When Pastor Zach Keele stood in the pulpit on the Sunday morning after Easter, his opening words spoke of death rather than resurrection. “This is an evil day,” he told the congregation. “A child of our church has gone forth and committed a horrible, wicked act.”

That member of Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) is 19-year-old John Earnest, who is also the son of an elder in the congregation.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) suspended the membership of Chicago-area megachurch Harvest Bible Chapel after blogger Julie Roys reported lavish spending by fired Pastor James MacDonald. “Given the emergence of new information, we have concerns the church may be in serious violation of ECFA Standards,” the organization said in a statement Friday.

Independent investigators found that the accusations of inappropriate conduct by Willow Creek Community Church founder and pastor Bill Hybels were credible and would have warranted discipline had he not resigned last year, according to a report released Thursday by the church.

When Malcolm Yarnell read the Houston Chronicle’s devastating investigation into sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches in mid-February, he grieved for the survivors and received an unexpected phone call from his mother: “I need to talk to you.”

Yarnell, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has also been a Southern Baptist minister for decades. Shortly after his ordination, his mother left the Baptist church and became a Roman Catholic.

Members of the executive committee of elders at Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago announced Saturday they will resign in the coming months as the church attempts to recover from a leadership crisis that culminated with the firing of Senior Pastor James MacDonald last week.

NEW YORK—It’s a group with millions of members and at least 7,000 congregations in more than 100 countries, and it claims to be the only true church. Most Americans don’t know about the Iglesia ni Cristo, or “Church of Christ,” with its gleaming, spire-topped buildings that have popped up everywhere from South Korea to South Africa.

The elders of Harvest Bible Chapel fired James MacDonald as senior pastor of the Chicago megachurch after a radio show aired audio Tuesday of vulgar and inflammatory comments MacDonald made against Christianity Today leadership and journalist Julie Roys.