Ministry Watch: Episode 115

On today’s MinistryWatch EXTRA episode I’m pleased to welcome back to the program Paul Glader. Paul is the editor-in-chief at Religion Unplugged and the director of the journalism program at The King’s College in New York City. His journalism experience includes a long tenure with the Wall Street Journal.

We begin with a story by Ryan Burge on the Decline of the Mainline. It was a response to a story by PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute. That survey said that the mainline churches were experiencing a resurgence, and their members may now actually outnumber evangelicals. But that can’t possibly be right. We explain why.

Next, we turn our attention to “The Chosen,” which is the streaming series by Dallas Jenkins that portrays the life of Jesus. You have a review of the second season, by Joseph Holmes. He says the second season is not as good as the first season, but it is still the gold standard for Christian television.

Finally, we talk “Pastors and Plagiarism.” We’ve covered a number of stories involving celebrity preachers and plagiarism over the years. Everyone from Mark Driscoll to David Barton. Lately, the issue came up when the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ed Litton, was accused of plagiarizing sermons from the outgoing president J.D. Greear.

To find out more about Religion Unplugged and the stories we discussed today, go to Religion Unplugged.com. If you’d like to give to its International Reporting Fund, there’s a link at the top of the page.