Top 10 Faith & Leadership stories from 2020
It has been a tough year. Here are some stories of how faith leaders have made a way forward -- with resilience, creativity, innovation, prayer and hope.
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The Table of Hope mobile food pantry is part of the ministry that Bethel Church of Morristown, New Jersey, expanded after a 2011 flood that nearly destroyed its building. Photos courtesy of Bethel Church
A devastating storm becomes a turning point for a historic African Methodist Episcopal church
When volunteers and donors helped repair massive flood damage to its building, the pastor and congregation paid back the community by creating an ambitious food ministry.
The Rev. Dr. Wanda Lundy, pastor of Siloam Hope First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, walks in the church graveyard that inspired the 313 Project. Photos by Alexis Llewellyn
A merged congregation bonds over a project to honor the freed and enslaved Africans buried in its cemetery
A historic, predominantly Black congregation in New Jersey seeks to learn the names and stories of more than 300 unidentified souls buried in unmarked graves.
iStock / AgsAndrew
John Swinton: Helping Christians with mental health issues starts with better language
Those with severe mental health issues are often misunderstood by people of faith, but churches have a responsibility to listen to and see each person as a person, says a professor and author.
Bigstock/Daria Nipot
Erin Raffety: Understanding congregations through digital ethnography
Using a method from anthropology, a pastor and researcher studies congregations through “deep hanging out” online.
Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago raised millions of dollars to build a green roof, pictured here, which is covered in vegetation to absorb rainfall and regulate temperature. Photos courtesy of Trinity UCC
Otis Moss III: Care for the land is intimately tied to Black liberation
An urban megachurch on Chicago’s South Side is a leader in creation care, drawing upon the congregation’s history and addressing its current needs.
Book cover detail from “After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity”
David P. Gushee: The problem with white evangelicalism is not Jesus
Millions of people are leaving the evangelical movement. Helping those ex-evangelicals rediscover Jesus and a viable practice of the Christian faith is the goal of Gushee’s new book, “After Evangelicalism.”
iStock / Lpettet
John Fea: Evangelicals may vote the same in 2020 as in 2016, but we understand them much better now
Many are confused by evangelical support for President Donald Trump. An American historian wrestles with the reasons for this phenomenon, explained through three recent books.
Action figures in a store window include one of John Wayne, on the right. iStock / Brendan Hunter
Kristin Kobes Du Mez: Toxic masculinity in evangelical culture is crucial to Trump's success
The gender ideals of evangelicalism have led evangelical Christians to embrace rugged, often immoral and violent men, a scholar of Christian history says.
Illustration by Jessamyn Rubio / iStock / Victoria Bar
Korie Little Edwards: Multiracial churches don't challenge racism until they challenge white supremacy
Diversity doesn’t necessarily challenge racism, says a sociologist who studies multicultural churches.