Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
To the work …
(Written from outside Santiago de Cuba, with a 12-person team sponsored by Woodhaven Baptist Church in Apex, working through North Carolina Baptist Men’s partnership with the Eastern Baptist Convention of Cuba.)...
Churches Can Help Solve Home Foreclosure Crisis
The foreclosure crisis is a national disaster. The Christian church should treat it as such and respond. When a tornado, flood or hurricane strikes a community, our nation's governors generally use 100 damaged or...
Reactions Mixed to Action against SBC’s Land for Plagiarism, Inflammatory Remarks
The trustees of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) released their unanimous report following the month-long investigation into controversial and plagiarized...
Egypt’s Presidential Runoff Concerns Egyptian Christians
Egyptians rejoiced on Feb. 11, 2011, over the toppling of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The majority thought that they would awake the next day in a new era where all the problems of Egypt's society would be...
Happy worship, Cuban style …
(Written from Santiago de Cuba, as part of a 12-person team sponsored by Woodhaven Baptist Church in Apex, working through North Carolina Baptist Men’s partnership with the Eastern Baptist Convention of Cuba....
Welcome to Cuba
Sunday morning early, at the Eastern Baptist Convention Senior Center in the village of La Caoba, near Santiago, Cuba. I’m sitting in one of nine...
How Seminaries Must Prepare for the Future
I received my first seminary degree 42 years ago this month. There is much about that experience that I still treasure. I studied under some excellent professors, made a number of friends that I encountered...
After This Life, No Eternal Rest But Eternal Vitality
I've reached a tipping point. Up until just a few years ago, I primarily went to funerals for friends, colleagues and relatives who were in the generation ahead of me. Oh sure, there was the occasional early death of a...
When the Broken-Hearted People Agree
I love to tease my classically trained minister of music that if he does my memorial service, I want the Beatles song "Let It Be" to be used as the central anthem. I also regularly aggravate him by suggesting that the...
Up
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on May 20, 2012. Luke 24:44-53 In 2009 Disney released an entertaining film entitled “Up” about a crotchety old man who was fed up...
Joy To The World
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on May 13, 2012. Psalm 98: John 15:9-11 In a couple of days I will mark my 21st anniversary of ministry at FBC. That means I will...
I Believe in the Holy Spirit
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., May 27, 2012. Acts 2:1-13 Morning Prayer: We thank you, God, for the way that your spirit inspires our hope in life after death. We give thanks for...
Patience
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 27, 2012. Pentecost Sunday Psalm 104:31-35; Romans 8:22-27 I have a theory. Is it all right if I run it by you? My...
A Meditation on the Holy Spirit, Following Jesus, and 2012
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 27, 2012. John 15:26 - 16:15 26”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who...
Spirit for All
A sermon delivered by Michael Cheuk, Pastor, Farmville Baptist Church, Farmville, Va., on May 27, 2012. Pentecost Sunday Acts 2:1-21 Several years back, Jim Garrison, a dear friend of ours, celebrated his ninety...
Institutions Consider Plagiarism Intellectual Theft
The word "plagiarism" originated as a word for kidnapping. That's the takeaway from a Baptist ethicist called to comment on plagiarism. The idea of passing someone else's work off as your own has moved into popular...
Father Greeley’s Book Examines Chicago Catholics
My column does not conventionally review books, but one book has been on my desk for months as a prompt for something on which I wanted to comment. This week, fortuitously, friend Kevin Christiano of Notre Dame,...
Best-Barbecue Debates Have Familiar Ring
My husband went to one of our favorite barbecue places and picked up supper for us. He came home with a sampler platter containing ribs, pulled pork, chicken, slaw, Brunswick stew, bread, chips and some extra ribs. We...
The unchristian practice of making exclusive claims about ‘Christian principles’
By John Pierce Professing faith in Jesus Christ is not enough for some people. They prefer making exclusive claims about their warped, polluted version of religious faith. Exhibit A: Shorter College (a university in...
Graduates: How to Live Lives That Matter
Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Guy Sayles' May 27 sermon that both celebrated Pentecost and recognized graduates. British humorist P.G. Wodehouse said, "I always advise people never to give...
2 Ways That People of Faith View the Bible
When controversial issues find their way to the table of ethical discussion, it usually isn't long before the Bible is called to testify on behalf of whichever side is making its case. A commitment to biblical...