The Southern Baptist Convention has outgrown its meeting space for 2023. In a move reminiscent of days of controversy in the 1980s and 1990s, attendance at SBC annual meetings has been on the rise since 2018 — after settling down…
Continuing our retreat from Jesus
This is a photo of me with my father in the upper deck of the New Orleans Superdome at the Southern Baptist Convention in June 1990. We were two of the nearly 40,000 messengers who gathered that year for a…
Tearing down statues doesn’t erase history
Three years ago, I wrestled with the news that my great-grandmother’s statue memorializing “Uncle Jeff” had been removed by the City of New Orleans from the site where it had stood on Canal Street since 1911. I know it really…
Pastor launches webcast to connect with friends, combat boredom of pandemic isolation
“It’s basically like sitting down at the table next to us when we’d go to breakfast.”
‘Gutsy church with a gutsy female pastor’ hosts Clintons in New Orleans
I want to be an innovator and I want to be part of this new thing being born.
Civil Rides sends cyclists pedaling into history, ministry
Some of the photos on Jason Coker’s Facebook page may give the impression he’s out riding the Tour de France these days. But the helmet, colorful team jersey and cycling pants he and others are wearing in the April picture…
Looking for what is good in a challenging world
Who we choose to be informs how we will live and move and have our being in this world. After all, we are people commanded to be known by the way we love one another. If that is our starting point in all things, we will see the good and hope and promise in the challenges before us.
Finding a way forward: A church rooted in its community
Just over two and a half years ago, I stepped into the pulpit at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church for the first time and preached about the uncertain future we were entering together. Like so many churches across the United…
Finding our way home
Two seemingly unrelated stories recently captured my attention. One came my way while on an afternoon date with my wife. The other arrived the same night, as I sat down and read a book written by a long-term friend. By…