A Houston megachurch has been in the news due to member concerns about the ways its bylaws were amended and governance was effectively removed from the congregation and entrusted to a small group handpicked by the senior pastor. While this...
I’m conducting a memorial service this week for a former staff colleague, and it has caused me to give thought to what makes for a healthy relationship between ministerial staff members. Ken Denton was, for 24 years, the gifted minister…
Contending Florida’s school children need closer ties to the state’s foundations, a state House subcommittee unanimously backed a bill to require the posting of the words “In God We Trust” in a “conspicuous place” at all public schools.
By Joshua Speight Churches have personalities, much like individuals. According to Enneagram wisdom, and most psychological work on personality, humans have three centers of functioning: thinking, feeling, doing. Congregations and our communities have similar functions. And, both at the individual…
The outrage over the comment made to senators in a meeting on immigration, and which the president eventually denied, has faded as Trump deals with newer scandals, including revelations of a tryst with a porn star. But there are those who continue to simmer about the “shithole” reference, including American Christians who have served as long- and short-term missionaries in some of the African and other nations Trump disparaged.
The recent New Testament dust-up between big-name scholars reminds us how hard—and important—Bible translation can be.
Since that disturbing Oval Office pronouncement there have been thousands of opinions written across the political spectrum, endless hours dedicated to punditocracy in the marketplace, countless words of pulpiteering offered by the Church. And I’ve been afraid to speak.
Staff changes, congregational news and more from across the nation.
A prominent Southern Baptist layman is seeking a gag order in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse, saying pretrial publicity jeopardizes his ability to receive a fair trial. Paul Pressler, architect of a strategy credited with a rightward shift in leadership…
La versión en español está disponible aquí. Last week my mother died unexpectedly. She was 86 years old, and had struggled with Alzheimer/dementia for the last 12 years. This sickness advances slowly and gradually, and little by little family and…
An English version is available here. La semana pasada mi mamá murió inesperadamente. Tenía 86 años y había batallado con Alzheimer/demencia durante los últimos doce años. Esta enfermedad avanza lenta y gradualmente, y poco a poco la familia y amistades…
On an intense weeklong trip through the Holy Land, six rabbis and five ministers, all women, try to figure out a way to make the discourse about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict less toxic.
Growing up as a child of a Southern Baptist minister, Nancy Ammerman developed an early interest in the role congregations play in nurturing the personal faith of individuals. Now a sociologist at Boston University, Ammerman has turned the insights she gained toward a study of American religious life, including controversies that have confronted Baptists.
