Authors /

Bob Smietana

Bob Smietana is a Religion News Service national reporter.

News

Giving is up at churches and people are back, but clergy are still thinking about quitting

Three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches have fewer people in the pews, more money in the collection plate and less conflict than they had in 2020....
September 8, 2023
News

SBC leader Willie McLaurin resigns after admitting he falsified resume

Willie McLaurin, the acting president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee, resigned suddenly on August 17 after admitting he had falsified his resume....
August 21, 2023
News

Many Black SBC churches have women pastors on staff. Will they be expelled next?

Earlier this year, Southern Baptists expelled five churches from the nation’s largest Protestant denomination for having women as pastors....
July 12, 2023
News

Ouster of Saddleback and Fern Creek from SBC over women pastors is affirmed

Delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting affirmed a decision to expel two Southern Baptist churches, including Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, bec...
June 14, 2023
News

Tim Keller, retired megachurch pastor and bestselling author, dies at 72

Tim Keller, an influential Presbyterian Church in America minister who founded a network of evangelical Christian churches in New York City, has died. He was 72....
May 22, 2023
News

Southern Baptists lost nearly half a million members in 2022

The long, slow decline of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination continues.  ...
May 10, 2023
News

Expelled Tennessee lawmakers find support among clergy

The last time Tennessee legislators tried to make the Bible the state’s official book, a pastor warned them to be careful what...
April 10, 2023
News

After school shooting, protests mount in Nashville

Monday’s shooting at The Covenant School, which left seven dead including the shooter, highlights a dual reality of life in Na...
March 31, 2023
News

Faith-based volunteers show up to help after Mississippi tornadoes

When volunteers show up after a disaster like this past weekend’s deadly tornadoes in Mississippi, some bring chainsaws, tarps...
March 29, 2023
News

Why students at a Kentucky school are praying and singing around the clock

Last Wednesday, students at Asbury University gathered for their biweekly chapel service in the 1,500-seat Hughes Auditorium.<...
February 15, 2023

Free Newsletters

From theological reflections to breaking religion news to the latest books, the Christian Century's newsletters have you covered.

Explore Newsletters
News

YouVersion Bible app hires former Facebook exec to fuel growth

This past Sunday, more than 12 million people turned on their smartphones to open up the Good Book....
January 20, 2023
News

Federal court dismisses LGBTQ students' class action discrimination suit

There is no legal remedy for LGBTQ students who claim they were discriminated against at their religious universities, an Oreg...
January 17, 2023
News

Church attendance declines as pandemic enters year three

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every congregation in the United States shut down, at least for a while....
January 9, 2023
News

Shopping for a new church? Your politics may determine which pew fits

When Andre Audette first arrived at Notre Dame for grad school, he got a brochure about living in South Bend, Indiana....
December 16, 2022
News

Ron Sider, evangelical activist, dies at 82

Ron Sider, an author, seminary professor and evangelical social justice activist, has died, according to an online update from...
July 29, 2022
News

Southern Baptists change direction on sexual abuse after years of delay 

In summer 2008, Morris Chapman stood before a gathering of thousands of Southern Baptists in Indianapolis for their annual meeting and denounced the evil of sexual abuse....
June 27, 2022

More by Bob Smietana ›