Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Our Future Depends Upon Practicing Sustainability
Sustainability is a word that has been so abused it has almost lost all meaning. Like "green," "organic," "natural" or "eco-," sustainable is appended to many terms – "sustainable growth," "sustainable development,"...
The Invisible Poor in Your Own Back Yard
Recently, I watched as 800 people stood in line with grocery sacks, trash bags and wheeled carts waiting to get food. Most, if not all, were minorities. Many were elderly, walking with canes or walkers. Many were young...
Pope’s Gesture Demonstrates God’s Love
When Pope Francis kissed Dominic Gondreau, a boy with cerebral palsy, on Easter Sunday, he sent a powerful message that needs to be amplified over and over again. God loves all children – those who are well and those...
Me, a sports nut?
When it comes to sports, for the most part, I can take 'em or leave 'em. I don't remember who played in the Super Bowl, because I didn't care. Basketball's NCAA tournaments are over, and once Duke's teams lost, I lost...
4 Ways Your Church Can Help Health Care Needs
Several years ago, I met Sally Jane as she walked into the clinic pushing her severely impaired granddaughter in a wheelchair. Sally Jane had become Melissa's caregiver when her mother abandoned her, no longer able to...
Skype Interview: Martin Accad on Middle East Conference
When Terry Jones burned the Quran in Florida or when a Danish cartoonist depicted the Prophet Muhammad, the controversy partly centered around the tension between freedom of expression and the "defense of God." That's...
Baptist Pastors Share Texts for Creation-Care Preaching
Is there a word from the Lord on the day before Earth Day - Monday, April 22? This year, pastors have a unique opportunity to reflect on and preach about this question the day prior. As a sermon resource for preaching...
Baggage and a Banjo
By John Pierce Marcus Mumford, front man for the popular musical act Mumford & Sons, has caused a stir among evangelical Christians. When asked by Rolling Stone magazine if he considers himself to be a Christian,...
5 Things a Pastor Learned in the Hospital
With an almost three-week hospital stay behind me, I realized there were several things I learned from the experience. Here are five of them: 1. People who are in the hospital are really sick You might think that would...
Sharing the Good News “ A Joy Instead of a Chore
I spoke with someone yesterday whose brother belongs to an evangelical church and who sometimes goes from door to door with members of his congregation to talk to people about Jesus. Their approach is to knock on the...
What Does The Choice of a Pope’s Name Mean?
On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected to the papacy. The media highlighted right away the newness that the 266th pope ushers in for the Catholic Church, even simply by virtue of who he is: the first...
Late bloomers
Where's a grove filled with cherry blossoms when you need it? A colder-than-average spring threw off horticulturalists' best predictions, and Washington D.C.'s famed "Cherry Blossom Festival," planned for peak blooming...
How Your Church is Like the Corvette
One effect of growing up in 20th-century America is that I love cars. Early on, I got the fever. Played with them as a kid, worked on them, collected them, admired them, dreamed of them. I've owned around 25 cars of...
Do Science and Religion Have to be At Odds?
There is something in us – something sacred, I believe – which recoils from the idea that the universe is its own explanation, that our existence here is a happy but meaningless stroke of cosmic luck, and that there is...
Drop the ‘I-Word’ in Church
The United Methodist Church won a moral victory – in a way – when Associated Press (AP) announced that it was changing its stylebook to stop sanctioning the use of the term "illegal immigrant." Methodists began their...
Arrogance gone amuck
It's a hard time to be a North Carolinian if you have a single progressive bone in your body. The NC legislature, with firm Republican majorities in both houses and a Republican governor in the capitol, is running...
More Baptists Taking Aim at Predatory Lending
Abortion, homosexuality and church-state separation. These are all issues on which Baptists have made their diverse opinions loudly known to the public. But predatory lending is definitely not an issue that many...
Religion is Alive and Well in the U.S.
Those who are worried about the future of religion in America (that is, whether religion has any future) need to read Frank Newport's new book, "God Is Alive and Well." According to this editor-in-chief of the Gallup...
Middle East Conference to Address Human Rights
The mandate of the Institute of Middle East Studies is "to bring about positive transformation in thinking and practice between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East and beyond." In continuation with last year, the...
A Risen World
A sermon by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston Salem, N.C. Isaiah 65:17-25; Luke 24:1-12; 1 Corinthians 15:19-25 In my humble opinion, Les Miserable is the best musical ever done. Recently, Hollywood...
Easter Hope
A sermon by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. John 20:1-18 I suspect it was a restless night for Mary Magdalene. It is hard to sleep when your heart is broken. It is obvious she was anxious...