Gallons of ink — physical and digital — have been spilled writing about the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention at the hands of Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. While they were, indeed, the architects of the “takeover” of the…
The shock of being 60 years old
I turned 60 years old this past summer. I have not quite gotten over it yet. Sixty is just different. It definitely feels at least three years older than 59. “They” say age is just a number. So maybe this…
Who will carry on United Methodism’s legacy of service and community?
When I was a young-ish reporter working on a medium-sized daily newspaper in Florida, one of the more dreaded assignments was the Saturday work known as “bits and ‘burbs.” That jargon stood for the oft-scorned task of collecting suburban news…
‘Leave that boy alone; he’s at Grandaddy’s house!’
At 3 a.m. in the dark of the morning of June 14, 1954, William Emmitt Newell, my grandfather, stirred from his usual sound sleep. “Is it time to go to church, Momma?” he asked his wife, Lela Kittrell Newell, mother…
Sowing an enduring legacy
I pray declining and fragile congregations that are evaluating their future will make unselfish decisions about the kind of enduring legacy they want to sow. Only God is eternal – not particular congregations, their leaders or even their former missions.
The apple does not fall far from the tree: Women’s rights, my mother and me
La versión en español está disponible aquí. Last week my mother died unexpectedly. She was 86 years old, and had struggled with Alzheimer/dementia for the last 12 years. This sickness advances slowly and gradually, and little by little family and…
Could we talk about Nelson Mandela?
In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s memorial service at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, the hyper-partisan, culturally isolated American public has again managed to miss the point of a major figure and event. Instead of having lively, relevant…