Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
When Churches Scapegoat: Ugly, Expensive, Unchristian
My colleague Bob Dale often asks me a simple question. "Bill, what are we hearing out there in the churches?" He knows that every week members of our Center for Healthy Churches' team are fanning out across the country...
20 Percent of Children in High-Income Nations Live in Poverty
A significant number of children in high-income nations are impoverished and experiencing food insecurity. The U.N. analyzed 41 nations it identified as "high income" that are part of the European Union and the...
June 21, 2017
Evangelical Leaders Push for Criminal Justice Reform (RNS) Christians Across the Political Spectrum Oppose Cuts to the Poor in Trump’s Budget (Sojourners) Four Colorado Springs Churches Align to Safeguard Immigrants...
Tools of the trade
An archaeological expedition requires a number of things, beginning with a promising site (and permission to dig it), qualified directors, a strong staff, a bevy of volunteers (here known as team members) willing to...
The Danger of Putting Me-First in the Driver’s Seat
Applying the imperative, "Love your neighbor as yourself," is central in Christian ethics. It draws directly on Jesus' teachings (see, for example, Matthew 22:36-40), which draw directly on the Hebrew Scriptures (see,...
6 Ways You Can Reduce Pastoral Vulnerability
There seems to be an increased sense of vulnerability in the pastoral community. Not the courageous choice to share one's challenges and struggles in appropriate and mission congruent ways, but the experience of being...
Evangelicals and Baptists Share DNA But Aren’t Same
Before we can discover whether all Baptists must always be card-carrying evangelicals, we must first define what evangelical means. David Bebbington's 1988 book, "Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History," offers...
June 20, 2017
Summertime Church Pew Blues (WLTX, SC) Ken Ham Disputes Reports the Ark Encounter is Sinking (RNS) Indiana Christian School at Center of LGBT Voucher Debate (Indianapolis Star) Religious Liberals Sat Out of Politics...
When Rhetoric Spawns Violence, Time for Mirror Check
I received a notification on my iPad as I was getting ready to face the day last Wednesday - A gunman had attacked a group of Republican congressional representatives. Soon after, a friend with whom I have often...
Which Comes First? Church, Mission or Discipleship
It seems that in some current literature and discussions, there is something of a competition as to which should be placed first: church, mission or discipleship. In this competition the order is important because that...
Gallup: U.S. Support of Euthanasia Near Record Levels
Seventy-three percent of U.S. adults believe euthanasia should be legal for terminally ill patients, according to a Gallup survey, and 67 percent said doctor-assisted suicide should be legal for terminally ill...
June 19, 2017
9/11 Memorial Architect to Design Charleston Church Memorial (CBS News) Police: Vandals Spray Painted Satanic Graffiti On Suffolk County Black Churches (CBS New York) Southern Baptists Reject LGBT’s ‘Homosexuality is...
Getting oriented
Our first day of participation in the Jezreel Expedition involved no digging, but lots of orientation. The 2017 dig began two weeks ago, and has two weeks to go. The ancient city of Jezreel sits on a high knoll among...
Not your ordinary day …
What do you do with a day in the Old City of Jerusalem when the sites you want to see are closed? While waiting to meet up with the team we'll be joining to dig in Jezreel, Susan and I had a free day in Jerusalem. How...
Confession is hard, rare and needed
By John D. Pierce The trauma on Capitol Hill is fresh and real. One can appreciate how rattled lawmakers have rallied around the oft-foreign notion that those of the opposing party are patriotic Americans with just...
How My Father Helped My Ministry Blossom
I often remark to my church about how fortunate I am to have parents who work in my field. The advantages are obvious: "talking shop" all the time, unlimited advice, understanding of the ins and outs of ministry, even...
‘It Comes at Night’
"It Comes at Night" is a movie that defies classification. It has been called a horror movie, but that is not what it truly is. It is something more. The movie opens with a very sick older man. Boils cover his...
New Leader Looks Forward to American Baptists’ Future
Missions work. Millennials' spiritual hunger. Diversity of congregations. These are some of the denomination's bright lights for Lee B. Spitzer, the new general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA. Spitzer,...
June 16, 2017
Arlington Pastor McKissic a Winner After Southern Baptists Condemn White Racist ‘Alt-Right’ (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) White Supremacy and Racism are ‘Anti-Christ,’ Russell Moore Tells Southern Baptists (Christian...
How Your Church Can Be Kind on Father’s Day
Do you think your church is kind on Father's Day? Most of us would say, yes, of course! Yet, for men who long to be fathers and are not, for any who have a difficult relationship with their biological fathers, or those...
No Neutral Position on Creation Care for Christians
A wire sculpture sits above the harbor at Portsoy in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The graceful lines of a dolphin leaping toward the sea is a powerful and poignant symbol of life that is wild, untamed, beautiful and...