By Marv Knox Twenty years ago, a good friend and neighbor languished in a hospital bed, dying of leukemia at age 36. He grew up in the Deep South, the product of a Christian home and a Baptist church. He…
When church is the real thing
By Amy Butler Hands down my favorite question to ask people in casual conversation is: Why do you go to church? I often wonder what compels people — what compels me — to offer so much of my life to…
Whose God are we talking about?
By Bob Setzer On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, bright and early at 8 a.m. sharp, I teach “Introduction to the Old Testament” at Mercer University. Recently, I gave my students an assignment: “When you say ‘God,’ Who or What do…
Chilean miners, cell phones and the community of God
By Jim Denison In 25 years, the cell phone that now fits in your pocket will fit in a blood cell. In three years, a computer will exist that possesses the computational power of the human brain. By 2049, a…
Mom finally promotes out of 2nd-grade Sunday school
By David Wilkinson Forty-nine years ago my mother and I advanced to the second-grade Sunday school class together. This year, on her 50th “Promotion Sunday,” Mom finally made it out of the second grade. It nearly broke her heart. In…
In this woman’s story, God has the last word
By Laura Rector What happens when a Southern Baptist girl takes God’s love story for her to heart? What happens when she grows up with heroines like Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong? What happens when she prays for missionaries every…
Out of the post-Katrina darkness
By Lacy Thompson Darkness. Of all the Hurricane Katrina memories and images, the one that endures in me is darkness. For weeks after the storm, I had to travel through New Orleans’ devastated Lower 9th Ward. Each night, as I…
Remembering an unwelcome trio of storms
By Barry Howard The summer of 2005 will be permanently etched in the minds of Gulf Coast residents. And for me that summer of multiple hurricanes provided a most unusual welcome to a new community. In May of 2005 I…
Day 6 in Haiti: It had to happen
(Editor’s note: Norman Jameson returned Aug. 30 from a week in Haiti to report on the work of North Carolina Baptist groups working in the aftermath of that nation’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. This is the fifth and final of…