A Catholic church in St. Paul, Minnesota, that closed last year has reopened its doors as a mosque.

The 127-year-old Church of St. John closed in 2013 when it merged with another church due to declining membership. Last Friday the building reopened as Darul-Uloom Islamic Center.

"There are a lot of East Africans in the area, and we want to give them a place to worship, a place to be educated, a community space," center spokesman Feisal M. Elmi told The Associated Press. more >>

In the second part of The Christian Post's interview with McKrae Game, president and founder of Hope for Wholeness, the ordained Southern Baptist minister explains why people should stop using the term "gay Christian" and how his organization differs from Exodus International, which closed last year after serving people with unwanted same-sex attraction for 37 years. Game, who left the homosexual lifestyle, also acknowledges that he is living in "denial," though he defines the term differently. Part one of the interview can be read here.

CP: Let's talk about the term "gay Christian." How do you feel about it, and is there a better term that we should be using?

Game: I do not like the term. I'm not a person who is politically correct. I don't say things to try and make people like me or anything like that. But I read the book Washed and Waiting by Wesley Hill to try and understand these growing groups of people — I'm obviously not one of them — who call themselves gay Christians. more >>

A Wiccan man from Huntsville, Alabama, was uninvited from delivering the opening invocation at a City Council chamber meeting after community members reportedly expressed concerns about his religion.

"I gave the invocation earlier this year, at the time they did not ask me what my faith affiliation was, but when they did this time and I told them 'Wiccan,' I was told I was no longer invited to give it," Blake Kirk told WHNT News 19 Thursday night.

"It is not right, the city can not pick and choose what faiths they want to support and allow to speak and give the prayer," he added. more >>

Hispanic evangelical leader the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who co-leads perhaps the largest evangelical network in the world as the result of the recent merger of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Conela, a Latin America-based organization that serves more than 487,000 Latin churches globally, says the new association doesn't accept the premise that Christianity is spiraling downward.

"We are not drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid that Christianity is in decline, that this is the last hour of the Christian global narrative in a significant matter," Rodriguez told The Christian Post recently in an exclusive interview about the merger that took place on May 1. "We are not drinking the Kool-Aid. As a matter of fact, we have a very strong sense of optimism … we do believe the best is yet to come."

NHCLC/Conela, which is the new name of the group merge, has more than 500,000 churches and "may very well be the largest evangelical network in the world," said Rodriguez, who said he has tapped into current studies by researchers to come to his conclusions. more >>

Christians struggling with same-sex attraction and homosexuality are finding support in a nonprofit called Hope for Wholeness. The organization specializes in helping people with unwanted same-sex attraction to live Christ-centered lives.

Following the closure of Exodus International last June, McKrae Game, president and founder of Hope for Wholeness, and his team have continued to provide scriptural guidance and loving mentorship to Christians who are dealing with the sin of homosexuality.

Earlier this month, Hope for Wholeness hosted its first four-day conference in North Carolina called "Hope Rising" that was attended by 150 participants, including teenagers who were accompanied by their parents. more >>

Lucifer and young musicians share a similar problem when it comes to worshipping God through music, said Jentezen Franklin at The Vous Conference in Miami this past weekend.

"Lucifer had the same problem that a lot of people in this generation, especially musicians have. The problem is he wanted music to become the main thing in heaven," said Franklin, who leads megachurch Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, and Irvine, California. "Music, as great as it is, it's not the main thing if they (musicians) aren't pointing you to the one on the throne."

Franklin's message was the closing sermon for the three-day event on Saturday evening. The conference is hosted annually by Trinity Church pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr., who is famously known for officiating Kanye West's and Kim Kardashian's wedding. more >>