There’s a saying that’s been around for a long time that goes something like this: “God created man in his image, and then man returned the favor.” The suggestion is that our god is what we want him to be,…
Racism from the perspective of a white man
I frequently hear white people claim we do not have a race problem in this country, and to prove their point, they say they like Black people and even have a few Black friends. Even though they are aware of…
What is the gospel, or what must I do to be saved?
The answer to the great question of how to be saved was supposed to be easy. When I was a kid, they said to “invite Jesus into your heart.” It sounded good, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. To…
Where to see Jesus in suffering, even in the war in Ukraine
Tatiana Perebeinis was a 43-year-old accountant working for a California start-up company in Irpin, Ukraine. She became famous this week as her photo appeared on the front page of the New York Times. It wasn’t a flattering photo. Along with…
Whatever happened to Southern Baptists and church autonomy?
Neither one of us had a clue what we were doing 12 years ago, but a friend and I started a church. We didn’t know anything about starting a church, but we knew a great deal about church. Between us,…
My church started speaking another language (and it wasn’t unknown tongues)
Rodolfo has been taking care of my yard for three or four years. He does a great job and is one of the hardest-working guys I know. I see him all over the neighborhood, mowing and trimming grass. He tends…
Jesus and deconstruction
I shared a meme recently on Facebook to a page dedicated to discussion about house churches. It’s a site with lively discussion on issues broader than church and religion, but usually, the Christian faith comes through. I have no idea…
How the evangelical church messed up and lost its way
The evangelical church in the United States is a mess. I’m not talking about reports of declining membership and lower baptism numbers. Those statistics merely provided warning signs that something was amiss, that things were going in the wrong direction….
Enslaved by freedom
He stood up to address the House of Burgesses, the legislative body in Virginia, meeting to determine how to respond to British military intervention in the colony. Relationships between the colonists and the British had deteriorated over the past two…