By Bill Wilson The search process for a new pastor is both an exhilarating and a risky time for a congregation. Healthy congregations go at this task from the framework of a spiritual discernment process that is unique to the…
When is a world organization not a world organization?
Several mornings at the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering as I arrived for worship, I picked up a headset to hear the English interpretation of worship that was held primarily in Spanish, but also in other languages. That had never…
Pockets of friendship: Three lessons for interfaith engagement
Editor’s note: This blog first appeared on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s blog site. It is published by APBnews with the permission of the author. By the time I took my first post-seminary post as a pastor, I wanted interfaith dialogue…
Being missional or doing missional?
It was a different kind of mission trip. We hosted a group of 25 college students and their leaders for a week here in Houston, Texas. No houses were built. No vacation Bible schools took place. No sports camps with…
Loch Ness Found in Classrooms
Seeing isn’t believing; believing is seeing—at least when it comes to the Loch Ness Monster. As it turns out, students in private Christian schools across Louisiana use textbooks that claim the monster was a dinosaur that existed at the same…
Out on a limb
By Bill Leonard On June 30, Daniel Vestal retired as coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an organization established in 1991 from divisions in the Southern Baptist Convention. In many ways his ecclesiastical journey reflects transitions in multiple religious communions,…
Andy Griffith’s kinder, gentler community
Andy Griffith died on the Outer Banks of his native North Carolina where he lived. A few years ago, I took my senior adults to the Outer Banks, and, other than seeing the place where “Nights of Rodanthe” was filmed…
Celebrating with Chilean Baptists is a moving experience
What do you do when— in what may be the only time in your life—Baptists from all over the world come to your country for the Annual Gathering of the Baptist World Alliance? Chilean Baptists decided to create a moving…
Keep the flame of liberty burning bright
By Roger Lovette Nobody has expressed the essence of America more than the artist Norman Rockwell. His pictures are embedded in our hearts. He pictured the Four Freedoms: from fear, from want, worship and speech. Remember that ugly crowd in…