Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Selfishness Can Trample the Life Out of Others
If we are not loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength and with all our minds and loving neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27), then it's very likely that we too are a part...
Gov. Blagojevich Is Presumed Innocent
Gov. Blagojevich is not guilty. He is presumed innocent of all the charges. Let us respect his right to a fair trial by acting like we understand what this means. An indictment is nothing more than an accusation by a...
Bad times, good times
What do people do more often when in trouble than when things are going fine?They pray, for one. And they go to church.As economic woes and jobless rates rise, so does church attendance, at least among evangelicals....
Thoroughly modern Nativity
A front-page story in this weekend's edition of USA TODAY reports that GPS devices are being placed in holiday displays to combat theft.An Episcopal Church in Illinois added the tracking devices to Mary, Joseph, Baby...
McGee to retire his whistle
Wingate University president Jerry McGee is a rare breed. While leading Wingate to become a top-level school among small universities, he's also a top-level referee for college football. In January, he will work the...
The Impulse to Silence Dissent
Silencing dissent is just about the most un-American, and un-Christian, thing imaginable. Our Constitution was written by a host of rowdy and intelligent dissenters. And nearly every hero of our faith started off as a...
Pastor Saves Babies Through Hole in Church Wall
Rev. Cheryl Allen didn't tear down a wall; she just created a small hole in it. As a result, about 720 abandoned babies have been rescued through the "Door of Hope." Rev. Cheryl Allen didn't tear down a wall; she just...
‘Are You Ready for Christmas?’
We need to be reminded that it is possible to leave Christ out of Christmas. What must we do to prevent this from happening? How do we prepare spiritually for Christmas? Taking our cue from John the Baptist, it...
Thanks, W.
President Bush's recent discussion of faith with ABC's "Nightline" reveals a lot less spiritual arrogance than the fundamentalist crowd that has embraced him to the end.Bush said he was "not so presumptuous as to be...
‘Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney’
You'll understand why places like Disney are case studies in remarkability when you read Creating Magic. For a company that big to be that good for that long, great leaders have to be at the helm of every aspect of the...
Pursue Learning
Judaism is going through a spiritual renaissance, but I worry that our quest for the mystical is at the cost of the intellectual. Jews want to chant and meditate, rather than learn how to creatively misread Torah in...
Female Baptist Pastor in South Africa Loves on the Edge
Cheryl Allen is a senior pastor because she literally has gone where no man would go. They had that strange look and air about them, the men who visited Berea Baptist Church in Johannesburg, South Africa, that Sunday...
Bowing to Baal in the Season of Giving
The Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is an organization of 1,400 parents and supporters who recently petitioned 24 major toy companies to limit their holiday ads aimed at children this season....
Blackberries in December
Last summer, for a few halcyon days, blackberries were abundant on the edge of a field near our house, and I enjoyed them immensely. A few of them are still around, in the form of some runny blackberry jelly I tried to...
Making Risky Decisions
Help can come from many sources, and true leaders are not always the people up front waving their arms. As we can learn from Naaman's experience, slaves can give great advice to generals, and servants can know better...
What the U.S. Recession Reveals About Leadership
Hardly anything has been reported about how religious leaders are responding to the economic crisis, or even their present failure to be as forceful on behalf of the vulnerable as they have tried to be when working to...
Coal Is Not the Answer, Say Churches
The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church have urged the Government not to proceed with a new generation of coal-fired power stations. The call comes in the wake of Lord...
Artist at work no more
Greg Maddux was the greatest pitcher I ever witnessed in person — so I watched him pitch as often as possible. While Maddux and I were both working in Atlanta in the mid-through-late-'90s, my trips to the ballpark were...
A Meditation for Advent
I am recruiting 15-18 young people, students in high school, college, university or seminary who will serve on a Young Preachers Leadership Team. We will gather for a retreat in January, convene for a week-long...
Preaching and the Lilly Endowment
I am recruiting 15-18 young people, students in high school, college, university or seminary who will serve on a Young Preachers Leadership Team. We will gather for a retreat in January, convene for a week-long...
Baptist Bloggers Consider Economy’s Impact on Churches, Faith-Based Organizations
Several Baptist leaders have joined public discussions on how the economy will impact churches and religious organizations, and what lessons might be learned. Baptist bloggers from Oklahoma to Virginia began weighing...