Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Wake Up! How to Know When Your Church Veers Off Course
You've probably been helped by a rumble strip – the series of grooved cuts in the pavement that rattles your car when you drift off the highway. The roar of the rumble strip is intended to jolt you awake or break...
Christian Hospitality Center Opens Doors at Sochi Olympics
The Christian Hospitality Center opened in Sochi on Feb. 7 with a ribbon-cutting by church leaders Ivan Chehunov, Richard Page and Vladimir Samoilov before the Olympic Games. Page is the director of SOAR International...
Most Churches Welcome Anyone “ Except This Group
Luke 7:36-47 tells the story about Simon, a Pharisee who had invited Jesus to come and have dinner at his home. It appears that the meal was happening somewhere public because a woman of questionable character appeared...
It’s not that hard
All of us find some things hard to understand. Calculus, for instance, was difficult for me. I did fine until we got to imaginary numbers, and I couldn't imagine them. Other things are much simpler in concept, but...
National Strength Found in Unity and Diversity of Language
A Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial has caused something of a kerfuffle. Due to the amount of commentary that has appeared on Twitter since last Sunday, I would like to state my two main points right up front. First, I...
How Your Church Can Introduce Children to Lent
Each year I try to think of new ways I can incorporate the season of Lent into our activities at church. In the past, I have written Lenten curriculum for our Sunday school classes, incorporated Lenten practices into...
What I Learned While Inside Cook County Jail
During a wintery storm in Chicago and much of the eastern U.S., I experienced many flight cancellations, delays and missed flights. Amid that storm, I had the opportunity to visit the Cook County Jail with Jesse...
God’s Own Fool
A sermon by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, University Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Va. February 2, 2014. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Several years back, columnist Dave Barry listed “Sixteen Things That It Took Me over Fifty...
The Deepest Level of Love
A sermon by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. February 2, 2014 John 15:9-17 Communion Devotion This morning, our attention is drawn to the table which is before us. In a few moments, we’ll...
What Does God Want?
A sermon by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ar. February 2, 2014 Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12 It didn’t happen very often, but when it did it was not altogether a...
Upside Down and Inside Out
A sermon by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo. The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Matthew 5:1-12 February 2, 2014 Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15; I Corinthians 1:18-31 Things are seldom as they...
How “The Hunger Games” Society Isn’t Far from Our Own
I have been a fan of Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" trilogy for several years and have incorporated clips from the first movie into my ministry on a variety of occasions. In Collins' fictional dystopian future, the...
The Next Door “ Helping Women in Crisis
Our children, ages 10 and 7, have spent most of their childhood volunteering with my wife and me at The Next Door (TND), a Nashville-based ministry for women in crisis. TND began in 2003 as an outgrowth of First...
Does Your Church’s Music Reflect the Lenten Spirit?
The celebration of Easter is just around the corner. Lillies will populate the sanctuaries, crowds will fill the pews and trumpets will announce the most unthinkable news in human history. It is a day of victory and...
Differing Vantage Points Offer Insight, Illumination
Our daughter was in the midst of building a house on a hilltop near Clemson, S.C. As I flew south out of the Greenville-Spartanburg airport, I was able to spot her house from the plane. My husband and I spent much time...
Lent “ A Journey From Pew to Pulpit to the Cross
Perhaps the term “journey” is a bit overused nowadays, but I can find few better descriptions to speak of Lent, beyond the language of passage or sojourn. Each time I step behind the pulpit, I try to remember that I am...
One Way to Let Your Good Works Be Seen
How do we live out practically Jesus' words in Matthew 5:16? Remember those words in the Sermon of the Mount? They follow Jesus' words about how his followers are "the light of the world." Matthew 5:16 reads, "Let your...
Power Can Be Poison in Big and Little Doses
Recent waves of investigations and indictments of people in high places on global, national and even local scales remind us of Lord Acton's phrasing of the ancient concept – "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts...
State of the State Addresses Reveal Need for Prison Reform
A common theme in many State of the State addresses was prison reform and the role substance abuse plays in the number of incarcerated offenders. West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Democrat, said bipartisan prison...
Helping Your Church Catch Lent Requires Slow Effort
For Baptist churches following the liturgical worship calendar, Lent is a given. However, there are exponentially more pastors who, if they speak the word "Lent," will be greeted with resistance or even an...
Bibles among bagels survey
By John Pierce Two recent studies have stirred conversations about the most “Bible-minded” cities in the U.S. Topping the two lists are places where large chunks of my life have been spent: Chattanooga and Atlanta. The...