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OKLAHOMA CITY — I’ve participated in pro-life work for over 15 years. That has created many opportunities to advocate for the preborn, something that is often politicized.

For me, the issue is black and white, so I have struggled to understand why Christians debate abortion.

Shouldn’t we unify to pursue justice for these tiny image bearers? Why are we dividing over something so clear? And if I am on the right side, what could I be missing?

An armed youth attempted to steal a full collection plate from the Portland Avenue Church of Christ in Louisville, Ky., during a worship service this past Sunday.

The minister of the congregation, Gary Butts, described the incident to The Christian Chronicle:

Harding President David Burks stepped to the podium as sunlight glinted off the metal lettering for the newly named “Anthony & Wright Building.”

“Today we are recognizing seven individuals and their families whose groundbreaking efforts began the process of ending racial segregation at Harding,” Burks said.

It was a recognition that came in many forms.

Justices will hear oral arguments Dec. 1 in the latest challenge of state regulation of abortions, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which legal scholars say will give a more conservative court a renewed opportunity to revisit the constitutional right of abortion that has been recognized for a half-century.

In the midst of a global pandemic, I found a story of hope in modern-day Israel.

I talk about it on the “Common Grounds Unity Podcast,” available now.

I met Donnie Anderson at a garbage dump.

Sort of. I was in Honduras in 2012 covering an effort by missionaries to serve people, a lot of them children, who scratched out a living at a massive, mountaintop landfill.

Facebook is not the problem.

Facebook has problems that have spurred headlines, congressional hearings and expansive public scrutiny.

But for Christians, none of that is really the problem.

A recent MIT Technology Review article is the perfect case in point. The article revealed that in 2019, 20 of the top 22 Christian-themed Facebook pages were fake, created by troll farms...

What do you do with a biology professor who doesn’t “believe in science?”

Just ask Janet Kellogg Ray, an adjunct biology professor at the University of North Texas, a graduate of Abilene Christian University and a member of The Branch, a Church of Christ in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton.

“There are many things I believe, but science is not one of them,” Ray says. “Instead, I accept science evidence. After all, a fact is true whether I believe it or not.”

The Round Rock church is like many Churches of Christ across the nation that have been gearing up for a return to normal, resuming ministries that were paused for months on end when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Some congregations have seen decreased participation as they have urged members to return to volunteer roles, forcing church leaders to rethink ministries across the board. From children’s ministries to community engagement, ministry teams are wondering if members will reengage at previous levels.

Reports from Christians still in Afghanistan indicate that the name of Jesus is still spreading, and many people are putting on Christ in baptism, even during the chaos.

Whether or not the situation in Afghanistan is in our national interest, it is unquestionably in the interest of the Kingdom of God.

For 13 years, retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John Bradley and his wife, Jan, built schools and hospitals to improve the lives of Afghans.

Then on Aug. 15, Kabul fell, the Taliban resumed power after 20 years, and the Bradleys, co-founders of the Lamia Afghan Foundation, began trying to get friends and partners out of the country — to save the lives of Afghans.

NUNNELLY, Tenn. — A noisy, industrial-strength fan blew in the back as Pinewood Church of Christ members stepped into their makeshift worship facility Sunday.

Wooden planks — newly installed with help from 15 volunteers from the Brushy Church of Christ in nearby Centerville — framed the rural congregation’s picnic pavilion.

New, maroon “Songs of the Church” hymnals, placed in each white folding chair, replaced old songbooks lost in the historic flooding that hit Middle Tennessee on Aug. 21.

Are we still planting seeds?

Jesus instructed us to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). And we know that God gives the increase — not us (1 Corinthians 3:7).

But we’re not seeing a lot of increase these days. In the past two decades, the number of us who worship with Churches of Christ has dipped by more than 230,000. And that’s based primarily on pre-COVID-19 estimates. The actual figure could be worse.

“All the neighbors said it will be fine. We’ve never had water here,” Melanie Chelette, a member of the Goodwood Church of Christ in Baton Rouge, La., told The Christian Chronicle.

But it wasn’t fine.

The Dixie Fire that is ravaging Northern California has destroyed Sierra Bible Camp, a mainstay of Churches of Christ for 67 years.

The third-largest wildfire in California’s history ignited July 14 but has exploded in recent days. It burned across Plumas and Butte counties overnight.

By Friday morning, the fire had grown by 110 square miles and leveled the Plumas County camp, which the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had used as a base of operations last month.

NORMAN, Okla. — I forgot the words to “Days of Elijah.”

“It’s something like ‘these are the days of the harvest,’ right?” my brain asked itself as we approached the chorus.

“No! That’s verse two. This is … trials! And though these are days of great trials, of famine and darkness and sword, Still we are the voice in the desert crying, ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Behold, he comes …’”

I doubt any of the kids sitting around the campfire noticed me stumbling over the lyrics. But I did. “I’ve led this song so many times,” I mentally scolded myself. “Well, not recently. Not in the last year.”

ABA, Nigeria — “We pray that you will bless us through our enemies, as we see you doing so often in Scripture.”

Hearing this prayer stirred my heart, especially considering the context.

First, this prayer was offered in Nigeria, a country plagued by increasing violence in general and religious persecution in particular.

Second, this prayer was offered during a church service in Nigeria, immediately following announcements — announcements that were unlike anything I’ve heard at the close of church services back home.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Over four decades, the inmates of the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women have counted on Glenda Tate.

Tate, 73, began volunteering with the South Baton Rouge Church of Christ prison ministry more than 42 years ago, leading Bible studies on Tuesday afternoons and worship services on Sundays.

“We were always there,” Tate said of her visits to the prison. “We didn’t cancel at the last minute. When the attendance got down to one inmate on Tuesday afternoon, we still went.”

Jimmy Moore had been waiting for months for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide Fulton v. Philadelphia.

The nation’s high court had heard oral arguments in November over whether the City of Philadelphia could refuse to certify a Catholic foster care agency unless the charity agreed to place foster children with same-sex married couples.

To Moore, president and CEO of The Children’s Home of Lubbock, and to leaders of dozens of other child services ministries associated with Churches of Christ, the question was crucial.

"“Hi, my name is Tyler, and I’m an alcoholic.”

That’s not what I expected to hear in Sunday morning Bible class.

I thought we were doing 1 Corinthians this quarter.