By Amy Butler What am I meant to do with my life? What am I called to do? What is the deep and real meaning and purpose of my life — my destiny, the reason I was created in the…
Are you closed?
By Bill Wilson A friend recently shared with me an interesting story. When his church decided to replace its sign out front, it meant that the old one had to come down. For about a week, there was no sign…
Being a multi-mission partner church
By Barry Howard Multiple mission partnerships seem to be the new norm among many churches, and especially those that network with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. A quick survey of the list of CBF churches indicates that fewer than 10 percent…
Call me a Cooperative Baptist
By Barry Howard Trying to come up with an appropriate name for a group of Baptists is like trying to nail Jell-O to the floor. It just keeps jiggling and refuses to be still. Because faith is dynamic and emerging,…
CBF and the next 20 years
By Alex Gallimore “College is where you learn that you have a particular past and that it doesn’t have to dictate your future.” These words, spoken by Bill Leonard during his baccalaureate address to graduates of Wake Forest University in…
What is a moderate Baptist?
By Barry Howard Recently, as I was preparing the eulogy for our pastor emeritus at First Baptist Church of Pensacola, Fla., I came across a copy of an article from the Dallas Morning News dated December 1992. The column was…
Questions of identity dominate CBF’s 20th anniversary
By Alan Sherouse How does a movement that began in reaction live into a proactive future? It’s a persistent question facing the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 20 years after its inception. Last week CBF gathered in Tampa to commemorate and celebrate,…
Forgetting to remember
By Bill Leonard Last week we moved Lavelle, my mother, to the Alzheimer’s Care Unit (euphemistically called “Reminiscence Neighborhood”) at her assisted living facility. For the last nine years, two in Texas and seven in North Carolina, she has been…
Christian convictions are not the law of the land
By Zachary Bailes “That is aimed, number one, at Sharia law,” Land said. “The imposition of Sharia law as an alternative at any level of the American legal system –- let me be clear about this -– violates the Constitution…
What will we do with failure?
By Bill Wilson Failure. Just saying the word in the same sentence as our name makes us nervous. Far too often, failure and ministry go together. Frequently, failure is the last word for ministers and churches. Many ministers’ inner life…
Scapegoating behind anti-immigration laws
By Roger Olson Yet another state, populated largely by people who consider themselves Christians, has apparently criminalized Christian behavior toward illegal immigrants. At least according to the Associated Press which says in an article published in my local newspaper June…
Keeping a ‘Keepers’ file
By David Wilkinson What do you do to restore order, hope or self-esteem when life gives you a kick in the stomach or on those days when you wonder if you’re really making a difference in the world? I know…