Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
6 Things Millennials Can Learn from Older Folks
Article after article has been written about how the church can reach millennials. Many of those articles make good points the church can and should incorporate; however, is anyone asking what millennials can learn...
What Difference Should Our Differences Make?
I have recently had an invitation to renew my car insurance online. The cost seems to be significantly higher this year. The email I received explained that this is because insurers in the United Kingdom can no longer...
Tut, tut
I couldn't help taking interest in recent news that Egypt's famous King Tutankhamun -- the boy king behind the solid gold death mask discovered by Howard Carter in 1922 -- had a really bad time of it both before and...
Do We Possess Our Possessions? Or Do They Own Us?
Our church has just entered into its annual stewardship season. I find it impossible to consider my own, personal stewardship without considering my relationship to "stuff." An honest Christian will have to admit that...
Baseball History Offers Lesson in Second Chances
It was a powerful, nonverbal symbol recognized by every player on the old New York Yankees baseball club during their successful 1956 season. When manager Casey Stengel wanted to signal the identity of the person he...
Supreme Court Case to Test Church-State Line
When the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gather today to hear oral arguments in a case on legislative prayers, it could lead to a new era of defining the First Amendment. The case, Town of Greece v. Galloway,...
House of Bacon
By John Pierce The Gospel Train carries me to church on Sunday mornings via satellite radio. The good picking turns exclusively to praising on the Bluegrass Junction channel for a few hours each Lord’s Day. My...
Chaplaincy Requires Courage to Tell the Truth
Pastoral Care Week is a time set aside by organizations and individuals around the world to recognize the contributions of professional chaplains and pastoral counselors. Each year, a different aspect of pastoral care...
Unrelenting Politics Erodes Collaboration, Empathy
There has been little rest for the politically weary since the 2012 election. A nation in full-time campaign mode, seeking constantly to win new converts to one's side, has made little time for cooperation. Perhaps...
Solving Hunger Will Require More Than Charity
Nothing reveals the upside-down nature of God's Kingdom quite as much as Jesus' response to the devil's temptations (see Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Satan offered Jesus a range of right-side-up options, straight out...
Playing to Win: Identifying Your Change Disposition
Navigating the whitewater of change seems to be the number-one challenge of our times. Trying to convince individuals, families, businesses and congregations that change is happening is like trying to convince the sun...
How Valuable Are the Missing People in Your Life?
A few nights ago, I was leaving the church rather late – about 8:30 p.m. or so. It had been a long day. I was tired and ready to get home to stare blankly at the television and think of nothing for a few minutes before...
Skin in the Game is Needed in Corporations, Churches, Even in Nation’s Capital
Warren Buffet reportedly coined the term "skin in the game," by which he meant that corporate executives showed their confidence in their company to outside investors if they had stock in it. If they had nothing to...
Tall boys and a tricky question
On Hallowe'en night I was buying gas near Aiken, South Carolina, and was deeply engrossed in washing my windshield when my peripheral vision caught a white mini-van coasting up to the adjoining pump. My attention was...
Maybe More Churches Need to Think Inside the Box
I sat in the audience mesmerized, listening to the speaker intently. About halfway through his talk, I began wondering if I had to walk a mile in his shoes, would I have persevered? Would I have stuck with it,...
God Often Shows Up After Dark. Are You Paying Attention?
A Christian funeral can be an act of beauty or a lesson in bad theology. It seems to be at funerals where we offer some of our cheapest theology in an effort to ease some temporary pain. Yet these words often have long...
Survey Notes Three Trends Shaping Information Age
A Barna survey found three trends shaping the information age: (1) a sense of life's increasing complexity, (2) staying informed by skimming content and (3) a desire for holistic integration of faith and life....
What’s Missing in Your Prayers
A sermon by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Kentucky October 27, 2013 Luke 18:9-14 This morning our attention is drawn to another parable recorded in Luke’s gospel. Luke seems to be as fond of...
Sinner’s Prayer
A sermon by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, University Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Va., on October 27, 2013. Luke 18:9-14 Imagine Jesus was here at UBC this morning, and imagine him telling this story: Once upon a time –...
Persistent Prayer
A sermon by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, University Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Va., on October 20, 2013. Luke 18:1-8 The year was 1968. A young man had just graduated from college. Earlier in the year, he had applied...
Lord Have Mercy
A sermon by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo. Luke 18:9-14 The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost October 27, 2013 Joel 2:23-32, Psalm 84:1-7, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 In the New...