“Hey, are you OK? As soon as I heard, I thought of you.” That’s what I heard on the other end of the phone from my best friend the day Queen Elizabeth died. Why did the death of a monarch…
John Onwuchekwa leaves Atlanta pastorate
A pastor who called out the Southern Baptist Convention for racism two years ago has stepped down from his Atlanta pastorate, saying his gifts for church starting do not translate to leading a larger congregation. John Onwuchekwa made headlines in…
Mary, Our Mother (For Baptists): Blessed is she
This is the final article in a four-part Advent series. One of my children asked me the other day, “What’s the big deal about access to birth control?” My answer was, “If your mother had not had access to birth…
What happened at Southwestern and why does it matter?
There is no joy in reporting that Southwestern Seminary has forced out its fourth president in 28 years. But there is a need to give some interpretation to what this means and why it likely happened. Even though I haven’t…
Pandemic exposed injustices, but those lessons are fading away, research shows
The realities of racial, economic and gender injustice exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic began to fade from consciousness only a year later, according to researcher Eileen Campbell-Reed. During the first two years of the coronavirus outbreak, the Baptist theologian and…
The congregational staffing crisis
My news feed has been filled with a variety of stories recently describing the current and coming shortage of public educators. Many school systems are reporting a dearth of teachers as they start the academic year. Citing a variety of…
The three wise men of the Southern Baptist Convention
I love Christmas and usually start playing Christmas music during the end of summer. One of my favorite parts of the Christmas story is that of the three wise men. I love that these men were courageous enough to follow…
Don’t overlook the depth of the disease in the SBC
As news is breaking from the investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of sexual abuse, my heart breaks for women in the denomination I once called home. It is devastating to read about the treatment of victims and about…
The Supreme Court’s politicized decision on abortion will do nothing to help churches thrive
As if the American church isn’t divided enough, it appears we’re about to roll back the clock 50 years on abortion rights and throw more jet fuel on the culture war bonfires consuming our congregations. For some churches and pastors,…