to take time to let them know we value and appreciate the impact they are making in our area. The last few years through the pandemic have been really difficult for many people, and we wanted these teachers and administrators to know we were praying for them and are here to support them in any way we can.”

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students placed 2,977 American flags on campus to honor the lives lost in terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The memorial, organized by the UMHB chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas, was  located at the center of the UMHB campus, adjacent to Walton Chapel and Luther Memorial. Two boards listed the names of 9/11 victims. To remember the lives lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, East Texas Baptist University hosted a memorial stair climb at the Marshall Grand—home of ETBU’s Teague School of Nursing—in conjunction with the Harrison County ESD 3 Fire Rescue on Sept. 10. Active and retired firefighters, law enforcement officers, first responders and military service joined in the event. Participants climbed the equivalent of 78 floors—the highest point reached in the World Trade Center towers—wearing a name of a fallen 9/11 hero.

The Center for Healthy Churches named Matt Cook as its director. He succeeds Bill Wilson in that role. Cook, who began service as the center’s assistant director in September 2019, holds a Master of Divinity degree from Truett Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in church history from Baylor University. His pastoral experience includes five years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Rosebud, along with later pastorates in Little Rock, Ark., and First Baptist Church of Wilmington, N.C.

Anniversary

90th for First Baptist Church of Lake Worth. The church will celebrate a homecoming reunion Sept. 18. Four former pastors are expected to attend. Lunch will follow the 10:30 a.m. service of worship and remembrance. Charlie McLaughlin is pastor.

75th for Hampton Road Baptist Church in DeSoto on Sept. 18. Kelly Wolverton is senior pastor.

35th for Cyndy Engel as administrative assistant and financial secretary at Broadview Baptist Church in Abilene.

5th for Bob Cheatheam as pastor of Builders Baptist Church in Merkel.

Retirement

Joseph Tillery as pastor of First Baptist Church in Lockney, effective Oct. 2. He served more than 51 years in vocational Christian ministry.

NASHVILLE (BP)—The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission board of trustees named Brent Leatherwood president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy entity in a unanimous vote Sept. 13.

“I am honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to serve this historic institution as its next president,” Leatherwood told Baptist Press.

He says he will base his time at the helm on God’s word and the Baptist Faith and Message.

“Rooted in Scripture and guided by the Baptist Faith and Message, this team will remain fervently committed to carrying out our ministry assignment—faithfully serving our churches and growing our convictional presence in the public square on behalf of our convention. That means speaking with biblical clarity about the issues that matter to Baptists: the inherent value of life, religious liberty at home and abroad, human dignity and the flourishing of families,” Leatherwood said.

Leatherwood has served as the entity’s acting interim president since Sept. 14, 2021. He follows Russell Moore who left the post in May 2021.

Leatherwood said he’s learned much about leading the ERLC over the last year.

“True leadership begins as service,” he said. “That has been the heart I have brought each day to the ERLC these past 12 months. And it is that same heart I will continue to bring as this new chapter begins.”

Moore brought Leatherwood on board in 2017 to serve as the director of strategic partnerships.

Leatherwood is a deacon at The Church at Avenue South, a Nashville church plant of Brentwood Baptist Church. He says he looks forward to opportunities to serve churches and state conventions in the ERLC role.

“We have made it a priority to come alongside and equip our churches, partner with our state conventions, and support our sister SBC entities, he said. “This commission will continue to do so in this new season, because we know the Southern Baptist Convention is stronger when we are cooperating on mission together.”

Leatherwood served as the executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party from December 2012 to December 2016. There, he managed the organization’s campaign apparatus at the federal, state and local levels. Under his guidance, the Tennessee GOP helped elect more than 800 candidates, including several to statewide offices—believed to be the most in any four-year timeframe in the organization’s history.

He also has worked on Capitol Hill as a senior legislative aide to former Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla. In that role, Leatherwood guided the domestic priorities for the congressman on the House Budget Committee and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Fuller Theological Seminary, the nation’s largest interdenominational seminary, has chosen a Baptist as its new president—David Emmanuel Goatley, the first Black person to hold the office.

He will replace Mark Labberton, who announced he was stepping down last year after 10 years as president, saying he hoped his replacement would be a woman or person of color.

Goatley comes to Fuller from Duke Divinity School, where he was hired in 2018 to direct the office of Black church studies and to teach theology. He has since also become associate dean for academic and vocational formation. He will take the helm at Fuller in January.

Fuller, which offers master’s and doctoral degree programs, contains two schools: the School of Mission and Theology and the School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

The seminary, founded in Pasadena, Calif., in 1947 by the radio evangelist Charles E. Fuller, enrolled 2,458 students in 2021-22, slightly down from 2,788 in 2018-19, according to the Association of Theological Schools.

It is seen by many as more progressive than some of its evangelical counterparts. School officials have allowed an LGBTQ student group on campus, for instance, even as they have maintained a traditional sex ethic in its code of conduct.

Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado, CEO of Compassion International, who chaired Fuller’s presidential search team, said Goatley was “uniquely prepared” to further Fuller’s mission.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Goatley, 61, is ordained in the National Baptist Convention. He earned a Ph.D. at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is best known for his theological study of mission work. For more than two decades, he served as CEO of Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society, a Black missions agency, stepping down in 2018.

“Blessed with an extraordinary collection of life experiences, healthy drive, innovative spirit, relevant capabilities all seasoned with wisdom, he brings a track record of building up diverse leaders for Jesus across the globe,” Mellado said.

Goatley acknowledged the strain on Christian theological education at a time when enrollments are declining, churches are closing and Christians are shrinking as a share of the U.S. population. In 2019 Fuller closed campuses in Orange County, Northern California and the state of Washington, but the seminary retains its campuses in Pasadena, Phoenix and Houston.

“These are tough times for institutions to serve the church,” Goatley said in a telephone call. “But we’ve been through tough times before. We won’t shrink from the challenge. ”

Goatley also cited the cost and accessibility of theological education, as well as what he called the “toxicity of the culture,” among the challenges he will face in guiding the seminary.

