Author: Chris Boyd

Why Christians slide into spiritual apathy, and how they can recover.

Believers often describe the Christian life as a series of peaks and valleys, with periods of joyful discipleship followed by seasons of spiritual listlessness. Uche Anizor, a professor at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology, writes for those trudging through the valley in Overcoming Apathy: Gospel Hope for Those Who Struggle to Care. Matthew LaPine, a pastor and author on topics of theology and human psychology, spoke with Anizor about the causes of spiritual apathy and the pathway back to a passionate pursuit of God.

What motivated you to write a book on apathy among Christians?

There are two motivations. One comes from experiences early on in my Christian life, particularly when I worked with Campus Crusade for Christ. Basically, my job was to mentor students and do regular evangelism. However, there were many days when I would dread facing these monumental spiritual tasks. It troubled me: I had raised support to do this, but when it came time to do it, I didn’t really want to. Fear of evangelism was probably a factor. But overall, there was a general “blahness” in my attitude. During that time, I told people over and over that my main vice as a Christian was being an apathetic person. So I wanted to get my mind around why that was.

My other motivation comes from having mentored lots of students during my years at Biola. They struggle with typical stuff, but I think the main thing is just not caring about their spiritual life. Intellectually, they know the importance of knowing theology, loving Jesus, and living the Christian life. But they can’t get themselves to care the way they know, deep down, they should.

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National board questions Anaheim pastors’ “spiritually implausible” reasons for disassociation.

The “mother church” of the Vineyard movement announced Sunday that it is disassociating from the charismatic denomination.

The division isn’t theological, pastor Alan Scott told Vineyard Anaheim, the California congregation he and his wife, Kathryn, have led for four years. There aren’t any big disputes over the direction of Vineyard USA. No personal grievances causing a rift.

It’s just that the leaders of Vineyard Anaheim believe that God is guiding them to leave the denomination their church helped start. So they are leaving.

“We don’t really understand why,” Alan Scott said in a recording of a Sunday service obtained by CT. “I wish I really could sit before you today and say, ‘Here are the six reasons,’ ‘Here’s our issues,’ ‘Here are our grievances,’ or whatever. … We don’t always know what’s on the other side of obedience.”

A spokesperson for the church declined to speak to CT and pointed to an official statement posted on its website. The statement says the decision is “our best effort to respond to the distinct calling on our church at this time, and a desire to say yes to the Spirit.”

National Vineyard leadership is not so sure that’s the Holy Spirit speaking.

John Kim, a New York City pastor and member of the Vineyard USA board of trustees, writing to the church leadership on behalf of the board in a series of emails obtained by CT, described the statements as “spiritually implausible.”

“Do you understand this lightning-fast, seemingly unaccountable process as having been subject to biblical standards of discernment?” Kim wrote.

According to Kim’s emails, …

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The Broadway hit serves as a parable of the post-Christian West.

Some stories serve as parables of the period they are written in. Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet depict the religious tensions of Reformation England without ever mentioning the words Protestant or Catholic. Frankenstein reflects anxieties about early industrialization: Will our scientific power turn around and destroy us? The Lord of the Rings evokes World War II and the fight against fascism. Great stories can encapsulate historical moments, and indeed entire civilizations.

If I had to choose a parable for the post-Christian West, it would be Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Even if you haven’t seen it, you know the story: An impoverished immigrant arrives in a new land with nothing but his wits, joins the revolution, writes his way to recognition, fights his way to victory, designs the nation’s financial system, founds a newspaper and a political party, antagonizes nearly everybody, cheats on his wife, loses his son, decides an election, gets shot and killed by the vice president, and ends up on the ten dollar bill.

But Hamilton is about more than one bright, scrappy immigrant fighting his way to the top. The show features multiple clashes between old and new worlds, in which young, brash, loquacious energy collides with stuffy, patrician traditionalism. At the personal level, Hamilton takes on Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson. At the national level, New York City and its banks struggle for supremacy against Virginia and its plantations. At the international level, America goes to war with Britain.

In each case, the new kid on the block is derided as big-mouthed, garishly dressed, and obsessed with money. Yet the new kid wins anyway, confirming that the future belongs to Hamilton, New York City, and America, …

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Jesus’ gruesome death didn’t happen randomly or accidentally. He knew very well what was coming his way.

