By Chuck Queen In the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14:13-21, the writer basically follows Mark’s account, though Matthew omits Mark’s description of the crowd as sheep without a shepherd. I suspect he does so because…
Church shouldn’t be entitled to Sunday
By Seth Vopat “Sunday is no longer the sacred day of the week anymore!” is one of many complaints I hear repeatedly for why the church is dying today. In translation, this often refers to the fact that a variety…
Life’s not fair
By Amy Butler I grew up in a family with five children, so I don’t really recall life ever being very fair. There was always somebody who got more ice cream or fewer consequences than I did; much of the…
Gaza children learn NC Christians care about them
As the bombs began to fall, we grieved that we could leave but they could not. My wife, Emily and I are members of Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. In November, 2012, we had the unique opportunity to visit…
I don’t think you know what that means
A popular misconception about professional Christianity is that most of us with business cards reading “pastor” love talking about church. I can’t tell you how many breathless conversations I’ve had with people about the font size of a worship guide,…
Comic-Con International day one: The day of greed
By Michael Parnell Comic-Con International kicked off its 2014 convention on Wednesday evening with what is called the “Preview Night.” The doors opened at six to allow attendees to see the exhibits in the large hall at the San Diego…
The taller I become….
We’re remembering the Freedom Summer of 1964 this year, fifty years later. During those momentous times in US history, a broad group of organizations worked together to break the tyranny of the Jim Crow laws in Mississippi. Their primary goal…
Sighing with the Spirit
By Molly T. Marshall In the weeks following Pentecost, the epistle readings in Romans have focused on what it means to live in the Spirit. For three Sundays in a row, passages from chapter 8 have revealed rich insight. Arguably…
Does your congregation need a ‘church search committee’?
By Marion Aldridge What kind of congregation do you want? That query precedes the probe into the kind of person you want as pastor. For 15 years I trained churches and their pastor search committees. In recent months, I have…