The Final Service

A  church in decline tries to reinvent itself, and its young members struggle with how to talk about Christianity. The Final Service is written and produced by Mateo Schimpf with additional writing and reporting from Ray Suarez. It's edited by Jarrod Sport with production support from Elize Manoukian. It's made possibl

Julian Deshazier is a rapper and a pastor. That sounds like it would be appealing to kids from his old neighborhood on the South Side. But getting them to show up to church on Sundays isn't easy. The Final Service is written and produced by Mateo Schimpf with additional writing and reporting from Ray Suarez. It's edite

Christian Allyn is proud to be Lithuanian. So when he found out that the archbishop was going to close his Lithuanian church in Waterbury, Connecticut, he decided to step in. Can his appeal save St. Joseph’s Church? The Final Service is written and produced by Mateo Schimpf with additional writing and reporting from Ra

This is the first chapter in a four-part series about church closures in America. Lorraine Pacheco is the caretaker for a tiny church in an even tinier town in the eastern plains of New Mexico. As she gets older and her congregation shrinks, she’s starting to wonder if it will survive after she’s gone. The Final Servic

Notice anything about churches in America? In a lot of place they're boarded up. Converted to some other use. Or just abandoned. Reporters Mateo Schimpf and Ray Suarez go on a journey to find out why so many churches are closing, and whether pastors can do anything to save them.

One theme was consistent throughout this election year: the assertion that democracy was under threat. Throughout the year, Jonathan Rauch weighed in on whether democracy is waning, and how the Republican party could build a future without Trumpism. Jonathan Rauch joins Ray Suarez to discuss Trump's reelection, and how