He said he was drawn to Fuller because of its commitment to ministerial and vocational formation, its willingness to work in residential, remote and hybrid education and what he called its “commitment to the world.”

“That resonates with me and who I am and where I find energy,” Goatley said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—America long has prided itself on being a country where people can choose whatever religion they like. The majority has long chosen Christianity, but by 2070, that may no longer be the case.

If current trends continue, Christians could make up less than half of the population—and as little as a third—in 50 years.

Meanwhile, the so-called nones—the religiously unaffiliated—could make up close to half of the population. And the percentage of Americans who identify as Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and other non-Christian faiths could double.

Those are among the major findings of a new report from the Pew Research Center regarding America’s religious future—a future where Christianity, though diminished, persists while non-Christian faiths grow amid rising secularization.

Using multiple factors to project future

Researchers projected possible religious futures for the United States using a number of factors, including birth rates, migration patterns, demographics like age and sex, and the current religious landscape.

They also looked at how religion is passed from one generation to another and how often people switch religions—in particular, Christians who become nones, a number that has been increasing in recent years.

They projected four different scenarios, based on differing rates of religious switching—from a continued increase to no switching at all.

“While the scenarios in this report vary in the extent of religious disaffiliation they project, they all show Christians continuing to shrink as a share of the U.S. population, even under the counterfactual assumption that all switching came to a complete stop in 2020,” according to the report. “At the same time, the unaffiliated are projected to grow under all four scenarios.”

Increasing numbers become disaffiliated

Currently, about a third (31 percent) of Christians become disaffiliated before they turn 30, according to Pew Research. Twenty-one percent of nones become Christian as young adults. Should those switching rates remain stable, Christians would make up 46 percent of the population by 2070, while nones would make up 41 percent of the population.

If disaffiliation rates continue to grow but are capped at 50 percent of Christians leaving the faith, then 39 percent of Americans are projected to be Christian by 2070, with 48 percent of Americans identifying as nones.

With no limit placed on the percentage of people leaving Christianity and with continued growth in disaffiliation, Christians would be 35 percent of the population, with nones making up a majority of Americans (52 percent).

If all switching came to a halt, then Christians would remain a slight majority (54 percent), while nones would make up 34 percent of Americans, according to the projection model.

Non-Christian faiths would rise to 12 percent to 13 percent of the population, largely due to migration, in each scenario. Migration does affect the percentage of Christians, as most immigrants coming to the United States are Christians, said Conrad Hackett, associate director of research and senior demographer at Pew Research Center.

“Still the greatest amount of change in the U.S., we think currently and in the future, will come from switching,” he said.

Projections not predictions

Researchers stressed the report contained projections based on data and mathematical models, not predictions of the future.

“Though some scenarios are more plausible than others, the future is uncertain, and it is possible for the religious composition of the United States in 2070 to fall outside the ranges projected,” they wrote.

One reason for the decline among Christians and the growth among the nones in the models is age. While Christians have more children than nones, they are also older. Pew estimates the average Christian in the United States is 43, which is 10 years older than the average none.

“The unaffiliated are having and raising unaffiliated children while Christians are more likely to be near the end of their lives than others,” Stephanie Kramer, a senior researcher at Pew, told RNS in an email.

Using mathematical models, Pew has also projected the future of religion around the world. Those models were adapted for different regions, said Hackett. Muslims, for example, he said, tend to have the youngest population and the highest fertility rates, driving the growth of that faith.

However, he said, in the Gulf states, migration has brought many Christians from other countries to the region as temporary workers.

Examining multiple variables

The current report takes advantage of the amount of data collected about the U.S. religious landscape. Researchers also looked at intergenerational transmission for the first time, said Kramer.

“The variables we use to study that were: What is the mother’s religion? And what is the teen’s religion,” she said. “If that was a match, we consider the mother’s religion transmitted.”

Researchers also looked at a relatively new trend of disaffiliation among older Americans. Sociologists have long focused on younger people, who are most likely to switch religions. But in the United States and other countries, older people are also starting to switch at growing rates.

“It’s not as large scale, but it’s still significant,” said Hackett. “And it’s contributing to the religious change that we have experienced and that we expect to experience in the years ahead.”

Hackett said that the projections do not show the end of Christianity in the U.S. or of religion in general, which he expects to remain robust. And most nones, while claiming no religion, do not identify as atheists.

Kramer said the United States appears to be going through a pattern of secularization that has happened in other countries, though “we may be a bit behind,” she added.

Other factors outside the model—such as changing immigration patterns and religious innovation—could lead to a revival of Christianity in the United States, according to the report. But none of the models shows a reversal of the decline of Christian affiliation, which dropped from 78 percent in 2007 to 63 percent in 2020, according to Pew research.

In the report, researchers note that “there is no data on which to model a sudden or gradual revival of Christianity (or of religion in general) in the U.S.”

“That does not mean a religious revival is impossible,” they wrote. “It means there is no demographic basis on which to project one.”

Ahead of the Trend is a collaborative effort between Religion News Service and the Association of Religion Data Archives made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation.

Ken Starr, the former independent counsel in the Clinton administration Whitewater investigation who later became president and chancellor of Baylor University, died Sept. 13 at age 76.

Starr, former U.S. Solicitor General and a U.S. circuit court judge, died at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston due to complications from surgery, a statement from his family said.

Starr was elected president of Baylor University in February 2010, and he concurrently held the title of university chancellor beginning in November 2013.

Baylor’s board of regents removed Starr as president in May 2016, citing the university’s “fundamental failure” to handle sexual violence complaints appropriately under his leadership. He soon resigned as chancellor and later stepped down as a professor at the Baylor Law School.

However, for six years, Starr oversaw significant expansion at Baylor, including construction of McLane Stadium, the Hart Track and Field Stadium, the Paul Foster Campus for Business and Innovation and Elliston Chapel, along with renovation of three residence halls.

He also led in fundraising for the university, beginning with his first major project—completing ahead of schedule the $100 million President’s Scholarship Initiative.

During Starr’s time as president, Baylor also took significant steps toward becoming a top-tier research university, expanding the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative and establishing the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences.

