(RNS) — Maybe religion really is the opiate of the masses — just not the way Karl Marx imagined. A University of Washington study posits that worship services at megachurches can trigger feelings of transcendence and changes in brain chemistry…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Helping your pastor and staff set boundaries
Recalling an event that happened more than 30 years ago, I can still remember the icy cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. My wife, Connie, and I were enjoying a very rare Friday evening away from church activities….
OUT LOUD
“As hard as we work to try to convince the rest of the world that Mississippi has changed —and, in fact, we have — to see an unfortunate situation like that occur is very disappointing.” Phil Bryant The governor of…
WINN RECOMMENDS
Noticing God, Richard Peace (IVP) The noise in our world is incessant, relentless. The clamor during November every four years hits a new fever pitch. Amid all the ominous drumbeats, Peace invites us to notice God all around us, in…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Bivocational ministry — a real gift
Our TGIF article here focused on the pulls and perils of bivocational pastors. Being a bivocational pastor comes with multiple challenges. But those challenges are accompanied by many rewards that benefit both the pastors and the churches they serve. Unwrapping…
TRENDING: The future of creativity, part 2: Against brainstorming
Jonah Lehrer’s Imagine: How Creativity Works makes an appealing case that the future of imagination and creativity will emerge from groups rather than from solitary genius. But before you leave the solitude of your study for a table of six at…
HERITAGE: Heap o’ livin’
Edgar Guest, the poet laureate of the common folk in the first half of the last century, said it best in his sentimental verse: “It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home, a heap of…
LEADERSHIP LINK: TGIF doesn’t mean what you think
Pat grew up in Baptist churches in the Midwest and West. In the 1950s, he went to his state’s agricultural and mechanical college, studying animal husbandry. Next, Pat went to seminary. Then, he joined the Navy and flew on Cold…
Team named to address Calvinism in SBC
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) — Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee president Frank Page has announced the members of an advisory team who will help him craft a strategic plan to bring together various groups within the convention who hold different opinions…
EDITORIAL: Celebrating what never happened
Dear Jimmy, Well, it’s Sunday afternoon and I am bone-tired and the cause of my weariness was the big doin’s at our little Bluebell Baptist on Saturday. Jim White You might remember Boney and Vera Mae Taylor who have been…
Churches can help grandparents who bear responsibility for grandchildren
“The church building is not a monument. It’s an instrument for God,” Timothy Williams, pastor of Bethsaida Missionary Baptist Church in Mexia, Texas, believes. His wife, Cheryl, director of apartment ministries for Buckner International, is praying her church and others…
LETTER: The defining mark of Christian discipleship
Jesus, who never wrote anything, is quoted as saying, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Today he has over seven billion disciples. Shortly after Jesus’ murder, an educated Jewish writer…