“Take him out! Blow him up! Take him out! Blow him up!” the children chant during a vacation Bible school program at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. With eerie music looming over the scene, the viral TikTok video...
I am concerned about the focus of the church, or its lack of focus. There was a time when the church in the United States was relatively financially flush and spent its money on a variety of ministries. Churches had…
Last year about this time I was preaching for the Blue Christmas service held at a church in a another city. It’s one of those services where the church gives a nod to the fact that not all people are…
By Amy Butler One of my spiritual mentors used to remark around Christmas every year about how amazing it is that God decided it would be a good idea to come to earth as a human. “Jesus was God —…
I’m sure this has happened to you this year at least once. There you are, full of Christmas cheer and, like all good Jesus followers have just won the fight for a prime space in a checkout line so you…
When I was little I hated getting in trouble. I really hated it. It wasn’t so much the possibility of punishment as it was the feeling of tension, knowing I was at odds with my parents or someone else. In…
The night before, Almighty God, creator of the universe, had stepped into actual human existence in that baby boy’s birth. Countless times we have taken our places as spectators in the sanitized stable soon after Jesus was born. The young…
ARLINGTON, Va. — Two Baptist congregations in Washington’s Northern Virginia suburbs have been recognized for their contributions to affordable-housing efforts in the region. The Church at Clarendon sits in the heart of one of metropolitan Washington’s most densely packed neighborhoods….
By Bob Allen A public hearing is scheduled Jan. 9 on a massive solar-energy project proposed on the grounds of Ridgecrest Conference Center, a retreat facility near Asheville, N.C., owned by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. New…
By Bob Allen Faith leaders hand-delivered letters Dec. 11 asking 115 members of Congress to oppose funding cuts to Medicaid that they believe could harm Americans with disabilities. Talks in Washington to avert an impending fiscal cliff have pitted Democrats’…
