For me, ministry is the family business. I am an ordained Baptist minister. Married to an ordained Baptist minister. My grandfather was a pastor, my dad is a pastor, my sister is a pastor. The rhythms and the risks of…
It’s tough being a pastor on World Hunger Sunday, but it’s harder to be hungry
In order to keep the senior minister from becoming popular, Plymouth Church observes World Hunger Day on the second Sunday of October each year. We sing hunger hymns none of us like. We add hunger to the list of prayer…
Gov. Abbott’s COVID-19 vaccination ban tramples on my religious practice
Like me, many Christians in Texas live in a state of perpetual agitation over the actions of our governor, Greg Abbott, regarding sensible public health practices around the coronavirus pandemic. His latest action — an executive order “banning any entity in…
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…
The deconstruction of American evangelicalism
We are witnessing at this moment the intellectual deconstruction of a religious group that has been called “evangelicalism.” Illusions about this community are being destroyed left and right. Of course, those illusions first eroded in practice, through the contradictions and…
Tony Evans misses the mark and misrepresents history with his Kingdom Race Theology
Tony Evans, founding pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, recently introduced a concept he calls Kingdom Race Theology to his congregation as his alternative to Critical Race Theory, by way of two Wednesday evening sermons. According to a…
Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day? The damaging Christian ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ at the heart of the American identity crisis
Ahead of the Fourth of July earlier this year, I wrote a column for Religion News Service about two competing plot lines in the stories we Americans tell about ourselves: an egalitarian narrative that draws on the Declaration of Independence’s…
Lessons from Coach Ted Lasso
I benefit from working with folks whose bulbs are brighter than my own. Initially, I thought that grades, test scores or advanced degrees from impressive institutions measured intellectual prowess. But as years pass, I learn that there are additional ways…
As a religious abuse survivor, this is my message to Baptist pastors
I shrank into the pew, wincing every time the preacher behind the pulpit raised his voice. I was just a child, terrified that I was evil and a sinner beyond redemption. At 7 years of age, I converted and believed…
An ode to the exile generation
A few weeks ago, I had an epiphany. It sprang from an odd source: Episode 178 of a podcast called The Bible for Normal People, “Pete Ruins Isaiah.” Pete Enns is an Old Testament scholar determined to bridge the great…
Explaining mainliners and evangelicals at Bubba-Doo’s
If you’ve ever stepped into a place and gotten the feeling there were two or three people laying low for you, you’ll understand the vibe that met me the other day. I stopped by my favorite country store, Bubba-Doo’s. It’s…
The one thing that most predicts a pastor’s success
Of all the things I’ve learned through a few decades of mentoring young writers and pastors, one predictor of success stands out above all. This one thing rises above raw talent, education or privilege — all of which may play…