Some years ago, songwriter and poet Mickey Newbury sat down to pen a song about Cortelia Clark. With the background full of sounds of distant trains and despair dripping from the trees, he led with this verse . . ….
Time to count our blessings
My ministry “day job” is to give leadership to my church fellowship’s national disaster response. In this role with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, I interact with our churches, other churches and faith-groups, NGO’s and voluntary organizations active in disasters. I…
Son of Amite County, child of God
By Merrill Hawkins I preached my first sermon in 1980 at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Amite County, Miss. Walter Stewart, a kind and gentle man, always with several days of beard growth and always at Sunday-morning church, told me…
Church leaders need viral social media
Last night I moderated #chsocm [It’s Church socialmedia. #ChSocM (ch-sock-em)] on Twitter, which is a weekly chat about using social media. We had a great discussion around the topic of viral social media stories, pictures, videos, etc… I enjoyed the experience. I sought to guide the discussion…
The freedom of Will
By Bill Leonard Will Campbell — preacher, writer, lecturer, farmer, raconteur, soulful iconoclast and equal-opportunity prophet — died in Nashville on Monday, June 3. He was a month this side of 89 and had spent more than two years in…
Blessing graduates
Graduate recognition Sunday at church always makes me a bit teary. I held it together this year, but only by a thread, even though I was the one voicing the prayer of blessing in morning worship today. No, I didn’t…
Shaming women into silence
By Miguel De La Torre When women choose to break out of the restricted social space designated for them, men typically dismiss their contributions by questioning their reputations. When “uppity” women refuse to stay in their place, men attempt to…
Church uses vandalism as social media message
What do church leaders usually do when someone vandalizes the side of a church with graffiti? Cover it up, repaint, or remove the vandalism. A church in Randolph, New York was recently vandalized with the words, “Can I still get into heaven…
The oxbow church
By Bill Wilson A friend was recently talking about an organization that is struggling to adapt to some very necessary changes. While not a church, the observation she made about their inability to adjust to a changing world rings true…
Moore, Okla. no exception: the second disaster always follows the first.
As if the various formal networks of government, religious, nonprofit, and private sector organizations, plus the thousands of informal networks of families, friends, and new instant friends, did not have enough to do in meeting the needs of people impacted…
Thais of the heart
A Catholic nun and a Baptist minister walked into a Thai restaurant. They sat down and ordered Pad Thai. Over noodles and conversation they discovered that, long ago and some 500 miles away, they were connected to the same roots. …
A safe space to be vulnerable
By Amy Butler Last week I watched a TED talk by University of Houston social work professor Brené Brown. In the video, Brown talks about her research on human connection. We all crave human connection, she says, but the shame…