Praised for public service and scholarship

“Judge Starr had a profound impact on Baylor University, leading a collaborative visioning process to develop the Pro Futuris strategic vision in 2012 that placed Baylor on the path to where we are today as a Christian Research 1 institution,” President Linda Livingstone said.

“Judge Starr was a dedicated public servant and ardent supporter of religious freedom that allows faith-based institutions such as Baylor to flourish,” Livingstone said.

Noting she and Starr served together as deans at Pepperdine University, she added, “I appreciated him as a Constitutional law scholar and a fellow academician who believed in the transformative power of higher education.”

Livingstone expressed condolences on behalf of the university and the Baylor Family to Alice Starr and the rest of Starr’s family.

“May God’s peace and comfort surround them and give them strength now, and in the days to come,” she said.

Tommye Lou Davis, Starr’s chief of staff at Baylor, spoke of the “great honor” to serve alongside him.

“His warm, inclusive personality brought the campus uniquely together. He was deeply loved by students, highly respected by faculty and staff, and greatly admired by alumni and the broader Baylor family,” Davis said.

“Judge Starr’s brilliant mind, affable personality and tireless efforts on behalf of the university have left an indelible mark on all of us fortunate enough to have worked with him. I will always be grateful for his friendship, dynamic leadership and selfless service to Baylor University.”

Kenneth Winston Starr was born July 21, 1946, to William D. and Vannie Trimble Starr, and he grew up in San Antonio.

He earned his undergraduate degree from George Washington University, a master’s degree in political science from Brown University, and his Juris Doctor degree from Duke University.

Starr argued 36 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including 25 as U.S. Solicitor General from 1989 to 1993. He was U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989.

From 1989 to 1993, he was the independent counsel who led an investigation into the Whitewater real estate investments of President Bill Clinton. The inquiry expanded into other areas, including suspected perjury by Clinton regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

The allegation in the Starr Report that Clinton lied about the sexual relationship with Lewinsky in a sworn deposition led to Clinton’s impeachment.

After Starr left Baylor University, he worked with the Lanier Law Firm and was a commentator for Fox News.

Starr is survived by his wife of 52 years, Alice; son Randall P. Starr and wife Melina; daughter Carolyn Doolittle and husband Cameron; daughter Cynthia Roemer and husband Justin; nine grandchildren; a sister, Billie Jeayne Reynolds; and a brother, Jerry Starr.

Lori Fogleman of Baylor University contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—For years, Jules Woodson has advocated for reform in the Southern Baptist Convention, hoping to assist survivors of sexual abuse and hold abusers to account.

Now she’s joined a nonprofit effort to connect abuse survivors with mental health services and counseling, through a new initiative announced Sept. 12.

“I’ve always wanted to be part of something bigger than my own story,” said Woodson, co-founder and chief operations officer for Help;Hear;Heal, a nonprofit that will provide scholarships to abuse survivors seeking counseling.

The nonprofit will fund six sessions of counseling for abuse survivors through a partnership with Thriveworks, a counseling practice that provides in-person and online therapy. Survivors can get assistance through the Help;Hear;Heal website, which will link them to Thriveworks.

Abuse survivors often face challenges in getting the help they need, said Todd McKay, founder and CEO of Help;Hear;Heal. There’s often a great deal of shame and trauma when they come forward about abuse and the headaches of navigating the health care system, where insurance doesn’t always pay for counseling.

Some survivors, especially younger people still on their parents’ insurance, may not be ready to reveal that they have been abused, he said.

“Our model is, we’ll deal with insurance later,” McKay said. “Let’s give you the support you need immediately to help.”

McKay became involved in assisting abuse survivors after learning that a member of his family had been sexually abused. That family member was able to get help, in part because McKay could afford it.

“We were lucky in that we could write a check,” McKay said. “Not everyone can do that.”

He also worries that some survivors may give up on getting counseling because of the headaches involved—or will remain silent.

Woodson’s story of abuse captured national attention

McKay first met Woodson on social media, where she often advocates for abuse survivors in the SBC and other church settings. The story of her own abuse gained national attention in 2018 after she confronted the pastor who had abused her 20 years earlier when she was a teenager and her abuser was a youth pastor.

Her abuser went on to become a megachurch pastor. His church gave him a standing ovation after he confessed. He later resigned and started a new church.

Since that time, Woodson has become an advocate for abuse survivors. During the SBC annual gathering this past summer, the denomination passed a resolution apologizing to Woodson and nine other survivors by name. The denomination also passed a set of reforms designed to address abuse.

In the months after the SBC meeting, Woodson said she’s been devoted to her new work, helping raise funds and get the word out.

She said that coming forward about her abuse caused conflict in her family and sent her looking for counseling, something she continues still. She hopes her work with Help;Hear;Heal can not only fund counseling but also make it easier for abuse survivors to come forward.

Sexual abuse often involves shame and stigma, making it difficult for survivors to tell anyone about their experience, meaning they often live with pain for years.

“We really want to break down the stigma,” Woodson said. “We want to give the resources, the access to funding for survivors to get in, make that initial disclosure, start to unpack the trauma they’ve experienced, so they can make a long-term plan for what healing looks like.”

Woodson said the program is meant to help survivors from any background, not just those who have experienced abuse in the church.

McKay, who grew up Catholic and Methodist, no longer identifies with any religious group. He said his family’s experience of abuse made him want to help others who have experienced the same thing. He said there are many local nonprofits already helping abuse survivors but he wanted to do something that could help people on a more national basis.

He also wanted to take some of the stress out of looking for help during a crisis and hopes online access to counseling can ease some of the burdens for survivors and their families.

“Let’s make this as simple and as quick as possible to get you in to talk to someone,” he said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a court order that would have forced Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ group as an official campus club.

The court acted Friday in a brief order signed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that indicated the court would have more to say on the topic at some point.

The university, an Orthodox Jewish institution in New York, argued granting recognition to the group, the YU Pride Alliance, “would violate its sincere religious beliefs.”

