“They stole $77,000. And that was all of my savings.” Her voice was so soft I (Doug) had to lean in to hear her. “I’ve talked with the local police, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission. The money is...
A United Methodist Church court composed of 13 clergy cleared suspended Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño of four charges after a three-day trial marked by complicated allegations of misconduct and often emotionally fraught testimony from clergy and laypeople from the California-Nevada…
This summer, a team of nine high school students and four adults from Providence Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., traveled on a mission trip to Važec, Slovakia. Ours was the last missions team hosted in Slovakia by former CBF Field…
Last week I heard “therapy” mentioned on Zoom meetings, but not for the usual life dilemmas. The reason was generalized anxiety, a lack of inner peace. “I just need to learn new skills to live in this chaotic world now,”…
Kate Campbell has done something few Baptists have done. She has sung for the Southern Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist World Alliance. Campbell, whose style is a Folk/Gospel mixed with Blues and Country, is the daughter…
An antigovernment organization is currently going viral, but not on their official website. Toby Morton, former writer for the show South Park, has added Moms for Liberty to his growing list of spoof websites, jokingly profiling the organization’s hateful attitudes…
Seventy-six people burned to death when a horrific fire tore through an illegally “hijacked” slum building in Johannesburg, South Africa’s, inner city. That many of the deceased and injured are undocumented African foreigners living on South African’s margins has shone…
During a recent Spirituality in Recovery group at Costello House, a recovery living ministry for men, I asked residents if they would be willing to answer a few questions about their experiences with addiction and recovery. September is National Recovery…
Christianity Today recently published an opinion piece titled, “All About That Tenor: Why Men Don’t Sing in Worship.” The authors and their sources, one of whom is a treasured friend and a trusted colleague of mine, center their piece on…
One of the biggest challenges facing congregations in pastoral transition is realizing how radically the search process has changed since the turn of the century, according to Bill Wilson, founder of the Center for Healthy Churches. He and his successor,…
Invocation “Forgive the entire congregation / of the children of Yisrael / and the stranger amongst them / for the entire people sin unintentionally / Please pardon the sins of this nation / in accordance with the greatness / of…
An Oklahoma church has been expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention because the pastor performed in blackface at a church event and impersonated a Native American woman at another. Matoaka Baptist Church in Ocheleta, Okla., was deemed “not in friendly…
In a recent NPR interview, Russell Moore, author of Losing Our Religion, told a story about a pastor who preached a message from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. During his message, the pastor quoted Jesus saying things like “Turn the…
