Christians motivated by compassion for the poor need to make sure both mercy and justice guide their actions, said Robert Lupton, based on his four decades of experience in urban ministry. Robert Lupton has proposed what he calls an…
Staying motivated for service among the poor demands discipline
Chronic poverty, hunger and homelessness can leave even the most committed Christian activists feeling overwhelmed and defeated. “After you finish providing one set of meals, more hungry people are in line right behind them. And there’s more after them. It’s…
Austin Angel House feeds homeless and hungry for nearly three decades
For 27 years, Austin Baptist Chapel — known to most of the people it serves as “Angel House” — has served hot lunches to the homeless and hungry in Texas’s capital city. “Our homeless guests several years into the ministry…
Intentional Christian communities live and serve among the poor
In one of northern Philadelphia’s most-dangerous neighborhoods, a 20-person Christian group thrives, embracing a lifestyle of radical community. Shane Claiborne, leader of the 10 households in the Kensington neighborhood, helped found The Simple Way in 1995 as a faith community…
EDITORIAL: Seasons and purposes
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven,” wrote the ancient preacher of Ecclesiastes (3:1). I write to you with a sense of seasonal change. I have noticed lately the chill in the morning…
Ministries blending food and faith
By Jeff Brumley They say an army travels on its stomach. According to the proponents of “creation care,” the same can be said of the church. As they observe World Food Day today, those activists are reporting a dawning awareness…
Baylor alumni leaders resign
By Ken Camp About one-third of the Baylor Alumni Association board of directors — including four officers — have resigned in the wake of a failed attempt to approve a transition agreement with the historically Baptist university in Waco, Texas….
SBC leader defends ‘sectarian’ prayer
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention’s top expert on religious-liberty concerns says the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold a New York town’s practice of opening its city council meetings with sectarian prayer. “A prayer, by definition, isn’t a speech…
Mohler reflects on 20 years at Southern
By Bob Allen With two decades under his belt as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship seminary, Albert Mohler’s 10-year plan includes writing a systematic theology, according to a 2,800-word story published Oct. 15 in the campus newspaper The…
Arrest made in Charlotte church arson
By Bob Allen Police in Charlotte, N.C., have arrested an 18-year-old in connection with an arson-related fire this summer at the city’s Providence Baptist Church. Local media reported the arrest of Jonathan Paul Dover on charges of setting fire to…
Baptist leader blasts ‘civil religion’
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention’s chief spokesman on public policy said Oct. 10 that issues facing military chaplains are part of a larger trend in society to endorse “a bland, generic, nothing blob of civil religion over genuine…
HERITAGE: ‘The Column’ at 30
Thirty years ago this fall the editor and associate editor of the Religious Herald, Julian H. Pentecost and Tom Miller, respectively, invited this soon-to-be-columnist to lunch. They presented a proposition that their lunch guest begin to write a Baptist history…