John Sullivan is executive director and treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention in Jacksonville. He has written about prosperity gospel as deviant from true biblical teaching.

R. Drew Smith is a Baptist minister and professor of urban ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He has studied and written about black megachurches and has edited four volumes on American religion and public life, including New Day Begun: African American Churches and Civic Culture in Post-Civil Rights America.

Bishop Eddie Long is pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Long received more than $3 million in salary, benefits and perks – including the use of a $350,000 Bentley – between 1997 and 2000 from a charity he founded. In response, Long told the newspaper that “Jesus wasn’t poor.” […]

Read an article on the history of foot-washing (and the connection between this ceremony and baptism) from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Prayer services and talk of religious values are common on some teams. Read a Sept. 18, 2005, Washington Post story about a ministry called Baseball Chapel and the practice of players praying before games.

Some baseball teams – including the Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves – have held “Faith Days,” in which players share their Christian faith with fans after the final out. It’s optional – fans buy a separate ticket for the “Faith Day” event after the game. But post-game Christian fellowship has become a big money-maker in the minor […]

Rodney Harrison is vice president for institutional effectiveness, dean of online education, director of doctoral studies and associate professor of Christian education at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. He is a veteran church planter, having started churches in Minnesota, California and the Dakotas.

Daniel Montgomery founded and serves as the lead pastor for Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Ky., a church plant. Sojourn began as an attempt to reach people who were falling through the cracks in more mainstream churches. It officially launched in September 2000 using rented space and has expanded to include multiple campuses.