Sixteen months ago, Benjamin Boswell was forced to leave Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. “Being called to Myers Park Baptist Church was a dream,” Boswell told me in a recent conversation. “This was the church I always said,…
Liberalism is not liberation
One of my predecessors as pastor at Myers Park Baptist Church was the great Carlyle Marney, who confessed, “The real crisis for me was in Charlotte” where he was caught in a web of socio-economic forces that included “money, banking,…
A week later: Myers Park offers lessons for us all
Most all our readers seem to have an opinion about the news story I wrote last week about Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., abruptly forcing the resignation of their pastor the Sunday before Thanksgiving and one week before…
North Carolina pastor abruptly forced out of prominent pulpit
Two weeks after he preached a sermon calling for action to oppose the worst impulses of the incoming Trump administration, a North Carolina pastor was forced out of his prominent pulpit. Ben Boswell, who had been senior minister at Myers…
Pride month and the unhindered gospel
One of the key words of Acts is “unhindered.” The last word of the book is in the adjective form, saying that Paul near the end of his life preached the gospel of the kingdom “unhinderedly.” The whole book is…
More screen time for children as VBS goes virtual for summer 2020
“Not having VBS in person means there’s a whole group of families that I won’t have a real opportunity to connect with.”
How to help immigrants in detention
Some of the ways that individuals and congregations can help are to learn about the issues of immigration and advocate for humane, compassionate, and sensible public policies and laws which impact the immigrant community.
Awakening to injustice: a church goes on a pilgrimage to follow immigrants’ journey from undocumented to detained
Nearly 20 people arrived early in the morning at Myers Park Baptist Church to embark on this sacred pilgrimage to listen, learn and discern how God is calling them as individuals and us as a Church to seek justice for America’s immigrants.
Photo Gallery: Awakening to Immigrant Justice
Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. embarked on a sacred pilgrimage to listen, learn and discern how God is calling them as individuals and as a Church to seek justice for America’s immigrants. The group followed the route to Georgia many undocumented immigrants in North Carolina must follow after being detained.
Video: Awakening to Immigrant Justice
“By placing our feet on sacred grounds which are off our well-beaten paths, we hope to expand our listening and learning. Moving beyond head to heart, beyond words to feelings, we yearn to gain a fuller understanding of our systems of immigration.”
Church’s ‘awakening’ pilgrimage traces steps of detained immigrants
Two dozen members of a progressive Baptist church in North Carolina followed the road from immigration court in Charlotte to a notorious ICE prison in Georgia during a two-day pilgrimage protesting the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward unauthorized border crossings…
Ready to ‘welcome the stranger,’ Baptist church invites Muslim spiritual leader to preach Advent service
Some folks may be stunned to learn that a Baptist church in Charlotte, N.C., has invited a Muslim to preach from its pulpit on the first Sunday in Advent. But the idea seemed a natural one for the congregation, given its 2017 preaching and formational theme titled “Awakening to Immigration.”