“We are pleased with Justice Sotomayor’s ruling which protects our religious liberty and identity as a leading faith-based academic institution,” said Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University. “But make no mistake, we will continue to strive to create an environment that welcomes all students, including those of our LGBTQ community.”

Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing Yeshiva, said the school should not have had to turn to the nation’s highest court “to receive such a commonsense ruling in favor of its First Amendment rights.”

The lawyers for YU Pride Alliance said the group “has received Justice Sotomayor’s order and will await a final order from the Supreme Court.” In the meantime, the group says it is committed to remaining a source of safety and support for Yeshiva’s LGBTQ students.

Marc Stern, chief legal officer with the American Jewish Committee, said it’s not clear whether Sotomayor agreed to block the court order as part of an administrative stay, which would put the lower court’s order on hold until she can consult with her colleagues, or if it’s an indication that the court sees this as a serious issue that deserves full review.

“I think the smart reading of the decision is that Yeshiva has presented serious issues that at least some members of the court will want to give serious attention to,” Stern told RNS.

In either case, he said, “I think many people would have dismissed Yeshiva’s challenge as borderline frivolous, and that no longer is a credible attitude.”

Mordechai Levovitz, founder and clinical director of JQY, a nonprofit that supports Orthodox Jewish queer youth, said in a phone interview: “I feel horrible for the queer students at YU that now have to go to school on Monday at a school that has declared them a threat, that has publicly announced their simply wanting recognition, self-esteem, camaraderie is a religious violation and irreparable injury to the school and the students.

“For the last 25 years, Orthodox rabbis have been telling us that they have no problem with queer identity or with queers wanting to build camaraderie,” he said. “Rabbis have been telling us for the last 25 years that the issue that they had was with sexual behavior. But now we see that they were lying to us.”

Levovitz said if the school won’t recognize YU Pride Alliance, JQY will financially support the group and rent a room for them to meet in the building next door.

LGBTQ students and alumni from Yeshiva recently took to social media to express their concerns about the school’s emergency request to the court. In a video, the students challenged Yeshiva’s claim that the undergraduate school is welcoming toward LGBTQ students.

A New York state court sided with the student group and ordered the university to recognize the club immediately. The matter is on appeal in the state court system, but judges there refused to put the order on hold in the meantime.

A coalition of other religious groups, including the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Liberty University and Wheaton College, submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on Sept. 2 asking the Supreme Court to block the order requiring Yeshiva to recognize the LGBTQ student group.

The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and a number of Jewish organizations filed separate friend-of-the-court briefs.

The Supreme Court has been increasingly receptive to religious freedom claims in recent years.

In June, conservatives, who hold a 6-3 majority, struck down a Maine program prohibiting state funds from being spent at religious schools and ruled a high school football coach in Washington state has the right to pray on the field after games.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (RNS)—Each week, in a hulking warehouse in this small, western mountain town, Samaritan’s Purse employees load semi trailers full of supplies for the people of Ukraine: medicines, food, tarps, blankets, hygiene kits and school bags for kids.

The trucks are then driven 80 miles east to the Piedmont Triad International Airport where they are loaded onto the nonprofit’s DC-8 aircraft, specially configured to carry up to 84,000 pounds of cargo. From there, the goods are airlifted to Poland and then trucked across the border into Ukraine.

Samaritan’s Purse, headed by evangelical leader Franklin Graham, recently made its 30th airlift since Russia began its offensive against Ukraine in February.

The Christian relief organization estimates it has helped 5.5 million Ukrainians with medicine, food and water. Earlier in the conflict, it also operated an emergency field hospital and outpatient clinic in Lviv, treating an estimated 17,758 patients. It now supports 30 medical facilities across the war-ravaged country.

The organization’s 160,000-square-foot warehouse in North Wilkesboro employs 385 people who buy, repair, maintain and retrofit millions of dollars’ worth of medical equipment, generators and water filtration systems, much of them donated.

The warehouse has six emergency field hospitals ready to ship, four with tents, hospital beds, anesthesiology equipment, X-ray machines and surgical suites—all engineered to fold into a plane’s fuselage. There are also miles of plastic tarps, mountains of used clothing and boxes full of small brown teddy bears with the Samaritan’s Purse logo—a cross inside a circle.

Provides aid in up to 120 countries a year

Samaritan’s Purse, now in its 52nd year, has become a powerhouse of faith-based international relief.

Ukraine is now drawing on much of that relief, but in any given year, the organization aids people in 110 to 120 countries. It sent supplies to Pakistan after unprecedented flooding from monsoon rains this past month. It has a mobile medical team at 11 different sites across civil war-torn Yemen. It is helping farmers in Iraq’s Sinjar Mountains plant strawberries.

Closer to home, Samaritan’s Purse volunteer teams recently sawed off tree limbs and cleared damaged homes in Kentucky and Missouri, where a rash of disastrous floods ruined homes and businesses.

The nonprofit’s mission is based on the parable of the Good Samaritan as told in Luke’s Gospel, in which a man is stripped, beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. He is rescued, not by those with power or authority, but by an outsider—a Samaritan—who bandages his wounds, takes him to an inn and pays the innkeeper to look after him.

To many, Samaritan’s Purse may be best-known for giving shoeboxes full of toys to needy children around the world. But over the past 10 years, it has grown into one of the largest U.S. faith-based nonprofits, with annual revenues last year of $1 billion.

A review of its annual 990 IRS form shows Samaritan’s Purse’s revenue has doubled since 2014, and its assets have quadrupled. It now ranks at No. 23 in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 25 largest U.S. charities, a list that includes mostly non-religious charities.

Today, Samaritan’s Purse is in a league with the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities and Lutheran Services in America. In 2020, it surpassed in cash revenue the Christian charity World Vision, with whom it shares a founder—former missionary and evangelist Bob Pierce, Franklin Graham’s inspiration and mentor.

On the front lines of crises and disasters

That growth has come largely on the strength of its frontline work in public health crises and natural disasters around the world.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Samaritan’s Purse designed and assembled emergency field hospitals. In the past two years it put them to use in Italy; the Bahamas; New York City; Los Angeles; Jackson, Miss.; and Lenoir, N.C.

