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The shooter who entered Lakewood Church on Sunday with a long rifle and child in tow has been identified as Genesse Ivonne Moreno, according to multiple sources. The 36-year-old previously identified as Jeffrey Escalante and had prior arrests for assault, forgery, marijuana possession, theft, evading and unlawful carrying of a weapon, according to KHOU's Jeremy Rogalski. Accoring to a Texas Department of Public Safety records search, her criminal report dates back to 2005. Members of the FBI, Conroe Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, Houston Police Department and Texas Rangers arrived at a Conroe home hours after the Sunday shooting...

Church attendance across the Western world has dropped drastically—and continues to drop with every generation. In the USA, Generation Z church attendance is down to less than 9%. What is going on? Well, this is an issue I’ve been addressing for years, pointing the church back to the primary issue: an erosion of the authority of God’s Word and a lack of answers given to the next generation. So how can we stop this exodus?

An increasing share of American Protestant churchgoers believe that financial prosperity is part of God's plan for them and that giving more money to their church and charities will result in blessings from God, according to a recent study by Lifeway Research. The study, conducted from Sept. 19-29, 2022, and released this week, found that 52% of churchgoers say their church teaches that God will bless them if they donate more, up from 38% in 2017. Additionally, 76% believe God wants them to prosper financially, an increase from 69% in 2017. The belief that they must do something for God...

Kimberly Jones is the Senior ‘pastor’ of Limitless Church in Fayetteville, Georgia. Known by her moniker Real Talk Kim, she is a “mother, pastor, entrepreneur, mentor, motivational speaker, entertainer, and best-selling author” featured in the spiritually crass and unseemly TV show Preachers of Atlanta. She was previously co-senior pastor of Church of The Harvest alongside her husband, Mark Pothier, but she divorced him and formed her own congregation after he allegedly cheated on her. A mixture of the worst excess of Joel Osteen and the most irritating parts of Steven Furtick, her preaching style might be described as prosperity gospel...

An increasing share of American Protestant churchgoers believe that financial prosperity is part of God's plan for them and that giving more money to their church and charities will result in blessings from God, according to a recent study by Lifeway Research.The study, conducted from Sept. 19-29, 2022, and released this week, found that 52% of churchgoers say their church teaches that God will bless them if they donate more, up from 38% in 2017.Additionally, 76% believe God wants them to prosper financially, an increase from 69% in 2017. The belief that they must do something for God to receive...

Below is a list of the largest media ministries in the country. These days, almost all ministries have some media component, Pastors write books. Journalists have podcasts. However, the list below is a list of those ministries whose work is primarily media driven. They include media organizations — such as television and radio networks — as well as “teaching and preaching ministries” whose presence is primarily on radio and television. For those of you who are fluent in the MinistryWatch 1000 database, this list includes the “Educational Media” and the “Radio/TV Stations” categories. It is important to note that this...

About 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. “That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” he writes. The Great Dechurching, a forthcoming book analyzing surveys of more than 7,000 Americans conducted by two political scientists, attempts to figure out why so many Americans have left churches in recent years. The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to...

Rev. Al Sharpton’s charity nearly doubled his compensation and also shelled out close to $300,000 for private jets so that he and other bigwigs could attend “important gatherings.” The National Action Network paid Sharpton $348,174 in 2021 as its president and CEO and gave him a hefty bonus of $278,503 — plus $22,117 worth of benefits for total compensation of $648,794, its latest tax filing shows. The preacher’s 2020 compensation came to $347,183, which did not include a bonus. NAN also forked over nearly $1 million on private jets and limos.

The New York bishop who was robbed at gunpoint during a livestreamed service was once accused of conning a congregant out of her life savings, according to court documents - all while running his unsuccessful campaign for Brooklyn Borough president in 2021. Bishop Lamor Whitehead, known for his designer clothes and luxury cars, raised eyebrows when police valued the worth of the jewelry stolen from him and his family on Sunday to be close to $1 million. Whitehead has over 1.6 million followers on Instagram, where he regularly goes live. The parishioner, Pauline Anderson, sued Whitehead in September 2021, alleging...

Three thieves were caught on tape barging into a Brooklyn church on Sunday where controversial bishop Lamor Whitehead — an ally to Mayor Adams — was preaching and snatched $400,000 worth of jewelry off of him and his wife. Whitehead, the Rolls-Royce-driving bishop who recently tried to broker a deal for the surrender of a man accused of a subway murder to the mayor, was preaching at Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministry on Remsen Ave. near Avenue D in Canarsie about 11:15 a.m. Sunday when three masked bandits stormed into the church, the pastor and cops confirmed. When the armed...

