J.D. Greear, 45, is the pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.—one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the country. He’s also an author and the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Below are edited excerpts of Warren Cole Smith’s recent interview with Greear on Listening In.

Once upon a sunlit spot of ground, God bent down and shaped a mound of dust. The elemental particles that made up the ground were already in place, and so were the elements of a home: blue sky holding in a band of oxygen, springs of water welling up below, a sun making its stately march across the sphere. “Dust” seems an odd medium for shaping, as it doesn’t stick together. But by divine will it did; its Maker considered it beautiful, like everything else. It was a new shape, never seen before—like everything else.

What comes to mind when you hear the term “house church”? Perhaps you visualize a dozen believers secretly gathered in an apartment, singing hymns a cappella, listening to a short sermon, sharing a meal, and then going off their separate ways.

The tournament room is silent. Surrounded by the intense gazes of the watching crowd—and those of chess greats past and present staring down from photos on the walls—Wesley So, 24, prepares to defend his title of U.S. chess champion at the St. Louis Chess Club and Scholastic Center in April. Eleven other top-rated players are there to try to take it from him.

These are hard days for members of Willow Creek Community Church. The Chicago-area megachurch is grappling with reports that its decadeslong pastor, Bill Hybels, made inappropriate advances toward several women. 

Hybels denied the allegations, but told his congregation, “I placed myself in situations that would have been far wiser to avoid.” He had planned to retire in October after 40 years of ministry, but stepped down from his post in early April.

Writers at WORLD often receive invitations to attend conferences of all sorts. Sometimes we’ll go to meet interesting people and learn about important ideas, but we rarely cover the event itself.

Why not?

It isn’t because we dislike conferences. (Indeed, some of our writers speak at such gatherings.) But while large-scale conferences may highlight important truths, as journalists we’re looking to cover truth in action.

Billy Graham’s death (and his funeral on March 2) ends an era of evangelical revival that took off at the 1949 crusade in Los Angeles.