The Rev. Dr. Paul M. Heerboth, a longtime missionary and LCMS World Mission executive, died May 18 in St. Louis at the age of 90. A funeral service was held May 23 at Salem Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Heerboth was on the…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — One of the biggest growth areas in political activism around religion is coming from an unlikely source: the nonreligious. And it’s happening far from the marbled corridors of power in the nation’s capital. The Secular Coalition for America…

(RNS) — When the Supreme Court ruled that a Christian student group could only be recognized at a small public law school if it accepted non-Christians and gays as potential leaders, some lawyers and campus advocates grew nervous. While the 5-4…

WILMINGTON, N.C. (RNS) — The sign outside the polling station at Devon Park United Methodist Church exemplified this state’s struggle with a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. “A true marriage is male and female and God,” the church marquee read.…

JERUSALEM (RNS) — Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of artifacts dating back to the time of the biblical King David that they say closely correspond to the description of Solomon’s Temple found in the Book of Kings. Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef…

DAMASCUS, Syria (RNS) — Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works with Bashar Assad’s regime or has anything to do with it. “But what we heard from (the protesters) at the beginning of this revolution saying,’Christians…

Registration is open for the LCMS National Rural and Small Town Mission Conference to be held Nov. 1-3 at King’s Pointe Resort, Storm Lake, Iowa. Under the theme of “In Christ for Church and World: Witness, Mercy, Life Together,” the conference…

The Rev. Robert L. Jackson, who served as president of the LCMS Oklahoma District from 1988 to 1991, died May 15 at a hospice facility in Springdale, Ark. Jackson, 84, had recently been diagnosed with advanced cancer. A funeral service was held May…

Nicole Ridley has been appointed chief executive officer of the LCMS National Housing Support Corporation, which does business as Lutheran Housing Support (LHS). Her appointment by the corporation’s Board of Directors was effective May 1. Ridley previously served as project director…

LCMS First Vice-President Rev. Herbert C. Mueller Jr. received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree during the May 18 commencement at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. Mueller also served as commencement speaker at the 6 p.m. ceremony in the seminary’s Kramer…

By Kim Plummer Krull It was around 1997 when yet another family told the Rev. John Schmidtke that the lack of decent, affordable housing was forcing them to leave their crumbling inner-city North St. Louis, Mo., neighborhood.  “Where was this family…

The Rev. Richard Boche was elected on the first ballot to his third term as president of the LCMS Wyoming District at the district’s May 10-12 convention in Casper, Wyo. Boche was unopposed. Also elected were: the Rev. John Hill, senior…

By Pamela Nielsen Nearly 1,000 Lutherans gathered May 1 on the campus of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to celebrate and thank God for its 70 years of preparing pastors and other church workers. Participants included pastors and other…

By Kim Plummer Krull A tsunami wave triggered by a powerful earthquake hit Constitucion, Chile, especially hard in 2010, killing some 350 people in the coastal community alone and causing so much damage that survivors feared their town was all…

By Adriane Dorr LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison declared fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia (ELCL) May 10. This declaration followed the Commission on Theology and Church Relations’ (CTCR) action on April 26 in which recognition…

(RNS) — United Methodists (UMC) concluded their General Conference May 4 without voting on gay clergy or same-sex marriage, a surprising end to a disappointing week for gay activists. On May 3, the nearly 1,000 delegates gathered in Tampa, Fla.,…