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.
As the mother of a child with autism, I see how preaching and practicing the Gospel are fractured
World Autism Awareness Day is a good day for Christians to covenant together to learn about autism, to invite the child on the outskirts to the birthday party, to notice the one who sits alone and make room on our pew for them.
The Joseph story offers a model: on climate change, the ‘what-to-do’ matters more than the ‘why’
Christians, Jews and Muslims alike regard Joseph as a hero for taking seriously the vision and making a plan of action. Why can’t we see today’s climate scientists as the same kind of God-ordained forecasters?
Pastors and other church leaders: Give up social media. Not for Lent, but forever
Connected Technology is addictive. It is rewiring our brains, and it is built for its own insatiable hunger. We coded this connected system with our deepest sins, then set it loose to expand until it devours massive amounts of time – and life.
Transgender Day: a chance for churches to open doors and hearts to our transgender neighbors
As our society begins to make advances in understanding and supporting the transgender experience, religious communities must become leaders in creating spaces where transgender people openly and gladly tell their stories and are celebrated as the beautiful parts of God’s creation that they are.
Beyond condemning racist violence, the white church must grapple with ways it is implicated in that violence
Dismantling systems of racism and ending racism’s attendant violence will require white people to engage courageously in political action that is grounded in solidarity with people of color across differences of race, class and religion.