New footage shows the trio who cops believe accosted a flashy Brooklyn bishop and snatched up more than $1 million in jewelry during a live-streamed church service. The footage, released late Thursday and marked with a timestamp of Sunday around 11:05 a.m. – minutes before the heist at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries – shows the three suspects walking on the sidewalk with their hoods pulled up and their faces covered. Bishop Lamor Whitehead, 44, was in the middle of his sermon at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie around 11:14 a.m. when the trio burst in,...

Challenging popular Evangelical belief, controversial televangelist Creflo Dollar, one of America's most flamboyant proponents of the prosperity gospel, has renounced tithing and all his previous teachings on the subject as "not correct." He also urged his followers to "throw away every book, every tape and every video I ever did on the subject of tithing" but says he will not apologize for his error. In a Sunday sermon billed "The Great Misunderstanding," the founder and senior pastor of the nearly 30,000-member World Changers Church International headquartered in College Park, Georgia, said he is aware that his declaration will cause him...

The End Times are nearing, and the ‘Rapture’ could happen within 10 years, according to the World Bible Society President. Dr. F. Kenton Beshore. More specifically, Beshore claims that the “Rapture” is likely to occur between now and 2021 and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ from 2018 and 2028. (Related article: “The ‘End-Time’ Is Really A Good Time – OpEd“) The ‘Rapture” is the belief by some Protestant Christians that prior to the Second Coming of Christ, faithful Christians will be “caught up,” and removed from the Earth. Pre-tribulation rapture theology — such as espoused by Beshore — was...

An Evangelical pastor in the US has said people can “speed up” the process of Jesus returning to earth by donating more money to congregations. Speaking during a live TV program Victorython, right-wing evangelical pastor, Jesse Duplantis, said: “I honestly believe this – the reason why Jesus hasn’t come is because people are not giving the way God told them to give.” “When you understand this, you can speed up the time,” he continued. Pastor Duplantis leads Covenant Church in Louisiana and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries.

Right-wing televangelist Kenneth Copeland is begging viewers to send him cash to support his private jet so he won’t have to deal with coronavirus vaccine mandates to travel, which he called “the mark of the beast.” Copeland, who in the past has claimed that he needed a private jet to avoid demons on commercial flights, made the claim during his VICTORYthon fundraiser on Tuesday. “You get into this situation, ‘We’re not gonna let you fly unless you’re vaccinated,’” he said. “Well, to me, that’s the mark of the beast.” Copeland added that it wasn’t the vaccine itself that was the...

Joel Osteen — a fake pastor and pretend Christian — has, however, been spotted marching along with these hooligans in the streets of Houston, TX, where his multi-million dollar enterprise is headquartered. Almost exactly a year ago, he was spotted marching with Lady Gaga at a gay pride march. I guess since pride festivals have been canceled, this is second best for him. At least he’s wearing a mask. alse teacher and Laodicean heretic Joel Osteen, miffed that the race riots seemed to have cancelled out the LGBTQ Pride Marches, decided to march instead with Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA...

American Gospel examines how the prosperity gospel (the Word of Faith movement) has distorted the gospel message, and how this theology is being exported abroad. It also discusses how in our culture it is common for preachers to soften the message of the cross and the attributes of God that are displayed in the person of work of Jesus Christ. American Gospel explores how the paths of post-modernism and progressive Christianity lead to a different gospel, and a god created in our own image.

A Florida televangelist who has taken a job in Donald Trump White House said in a sermon on Sunday that Christians who give money to her ministry will receive life-clarifying 'visons' from God. Paula White has been close to the presdient since at least 2002, and she says the pair once planned to open a megachurch together. She preaches the 'Prosperity Gospel,' which says giving money to churches and religious causes brings health and wealth. She prayed Sunday that congregants would open their wallets. 'Maybe that's a sacrifice of fifty dollars or a hundred dollars, maybe it's a thousand dollars,...

So it must have been quite a shock to his viewers – many of whom, perhaps, have supported his ministry for years by sending him money – to hear him say earlier this week: Hinn: "… I'm sorry to say that prosperity has gone a little crazy – and I'm correcting my own theology …. And I will tell you now something that is going to shock you: I think it's an offense to the Lord, it's an offense to say give a thousand dollars. I think it's an offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the...

Dave Gass, a former pastor who most recently led Grace Family Fellowship in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, has renounced his Christian faith as a system rife with abuse that caused him “mental and emotional breaks.” A representative from his former church, however, has accused him of being an unrepentant adulterer. Gass reportedly first made his announcement in a series of now protected tweets but not before they were copied and shared across multiple social media platforms. “After 40 years of being a devout follower, 20 of those being an evangelical pastor, I am walking away from faith. Even though this has...