By Norman Jameson The long-awaited second edition of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force was released May 3, and interest is high. Revisions indicate task force members heard the reactions of Baptists to their initial progress report which came out…
Arrested for ‘driving while Latino’
By Lisa Sharon Harper Certain moments in our nation’s history have consistently opened the door for the least civil voices to enact evil through civil policy — think of the institution of race-based slavery, the Indian removals, Jim Crow laws,…
Singing in the storms
By Jim Denison I’m old enough to remember a day when most people trusted the authority figures in their lives. When employees respected the companies they served, fans believed in sports heroes, and communities esteemed bankers and scientists and elected…
The prophetic pastor
By Bill Wilson One of the most precarious tasks a preacher faces is that of being a prophet. The role of prophet is one toward which many ministers feel a deep ambivalence. All preachers know that relevant preaching must address…
Lessons on love from Cecil Sherman
By David Wilkinson Cecil Sherman has rightly been remembered this past week as a leader who spoke the truth and stood by his convictions. I admired him for those and other qualities as well. But I am particularly grateful for…
Financial reform and Christian moral values
By David Gushee The “culture wars” have slotted Christian moral engagement with American public life into a drearily predictable pattern of fighting over issues such as abortion and gay marriage. But the longer history of Christian public ethical engagement includes…
Farewell to a friend
By Daniel Vestal On April 17, 2010, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship said farewell to a founder and friend, Cecil Sherman. He was a leader among us even before we began and then served as our first coordinator from 1992 to 1996….
The womb of baptism
By Carra Hughes Greer Stepping into baptismal waters to baptize my first candidate as a minister, I relived many of the emotions I felt over 18 years ago on the day that I was baptized. While my baptism was a…
A Prostate Prayer
By Ed Sunday-Winters Not so many years ago I turned 40. The whole thing was more or less anticlimactic. There were not many noticeable changes in my life, at least not many that I noticed. One change that I did…
Obedience, identification, hope reasons for believer’s baptism
By Marv Knox “In obedience to our Lord’s command, I baptize you … .” For four centuries, this baptismal formula has echoed across creek banks and through Baptist sanctuaries around the globe. It reflects a central reason most Baptists practice…
Believer’s baptism — sacrament or symbolic ordinance?
By Karen Bullock One of the distinguishing marks of the people of God called Baptists, across our 400 years of witness, has been our strong affirmation of believer’s baptism, which is rooted in our high view of Christ’s authority in…
Should Baptist churches adopt open membership? Yes.
By Curtis Freeman The Baptist movement began 400 years ago with the self-baptism of John Smyth, but the roots of immersion lie beyond that first gathered community whose mode was affusion, or pouring. Edward Barber was probably the first to…