WASHINGTON (RNS) A day after ordering a host of changes to the White House's faith-based office, President Obama is facing mounting criticism for keeping in place Bush-era policies that allow faith-based social service providers to hire and fire based on religion.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers on Thursday (Nov. 18) voiced frustration that he has yet to hear administration plans to change those policies. He and other lawmakers were disappointed that no White House officials attended a subcommittee hearing on the faith-based office.

Most megachurches continue to see attendance and giving rise, and the bigger the church is, the more likely it is to experience increases, Leadership Network reported in its 2010 Large Church Economic Outlook Report.

Survey results indicate that the economic downturn is having little impact on America's larger churches. One hundred percent of churches with 8,000 or more attendees experienced growth in attendance and giving from 2009 to 2010. And all surveyed churches with attendance of 10,000 to 14,999 plan to reach this year's budget projections.

Pastor Craig Groeschel is a recovering Christian atheist. He may have called himself a Christian all his life, but he didn't always live as if God existed.

It's a struggle he's had both as a layman and as a pastor, of one of the fastest growing and largest churches in the country. And it's a struggle he wants to help millions of so-called Christians to overcome.

Christian atheists are everywhere, Groeschel, who leads LifeChurch.tv, writes in his newly released book, The Christian Atheist.

As the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks against the U.S. approaches, one Florida church is planning to hold "International Burn a Quran Day."

Evangelical bodies across the country are urging the Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida, to cancel their plans to burn Islam's holiest book.

Senior Pastor Dr. Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center said in an interview with the Christian Post, "We only did it because we felt there needed to be an outcry against Islam, because Islam is presenting itself as a religion of peace."

Thanks to discussions between a priest and a minor league baseball team official, the Kane County Cougars of the Class A Midwest League hosted a Catholic Mass before a Friday baseball game earlier this month, reports Catholic News Agency.

The Cougars of the Class A Midwest League, a team affiliated with the Oakland Athletics, organized the Mass at their baseball field in the Chicago suburb of Geneva.

The liturgy began at 5:30 p.m. and Mass attendees were required to have a ticket for the game. The July 16 event, which was billed as “Mass on the Grass,” drew participants from 14 area churches.