Pastor Stories

A Surprise Legal Victory Ensures a Montana Church's Religious Freedom

Sometimes, a legal win seems as "big" for the court it comes from as it does for the victory itself.

Read Full Story

San Diego relents after restricting ministries' homeless 'feeding' to cage

The San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation abandoned a proposed program Thursday which would have required a homeless outreach, after several years of serving the poor at Mission Bay Park, to relocate to a dirt lot with a cramped, fenced-in area resembling a cage.

Read Full Story

Tax-exempt status safe for Ramsey County church

Two Alliance Defense Fund allied attorneys have succeeded in obtaining a settlement on behalf of a Ramsey County church once under threat of losing its tax-exempt status along with nearly 800 other churches and related organizations in the county.

Read Full Story

One Pastor’s Courageous Stand to Support Faith-Based Groups and Save Marriages

It was a dream of mine to have an organization devoted solely to saving broken marriages. After spending 25 years as an ordained minister, I took the first steps toward realizing that dream by starting the Northwest Marriage Institute in 2004.

Read Full Story

Fighting the IRS for Control of the Pulpit

I am pastor of Warroad Community Church in Warroad, Minnesota – six miles from the Canadian border. I have always had a passion for preaching the Gospel...

Read Full Story

Changing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Would Harm Liberty

Chaplain Richard R. Young's Story

Read Full Story

Chaplains Standing For The Truth

We cannot be silent as we watch a minority in our culture seek to force something onto those that serve so faithfully in our Nation’s military which will be destructive to all of the values that we hold dear.

Read Full Story

Clear And Present Danger To First Amendment Freedom

Chaplains have embodied the very essence of the First Amendment since the founding of our republic, proactively ensuring the free exercise of religion for all, not just their sending denominations.

Read Full Story

Why is Shirley Dobson Smiling?

A federal lawsuit can't shake her faith in religious liberty

Read Full Story

The Rush to Repeal DADT and Obamacare

In America, we enjoy both the best healthcare and the best military in the world. Politicians have endangered the best healthcare in the world. And now they seek to endanger the best disciplined, highest morale, all volunteer military in the world.

Read Full Story

Young Church Stands Up for Religious Liberty

We were a new church, renting a large room at the local community college one time a month for 5 months as we started our services. Once we moved to weekly services we were told we would no longer be able to use their facilities...

Read Full Story

Our Pulpits Need Men Of Courage

Q & A with Rev. Dr. John Guest

Read Full Story

VA Hospital Provides Access for Chaplain Seeking to Pray

Hospital officials denied Martin Colburn, a Christian chaplain, from visiting patients who asked to meet with him.

Read Full Story

Making Waves

For most ministers, accepting a position at Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association would have been easy.

Read Full Story

Court order to purge religious displays from part of church-run store reversed

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has reversed a federal judge’s order to remove all religious displays from a church-run contract postal unit in Manchester, Conn.

Read Full Story

Mich. town settles lawsuit, lifts discriminatory rental fees on church

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys secured a settlement Tuesday with the village of Fife Lake on behalf of Forest Area Bible Church, which will no longer be forced to pay discriminatory rental fees to use the village’s municipal building.

Read Full Story

Texas Supreme Court rules unanimously in favor of prison ministry

The Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of a ministry to former prison inmates Friday, determining that zoning regulations passed by the city of Sinton to oust the ministry from town violate the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Read Full Story

Court: Calif. library can’t ban meetings it labels 'religious services'

A federal judge ruled Friday that Contra Costa County officials can no longer prohibit a Christian ministry from accessing Antioch Branch Library public meeting rooms just because government employees consider its scheduled activities to be "religious services."

Read Full Story

San Diego County apologizes for ordering stop to home Bible study

San Diego County officials agreed Wednesday to rescind a cease-and-desist order issued to a pastor holding a small Bible study in his home.

Read Full Story

Atlanta to lift unconstitutional ordinance, reviving beleaguered church

The Alliance Defense Fund and allied attorneys secured a consent order and partial dismissal Thursday on behalf of Kingdom First Ministries in a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta, which has entered into a settlement with the church.

Read Full Story

Achieving Equal Access for Southern California Churches

Four years ago, Canyon Ridge Baptist Church had made its “home” in a 1,200 square-foot patch of rented space in the Kearny Mesa Recreation Center in San Diego, California. But tensions were growing with the City of San Diego, which owned the Recreation Center.

Read Full Story

Clean sweep for NY church in settlement with Broome Community College

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have reached a favorable settlement agreement with Broome Community College on behalf of North Pointe Church, which is now allowed equal access to campus facilities after being told it was no longer permitted to meet on campus.

Read Full Story

City Of Pensacola Relents, Public Park Now Open For Church Picnics

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys reached a settlement agreement with the city of Pensacola on behalf of St. Faustina Old Catholic Church, freeing it to hold church picnics once again at Plaza Ferdinand VII, a popular historic park in downtown Pensacola.

Read Full Story

Church Plant denied access to Community Center in CA

My name is Ralph Lopez and I pastor a small church plant named Refinery Christian Fellowship. We’re in Pt. Richmond, Contra Costa County, California.

Read Full Story