By Bill Wilson At the Center for Congregational Health, we find that many times staff members operate in a congregational world devoid of healthy accountability. Without a thoughtful, rational system in place, evaluation and accountability disintegrate into personal opinion and…
Is it still, ‘If we build it they will come’?
Many of us remember the 1989 movie “The Field of Dreams.” It is about the sense of compulsion a nearly bankrupt Iowa farmer felt to build a baseball field in the middle of acres of corn. The voice he kept…
Baptist school a hope to young refugees
By Jeff Brumley Annette Ellard and Steve Clark — a husband-and-wife team commissioned by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 2006 to work with refugees from Burma in Louisville, Ky. — expected that population would face daunting language, cultural, employment, housing, medical and…
Association studies gay ordination
By Robert Dilday A Virginia Baptist church recently asked to withdraw from its state convention after ordaining an openly gay man to the ministry is now under investigation by its local association. Richmond Baptist Association appointed a task force Oct….
Church scrutinized after pastor’s arrest
By Bob Allen Missouri Baptist Convention officials are watching a member church whose pastor was arrested recently on sexual abuse charges a year after his previous acquittal of child molestation. Travis Smith, 42, of California, Mo., appeared for arraignment Oct….
Baptists embrace pet blessings
By Jeff Brumley Even at Broadway Baptist Church, where classical and contemplative worship are the norm, some folks were stunned a few years back when the pastor held an animal blessing ritual in the courtyard. Turns out they were in…
When callings and choir robes collide
By Amy Butler The other day I was remembering my first involvement in a church as an independent adult. My first grown-up church was a big, suburban congregation with a fancy building and lots of fun programming for college students….
Fan or foe, children’s sermon here to stay
By Jeff Brumley Judging from the absence of squirming and giggling, Holly Smith’s children’s sermon was quite the hit Sunday morning at Island View Baptist Church in Orange Park, Fla. Five little girls gathered on the steps leading to the…
Rebalancing congregational finances for missional ministry
Your congregational budget has become a straitjacket. What do you do to rebalance your finances for missional ministry? You have at least two choices. One is to take an allocation approach and the other is to take an innovation approach….