columns

By Bill Leonard Recent conversations about hymnody and history sent me back to a century-old family photo I discovered after my mother’s death two years ago. It shows a group of some 70 men, women and children standing in front…

By Amy Butler Last week I spent a few days teaching a class called The Vulnerable Leader, with doctor of ministry students at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan. This was the second year I have had the privilege of…

By Aileen Lawrimore “For this assignment,” Dr. Danny West said, “I want you to watch a movie and then write a reflection on what that movie says theologically.” It was one of my first assignments for my Introduction to Preaching…

By Jayne Davis My weary body slid into the lounge chair by the pool like Derek Jeter stealing second base — out of breath, a bit scuffed up and like I had taken something I wasn’t supposed to have: a…

By Molly T. Marshall Word came last evening of the gruesome death of a Jordanian pilot. Evidently he was burned alive, confined in a cage. This is the latest in a series of brutal executions, which call attention to the…

By Doyle Sager If Protestants had saints, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would be one of them. And Feb. 4, his birthday, would be his day. He was a German pastor and theologian, a prolific writer and an early opponent of Hitler. He…

By Kyle Henderson The pool of churches which can and will work together is getting smaller. It looks like the pools will eventually shrink to puddles and then dry up completely. When I was a kid we loved to play…

By John Chandler One of the leaders in multi-scenario planning and global forecasting in recent decades has been the Shell Corporation. Their economic interest in doing this well is clear: with a predicted global population of nine billion and increased…

By Starlette McNeill “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” This seems to be the instant message received every day in our world. Yes, fear is a common experience but now it is a shared automatic response as bad things just keep…