Its quick response to emerging health crises was tested in 2014, when two of its medical personnel contracted the deadly Ebola virus while treating people in Liberia. They were evacuated to Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, where they were treated and recovered.

“When we say we run to the fire, that’s not idle talk,” said Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations and the logistical and regulatory brain behind the group’s sophisticated international enterprise.

Samaritan’s Purse has built up a corps of Christian doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who volunteer on short-term trips to mission hospitals across the world and a cadre of domestic volunteers trained in debris removal, mud-out and light construction.

The organization’s headquarters are in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountain town of Boone. It has warehouses in Coppell and Southern California, field offices in 17 countries across the world and a lodge in Alaska where it runs marriage seminars for wounded soldiers and law enforcement officers.

Lightning-rod leader

But unlike many other Christian charities, Samaritan’s Purse is distinct in a particular way: It has a galvanizing, and sometimes polarizing, leader.

“I think most people today would be hard-pressed to name the president of Catholic Charities, World Vision or Compassion (International),” said David King, director of the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving. “Many organizations are not led by personalities in the same way that Franklin Graham leads Samaritan’s Purse.”

As the son and successor to Billy Graham and the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Graham, 70, has outsize stature in the evangelical fold. With his 10 million Facebook followers and 2.5 million Twitter followers, he inveighs regularly on some of the hottest issues of the day, drawing supporters and detractors for his conservative and partisan views.

He is a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump; most recently he blasted the FBI for raiding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, claiming—falsely—that Trump would return the documents, if asked.

A culture warrior on the social issues of the day, whether it’s abortion, same-sex marriage or gender identity, Graham regularly denounces what he sees as a godless America set adrift by secular culture.

Graham applauded the Canadian Freedom Convoy. He labeled Disney a “moral failure” for its gay-friendly policies. He pushed a domestic abuse victim to return to her pastor husband.

But when it comes to running Samaritan’s Purse, he has also proven to be an effective leader committed to helping people in crisis in the most nimble and resourceful ways possible.

“Franklin always liked the challenge of getting on the ground fast and cutting through red tape and bureaucracy,” said Mark DeMoss, a now-retired public relations executive who represented Graham. “He wants to go where others can’t go, get set up quicker than others and show (people) you’re on the ground.”

Samaritan’s Purse draws broad support

Graham is unconventional in more ways than one. He doesn’t hire outside companies to produce direct mail appeals. He doesn’t socialize with charity professionals.

“We’ve never used outside fundraisers,” Graham said in a telephone interview. “We tell people what we’re doing, and people decide if they want to help us.”

Evangelicals have responded. Graham claims thousands of people make small donations of $100 or less, and while that may not be entirely accurate, the charity draws from a large net of donors, many in evangelical circles.

Only 5.1 percent of Samaritan’s Purse’s revenue in 2021 came from federal dollars. In past years, it has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide aid in Iraq, Sudan, Congo, Liberia and Colombia.

It also worked with the United Nations’ World Food Program, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, another U.N. organization.

Despite Graham’s social views, Samaritan’s Purse is committed to providing services to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. It will, however, tell them about Jesus.

Part of Samaritan’s Purse’s growth and financial success may be due to the Graham brand. Graham inherited from his evangelist father a reputation for personal integrity and financial transparency.

“There was no scandal in Billy’s life, and I think that’s true of Franklin, too,” said Grant Wacker, a historian and the author of America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of America. “Whatever one thinks of his politics, he has stayed on track in terms of his personal ethics. What that does is it creates a consistency between the message and the public appeal.”

While some donors may be unaware of Graham’s politics, Wacker said, some give precisely because of it.

“The inclination to contribute is based on trust,” he said. “For evangelicals, both black, white and Latino, personal trust is to a good extent based on a perception of your personal life.”

Filling shoeboxes for needy children

Then there’s Operation Christmas Child. The longstanding program, begun by Samaritan’s Purse in 1993, partners with local churches, who in turn enlist members to buy small gifts and pack them in shoeboxes for needy children around the world. It also helped Samaritan’s Purse to be reclassified by the IRS as an association of churches.

Samaritan’s Purse estimates it has 90,000 volunteers each year. In 2021, those volunteers packed and shipped more than 10.5 million shoeboxes worldwide.

Operation Christmas Child remains a signature program, but it no longer is the central focus of the organization.

In 2001, more than half of the charity’s revenue came from Operation Christmas Child, and about two-thirds of the organization’s expenses were spent on that program, according to a 990 report. By 2021, less than a third of Samaritan’s Purse’s revenue came from Operation Christmas Child, and the program made up about 44 percent of the organization’s expenses.

But the relationships formed with churches who either donate shoeboxes or receive them for distribution has given the organization global reach and quick access when disaster strikes.

Sergii Syzonekno, pastor of Central Baptist Church in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, had been participating in Operation Christmas Child for eight years. When the war began, he, like other churches already in Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child network, immediately received $5,000 in cash.

That support has now ramped up with weekly shipments of supplies. The church has opened its building to shelter Ukrainians fleeing the war. Some 430 people slept there one night at the height of the war. Church volunteers use their own cars to go out and evacuate people under siege from the Russians and deliver food and water.

“We are very thankful to Samaritan’s Purse for food, medicine and encouragement,” said Syzonekno. “We are partners. We are doing God’s work together.”

LONDON (RNS)—Elizabeth II of England, Britain’s longest-serving monarch and official head of the Church of England, died Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at age 96.

She came to the throne in 1952 but had dedicated her life to service of her nation six years earlier, as a 21-year-old princess, saying, “God help me to make good my vow.” And in later years, she spoke openly about the importance of her Christian faith.

When Elizabeth was crowned following the death of her father, George VI, Britain was still recovering from World War II and its heavy bombing campaigns; Winston Churchill was prime minister and the country still had an empire.

The young queen’s coronation suggested a new era—as the millions of television sets purchased to watch the live broadcast of the ceremony from London’s Westminster Abbey signaled.

