By Jeff Brumley Since her nomination as executive coordinator in January, Suzii Paynter has been traveling at a breathless pace helping guide the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship into a new organizational and missional era. The pace only increased with her election…
They shoot preachers, don’t they?
In his book Don’t Shoot, criminologist David Kennedy identifies a disconnect between a criminal justice system built on the notion of personal responsibility and the fact that gang bangers think and behave as members of a group. You can’t reduce…
Small church embraces diversity
By Daniel Wallace Allendale, S.C., is one of the most economically challenged counties in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau can testify to that. But it’s also one of the most ethnically diverse. And First Baptist Church of Allendale…
Embrace the darkness
It’s always a priceless moment on Daylight Savings Sunday. As the crowd that set their clocks ahead leave worship, those who didn’t enter the sanctuary a bit bewildered. Being a staff minister, it’s always a restless night, for fear that…
The forgotten message of Lent
I’m a part of a lot of peer groups. As a matter of fact, probably too many. I have a group I meet with weekly on Thursday evenings. I have another group I meet with every fourth Thursday. I have…
Renewing compassion
By Molly T. Marshall As governing structures lurch from one fiscal crisis to another, it is not easy to move beyond self-protective responses. Whether made “redundant” by a job lay-off, deemed “expendable” by a curtailed health-care provision, plunged “underwater” because…
Renewing compassion
By Molly T. Marshall As governing structures lurch from one fiscal crisis to another, it is not easy to move beyond self-protective responses. Whether made “redundant” by a job lay-off, deemed “expendable” by a curtailed health-care provision, plunged “underwater” because…
Real hope for tough times
You can sustain a lot of losses in your lifetime, but when you lose hope, life can become depressing and your previously strong faith can become as weak as stump water. During tough times, hope becomes the fuel that energizes…
Evangelicals find “the heart of God” on immigration
American Evangelicals are gradually joining the push for immigration reform and the impetus behind this shift in emphasis is most apparent in Focus on the Family, a para-church organization founded by the controversial James Dobson. But Dr. Dobson has yielded…