By Bill Wilson My grandmother often used a word to describe herself or other people. It was the word “ill.” She did not use it to describe someone who was sick with a cold or the flu. She used it…
Green as a cabbage patch
By Bill Leonard Forty years ago this fall I became pastor of First Community Church in Southborough, Mass. I actually started as their interim pastor and wound up staying four years. It was a great place for one who had…
Fred Shuttlesworth and Steve Jobs
By Bill Webb They both died on Wednesday, Oct. 3. One man was well-known for his creativity and technological innovation. But many people might not have known the other individual, who stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy…
The sacredness of human life
By David Gushee I am entering the final stage of a seven-year journey as I make last edits on a book exploring the historic Christian conviction that human life is sacred. The manuscript will be at Eerdmans by month’s end,…
A pastor’s prayer for pastors
By Barry Howard This prayer was offered at the Mercer Preaching Consultation on St. Simon’s Island, Ga., on Sept. 26, 2011. Gracious God, I come to you as a pastor praying for pastors. I pray for all men and women…
Pastors don’t like stewardship campaigns, either
By Amy Butler There’s a bite in the morning air. The leaves are starting to turn brilliant colors. Piles of pumpkins slow foot traffic at the entrance to the grocery store. In a pastor’s world this can mean only one…
Opinion: Pastors don’t like stewardship campaigns, either
(ABP) — There’s a bite in the morning air. The leaves are starting to turn brilliant colors. Piles of pumpkins slow foot traffic at the entrance to the grocery store. In a pastor’s world this can mean only one thing….
No one did more to kill Jim Crow than Fred Shuttlesworth
By Alan Bean Fred Shuttlesworth is dead at 89. He never thought he would survive the civil rights struggle in Birmingham. Far less protective of his personal safety than men like Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers, Shuttlesworth attributed his…
Opinion: The face of hope
(ABP) — What does the face of a child rescued from trafficking look like? The question raced through my mind as our plane taxied down the runway in Kathmandu. I was one of five women on a mission trip to…
Supreme Court hears arguments in important church-state case
WASHINGTON (ABP) – The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Oct. 5 in a closely watched case involving a church’s right to hire or fire ministers for reasons like religious doctrine that in other settings would be job discrimination. “The…
Man sentenced in church embezzlement
GREENVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – A man convicted of conspiring with his mother to steal $1.5 million from a Tennessee Baptist church was sentenced Oct. 4 to just over four years in prison. Senior U.S. District Judge Leon Jordan sentenced Michael…
Stover pastor acquitted on molestation count
TUSCUMBIA — A Missouri Baptist minister has been acquitted in a child molestation charge heard in Miller County Sept. 28. Travis Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stover, was acquitted in the yearlong case after the jury deliberated for…