When we became the co-pastors of Park Road Baptist Church in 2000, we were introduced to the Park Road Clergy, an informal fellowship of six churches within about a mile of our office. For 20 years, six pastors have met…
Happy Halloween, but this year I don’t need anything else to fear
I’ve always hated Halloween. I didn’t like it as a kid. The creepy faces, the scary clowns. It was all too unnerving. That didn’t change when I became an adult. The Halloween after my college graduation, sitting at the desk…
How does prayer work? I don’t know, yet I believe
“I’m praying for you.” I’m interested in these words, what they say and what they mean — to the sender and the receiver — and I’m curious about how easy this is for some people to say, and how difficult…
You want Patriotic Education? Look what it’s done for Cuba
If nothing else has frightened you about our national leadership in the last few years, take a visit to Cuba, and then come back and listen to our Leader of the Free World extolling his new program of “Patriotic Education.”…
I’m standing with the kneelers. Will you join me?
From the beginning, I’ve stood with the kneelers. It’s time for you to join me. The unnecessary furor began in August 2016 when the quarterback for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers was joined by one teammate to take a knee…
We’ve misunderstood Darwin about who survives
Charles Darwin has done a real number on us, hasn’t he? But it’s not his evolutionary theory that is the problem. Fifteen billion years instead of 6,000 should be more evocative of anything divine than destructive of it. Who (besides…
Maybe we’ll just keep on preaching these five sermons
In 20 years, my wife and I have preached about 950 sermons from the pulpit of Park Road Baptist Church. (Amy and I have been co-pastors in Charlotte since 2000.) We’re both manuscript preachers, and we try to hold a…
The ‘heritage, not hate’ argument doesn’t fly, be it monument or flag
Some say it’s “heritage, not hate.” But what is the heritage? Dissenting against the values of the Constitution? Rejecting a vision of breathtaking freedom, “unalienable rights,” “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? That’s something to celebrate?
I can’t imagine the longsuffering patience of black people. I hope to understand their impatience.
The protests and demonstrations this time are different. They may be a sign that something really is changing, even with the longsuffering patience of the black community. At least I pray that is so.