Matt Jones is director of new church development for North Alabama Conference for the United Methodist Church.

Penny Long Marler is a professor of religion at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., with interests in the relationship between church and society and religious change. She has written about measuring growth in church attendance.

Read the petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal.

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 […]

Christopher H. Evans is professor of history of Christianity and Methodist studies at Boston University School of Theology. He is co-editor of The Faith of 50 Million: Baseball, Religion and American Culture, a collection of essays on religious motifs in baseball.

Read a story by Joan Huyser-Honig about one Lutheran congregation’s decision to use African drums in worship. The article is posted by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ferndale, Mich., uses African drums in worship and holds classes to teach worshippers how to use them.

St. Francis Episcopal Church in College Station, Texas, uses drums in worship.