Dear Momma, Every March the church pauses to name Baptist Women in Ministry Month. Churches host panels, women write articles, women fill pulpits and deliver sermons about the long road women have walked just to stand behind a pulpit as…
Meredith Miller calls the church to wonder
In May 2020, many pastors held their breath as they released statements and stumbled over how to respond to the murder of George Floyd. Meredith Miller responded with formation. Making her Instagram account public, Miller began to write about faith…
‘You don’t know the half’ of the Good Samaritan story
In a sermon at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference preached from Luke 10:29–35, Reginald Sharpe Jr. circled a phrase that refuses to let the church remain comfortable: “You don’t know the half.” Sharpe did not give us a scholarly sermon…
When the church confuses vocation with calling
Across several denominations, pastors are leaving congregations at accelerated rates, citing burnout, conflict and misalignment between their sense of calling and the realities of congregational life. Much of that conversation has focused on workload, compensation and leadership fatigue — all…
When Christians welcome immigrant souls but not their bodies
Within the last two weeks, Franklin Graham has publicly celebrated what he describes as hundreds of people responding to the invitation to repent during evangelistic events in Argentina. Images of crowds and language of spiritual breakthrough have echoed a revivalist…
Black History Month is not about you, but it is for you
I want to speak directly to my white friends, white Christians and especially white clergy colleagues during Black History Month. I’m writing to you not as an adversary or a critic, but as someone who has prayed with you, eaten…
If JD Vance truly were ‘pro-life,’ this wouldn’t be happening
Vice President JD Vance calls himself “pro-life.” At the recent March for Life, he spoke with moral certainty about the sacredness of unborn life, warning that neutrality in the face of vulnerability is a moral failure and insisting a nation…
Jasmine Crockett addresses question of ‘electability’
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett is sharpening her case for the U.S. Senate as the Democratic primary tightens, framing her candidacy as a challenge to long-held assumptions about who can win statewide in Texas. In a recent interview at the U.S….
What should we learn from Hillsong and Sam Collier’s story?
When Sam Collier resigned from Hillsong Church in 2022 amid the unraveling of the church’s U.S. leadership and growing scrutiny of its internal culture, many assumed his public ministry had reached an inflection point, if not an end. However, three…
Are we OK with children going missing?
A child was taken. Taken from routine. Taken from familiarity. Taken from the quiet assumptions that adults would keep him safe. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, moved across state lines, shipped to Texas…
We do not know all the names
I need to say this plainly: We do not know all the names. That is part of what has been sitting so heavily with, or maybe even on, me. Over the last 12 months, approximately 32 people have died in…
Spiritual questions remain after Abyssinian’s gender-bias lawsuit dismissed
The recent dismissal of a gender-bias lawsuit involving Abyssinian Baptist Church, while constitutionally predictable is spiritually and theologically unfinished. A federal judge ruled the claims brought by Eboni Marshall Turman, a former assistant minister and nationally respected theologian and professor,…