But the coronation itself was steeped in tradition and confirmed the intertwining of the monarchy and religion. The more-than-1,000-year-old ceremony involves the anointing of the monarch, who commits himself or herself to the people through sacred promises.

Defender of the Faith

One of those, to uphold the Protestant religion, is also a reminder of the religious divisions of the nearer past.

The queen’s two titles of Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, given to her at her accession, also owe their existence to Reformation history. The first was first bestowed on Henry VIII by a grateful pope for the king’s rebuttal of the teachings of Martin Luther. Henry defiantly held onto it even after breaking with Rome to declare himself head of the new Church of England.

His daughter, the first Elizabeth, dubbed herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England, saying Jesus Christ was its head. To this day, the British monarch retains constitutional authority in the established church but does not govern it.

The modern Elizabeth left that to the bishops, though she addressed general synods and maintained a role as a listener and guide to her primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

On Sept. 8, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby released a statement noting the “signs of a deeply rooted Christian faith” in the queen’s life: her courage even as she mourned her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April 2021; her reminders in the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic that darkness cannot overcome light; her service to “her people and her God.”

“As a faithful Christian disciple, and also Supreme Governor of the Church of England, she lived out her faith every day of her life. Her trust in God and profound love for God was foundational in how she led her life—hour by hour, day by day,” Welby wrote.

Delivered annual Christmas messages

While Defender of the Faith has been an inherited title and little more, Elizabeth II embraced it and in recent years made it her own, speaking very openly about her faith and explaining how it provided the framework of her life.

She did this mostly through her annual Christmas message, a tradition begun by her grandfather, George V, in 1932, and continued by her father. Her early Christmas Day broadcasts were platitudinous—the holidays as an occasion for family was a frequent theme. In 2000, however, she spoke of the millennium as the 2,000-year anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, “who was destined to change the course of our history.”

She went on to speak personally and frankly about her faith: “For me, the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.” Similar sentiments have been aired at Christmas ever since.

Lynn Green, general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, mentioned the queen’s Christmas messages in a tribute to her posted on the union’s website.

“The queen was a woman of deep Christian faith. Her speech each Christmas was arguably the most listened-to Christmas sermon each year,” Green said. “She preached the hope of Christ born to our world. She recognized her calling and followed that with unwavering humility.”

‘A woman of rare modesty and character’

The queen led the nation at regular services honoring the war dead, or offering thanksgiving for her jubilees, but worship was not, for her, only a public show. She attended church regularly throughout her life and is said to have had an uncomplicated, Bible- and prayer-book-based faith.

That love of the Bible was something she shared with American evangelist Billy Graham, whom she invited to preach for her on several occasions. While the closeness the Netflix series “The Crown” suggested between them seems far-fetched, Graham’s son Franklin Graham said the queen and his father shared a friendship that “was built on a shared love for Jesus Christ and belief in God’s Word.”

“My father said he found Queen Elizabeth ‘to be a woman of rare modesty and character,’ and made a pledge to pray for her and her family every day. He also appreciated how she often talked about Jesus Christ during her public addresses—there was never any question about where she placed her faith,” said Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.

He added: “The queen was a friend to my father, but more importantly, she was a true friend of the Christian faith. She will be profoundly missed.”

In a telegram offering his condolences to Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III, Pope Francis reportedly wrote, “I willingly join all who mourn her loss in praying for the late Queen’s eternal rest, and in paying tribute to her life of unstinting service to the good of the nation and the commonwealth, her example of devotion to duty, her steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ and her firm hope in his promises.”

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church, who spoke at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, said in a written statement he was praying for all those who knew and loved Elizabeth.

“Her resilience, her dignity, and her model of quiet faith and piety have been—and will continue to be—an example for so many,” Curry said.

Many figures of faith and the church will be among the dignitaries paying their respects at her lying in state at Westminster Hall and at her funeral at Westminster Abbey. According to plans outlined in Politico in 2021, she will be buried in the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle, outside London, after an Anglican service at St. George’s Chapel there.

Adapted from an earlier profile that appeared in June 2022. RNS national reporter Emily McFarlan Miller and Baptist Standard Managing Editor Ken Camp contributed to this updated report.

PHILADELPHIA (BP)—Gen Z matches adults age 76 and older in a desire to share their faith, an American Bible Society study revealed.

Furthermore, Gen Z—adults 25 and younger—lead all ages in their openness to spiritual conversations, the Bible society said Sept. 8 in releasing its latest chapter of the 2022 State of the Bible.

More than half—54 percent—of Gen Z and Elders, defined as individuals 76 and older, expressed a desire to share their faith with others, the Bible society’s study showed.

About six out of 10 Gen Z adults—engaged in individual spiritual conversations with three or more persons in the past year, more than any other age group studied.

“We asked a range of questions with different phrasing—sharing faith, having spiritual conversations, talking about the message of the Bible,” the American Bible Society stated. “The Bible itself expresses the work of evangelism in various ways (preaching, reconciling, conversing, answering), so we felt comfortable approaching the subject in different ways.”

‘Greater openness to spiritual conversations’

The findings are a good report for Gen Z, the American Bible Society said, in contrast to the previous release from the 2022 report placing a large percentage of Gen Z among committed Christians who don’t attend church at least once monthly.

“We’re especially encouraged by Gen Z. Our last chapter included some causes for worry, but here we see a desire for faith-sharing among Scripture-engaged young people,” the Bible society said in releasing the report’s sixth chapter, focused on evangelism. “We also see signs of a greater openness to spiritual conversations in the Gen Z culture.

“As with many other factors in State of the Bible, evangelism is strongly associated with Scripture engagement and church attendance. Those who are committed to the Bible and the church are far more likely to be committed to sharing their faith.”

Factors that likely influence Gen Z’s gospel sharing are changes in American culture that have made the gospel “genuinely new” to Gen Z. American culture is “less overtly Christianized,” and methods of evangelism have adjusted to include Christian music, films, novels, streaming television and internet memes, the Bible society observed.

Among other generations, 45 percent of Millennials and Gen X, and 50 percent of Boomers said they wanted to share their faith.

