The Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ final days share a remarkable continuity. But the unique features of each Gospel also give us much to consider during Holy Week.
Jesus was lynched. Holy Week’s symbols should include a cross and a noose
During Holy Week maybe we white Christians should hold the image of a cross in one hand and the image of a noose in the other. Both should call us to repentance.
Why do we continue to label the death of a marriage as a ‘failed marriage’?
Although divorce does not carry the stigma it once did, in our culture it still whispers, “You failed.” The Church needs to find better language and better theology to respond with grace when a marriage dies.
Re-imagining Palm Sunday: Jesus – and Pilate – enter Jerusalem
Imagine that on Palm Sunday, both Jesus and Pilate, enter Jerusalem from the same gate. The tension created in this imaginary scene introduces us to the underlying tension of Holy Week. And we must decide which parade we will attend.
How real should pastors be in the pulpit?
Congregations have a right to expect their pastor to be real while also respecting appropriate boundaries. In turn, pastors have a right to embrace their humanity and for their churches to remember that the Word became flesh, not marble.
After a shoot-from-the-hip email, this skeptical pastor sits face to face with CBF’s new CEO
Will there be a place in CBF life for folks like me? Armed for bear, a skeptical pastor sits down for coffee and conversation with the new leader of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Here’s what she discovered.
It’s not too late, even for extroverts like me, to cultivate silence as a Lenten practice
Fortunately, God has not called me to be a monk. But, by cultivating the discipline of silence during Lent, I see ways God is doing a new work in me.
As a pastor, I tried engaging the issue of abortion with Facebook friends. Here’s what I learned
No matter if we are talking about abortion, LGBTQI issues or politics, we need to stop thinking we can change the world with an angry Facebook post or a partisan online article. We need face-to face conversations that humanize one another.
Why a biblical inerrancy-based bill in the Texas Senate matters
Texas Senate Bill 17 raises serious questions. This year’s Bible-impacted legislation is intended to protect people of faith from the LGBTQ “agenda.” Fifty years ago, the debate involved a similar “biblical” and “legal” response to civil rights for African Americans.
If Trump came to your church, what sermon would you want him to hear?
Many of President Trump’s actions are antithetical to the Gospel. But anger cannot be everything that Trump’s backers hear from us. Ministers would be better off, at times, asking the Spirit to help the president and his defenders understand that God loves all people.
Why all Christians, not just Baptists, are profoundly indebted to Glenn Hinson
A weekend of lectures on the life and teaching of Baptist historian E. Glenn Hinson prompts further reflection on Hinson’s contributions over six decades. These are just four of his many gifts to the Christian community.
Midway through Lent, I am pondering my ‘negligences’ as I seek to watch with Jesus
The Rule of St. Benedict urges us during the season of Lent “to wash away . . .the negligences of other times.” I have been pondering the areas I neglect as routinized behavior scurries past attentiveness and contemplation.