Rev. Mark Whitlock, executive director of the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, spoke at the Biola University Chapel on February 16, 2012. His speech was the keynote address for Black …

Christianity Today referenced CRCC Executive Director Donald E. Miller’s book Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement in an article about how Pentecostals are engaging in compassionate ministries and social …

This post originally appeared on Patheos’ Black, White and Gray blog. At the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, we’ve been talking a lot lately about how different communities in the …

I attended chapel today at Biola University (where I once worked), which increased the number of times I have attended a Biola chapel from zero to one. But, if chapels had been …

In cities and towns around the world, countless numbers of people flock to beaches in search of sun, sea and sand. Yet a different picture emerges in Lagos, Nigeria, the second-largest city …

The missionary impulse in Pentecostal and Charismatic religion has taken on a number of remarkable characteristics as the movements have absorbed and transformed local religious traditions and histories. In Fiji and other …

During the Azusa Street Revival of the early 20th century, single white women embarked on one-way journeys to parts of the globe that were largely unknown to most of them. These women …

A recent Pew Research Center report on global Christianity provided comprehensive data to support a conclusion that many social scientists have drawn from piecemeal studies over the past decade: the Christian movements …

This post originally appeared on Trans-Missions, the USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion site. At the beginning of Black History month we were greeted with tragic news: Don Cornelius, the founder …

An old axiom among social scientists who study renewalist movements goes: “Pentecostals and Charismatics don’t engage in civic projects; they are the projects.” While this odd pairing of spiritual dynamism and disengagement …

Among many American scholars, the standard narrative about Pentecostalism is that contemporary global expressions of the movement trace their roots to Los Angeles and the Azusa Street Revival in the first decade …

Over the past four decades, the cultural kaleidoscope that is L.A.’s East Side has shifted around Randy Carillo. Meanwhile, he says, his faith has remained steadily rooted in the ecumenical evangelicalism of …

“I was a good kid who did something very bad,” says Cornell Ward. Though Ward was raised during hard times in South Central by a single mother whose restless ways meant Ward …

Not long ago, Lydia Hollie’s nephew, a young veteran of the war in Iraq, was stopped by the police in central Long Beach. “Are you on probation or parole?” one of the …

Keith Johnson grew up just a couple of miles from the park that serves as the training center for the Southern California Falcons Youth Football and Cheer Program, which he founded in …

Los Angeles has been regarded as the epicenter of the nation’s gang epidemic for decades. What began as relatively localized battles over turf and small-scale drug sales in L.A. has morphed into …

Equipped with a more in-depth understanding of the social ecology of neighborhoods impacted by gang violence, we determined our objectives: Equip congregations with skills to address gang issues Deepen theological frameworks to …

While it might be tempting to focus exclusively on the assets of religion in addressing community violence issues, and there are many, we believe that a practical approach of providing training and …

Going Beyond the Walls Many participants in the program commented on the role of the church in the community. While some churches are inspired to work on issues such as gang violence …

Through the process of interacting with pastors and ministry leaders around the issue of gang violence, we realized that technical assistance relating to organizational capacity issues was an important aspect of increasing …