When it came to actually sharing their faith with others, 54 percent of Boomers said they shared their faith with at least three people in the past year, the age category ranking closest to Gen Z. Among others, 52 percent of Millennials, 51 percent of Gen X and 45 percent of Elders shared their faith with at least three others.

Gen Z breaking barriers

“Are we seeing a generational shift in openness to spiritual matters?” the Bible society asked. “Where previous generations learned to avoid religious talk, our findings suggest that Gen Z is breaking those barriers.”

Feeling inadequate in social interactions (19 percent), a lack of knowledge of faith issues (15 percent) and fear of what others will think of them (12 percent) rank as the top three obstacles to evangelism among Scripture-engaged Christians of all ages.

Gen Z described their top obstacles as a lack of knowledge of faith issues (31 percent), guilt about inconsistencies in their own lives (22 percent), and being unsure about their own faith (19 percent).

Yet, practicing Christians overwhelmingly (96 percent) expressed some degree of satisfaction with their church’s role in helping them learn to share their faith, with 29 percent extremely satisfied, 31 percent very satisfied, 23 percent satisfied and 14 percent somewhat satisfied.

The desire to share one’s faith is also impacted with such factors as educational level, decreasing as education increases; residency, with rural communities surpassing suburbanites; race and ethnicity, with more non-Hispanic Blacks expressing a desire to evangelize than non-Hispanic whites; and southerners surpassing westerners and northeasterners.

American Bible Society researchers collaborated with the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center to survey a nationally representative group of American adults on topics related to the Bible, faith and the church. The study conducted online via telephone produced 2,598 responses from a representative sample of adults 18 and older in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

NASHVILLE (BP)—More than 100 years ago, Southern Baptist P.E. Burroughs wrote on the importance of vestibules, the small gathering areas common in many churches to be built throughout that century.

Vestibules “are worth far more than their cost,” he said. “They lend an air of welcome; they provide waiting room for people who arrive during prayer or such other parts of the service as may delay the incoming congregation; they encourage sociability.”

Burroughs’ book from which that passage originated—Church and Sunday-School Buildings—was published by the Baptist Sunday School Board in 1917, the same year he was asked to lead its newly-created architectural department.

For many Southern Baptists it became a guide during an unprecedented construction boom of churches in the two decades following World War II, a time that also witnessed a period of high attendance and church programs galore to occupy the space.

Time is undefeated, though. Eventually, those same buildings showed their age. Drastic upgrades or new construction become necessary.

‘A sense of community’

Coupled with the recent church planting movement, churches are getting a new look with architects and ministry leaders focused on the needs of today while not ignoring the input of those like Burroughs from a century ago.

One of the operative words in developing those plans is “together.”

“It seems that churches are moving toward a more intimate setting where people can be reached,” said Kevin Goins, a Panama City, Fla.-based architect.

“It’s about a sense of community. For me the lobby is just as important as the [worship area]. It’s where relationships are formed and you catch up with folks.”

The Baptist Sunday School Board, and then after becoming Lifeway, had its own department of architects and related personnel for church construction through 2013, at which point it began to partner with an outside firm for that purpose.

A former production coordinator for Lifeway’s Church architecture division, Goins still works with churches today.

“Trends are for ‘smaller,’” he said. “People are going back to the community church.”

He stressed that the church’s sanctuary remains a focus for its purpose and mission.

Also, its overall size doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t foster a sense of community.

Connections and commons spaces valued

Alan Dobbins, the managing partner of Myrick, Gurosky + Associates (MG+A) in Birmingham, Ala., said large connection and commons spaces have become some of the most important on church campuses in his company’s work designing church buildings.

“Since the early 2000s, major areas of focus have been on reaching younger families through dynamic children and student spaces. Worship will always be a key component and the biggest trends we’re seeing in these spaces are the incredible investments being made in technology,” he said.

The late 1990s and early 2000s brought many relocation projects and new builds for MG+A, when megachurches were building large multi-phased campuses, Dobbins said.

During and after the Great Recession, the focus shifted to renovations on existing structures when churches were forced to do more with less.

“This was also a result of churches simplifying program needs, which decreased square foot requirements,” he said.

“The trend has been for churches to maximize their facilities by multi-using spaces and utilizing more off-campus resources such as small groups meeting in homes.”

‘People want to be together’

First Baptist Church in Lafayette, La., partnered with MG+A in a remodel that came a few years before senior pastor James Pritchard arrived in April 2020. First Baptist Church in Forney, where he previously served as teaching pastor, had undergone a remodel roughly during the same time as First Lafayette.

Pritchard recognized differences and similarities for each.

First Lafayette is in downtown and relatively landlocked, while First Forney had 30 acres to work with. Forney also needed to address areas such as a large special needs ministry that requires more space and specific equipment.

Both had something in common, however.

“People want to be together,” Pritchard said. “Architecture follows ministry strategy, and you see that desire to gather and linger.”

First Lafayette basically has three large buildings that were connected in the remodel to form a central “main street.” The large atrium setting has a coffee bar, seating and couches for attendees.

“It’s become a gathering place for the entire church,” said Pritchard.

At First Baptist in Forney, the classic architecture of the previous building funneled people to the sanctuary but did so just as quickly at the conclusion of service to the parking lot.

“The new building has a place to stay, and people would do that for an hour or so after church,” he said. “They hang around and visit because they can.”

Congregations want their permanent space

Other congregations have different starting points.

Many church plants begin their existence in locations such as homes, a storefront or even a section of another church’s building. There comes a day, though, when many if not all look to get their own location.

That tends to happen, said Dobbins, when a church reaches a point where its financial resources can support such a move.

“There is certainly a burn-out factor that comes with using a temporary space every week and the challenges that come along with setup and takedown,” he said. “This places a significant importance on a young church plant’s ability to reach that critical mass in a timely manner.”

The North American Mission Board worked with MG+A in the construction of a new worship facility for First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, which rebuilt after a mass shooting.

Loans are available to church planters who pass NAMB’s assessment as well as go through a process with NAMB’s church loans team. Those loans are available for church plants to purchase or, in some cases, build, said NAMB spokesman Mike Ebert.

