By Nora O. Lozano I recently taught a lesson for my Sunday school class titled “Equipping the Saints for Ministry” (Eph. 4:1-16). According to this passage, the reason church leaders receive different gifts is to train believers for their particular…
What does it mean to be a Bible believer?
Kevin DeYoung, pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan recently wrote a piece titled, “40 Questions for Christians Now Waving Rainbow Flags.” He laments that some within his evangelical ranks (friends, family members, church members) are “giving their…
What I said to my conservative church about same-sex marriage
Preacher, if you are at all like me, as you were preparing to write your sermon this past Sunday, your mind kept going back to the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. Last Sunday it was still so fresh that…
A humble plea: Go easy on your pastor
By Corey Fields I recently attended a retreat for pastors. The facilitator led us through times of worship and discussion about Sabbath-keeping and self-care. The need for this is pretty well documented. The statistics tag pastors with poor physical and…
Who will go to Destination Unknown?
“Destination Unknown.” That was the stated course of the troop ship on which Julia Graham and her first husband, Henry, embarked in May 1945, with their 7-month-old son, as Baptist missionaries to the Middle East. Julia and Henry and the…
To countless Baptists, James Dunn was an instrumental influence
By Aaron Weaver “A Texas-bred, Spirit-led, Bible-teaching, revival-preaching, recovering Southern Baptist.” That’s Dr. James M. Dunn (June 17, 1932 – July 4, 2015) in his own words. He definitely was that but he was also so much more. He was…
Riding the winds of change: How we can adjust to the same-sex marriage ruling
Goodness! There has been a virtual flood of words since the U. S. Supreme Court proclaimed that same-sex marriage could not be outlawed by the states. So much so, that I hesitate to add to the mix. But, like any…
The biggest losers
By Jason Coker Several years ago when I was working at a church in Dallas, I was wondering if Texas was part of the South or not. I am from the Mississippi Delta, so it was a real question. I…
A prayer for Independence Day 2015
Freedom-loving God, you teach us through the prophets to “to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8). This week, as we celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, we are simultaneously grateful for our heritage…
The day the bodybuilders met the Baptists
By Bill Wilson I recently attended a national gathering of Baptists that was a stark reminder to me of the desperate need for congregational and clergy health. It wasn’t so much that this group is any less healthy or healthier…
‘Are you not entertained?’ Discipleship and Pew Research findings
Have you ever claimed to be something you’re not? I once posed as a town sheriff, brandishing a gun and stopping everyone who disobeyed the law. Of course, at the age of 4, and with a plastic orange-tipped six-shooter, my…
The irony of it all
By Bill Leonard Like most everyone in the United States, I find myself struggling to sort out the events of the last few weeks — terrible tragedy in the massacre of nine African-American Methodists, “thunderbolt” Supreme Court decisions (President Obama’s…