Many times I’ve stared at Titian’s famous painting “Christ on the Way to Calvary,” which depicts Simon of Cyrene as he helped Jesus carry the cross up the hill to Golgotha. In the painting, it looks as though there is some kind of communication happening between the two—Christ sorrowfully glancing up over his left shoulder and Simon gazing down with kindness at the face of Jesus. What would I have said were I in Simon’s shoes? Maybe it would have been something along the lines of “Ah, holy Jesus, how have you offended, that mortal judgement has on you descended?”

That’s Jesus right there

The other day, as I was driving my 12-year-old daughter Ruby to school, we saw a weather-beaten woman sitting at the top of the freeway exit, begging for money in the Albuquerque sun. I said to Ruby, “That’s Jesus right there.”

“What do you mean?” she asked. I explained how Christ continually identified himself with the downtrodden and marginalized in the world—with beggars, lepers, tax collectors, harlots, thieves—with the “least of these,” according to the society of his day. She still looked at me quizzically. Thrilled to have gained her attention on the subject, I said, “The humility of God is a pearl of great beauty in this desolate world.”

Afraid I might lose her attention, I found myself awkwardly blathering on about the world and its mad lust for fame, influence, riches, stature. I talked about the Kardashians, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Kim Jong Un, Elon Musk, and other influencers and powerful figures who are on Ruby’s radar. I described how the life Jesus led was in the sharpest contrast to the values of the …

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COVID-19 fatigue has strengthened and challenged the faith of public health and hospital workers in Atlanta.

Infectious disease physician Nathaniel Smith took on two new roles during the pandemic: acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Center for Global Health and interim priest of his Anglican church plant.

“My interest in faith and medicine come from the same place: the desire to share Christ’s love in practical, tangible ways,” said Smith, a former medical missionary. “They both flow out of my identity in Christ.”

In his role at the CDC, Smith helps his team identify emerging public health threats in more than 60 countries, run treatment programs for diseases ranging from HIV to measles, and support COVID-19 monitoring and vaccination efforts worldwide.

But the isolation of the pandemic urged him toward greater involvement in his local church. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 2020 and stepped in as interim priest of Atlanta’s Trinity Northside Parish in 2021.

Smith’s CDC office is situated along the Clifton Corridor in Atlanta, a major hub of education, research, and health care that also houses Emory University and multiple hospitals. And Smith is one of many Atlanta-area Christians working there who have lived out a dual calling during the pandemic, seeking to reduce illness through their clinical knowledge and to proclaim Christ in word and deed.

That task started with a swell of public gratitude at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 but has grown more difficult over time as public perception toward medical recommendations has shifted. And this provides a central challenge for Christians working in public health and medicine at this stage of the pandemic—how to persevere in their faith while wrestling with their limits and trusting …

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“How much longer, Lord?” and “God, break the bones of my enemy” now equal hallelujahs as leaders ask for advocacy and assistance, lamenting the silence by Russian Christians.

One month ago, Taras Dyatlik gathered in Moldova with friends and partners for another 10-day round of mundane seminary meetings. Serving as regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia for Overseas Council, he was a lynchpin for strategy and funding for a network of theological institutions in Ukraine and Russia.

Three days later, he was desperately scrambling back to Kyiv. Dyatlik’s family—like much of Ukraine—was under Russian military fire. And the only thing louder than the air raid sirens that would soon pervade his sleepless nights was the silence of his Russian colleagues.

“It’s not a conflict, it’s not a situation, it’s not tension within Ukraine; this is invasion, this is aggression; this is not a special operation,” he said, using the terms employed by most Russians—and too many otherwise cautious supporters in the West.

He emphasized the Bible shows the importance of precision in language.

“It’s not just that Abel died or that Jesus was just betrayed; Judah betrayed Jesus, Cain killed Abel,” he said. “Not just that a man sinned; Adam and Eve sinned. Biblical truth has names, has a cause-and-effect chain.”

Dyatlik’s charged remarks mirrored others voiced at an online roundtable organized Thursday by the Ukraine-based Eastern European Institute of Theology (EEIT). About 500 supporters, partners, and general wellwishers registered for The Russia-Ukraine War: Evangelical Voices, eager to hear from fellow believers on the front lines.

The attendees, from at least 25 nations and 20 US states, received theological reflection—and raw emotion.

“It’s difficult for us Ukrainians to stay calm when we talk about what …

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The church’s founder, currently on leave, faced complaints for inappropriate text messages and drunkenly entering a woman’s hotel room.

