Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Helping Church Leaders Recover from Leadership Scars
In her work on the surprising power of vulnerability, Brene Brown identified shame as a primary source of our resistance to the risk of wholehearted openness, the kind of emotional and spiritual openness, which can...
Observing Anew the Fragility of Creation
I have taken notice of the subtle shifts in environment since I was last in the mountains of northern New Mexico during a recent weeklong Sabbath observance. Some may say that five years is much too short a time to...
What Your Church Can Learn from Twitter
"You should really try Twitter, Elizabeth. It's a good networking tool for the church." Such were the words from a communications professional friend. In 2008, they fell on my deaf ears. My distant impression of...
August 14, 2015
Alabama Church Opens Gun Range Behind Church (United Press International) Colorado Court Sides Against Baker Who Cited Religious Beliefs, Refused Same-Sex Marriage Cake Order (Washington Post) Federal Judge Orders...
Why Worship Must Make Room for All Our Feelings
In Disney-Pixar's latest release, "Inside Out," the main characters are Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness, the personified emotions of an 11-year-old girl named Riley. The majority of the story takes place inside...
Planned Parenthood and Our Culture’s Disrespect for Life
For two weeks in July, I traveled with a bunch of Baptists across South Africa for a mission experience followed up with a global gathering of Baptists - the 21st Baptist World Congress of the Baptist World Alliance....
Heading for 25th Anniversary with Accomplishments, Shortcomings
No mention of documentaries. No comment about broadcast TV. No reference to websites. No word about the Internet. No suggestion about networking with global Baptists. No note about race relations. No word about...
August 13, 2015
Jimmy Carter Says He Has Cancer, Revealed by Recent Surgery (ABC News) 20,000 Could Attend National Baptist Convention in Memphis (Commercial Appeal) Laotian Baptists Give Back to Place They Fled (Dallas Morning News)...
Buddy check!
By John Pierce On a recent hot, humid day — and we’ve had weeks of them this summer — my daughter Abigail was chilling in the pool. Approaching, I called out: “BUDDY CHECK! BUDDY CHECK!” She gave me that familiar “my...
Why Microfinance Industry is Under Microscope
It seems the tide has turned on microfinance, and the assumption that small loans miraculously alleviate poverty is increasingly treated with skepticism. Greeks are making similar discoveries regarding large loans. I...
Whatever Happened to the Christian Mind? Part 2
Many Christians, including university professors at Christian universities, confuse popular culture with the Christian story. When I taught Christian theology (mostly historical theology) at an evangelical Christian...
Like Docked Ship, Some Christians Safe But Not Sound
We use the phrase, "safe and sound," often enough that it's easy to think that the two words are almost synonymous and that the distinction is a matter of nuance. But it's not. Someone once illustrated the difference....
August 12, 2015
Second Amendment Advocate: Banning Guns is Like Banning the Bible in Favor of Satan Books (Raw Story) Family Christian Stays Open, $127 Million in Debt Erased (Christianity Today) Gay Scout Leader Rejected by Ky....
Whatever Happened to the Christian Mind? Part 1
Whatever happened to the Christian mind? This has been asked numerous times and by many Christian philosophers and theologians. A relatively recent classic on the subject is Mark Noll's "The Scandal of the Evangelical...
Real Interfaith Commitment – More Doing, Less Talking
I have been "evangelized" both by well-meaning Muslims doing "da'wah" (Arabic for "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation") and Christians who made assumptions about my relationship with Jesus. One Muslim wanted...
Modeling Civility During Election Season
GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has become another casualty in the 24/7 news cycle that simultaneously feeds and fashions a society that stands ever-ready to denounce and shame public figures. He was asked at a...
August 11, 2015
State of Emergency Called in Ferguson After Gunfire Mars Protests (Reuters) Belief in God Really Does Make You Feel Better, Study Suggests (New York Post) Court Ruling Denies Catholic Groups Contraceptive Care Coverage...
Baptists in Poland: 90 Churches, 5,000-Plus Members
The Baptist movement in Poland is nearly 160 years old. Its origins date to the activity of Johann Gerhard Oncken from Hamburg, Germany, who, in the middle of the 19th century, had planted the congregations among the...
4 Elements of Genuine Worship
Isaiah 6 is known by biblical scholars as a theophany - an appearance of God. Isaiah, in the presence of God, is confronted with not only who God is, but with who he is in relation to God. The scene defines for us what...
Why Many in Church Must Shed Prejudice of Immigrants
Early followers of Jesus quickly discovered the Spirit was leading them beyond their religious, ethnic, social, economic and political limits to reach strangers with the gospel. They grasped that faithful participation...
August 10, 2015
God Using Donald Trump to Wake Up America, Says Christian Faith Speaker (Christian Today) A Bible and a Gun: 3 Pastors Who've Taken Up Firearms Since the Charleston Shooting (NewsMax) City of Jonesboro Removes Bible...