Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Does a Protestant on the Supreme Court Matter?
If Elena Kagan is confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice, the court will have six Roman Catholics, three Jews and no Protestants. Baylor University law professor Mark Osler thinks the Supreme Court needs a...
The Plight of One Undocumented Family
Jose was a simple man who worked with his hands. He built things. He tried to make a living as a carpenter, but times were hard and taxes were high. Regardless of the foreign military occupation of his homeland, there...
“Iron Man 2”
Returning to open the summer movie season of 2010 is Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire playboy/superhero Tony Stark. Stark runs a company that was founded by his father, and he uses reason and creativity – not...
Rewriting history
The notion that history can be revised has been around since at least the second generation of history writers. Mesopotamian kings commonly published their own versions of history to accent their own accomplishments....
Reaching To The Far Shore
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on May 9, 2010. Acts 16:9-15 Even when we’re doing the will of God, we live in “in-between” times. Life, we discover, is not so...
A Storm-Proof Faith
A sermon delivered by Robert F. Browning, Pastor, Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, Ga., on May 9, 2010. John 14:23-29 How do you help someone whose life is spinning out of control? Perhaps you know someone...
The Color Purple
A sermon delivered by Randy L. Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on May 9, 2010 Psalm 67:1-7; Acts 16:9-15 Are you familiar with the children’s pop-up books? When you open the pages,...
Spiritual Child Neglect
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on May 9, 2010. Deuteronomy 4:9-13 Meditation Text: Consistently responsible parents, attentive to their principles, their adult...
Happy Kenaikan Isa Almasih Day
During my time in campus ministry years ago, an engineering student from Indonesia expressed disbelief that we American Christians paid no attention to Ascension Day. Although Christianity is a minority faith there, he...
SBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Pushes Christian Academies, Home Schooling
Missing from criticism about the final report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, intended to reorganize the stagnant Southern Baptist Convention, is concern about the statement's anti-public school agenda....
Only One Response to Flood’s Tragedy
I was invited to speak at a community worship service in Nashville recently. The goal was to bring the community together after the devastating flood that took so many lives and caused over a billion dollars in...
Part 2: Aid for Africa “ The Biggest Barrier
Editor's note: This is the second part of a two-part series on providing humanitarian relief to Africa. I've been trying to sketch an outline of how Westerners tend to develop and characterize our relationship with...
Discipleship: Balancing Solitude and Service
The life of Jesus, as presented in the Gospels, demonstrates a rhythm of prayer/spiritual retreat and worldly engagement that, I think, is a key to a healthy, holistic, transformational spiritual life. The pattern of...
Excluding Others Hinders God’s Dream
In Acts 10, Peter encounters a vision while he is at prayer – a vision that brought about a radical shift not only in Peter's life, but also in the movement that would become known as Christianity. In that experience,...
Part 1: Aid for Africa “ Can We Empower?
Editor's note: This is the first part of a two-part series on providing humanitarian relief to Africa. If we are to move away from the savior mode into an empowerment paradigm when it comes to assistance to Africa and...
Too many pastors? Or too few?
Religion News Service recently posted a surprising story suggesting that there's a glut of available ministers. That goes against popular wisdom for the past few years, which has argued that there's an impending...
Avoiding deception
Sorting mail has created a new pile at our house: college stuff. Our 16-year-old daughter, wrapping up her junior year in high school, receives a steady stream of materials from colleges and universities, large and...
Lesson Learned from a Skeptical Thomas
Whenever I'm in the vicinity of West Jefferson, N.C., Holy Trinity Church in nearby Glendale Springs draws me like a spiritual lodestone. The tiny Episcopal church was built in 1901, closed in 1946 and reopened in 1980...
Denominations Must Align with Constituents
After a recent capital campaign in our church, I reminded our pastor of the comment that makes the circuit on a regular basis. It is the comment of the leader who stands before the congregation and says, "We have all...
Three Things British Churches Must Say
Whatever the precise composition of the British Parliament, the government that is formed will be obliged to take decisions about taxation and spending, which are so unpalatable to the electorate, that not one of the...
Progressives Can Reclaim Power of Prayer
When I was a child, my mother posted a magnet on the refrigerator that proclaimed that "prayer changes things." Regularly on Sundays, we listened to the bombastic intercessions of Oral Roberts and the gentle...