Resurrection Year, by Sheridan Voysey (Thomas Nelson) After long, agonizing rounds of IVF and with no pregnancy to show for it, Sheridan and Merryn Voysey recognized that their hope for a child would not be realized. Voysey tells their…
OPINION: Slow-walking the faith-based rules
Remember the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships (OFANP)? Well, it’s probably because the White House doesn’t really want you to. On Aug. 2, the press was notified that the director of the Office of Management and Budget…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Should churches make space available to outside groups?
Sooner or later every church has to decide whether it will make its building available for outside groups to use. The following Suggested Facility Use Covenant is a suggestion only, and not intended to be a legal document. For their…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Make your budget presentation something to remember
By mid-September, most churches have completed their 2014 budgets, or are close to doing so. Weeks, or in some cases months, of analysis and planning have produced a financial plan for spending that will guide ministries and missions in the…
OPINION: What is your role in worship?
What is worship? Just type the word “worship” into Google and a number of definitions appear. Many Baptist congregations understand worship to be the place the church gathers and the gospel is proclaimed for the salvation of the lost. This…
REVIEW: John Lewis’s “March” is a great story of a true American hero
Congressman John Lewis is at the center of a new graphic novel, March, the first of three volumes which focus on Lewis’s work in the civil rights movement. Using the occasion of President Obama’s first inauguration, March tells the beginnings…
OPINION: Implication or assertion
To me, this week’s news has been fodder for just about full-on depression. Reports of uncertainty and confusion surrounding Syria alternate with images of Miley Cyrus’s antics at the Video Music Awards, messing with my head a little bit —…
VITAL SIGNS: Are we flying our churches into the ground?
Spatial disorientation is the condition in which an aircraft pilot's perception of direction does not agree with reality. It typically results from flying into poor weather conditions with low or no visibility. Under these conditions the pilot may be deprived…
TRENDING: Attention strategies
In her turn-of-the-century work with Apple and Microsoft, tech veteran Linda Stone was on the front edge of developing new “attention strategies” for living and working in a hyper-connected, always-on world. With the state of “continuous partial attention” now our…
OPINION: Who do we root for?
The news and images coming out of Egypt seem to get bleaker every time the news comes in. The revolution that began in Tahrir Square two years ago with such promise and hope for positives has devolved into a civil…
LEADERSHIP LINK: Ministry to those with life-threatening illnesses
Sooner or later a deacon who ministers to families or who is part of a hospital visitation team will care for a person with a life-threatening illness. Ironically, just when we need to move closer to church members who are…
OPINION: Church remixed
On Sunday, Aug. 11, the Church at Clarendon in Arlington, Va., held a service entitled “Church Remixed.” The service was during the regular 11 a.m. worship hour, a typically “blended” style service, with five to eight musicians. On this morning,…