When I Was a Child, I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) If Marilynne Robinson writes it, then it’s worth reading. With Pulitzer-wining Gilead, I fell in love with her fiction. Since then, I’ve been moved by her…
OPINION: Total recall
Science fiction is great for getting my mind churning. Sitting in the theater with an audience cheering the action and being impressed (or underwhelmed) by special effects is a great summer afternoon activity. But that’s not the whole reason it’s…
OPINION: The falconer
In his work The Second Coming, Irish poet William Butler Yeats shares the following bleak reflection: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” Alex Gallimore Yeats penned…
HERITAGE: Heart music
Paul Honaker completes 38 years of music ministry at Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond with a musical extravaganza set for 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 26. It will be a time to celebrate a career devoted to people and…
HeraldBeat: Tracking Baptists across the Mid-Atlantic
Transitions ON THE MOVE Matt Cook, to First Baptist Church, Wilmington, N.C., as pastor. Edward “Bish” Creel, to Beaverdam Baptist Church, Vinton, Va., as pastor. Christopher Dawson, to First Baptist Church, Monroe, N.C., as senior minister. Harry Smith, to Ephesus…
EDITORIAL: New controversy in the SBC?
According to research done by LifeWay and others, the next big controversy in Baptist life will be over Reformed theology, popularly called “Calvinism.” Southern Baptist Convention leadership has become concerned enough to hold a conference on the topic on Aug….
Library association plans fall conference
RICHMOND, Va.—The Virginia Baptist Library Association will hold its fall conference Oct. 13 at Monument Heights Baptist Church in Richmond. The event, which begins at 8 a.m. and concludes at 4 p.m., will cost $20 per person. Registration deadline is…
VITAL SIGNS: A pivotal question
Tom Ehrich, one of my favorite thinkers about church in the 21st century, recently told me he is down to one pivotal question for the congregations he works with. That question is: “Is your primary orientation inward or outward?” His…
Fierce heat, furious storms provide challenges for camps
LYNCHBURG, Va.—It’s official. July 2012 is on record as the hottest month in the country since recordkeeping began in 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sweltering temperatures combined with intense storms that plunged thousands into darkness presented…