The board of directors of Hillsong, the global megachurch and music empire co-founded by Australian pastor Brian Houston, released a statement Friday addressing two complaints about Houston, including an accusation that the married pastor had spent time alone in a hotel room with a woman in 2019.

The statement, which came as the story was breaking in the Australian press, said the Hillsong board has been “dealing with two complaints made against Pastor Brian over the last 10 years,” and said each was investigated by a board member or “a body appointed by the global board,” and dealt with confidentially.

The other complaint related to an accusation that Houston had flirted with a staff member over text message a decade ago.

Prior to the statement being released, Hillsong reportedly held a video meeting with 800 Hillsong staffers around the world in which interim senior pastor Phil Dooley, who is leading the church while Houston is on leave due to ongoing legal troubles, discussed the complaints for the first time with the church at large. Dooley explained the texts, according to Australia’s ABC News, as being to the effect of, “‘If I was with you, I’d like to kiss and cuddle you,’ words of that nature.”

The second incident, as reportedly detailed in the staff meeting, took place during its annual conference in Qudos Bank Arena in Homebush, New South Wales in 2019. According to ABC, Dooley said Houston had been “drinking with a group.”

“Later that evening, Pastor Brian attempted to get into his room but didn’t have his room key and ended up knocking on the door to the woman’s room,” Dooley reportedly said. “She opened the door …

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A division of Sony Philippines, Waterwalk Records is crossing genre and denominational lines to bring inspirational songs to the online masses.

As Roslyn Pineda drew closer to God during the pandemic, she reconnected online with Christian friends she hadn’t seen in years. Though she had been living in Hong Kong for 20 years, she joined their Bible studies back in the Philippines.

And as the general manager of Sony Music Philippines, she began thinking about the significance of Christian music during this global moment.

“Given the many hardships and the monumental losses that COVID-19 has brought about, would it not make sense that people would turn to God? Whether they knew it or not, would they not need more faith-based and inspirational music in their lives?” asked Pineda, who is Filipina.

In October 2021, Pineda and Sony Music launched Waterwalk Records, a Christian label focused on contemporary artists and streaming listeners.

The new label was promising on the evangelistic front and on a business one. Sony’s Christian division, Provident, ranked the Philippines among its top 10 markets outside the US. And the audience demographics were also the most sought-after by churches and companies alike: 16-to-35-year-olds who demand authenticity and consume music through Spotify and YouTube.

“It is an unexplored market that has a huge potential,” Pineda said. “We had to go where the streaming market is. While many of our audience is active in their Christian communities, we also wanted to reach out to those who are non-Christians and/or nonpracticing Christians.”

In the Philippines, top songs on the Christian charts often come from global labels like Hillsong or church networks like Every Nation Music and Victory Church, which has more than 100 locations across the country. Original Filipino Gospel, mostly sung in Tagalog, has …

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Tensions are surfacing among Slavic communities in the US, which have ties to both sides of the war in Ukraine.

Michael Cherenkov, a pastor in Washington state, has relatives on both sides of the fight between Russia and Ukraine. And as wartime propaganda makes its way into immigrant churches around him, he has spiritual family on both sides too.

Evangelical pastors in the US, leading churches where Russian Americans and Ukrainian Americans worship side by side, see the stark but quiet tensions between those who believe Russian president Vladimir Putin’s justifications for the invasion and those who are decrying the injustice of the war. Many have ties to both countries, but the war has highlighted some long-unspoken political divisions.

Cherenkov leads Revival Baptist Church in Vancouver, Washington, a 400-person, mostly Ukrainian congregation. He grew up in Ukraine, where one of his brothers is fighting and his parents are sheltering, but was born in Russia, where his sister lives.

Cherenkov’s sister—also a Baptist—supports the invasion, seeing it as a natural consequence of Ukraine siding with the European Union and the United States, and she believes that Ukraine should submit to Putin.

“It’s hard to discuss,” Cherenkov said. “It is heartbreaking for all of us.”

The tension has been more overt in Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches in the United States. In New York last week, the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Volodymyr invited Russian Orthodox leaders to a prayer service for Ukraine along with New York’s governor. The governor came, but the Russian leaders did not.

In Sacramento, California—a hub for evangelical refugees who fled the Soviet Union—an associate pastor of a Russian Baptist church opened a recent service with a call for unity as “Satan …

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