“Gone to the fields to be lovely. Be back when I’m through blooming.” From the poem Camas Lilies by Lynn Unger As a general rule, I believe in attempting to live out of a mentality of abundance over scarcity. However,…
Me and Mrs. Womble
Her last name was several feet tall. Spelled out in chipped bold letters that had seen more hurricane winds than fresh coats of paint. Colored red as if Jesus had spoken them. WOMBLE the sign read above the hardware store….
I just left The United Methodist Church for an Alliance of Baptists congregation
Those of us in the Mainline Protestant traditions who still find community in church settings often feel an allegiance to whichever denomination we were raised in. In my case, I was baptized and confirmed in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and…
Steve Lawson preached fire and brimstone except for himself
“Megachurch pastors in Dallas are starting to drop like flies,” I wrote back on June 25 after Tony Evans and Robert Morris stepped away from ministry at prominent megachurches. Apparently “starting” was the keyword because over the next three months, the number…
Learning from the ‘Wise One’
For the past few weeks, I have been enjoying the second season of one of my favorite shows available to stream. There are some Tolkien purists who do not care for the show, but I will not quibble with some…
Here’s who Protestant pastors say they’ll vote for in November
More than in recent years, some U.S. Protestant pastors appear reluctant to tell pollsters who they will vote for in the November presidential race. But among those who are willing to talk, 50% say they plan to vote for Donald…
What your pastor can’t tell you but really wants you to know
Your pastor wants you to know, but just can’t tell you. Your pastor knows too much transparency can be vocationally dangerous, depending on the level of honesty allowed in your church. At the same time, if you knew these things,…
Webinar envisions ways preachers and church musicians might flourish together
Fostering church cultures where both pastors and church musicians flourish requires discerning the perspectives and challenges of the other, Methodist pastor Andy Stoker said during a webinar about pastor-musician working relationships. “Creating a culture whereby a pastor and church musician…
When being a pastor is ‘the most important calling,’ family values take a back seat
Most of the noise at this month’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting was from men attempting to cement their pastoral power over women, Christian nationalists attacking religious liberty, messengers seeking to censure SBC leaders publicly, and the convention voting to…