Revival

A new analysis of Southern Baptist Convention data finds adults made up the majority of baptisms for the first time in years, a shift from a tradition long weighted toward children. Researchers point to a wave of adult conversions rather than church-raised professions.

The skies above Kansas are set to fill with worship and prayer next month at a free open-air event headlined by Bethel Music and rapper KB, with Westboro Baptist Church announcing plans to protest what it calls 'satanic tunes.'

Michael W. Smith cautioned that worship music risks turning into a celebrity industry, telling leaders that "the Lord doesn't share His glory with anybody." The veteran artist said he is nevertheless seeing genuine revival among Gen Z audiences. His remarks land amid a wider reckoning over platform culture in the church.

Bestselling author Eric Metaxas argues America has forgotten the biblical ideas and convictions that shaped the nation, and says that loss carries serious consequences for the future of freedom.

The Bethel Church leader drew criticism for teaching that the Spirit indwells all Christians but rests only on some, a distinction he frames as the difference between salvation and empowerment. Critics across the theological spectrum say the formulation creates a spiritual tier system Scripture does not.

The broken doors were repaired, the benches returned to their places, the Bibles gathered off the floor. In several Muslim-majority communities along Tanzania’s coast, small congregations have resumed meeting in buildings that still carry the marks of the attacks — and the fear that has not left with the debris.

Lakepointe Church pastor Josh Howerton says he sees a "resurgence of the purposes of God" across the United States as Americans grow weary of what he calls a non-ignorable dark force in the world. He frames the country as a prodigal that is starting the walk home rather than one that has arrived. Pastors reporting rising attendance and baptisms have made versions of this claim for two years; the data on whether it holds is still thin.

A doughnut shop owner facing a payroll he could not cover prayed about it and then watched an unexpected surge of customers and orders arrive. He tells the story plainly, without claiming to understand the mechanism, and credits the answer rather than the business plan.

Forrest Frank told nearly 20,000 worshipers at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center about the emptiness left by years of chasing what the world offered, before pointing the arena toward Jesus Christ. He and JP Pokluda led the crowd in a salvation call that closed the night.

Hundreds of Samaritan's Purse volunteers are clearing debris and repairing homes for Wisconsin residents hit by recent tornadoes. Survivors described the crews as an unexpected lifeline in the first days after the storm. The organization says the response will continue for weeks.

Pastor Andrew Brunson, imprisoned for two years in Turkey, urged delegates at the Arise Asia gathering to pray the same prayer he prayed before his arrest. He described the cost of that prayer without softening it. The conference draws young missionaries from across the region.

A pastor preached through the entire Bible in a continuous 96-hour marathon, drawing crowds and an online audience. Volunteers rotated in shifts to support the effort. Organizers framed the event as a call to scriptural literacy rather than a stunt.

A professor who lectures on evangelicalism at a Catholic university in Manhattan argues that the personal, individualized renewal Americans keep describing is not what the word revival has ever meant. Revival, in the historical sense, happens to a body of people or not at all.

A look at the moments where public prayer shaped the course of American history, from the founding through wartime, and at what its receding role in civic life has replaced. Part of a continuing series on God and country.