“As they mature, most plants refinance with another lender and pay off the loan with us. Most church plants utilize a local contractor and there are too many of them for us to be able to make recommendations,” he said. “We do suggest questions to ask and how best to walk through the due diligence process with a general contractor.”

Changing trends

A 2015 volume of The Journal of Florida Baptist Heritage pointed to trends over the last 50 years, moving away from construction plans espoused in Burroughs’ book, which was updated in 1920 with minor changes.

For one, several large churches such as First Baptist in Orlando constructed or remodeled modern buildings “to create mega-church stadium seating facilities with the latest in sound, lighting and audio-video technology.”

Another trend came in large churches buying out existing structures such as defunct shopping malls and essentially transforming them into churches. First Baptist in Lakeland, Fla., did this and established a new name—Church at the Mall. It has since changed its name to Lakes Church and meets among three campuses.

A third trend is churches gathering in homes until affordable meeting space can be found. The Florida journal cited it specifically among the hundreds of mission congregations in economically challenged areas.

Don Hepburn of the Florida Baptist Convention wrote that particular article for the journal and concluded with “the ‘church’ can now be defined theologically as a ‘people,’ but also may be defined by its purpose and place.”

Healthy relationships are important for mental health. A congregation is no different, with studies showing resilient faith in young adults is connected to strong relationships within church.

Burroughs placed a priority on worship space.

“The auditorium should be marked by reverent dignity such as will inspire worship,” he wrote. He didn’t care for “irregular and sometimes fantastic proportions of some modern (for him) auditoriums [that] must grieve and even offend worshippers.”

That included pictures on the walls or ceilings, memorial pictures and “ill-conceived Bible scenes wrought into the windows.”

But he also addressed the importance of providing space for “meeting social demands” such as a “social room” that could be used for a number of purposes including banquets, lectures and “moving pictures or musicals.”

Prioritize investment in technology

Technology has changed in order to keep people connected, but it is no less needed.

“Churches can underestimate the value and cost of … investment in technology,” Dobbins said. “Coming out of the pandemic, we all realized just how important it was to carry the message outside the walls of the church with live stream and broadcast capability.

“Churches should be prioritizing their investment in these technologies as having just as much importance as actual physical spaces.”

That aside, the experience of remote worship that many congregations had in the spring and summer of 2020 drove home the importance of being together in-person.

“Churches have figured out in recent decades that fellowship and connection happens in a more natural way when spaces are intentionally designed for that purpose,” Dobbins said. “New churches are designed to have enough commons space for people to connect.”

Goins has worked with churches to accommodate interesting requests and requirements. North Jacksonville (Fla.) had to design around an eagle’s nest. A South Carolina church incorporated an old airplane into its youth building.

Others want a link to the past even as they step forward into the future. A stained-glass window is carefully moved and placed within a wall or room of a new building.

One small church asked Goins to design a simple, no-frills worship area that would have made P.E. Burroughs proud.

“The important thing for the church is to have a strong, clear vision,” he said. “Their goal is to find ways to reach their community.”

Six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Baptists inside the embattled nation and in neighboring countries continue ministry in a war zone and begin preparation for what could be a hard winter.

“The war has become a powerful catalyst for creativity and sacrifice,” the European Baptist Federation stated in a Sept. 7 update. Ukrainian Baptists “continue to sow seeds of hope to those in need,” the report continued.

The federation noted eastern and southern Ukraine remain the areas with “the highest concentration of fighting and the most desperate need.”

“Limited access to food, water, electricity and transit out of occupied regions continues to press the region into a humanitarian crisis. Many fear the consequences of the harsh winter approaching,” the EBF update stated.

At the same time, violence is not limited to occupied areas in the east. Western cities in Ukraine continue to experience “sporadic missile strikes and air raids,” the EBF noted.

“Despite this, many who were internally displaced from the north and central regions have risked returning to rebuild their lives. Baptists continue to serve across every region caring for the physical, mental and spiritual needs of their neighbors.”

Baptists continue to “embrace their opportunity” to meet needs through humanitarian aid projects, and they “delight in the chance to share Christ in the midst of suffering,” the federation noted.

“Churches in the central and eastern regions continue to provide aid, electricity and water to those on the front lines and, when possible, in occupied areas as well,” the EBF update stated. “As people continue to move across the countries, Baptists provide transportation to those seeking safety.”

During the summer, pastor retreats offered ministers times of respite, the federation noted.

Baptists in Ukraine also provided youth camps, a day camp for individuals with special needs and a women’s prayer breakfast that focused on interceding “for those fighting and for those who are displaced.”

Baptists gather for worship, even when it involves great personal risk. The EBF report singled out Nikolaev Baptist Church as a place where worshippers filled the sanctuary in spite of heavy shelling.

“Despite explosions and the difficult situation in the city, these people came to God’s house looking for support, stability and peace,” the EBF update stated.

Looking to the future with hope

While focusing on meeting immediate needs, churches also look to the future, the federation observed. At the dedication service for a new church building in Bilhorod-Dnistrovs’kyi, leaders said: “The consecration of a new house of pray during war means God always has a view of tomorrow. God started something yesterday and is developing it today for tomorrow.”

Baptists in neighboring nations also continue to demonstrate the love of Christ to hurting people, the EBF added.

“In Romania, All4Aid partners have been asked numerous times by locals: ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you still helping?’ Their answer mirrors that of countless churches, leaders and volunteers around the EBF region: We serve because Christ first loved us,” the federation reported.

“In fact, numerous reports from Germany, Romania, Moldova, Poland, Hungary, and, of course, Ukraine have all highlighted the professional, quality care and aid Baptists have been able to provide across the region. Local authorities, international NGOs and aid organizations have all praised the quality work of Baptists. Our brothers and sisters are shining the light of Christ brightly in this dark time.”

The European Baptist Federation hosts a monthly prayer call on the last Wednesday of each month to intercede for Ukrainian Christians and pray for peace. To register for the Zoom call, go to https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApceGqpz0iEtZGRNIuIMS_Vca4pa54kuCR.