Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
How Your Church Can Escape the Happiness Trap
How do you evaluate church? How do you decide if your congregation is doing well? While many factors influence how a person answers these questions, a popular measure is the "happiness factor." Essentially, members ask...
Are Public Charity and Social Justice Different?
A healthy Christian spirituality includes both an internal life of integrity that is developed through a personal relationship with Christ and an external life of ministry that is expressed through self-giving service...
World Vision: Syrian Refugee Children Recount Fear
Fear and uncertainty among Syrian refugee children in Lebanon is the focus of a new World Vision report called "Robbed of Childhood, Running from War" released Dec. 18 in Beirut. More than 75,000 Syrian refugee...
Undecorating
There's nothing like undecorating from Christmas to eat up half a day when you'd rather be doing something else. But it has to be done. I suppose taking down the nativities and wreaths and ornaments offer a natural...
Encountering God in the Placidity of a Garden
Just a few days after Jan. 1, 2007, our Sunday school facilitator commenced the morning discussion by posing the following question: "Where do you encounter God?" The answers were varied: "in the Scripture," "in...
The Newtown Tragedy: A Jewish Perspective
In 1903 in Kishinev, which was then part of Russia, there was a terrible pogrom, an anti-Jewish riot. During that riot, 49 Jews were killed and more than 500 were injured. In its aftermath, the Jewish community in the...
Pay Attention to Christmas Sermons by Pope, Archbishop of Canterbury
One would rightly expect calls for peace in Christmas Eve and Christmas Day sermons offered by Christianity's most visible leaders – heads of the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. And one would not have been...
Becoming More & More of What We Already Are
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on December 28, 2012. The First Sunday after Christmas Luke 2:41-52 I Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Psalm 148; Colossians 3:12-17 Bearing...
Another Chance to Get It Right
A sermon delivered by Jim Somerville, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., on December 30, 2012. The First Sunday after Christmas Day Colossians 3:12-17 Well, here we are on the first Sunday after Christmas...
Christmas Lessons
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 30, 2012. 1 Samuel 2:18-26; Colossians 3:12-17 Thursday a week ago, Janet and I went to visit Leslie and James...
Silence
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 24, 2012. Christmas Eve Luke 2:1-20 There’s a quietness that envelopes the land just about this time every ...
God With Us: Absurdity
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on December 23, 2012. Fourth Sunday in Advent Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:39-55 If you are familiar at all with Jesus’ ministry, and...
A New World Coming “ A New World Now
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on December 23, 2012. Luke 9:23-27 Meditation Text: If you are uncertain of which of two paths to take, choose the one on which the shadow of...
What Will Happen in Year of the Snake?
In East Asia, 2013 is the Year of the Snake, although in China and those countries that still follow Chinese customs the new year doesn't begin until Feb. 10. While a snake usually conjures up bad images and is...
“Pershing: Commander of the Great War”
When I was a member of Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) in college, I was a member of a drill team called the Pershing Rifles. The national organization was named for General of the Armies John J. Pershing. I...
Film Focuses on Passionate, Offbeat Artists
There is a wonderful documentary called "Beautiful Losers." The 2008 film was created by filmmaker Aaron Rose and is about an underground, outsider, creative movement called the "beautiful losers" movement. It has...
Sunrise
One of the best things about an oceanfront room at the beach is the chance to watch the sun crest the horizon every morning. I've always liked sunrises, but unless you live in a place with an open view to the east, you...
2 Scripture Passages Are Key to Discerning God’s Will
I have never been one to make serious resolutions for each new year. I am not opposed to making such resolutions, and I am certainly not cynical about those who make them and seriously try to keep them; I have just...
How Ministers Can Make Themselves Indispensable
Several years ago, I made this challenge to the ministers with whom I worked. "How can you make yourself indispensable this year?" My challenge was predicated on the idea that they should discover something that they...
“Argo”
Having recently enjoyed the fantasy spy world of "Skyfall," here follows a far more down-to-earth portrayal of espionage in "Argo" (directed by and starring Ben Affleck). This time, however, instead of tuxedos and...
Lottie Moon’s Courageous Stand for Gender Equality
"Southern Baptists have only one saint and her name is Lottie Moon." So wrote Texas pastor Chuck Warnock in his fine review of Regina D. Sullivan's book "Lottie Moon: A Southern Baptist Missionary to China in History...