By Jeff Brumley There were plenty of big developments for Daniel Vestal to address in his final sermon at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly June 22, including approval of the 2012 Task Force report, the issue of “letters of…
Baptists who “do this”
Cooperative Baptists are Baptists who “do this” when they get together. They “do this” not only in their local churches but also in their assemblies and in the institutions of theological education with which they partner. I’m talking about the…
The meaning of life
Following the Second World War several existentialist authors wrote at length about the meaning of life. One of these was Albert Camus, whose “Myth of Sisyphus” opens with these words: “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide….
Lost Boy’s journey leads to divinity school
By Jeff Brumley International students who have endured war and disease in their homelands are nothing new at Mercer University. But Abraham Deng can claim that and more: as a child, he survived lion, hyena and crocodile attacks along with…
A conversion we all need
We had just left the Omar ben Abdul Aziz mosque in suburban Atlanta when he leaned his large frame up toward me in the van and, with tears in his eyes, said, “Dr. Nash, why don’t we get down on…
“The Blind Side” gets blindsided
Baptist news wires carried the story recently about a successful protest by a Baptist preacher to remove a movie from LifeWay stores. The movie is “The Blind Side,” starring Sandra Bullock. It was based on the book by the same…
Margin for error
As I pulled up to the middle school for my child’s sixth grade awards ceremony recently, I couldn’t help but think back to a similar day just a few years ago. It was a Friday, my day off, and I’d…
The formation and reception of believer-theologians
But on the other hand…. My college philosophy professor Wallace Roark taught me that cultivating the capacity to “think on the other hand”—to Think Like an Octopus—is the key to becoming a good thinker. “But on the other hand” is…
Just showing up
I am more convinced than ever that showing up is one of the most important things we can do. As a minister serving a new faith community, I have been faced with many opportunities to be present for a variety…