Recently I got to baptize a new member at our church. As we talked about faith and what the act of baptism represented, he shared with me that he hadn’t grown up in the Christian church, but that it was…
Beer, Harry Potter and the future of faith
“We’re new to the area” he said. “We moved here to plant a church.” When I asked him where they were planting the church, he mentioned a nearby development where the cheapest loft is $190,000 and the houses start at…
I’m a clergy who opposes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The British Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton once said that America is “the only nation founded on a creed.” I wonder if that’s why the great Virginia Baptist John Leland opposed ratifying the United States Constitution, forcing James Madison’s father to…
Homelessness, grief and Holy Week
By Trey Lyon During this Holy Week a story keeps reappearing on my Facebook feed, the tale of the varying responses of an affluent community in North Carolina to a bronze statue of a reclining Jesus, cast to resemble a…
About the ex-SBCers: It’s complicated
By Trey Lyon Recently a series of articles by Dr. David Gushee have focused on ex-SBCers. On many points I agree with Dr. Gushee — the post-takeover/resurgence diaspora has left ex-SBCers in various camps, and his classifications are at least…
Those thorny parallels between faith and addiction
By Trey Lyon Recently there was quite a dust-up among the evangelical-ish internet crowd when author Donald Miller revealed that he no longer regularly attends church. There were folks who assailed his position for any number of reasons, as well…
The spiritual test the church is failing
By Trey Lyon A recent study reported last week in ABPnews pointed to a growing gap in racial attitudes and experiences in the United States. This report was deeply disturbing, but not all that surprising, and I suspect the predominantly…
Leaving Samaria for the suburbs
By Trey Lyon I recall my college New Testament professor explaining the words of John 4, “now Jesus had to go through Samaria,” as the author’s way of saying that Jesus went there on purpose, and that going through Samaria…