Our motto here at BNG is to inspire you, dear readers, with change-making conversations. We’ve hit a nerve with one of those conversations this week, which tells me it is extremely important that we talk about this. The “this” is…
What a Baptist learned from the Methodists at Duke Divinity School and why I left both denominations behind
I was one of a handful of Baptist students at Duke Divinity School in the mid to late 1980s. Rocked in a Baptist cradle, baptized in a Baptist church and educated at a Baptist university (Wake Forest), I wanted to…
The Methodist and Baptist battles over LGBTQ inclusion this week trace a common road back to … Samford
In any other year, the following fact would have been a minor footnote in a story about United Methodists electing a gay male pastor as bishop in defiance of the denomination’s official ban on gay ministers: Cedrick Bridgeforth is a…
Connect the dots from Methodists to Baptists to Episcopalians to Presbyterians and national politics
Maybe this is simply stating the obvious, but here goes: There is a pattern to what is happening in the United Methodist Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church and other American churches. And that pattern…
Not that kind of Methodist: my sojourn as a Baptist minister in a Methodist church
As a Baptist minister, I owe much to an inclusive, gracious and open-minded Methodist church in Texas that invited me as a new Baptist seminary graduate to be their associate pastor. That gives me hope, despite the General Conference’s recent vote.
Sunday morning becoming the most politically ‘segregated’ hour in America
Sunday morning is becoming an increasingly divided time in America. “If Sunday morning was the most segregated morning in American life, it may also be one of the most politicized hours in American life, implicitly or explicitly,” said Bill Leonard,…
Researchers discover another reason Americans leave church
The forces driving Americans from churches apparently aren’t limited to the generational and cultural factors that grab headlines these days. LifeWay Research has found that departures also are likely to occur if a congregation’s core values are altered in some…
People of faith contribute to ongoing ‘season of booze’
Americans may disagree on politics and religion, but many of them are in step when it comes to booze. As in, they like it. And that embrace of alcohol is on obvious display leading in to the New Year.
With 1 ‘none’ and a slew of Christians, Congress fails to reflect society
Church consultants and researchers for years have warned churches that they need to reflect the communities around them. Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, said he discovered that while conducting research for his book Autopsy of a Deceased Church….