Mark Wingfield

Competing with big box churches

There’s a “big box” church in our town that’s all the rage. If you live anywhere in America that’s even slightly urban, there’s probably a big box church in your area as well. By “big box” I mean the kind…

Evangelism run amok

I fell for the trap and barely saw it coming. Got reeled in hook, line and sinker. And I should have known better. For several years, an anonymous emailer who portrays himself as a devout Roman Catholic has been taunting…

Be a nudger

During the recent commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, one small detail stood out that I never had heard before: Martin Luther King did not go to the Lincoln Memorial that day intending to say the…

What is traditional? What is contemporary?

Just what makes a church “traditional” these days? As someone who has written extensively and spoken to religious gatherings on the subject of “traditional” churches, I’m increasingly finding it hard to draw an exacting definition. But by the same token,…

Airplane evangelism

The young woman who sat down next to me on the Southwest Airlines flight volunteered that she was a student at a certain Baptist university, where I also had attended 30 years earlier. Intrigued, I asked more about what she…

Blessing graduates

Graduate recognition Sunday at church always makes me a bit teary. I held it together this year, but only by a thread, even though I was the one voicing the prayer of blessing in morning worship today. No, I didn’t…

Seeing ourselves

There’s a saying here in Texas that “even a blind hog finds a nut now and then.” Maybe that’s why even people with less-than-noble purposes sometimes do something good. Of course, if you acknowledge that, you’ve got to give credence…