What kind of congregation do you want? That query precedes the probe into the kind of person you want as pastor? For 15 years I trained churches and their “Pastor Search Committees.” In recent months, I have begun to wonder whether…
Leadership for a “Denominetwork”
Women leaders. Diversity in worship. Babies in strollers and toddlers in arms. Faithful friends. New relationships. Creative initiatives. All of these are impressions that I brought back from the 2014 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Atlanta. The Fellowship continues to…
Passport’s founders spearheaded quiet shift in how youth hear God’s call
Over the last two decades, a quiet shift has taken place in how and where Baptist young people hear the call of God and receive training for Christian ministry. One of those in the vanguard of this movement is Passport…
The complexity of short-term missions
Lately I’ve had the privilege to be part of great discussions about how to improve our current short-term mission praxis. Many of us know that something is wrong with the way we do short-term work, and thankfully there are a…
Can I give you a ride?
I like giving people rides. As I live and work in the same neighborhood with a high concentration of poverty, I find the opportunity arises quite often. It’s a simple act of kindness that gives me joy while meeting an…
Disaster relief groups challenged by border crisis
By Jeff Brumley Baptist disaster relief agencies are pressing hard to determine what, if anything, they can to do aid the immigrant children flooding into the nation along the southern border by the tens of thousands. While some help has…
Desperate to avoid (dealing with) death
Recently I spoke at a conference of Retirement Community Chaplains. My thesis was that people who deal with the vicissitudes of life best tend to deal best with the reality of death. There are 72-year-old men and women who seem to…
Is the church too busy attending meetings and talking with itself?
All my life I have loved attending denominational celebration events and conventions. I love least the formal meetings. I love most the networking. I love seeing my friends in ministry and meeting new friends in ministry. It is part of…
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship: An alternative Christian model in a polarized era
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee Though I am serving this year as theologian-in-residence for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, this reflection on the annual CBF General Assembly this past week represents my independent, unvetted opinion. I write on the day…