In 20 years, my wife and I have preached about 950 sermons from the pulpit of Park Road Baptist Church. (Amy and I have been co-pastors in Charlotte since 2000.) We’re both manuscript preachers, and we try to hold a…
The U.S. Postal Service is near bankruptcy: why Christians should care
The parable of “The Friend at Midnight” offers insight into the importance of a postal service now under threat. People of faith should weigh in on this important political and moral issue.
Broken community in the face of pandemic: For me, social distancing is nothing new | #intimeslikethese
Millions are now experiencing the social distancing and isolation I have felt in the months following my kidney transplant. I hope they will also experience the kind of creative love and care my church offered me.
‘This is the end of the world!’ (again): past lessons for a present crisis | #intimeslikethese
Online or as gathered community, through PayPal or the offering plate, when it is “sanctuary and when it isn’t, we cling to the gospel and the church, not as a hymn-singing non-profit, but as the Body of Christ.
You CAN go home again
When we use our imaginations, our grief and loss have the potential to become the silent, fertile seedbed for redemptive, life-giving deeds.
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A legacy of peacemaking and inclusion
The 150-year-old Peace Cathedral in the Republic of Georgia has claimed the mantle of Christian peacemaking, investing in a vision of inclusive and merciful community. Established as First Baptist Church of Tbilisi, it serves as the mother church of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia, an Alliance of Baptists’ Active Hope Partner.
When telling the truth is painful — and affirming
So here’s how last week went down for me. It actually all began almost two weeks ago when I was sitting in an airport about a 12-hour plane ride away from home. The final presidential debate wasn’t on TV anywhere,…
How can a diverse community of faith collaborate with God in the world’s healing?
I doubt I’m telling you something you don’t know, but just in case you’re wondering, let me say from the start: leading a church is hard work. It’s just perpetually difficult to bring a group of people together, united or…
Looking for what is good in a challenging world
Who we choose to be informs how we will live and move and have our being in this world. After all, we are people commanded to be known by the way we love one another. If that is our starting point in all things, we will see the good and hope and promise in the challenges before us.
When a tiny church houses three religions
Four communities of faith — Christian, Muslim, Jewish and interfaith — form the Multifaith Campus, a novel experiment in multiple religions sharing not just a building but a community.
Finding a way forward: A church rooted in its community
Just over two and a half years ago, I stepped into the pulpit at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church for the first time and preached about the uncertain future we were entering together. Like so many churches across the United…
Is your social network your community? Probably not.
Henry Mintzberg of the University of McGill has asked an interesting question of those who believe they are living in community because of their social networks. “If you want to understand the difference between a network and a community,” he…