Brett Younger, associate professor of preaching at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, is one of the best writers in Baptist life today.He is at his best when writing satirical, humorous columns on the church and its various…
Common story, community and Christian higher education
(The following are my prepared remarks delivered as a devotion for the President’s Prayer Breakfast at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina on September 2, 2015.) The one unalterable date on our family’s summer calendar is the third week…
Remembering John Claypool on the 10th anniversary of his death
I have been told that long before I stepped foot on the campus of Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology the issue of what students ought to call professors was addressed at a staff meeting. At a relatively small school…
Chipping away at the block of wood in my eye
Introductory word: Family Systems Theory calls for a focus upon one’s self, rather than upon another, when seeking to improve interpersonal dynamics. After all, one’s own part within a relationship is the only part one has the power to change….
What ‘Other Baptists’ can teach other Christians about patriotism
It’s not often that you hear Baptists talking about catholicity. We Baptists have more-often-than-not contented ourselves with a dissenting, sectarian existence and a spotty ecclesial memory that does more time-traveling than Marty McFly in Back to the Future—launching from Jesus,…
New pastors, small churches
Update March 2015: The program described in this story has been renamed Small Church Residency Program. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), like many denominations, has two challenges: thousands of small churches in need of pastors and hundreds of new seminary graduates…
The painful inevitability of moral conflict
Holy dreams
Redemption at Duke Chapel
Admittedly jarring in light of the recent tragedies in Paris and Nigeria was the news that on Fridays at noon the Muslim call to prayer will be chanted and broadcast from atop the Duke University Chapel bell tower. Having travelled…