The following articles have been selected because they are informative, instructive, entertaining, or simply interesting. Articles appearing in Your Friday Five do not represent an endorsement.

How Churches Can Address a Growing Suicide Threat in Young Adults, By Y Bonesteele

Our bodies are holy temples (1 Cor. 6:19). It would make sense as believers to take care of it. Whether it’s drugs, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, food, or anything consumed, we should always be mindful of its effects on us.

How Should the Church Use Its Freedom?, By David Platt

We do not gather on Sunday, even during the week of July 4th, to celebrate our U.S. citizenship. That’s not what the church does, because that’s not who the church is. 

125 Baptist high school students kidnapped in Nigeria, By Diana Chandler

KADUNA, Nigeria (BP) – About 125 students kidnapped from a Baptist church school in northern Nigeria are especially in danger because of their Christianity and the unwillingness of local authorities to pay a ransom, a leading persecution watchdog group told Baptist Press.

9 Ways a Church Can Hospitably Host a Guest Speaker, By Darren Carlson

One of the great honors of my ministry is opportunities to preach across the United States. I’ve been privileged to visit all kinds of churches with varying assumptions and convictions on how Sunday morning should run. I’ve preached to thousands and to 15. I’ve preached through sound-system failures and complete electrical failures with phones lighting the worship center.

Survey: White mainline Protestants outnumber white evangelicals, while ‘nones’ shrink, By Jack Jenkins

(RNS) — White Christian decline has slowed. Mainline Protestants now outnumber white evangelicals. New York is home to several of the most religiously diverse counties in the U.S.