By Luke Smith In light of the traumatic crimes of the past year, it is no surprise that we want to soothe our grief by identifying some measurable response that will alleviate our pain in the face of senseless violence…
Jason Collins and Mother’s Day
By Roger Lovette The recent announcement by NBA star basketball player Jason Collins that he is gay reminded me of a story a friend told about going to a championship football game. As the game progressed, a man sitting in…
Water, water everywhere
By Miguel De La Torre Amid apparent abundance, millions of people on Earth do not have access to clean water. More than 1 billon lack basic sanitation allowing them to take a shower, turn on a tap or flush a…
Managing time in worship
By Bob Burroughs Recently, I’ve been thinking about time, specifically issues concerning “time” leadership in the church. Time is the 21st century’s new currency. Think about it. People most often these day do not ask, “How much will this cost?”…
A tribute to H. Leon McBeth
By Charles Deweese Dr. H. Leon McBeth died this week in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to his retirement, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1962 to 2003. This professor of Baptist history made an indelible mark on tens…
Protecting the church from violence
By Terrell Carter With multiple incidents occurring over the past year in churches of all kinds, what is the responsibility of local church leaders in order to protect their congregations from random acts of violence? This question is not strictly…
Calamity turns Americans to God
By Marv Knox Bombs burst at America’s most venerated footrace, ripping runners and spectators limb from limb. An industrial explosion blocks from some of Texas’ most beloved bakeries shakes an iconic small town to its core. Poison-laced letters in Washington…
Christians and guns
By Adam English At the risk of offending, I feel compelled to express my dismay over the way the Christian community has approached the debate about guns. My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, we have allowed political parties, news…
Don’t blame immigrants for Boston
By Alan Bean When I recovered from the initial shock and horror of the Boston Marathon bombing, I automatically switched into advocacy mode. “Please, God,” I thought, “don’t let the perpetrators turn out to be foreigners or immigrants.” I am…
Running toward the blast
By Susan Sparks Readers, do me a favor. Fold your arms and don the surliest expression you can manage. Done? Good. Now you know what my last standup comedy audience looked like. Mercifully, times like these don’t happen often. When…
Making peace between faith and science
By Fisher Humphreys At least since the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species about a century and a half ago, many people, including many Christians, have felt that Christian theology and modern science must always be in conflict….
Out of season
By Elizabeth Evans Hagan At the church I currently attend, they take the concept of Easter-as-a-season quite seriously. The scriptural phrase “He is not here, he risen as he said” is printed on the front cover of each week’s bulletin….