By Bill Leonard When he preached his last sermon on July 7, 2013, 80-year-old Rev. Harold McKinnish urged the congregation to “get saved,” or reclaim their Christian faith, then “pass it on.” Steadying himself on the pulpit of the Holly…
On accepting a call to pastor
I am literally speechless. I have accepted the call to be the interim pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship in Lexington, S.C. I am speechless because even on this blog, I have expressed my doubts about being able to find a…
Making dreams come true
By Andrew Manis Some years ago, when I taught at Averett College in Danville, Va., my friend Thurman Echols, pastor of the Moral Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Martinsville, often came to speak on the civil rights movement to my American…
Conference marks 200 years of missions
By Bob Allen A three-day conference in November will celebrate 200 years of Baptist missions and explore the lasting impact of Ann and Adoniram Judson, the first U.S. Baptist missionaries to serve on foreign soil. “The Judsons: Celebrating 200 Years…
Now that we have eliminated evangelism, let’s work on eliminating evangelical
In some moderate to progressive denominations it is all about the “E” word. Either these denominations vilify certain “E” words and seek to eliminate them from the proactive movement of the denomination, or they are embrace more deeply certain “E”…
Moral Monday thoughts on Isaac Backus
By Andrew Barnhill Hundreds of clergy and laity from throughout North Carolina have made their way to Raleigh this summer for a series of protests called Moral Mondays. Organized by the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, the crowd of…
Remembering Will Campbell: does anyone here NOT know Amazing Grace?
Remembering Will Campbell: Does Anyone Here NOT Know Amazing Grace? Memorial Service for Will Campbell, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee Saturday, June 22, 2013 Sitting under the words “Love your enemies” I feel my heart swell. They are painted on the walls high…
Spiritual formation: more than a buzz phrase
Two words combined to be a buzz phrase have appeared at different times and in different ways in Baptist life lately, especially at CBF General Assembly last month: Spiritual. Formation. The new Dawnings CBF initiative that offers a missional visioning…
At 81, Baptist a Moral Monday protester
By Jeff Brumley When Baptist Jacqueline Allen of Chapel Hill began participating this month in the Moral Monday protests against the Republican-led North Carolina legislature, she got a loving-but-firm admonition from her daughter and son-in-law: don’t get arrested. “An 81-year-old…
The New Calvinism in the SBC
By Jerry Faught The recent Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting featured a 3,500 word report from the Calvinism Advisory Committee, chaired by David Dockery of Union University. To the surprise of no one the committee essentially declared “we agree far…
Ordination a personal and churchly calling
By Bill Leonard The London Confession (1644), a creatively Calvinist Baptist statement of faith, contains this passage on ministerial ordination: “That also such to whom God hath given gifts, being tried in the Church, may and ought by the appointment…
What happened to the Baptists?
By Will Campbell When I was going to school on the G.I. Bill of Rights, right after the Spanish-American War, they told me that the first few minutes of any address or sermon should be given over to sheer foolishness…