Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Grieving Over the Loss of Phil Lineberger
I found out early Monday morning that Phil Lineberger, pastor of Sugar Land Baptist Church in Sugar Land, Texas, had passed away. Such news caused me to reflect on his life and my own aging process. One of the things...
Ethics Luncheon Will Get Peek at Forthcoming Documentary, Recognize Baptist Leader
Ethics luncheon attendees will get an early preview of a new documentary - an untold story - about missionaries during a time of genocide in Nigeria in 1966. Based on interviews with missionaries and missionary...
June 3, 2015
One Vision: Two Baptist Churches Merging to Focus Ministry (Chattanooga Times Free Press) Evangelical Leaders Give Fallen Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll a New Forum (Seattle Times) Bible Teacher's Ouster from Kalamazoo...
Finding a Better Path to Respond to Migrant Crisis
Migrants desperate to escape violence and persecution and who want to seek a better life are being exploited by smugglers and traffickers. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime makes a distinction between human...
Making the Poor Part of Our Lives – Part 1
In the parable of "the rich man and Lazarus" (Luke 16:19-31), Jesus describes a scene where the poor man, Lazarus, now in heaven by Abraham's side, looks over the chasm at the rich man who now stands in the flames of...
Ukrainian Pastor Speaks of Hope Amid War
A Baptist pastor from eastern Ukraine sees God at work in his country even after the destruction of his church by pro-Russian separatists. Over the past two weeks, Elisey Pronin has spoken at several Baptist churches...
June 2, 2015
Justices Rule for Muslim Denied Job Over Head Scarf (Fox News) Supreme Court Sides With Muslim Woman in Hijab Dispute (Baptist News Global) West Virginia Man Sues Education Officials for Teaching His Daughter...
Unburied treasure
I recently had a chance to visit the North Carolina Baptist Assembly at Caswell and write a story about it for Baptists Today's June issue. Space is always limited in the print edition, so some of the material had to...
2 Important Skills for Church Leaders
The late journalist David Carr experienced a fits-and-starts, zig-zagging journey from more than a decade of drug addiction, broken relationships and personal shame to sobriety, a stable and loving family life, a...
Fracking Debate Needs Balance and Sanity
Some of the arguments about fracking are foolish. Earthquakes and carcinogens in the water supply, the closure of major petro-chemical plants, and no gas for our central heating systems reflect the agendas of...
June 1, 2015
One Church's Sunset Means a New Day for Another (Washington Post) Hastert Name Dropped From Wheaton College Public Policy Center (Chicago Sun-Times) Justice Film Fest Comes to Town, Low-Key on Evangelical Leanings...
Nicknames
By John Pierce During a camping trip when we were teens, my best friend Dale peeled a bright orange, oval label from the package of meat we were about to grill and pressed it to his forehead. It simply read, “GROUND...
Learning About Authority While Flying Without Engines
I am learning to fly sailplanes. It is a fine hobby for someone who enjoys an adrenaline rush. I feel like a little kid, a 48-year-old kid, when I am coming in on final approach and know that there is no throttle which...
Global Food Insecurity Decreases, Millions Still Undernourished
The global population considered food insecure has declined by 167 million since 2005 and by 216 million since 1992, according to a new report issued by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the...
Baptists Ready to Respond to East African Nation’s Unrest
Baptists in Burundi have expressed grave concern as to the state of unrest in the East African country. The unrest began in late April after Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would run for a third term...
May 29, 2015
Top Auction Bidder for Family Christian Stores Will Keep Stores Open (Michigan Live) Glendive, Mont., Students to no Longer Visit Creationist Museum (Grand Forks Herald, ND) Hillary Clinton Calls Bible 'The Living...
3 Questions That Saved My Spiritual Life
I was nearly done, making me almost a "done" (previously very active church leaders who quit church in frustration). Between 2005 and 2006, our family experienced the perfect storm of trying circumstances. Chronic...
How Your Church is Like a Coffeemaker Factory
Usually, before I go to bed at night, I make coffee, or maybe I should say I get my coffeemaker ready to make coffee. I empty the carafe, rinse it and put it in place. I grind the beans and measure them into the...
Faith and Identity: Minorities in Constant Flux – Part 2
Stories from two different ethnic minorities in the Arab Muslim world - the Kurds and the Algerian Amazigh (historically known as the Berbers) - provide insight into faith and social identity. I spoke with a young...
May 28, 2015
Volunteers From Across US Show Up to Help San Marcos Flood Victims (KXAN, TX) Why More Young Women Than Ever Before are Skipping Church (Washington Post) Dispute Over MLK Bible, Nobel Prize Headed for Mediation (ABC...
Faith and Identity: Minorities in Constant Flux – Part 1
Western academia is filled with research on the effects of a colonialist, imperialistic Christianity and its intersection with modern identities. As my colleague Jesse Wheeler alluded to recently, from the native...