Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Mercy Too Late
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on September 26, 2010. Psalm 91:14-16; Luke 16:19-31 You don’t need me to tell you that you...
Betting On God
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on September 26, 2010. Jeremiah 32:1-15 Imagine that your nation was under attack and your capitol was besieged by an...
Shrewd Saints
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on September 19, 2010. Luke 16:1-13 An insurance salesman stuck his head into a department store sales manager’s office. “You...
Lost
A sermon delivered by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, Nc., on September 12, 2010. Luke 15:1-10 Almost six years ago, a now-famous television series entitled Lost debuted on national...
Can Facebook read our minds?
Marketers can be pretty good at hitting their targets. But they are not mind readers. The small ads along the right side of Facebook profiles are customized according to the perceived interests of the individual. I've...
Churches Find Empty Pews at Sunday Evening Services
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Doug De Vries describes Sunday evening worship as “a lot less formal” than the morning service at Plymouth Heights Christian Reformed Church. It’s also a lot less crowded. Plymouth Heights is...
Small Dedicated Following Keeps Shape-note Singing Alive
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) The archaic sounds that fill the historic former church sanctuary echo, hauntingly, like a whispering ghost from the past. Inside the 1902 building that once housed the Second Presbyterian...
RNA Honors Top Religion Reporting
DENVER (RNS) Religion reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times won top honors Saturday (Sept. 25) at the 2010 Religion Newswriters Association’s annual awards competition. The RNA also honored former...
Banned Any Good Books Lately?
For the last 14 years, I have enjoyed teaching philosophy and ethics. Where else can you get paid to sit around and reflect upon the significance of ideas? If philosophers understand and agree upon nothing else, it is...
Researcher: British Churches Aren’t Dying
The church is "not dying," and this message needs to be understood by Christians and the rest of society. That's according to Benita Hewitt, director of Christian Research, who has released a series of statistics that...
Can We Help the Poor if We Don’t Listen to Them?
I'm headed home from a couple of days at United Nations Week in New York, where I was fortunate to attend several events relating to a review of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals. The events brought home one very...
Proud shuttles powering down
Thanks to my nephew Dustin, a NASA engineer, I had the great fortune this past weekend of being a guest during "family day" at Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center. As a certified space nut, it was my third trip to...
Court Puts Limits on German Church’s Ability to Fire Workers
BERLIN (RNS) The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday (Sept. 23) that a church organist’s employment rights were ignored when he was fired by a Catholic church for remarrying outside the church. The court said...
Bishops Rebuke Theologians’ Book Over Views on Homosexuality
(RNS) The U.S. Catholic bishops have issued a rare public rebuke of two Roman Catholic theologians, saying their 2008 book on sexual ethics marks a “radical departure” from church teaching and could be “harmful to...
Long Denies False Allegations
(RNS) Atlanta-area megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long has decried the “false allegations” lodged against him by three young men who filed suit over alleged sexual misconduct. “The charges against me and New Birth are...
Save the Date, Change the World on 10.10.10
Imagine 100 million Christians praying on Oct. 10, 2010, for a "fresh vision" that will result in freeing a half-billion people from extreme poverty. That's a bold vision worth supporting. That's a moral agenda worth...
Orthodox Thoughts on Capital Punishment
At 9:13 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 23, the Commonwealth of Virginia executed 41-year-old Teresa Lewis. She was convicted of plotting to kill her husband and stepson. She became the first woman in 100 years to be executed...
Books That Changed My Life and Ministry
A fellow pastor emailed me with some kind words, and a suggestion – blog about the 10 books that changed my life and ministry. Of course, the Bible goes without saying, but I said it anyway to avoid unnecessary...
Looking back and learning
When fearful people seek government preference for their religious beliefs and practices, or paint racial, ethnic or religious groups with the broad brush of generalization based on the actions of a few, or claim to...
Countdown
One of our most distinctive qualities as humans, I think, is anticipation -- the ability and proclivity to think about what's coming next. I suppose animals can anticipate things to a certain degree: our dog knows that...
Embattled Philadelphia Bishop Says He Won’t Resign
(RNS) The embattled Episcopal bishop of Philadelphia is defiantly refusing to resign, saying his three years of “suffering” through various church trials has “strengthened” his ability to lead his diocese. Bishop...