According to the story, a young person asked an older, wiser person, “How do I avoid mistakes?” The mentor said, “Get experience.” The young person rejoined, “Then how do I get experience?” The reply: “Make mistakes.” Of course, this assumes…
Small things make a difference
By Bill Wilson Let’s eat grandpa.Let’s eat, grandpa. It’s true, correct punctuation can save a life. A comma is so very small, just a smudge of ink between two words. That small smudge, however, can make a huge difference. Same…
Does God promise you a spouse?
As couples begin to plan for summer weddings, I’m starting to receive “save the date” reminders. I received one and started thinking back to my youth. I grew up going to southern Baptist youth camps where preachers would proclaim that God…
Where are the songs of lament in worship?
By Hillary Kimsey Lee and I grew up in church together. We were usually co-champions in Sunday school Bible trivia. We loved Lord of the Rings. We went on a couple dates. The night before the first final exam of…
Why do you keep asking God to throw you a Hail Mary pass?
Some Christians treat God like an all-star National Football League quarterback such as Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or Drew Brees. They have failed at some aspect of the game of life and ask God to throw them a Hail Mary…
The growing costs of convenience
By John Chandler I used to have a knack for remembering phone numbers. With the advent of speed-dial, that’s long gone. This is one tiny instance that makes me wonder, what else have I forgotten? In 2008, Nicolas Carr wrote…
What’s in a canon?
When I talk about the canon in my New Testament class, I often have students who are surprised that the current list of 27 books that are in our New Testament have not always comprised canon lists. In fact, I…
Headwinds can help churches fly
By Bill Wilson I had a first-ever experience recently flying out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The weather was deteriorating, but we boarded our flight on time and I had high hopes of getting out before things backed up. We…
Change is coming to Baptistland
By Christa Brown Last Saturday in Florida, a unanimous jury awarded $12.5 million to a man who, as a child, was sexually abused by a Southern Baptist minister. Significantly, this verdict was assessed, not only against the local church, but…