Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Learning to Give with the Heart of a Child
I made a grown man cry. No, I didn't stand on his toes. Nor did I fold up a map the wrong way in front of him or bump his car with mine. All I did was tell him a story. Perhaps I should explain. I was recently at a...
Pro-Russian Separatists Target Ukrainian Christians
Pro-Russian separatists are increasingly targeting evangelical Christians in eastern Ukraine—beating, torturing and even killing them. Such has been the escalation of attacks in recent months in the Donetsk and Luhansk...
August 5, 2014
This Baptist Charity is Being Paid Hundreds of Millions to Shelter Child Migrants (TIME) Orlando Drops Church Lawsuit, Moving MLS Stadium (ABC News) Why Artists Want to Preserve Church Tied to L.A. Church's Chicano...
5 Ways to Slow Down Ministry’s Revolving Door
I spoke at a youth retreat recently, during which students acted out skits they made up. Again and again, students walked up and impersonated a caricature of one of their former youth ministers. "Do you see what's...
Ministry Helps Syrian Children Continue Education
"I don't want to go to school!" Do you remember saying that? Or do you have a child who regularly utters it? In Lebanon, the opposite is the case. Children who have escaped from the bloody conflict in Syria have a 20...
More Churches Call Bivocational Ministers
A story about a seminary-trained pastor who had applied to nearly 100 churches and was unable to find a position as a fully funded pastor was prominent on social media recently. He asked a question that many recent...
August 4, 1862
Liberian Pastor Speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church (11 Alive Atlanta) Christian Evangelicals Show Muscle on Israel (Washington Post) Iraqi Christians 'Should be Offered Asylum in U.K.' - Bishop (BBC) Brazil: As...
The little yard of horrors?
Remember "The Little Shop of Horrors," an off-broadway play and movie in which a florist's assistant named Seymour crosses a Venus Fly Trap with a butterwort plant and gets a hybrid so large that it starts eating...
What Fuels Your Motivation to Live Out the Gospel?
Sometimes everything can seem right on the surface while, deep down, nothing is right at all. We see this, for example, in the famous parable about the prodigal son and his older brother. By every outward appearance,...
Passion, Realism Necessary in Working for Social Justice
A fervent desire for social justice exists today among many Christians, but realism about the extent to which change can happen is often lacking. To address this issue two things are required. First, an inspiring call...
August 1, 2014
Property of University Baptist Church, Abilene, Up for Sale (KTXS) Former Members Protest Mars Hill Church, Pastors Rant Revealed (KIRO TV) No, Christians Should Not Believe in 'Left Behind's' Rapture Theology, Says...
Straightening Out a Crooked Life
A sermon by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo. The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Genesis 29:15-28 July 27, 2014 Psalm 105:1-11, 45b; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52; Romans 8:26-39 History...
All in the Family
A sermon by Bob Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. July 27, 2014 Genesis 29:15-28 This morning our attention is drawn to one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible. His name was Jacob, the...
Heart Surgery
A sermon by Bob Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. July 20, 2014 Psalm 139:1-12; 23-24 Our attention this morning is drawn to a passage which is difficult to classify. Is it a prayer, a poem or a...
Let’s see what you’ve got …
The Baptist Today website, newly remodeled less than a year ago, has some new features that many readers have yet to discover, so I want to point out two of them. The first is a "Weekly Photo," a picture of the week...
Prayer, Action Needed in Response to Ebola Virus Outbreak
Baptist World Alliance leader Olu Menjay issued an urgent call for prayer about the spreading Ebola virus in West Africa, underscoring the deaths of more than 600 people mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. "The...
Global Religious Persecution and Displacement High in 2013
Displacement of religious communities reached record heights in 2013. Persecution, violence and imprisonment resulting either from government-sanctioned action or sectarian violence impacted numerous religious...
Churches Divest from Companies Feeding Violence
The pictures of Israeli civilians watching and cheering from a hilltop at the heart-rending massacre of people in Gaza by tanks and aircraft are chilling. Gaza is neither a state nor a country. It has no army....
Ruminations from Three Days in Rural Alabama, Mississippi
Remote is a good word to describe the Aliceville Federal Correctional Institution, a prison for women located in rural Alabama. Some 55 miles west of Tuscaloosa and 35 miles east of Columbus, Mississippi, the prison is...
July 30, 2014
In Church Attics, Private Life of Early America (New York Times) Friendship Baptist Church Makes Way for New Atlanta Falcons Stadium (Atlanta Journal Constitution) In Bible Belt, Gay Marriage Rights Increasingly in...
3 Reasons Church “Cannibalism” Erodes God’s Kingdom
There are churches in America who regularly move into a new locale, set up a "site" complete with video screen, staff, an array of religious goods and services, a massive children's ministry and worship band, and then...