Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
When Churches Forget What it Means to be Sent
"Missional" is a bit of a buzzword these days in Christian thinking circles, as churches struggle with what it means to be "the church" in the 21st century. For sure, Christ wasn't mincing words when he spoke the Great...
July 13, 2017
Evangelical Leaders Lay Hands On, Pray for Trump in Oval Office (CNN) Evangelical Leader Notes Some Conservatives are Worried About Donald Trump’s Campaign Ties to Russia (CNN) Speaking on Christian Broadcasting...
Virtual Tourism
In the following posts I offer "virtual visitors" a chance to travel along with Susan and me as we visit new places, learn new things, and experience cultures other than our own. I will try to make them more...
Profiles in Goodwill: Lynn Green
Lynn Green is general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. 1. Where did you grow up? The historic town of Winchester in the United Kingdom. 2. What is your favorite verse, book or story in the Bible? Why?...
Taking the Temperature of Churches’ Bivocational Interest
Consultants and commentators have been pushing churches and ministers to consider bivocational ministry in light of shrinking budgets, bulky campuses, dry baptismal pools, aging congregants and emptying pews....
Churches, Religious Groups Most Highly Regarded Institutions
Churches and religious organizations are the most highly regarded among U.S. institutions, according to the Pew Research Center. Fifty-nine percent of U.S. adults hold a positive view of faith-based institutions. This...
July 12, 2017
The Athletes Turning to Prayer for a Performance Boost (Outside Magazine) Missouri Baptist Named State Supreme Court Chief Justice (Pathway) Bikini Begone: Conservative Christian Modesty at the Beach (RNS) Africa: The...
My Journey to Answer the Call to Bivocational Ministry
My decision to enter divinity school was long in the making. So long, in fact, that before I decided to do it, my legal career was well into double-digit years. In addition, at that point in my life, Amy (my wife) and...
6 Ways You Can Make Your Church Irrelevant
Politics doesn't drive culture but is an expression of cultural change. With that point of view, we can easily observe that American culture is in a season of great flux. Familiar political categories are...
Why We See Our Group as More Diverse Than Others
My research on the anti-trafficking movement in Thailand primarily tracked U.S. Christian networks. As I suspected, the many missionaries and humanitarians I interviewed represented remarkable diversity. Some,...
July 11, 2017
Human Rights and Religious Liberty Advocate Elected to Lead Baptist World Alliance (Baptist News Global) Texas Baptists Committed to Cease Operations (Baptist Standard) Majority of Republicans Think Colleges Are Bad...
Thanks, Tony, for 10 great years!
By John D. Pierce Though both Georgia boys who attended seminary at the same time and place, Tony Cartledge and I didn’t get acquainted until we both backed into second or third careers. (Tony taught school briefly...
Global Baptists Promote Religious Liberty Concerns
Baptists from nearly 50 nations focused on religious liberty concerns in multiple nations during the annual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance in Bangkok, Thailand, the first week of July. Through resolutions,...
Bivocational Leaders Are Vital in China’s Sichuan Province
Accurate statistics for how many Christians there are in China are hard to come by. Estimates vary widely from the official number of 40 million to unofficial estimates of more than 100 million. Regardless of the...
An Unflinching Voice Speaking to a Greedy Culture
Among my many books, and settled on my many shelves, are a number of writers whose work is a balm in Gilead - a tonic for the creeping weariness of spirits jaded by a world too much in our faces. Isaiah wrote some of...
July 10, 2017
Samford University Won’t Accept Baptist Convention Funds After LGBT Flap (AL.com) Analysis: The Racial and Religious Paranoia of Trump’s Warsaw Speech (The Atlantic) Virginia KKK Rally Outnumbered by Counterprotesters...
How Fundamentalism can end up mean — and why knowing so is important
By John D. Pierce Fundamentalism involves attitudes and resulting behaviors as well as beliefs. That most-helpful insight was clarified for me years ago when reading the thorough and thoughtful theological treatment of...
BWA Annual Gathering 2017 Highlights
During its 2017 Annual Gathering, held July 3-7 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Baptist World Alliance: HONORED Neville Callam of Jamaica for his ten years of service as General Secretary of the BWA. Callam was elected at...
5 Challenges for Churches Shifting to Bivocational Ministry
I served as the bivocational pastor of a church in my hometown for 20 years. After being called as a resource minister with the American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky, I worked with numerous bivocational...
‘Baby Driver’
Once upon a time, movies were not about comic book characters filled with CGI and plots that revolved around some entity going to take over the world. Movies once only needed a guy with a car and a girl. The movie was...
Global Baptists Gather in Thailand for BWA Gathering
About 300 Baptists from nearly 50 nations trekked to Bangkok, Thailand, this week for the annual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance. Meeting in a predominately Buddhist nation, global Baptist leaders learned from...