The Bible says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, but moments of moral reckoning, such as the one we are enduring now, remind us just how fragile earthen vessels really are.
Co-habitation up, finger pointing down as church discipline declines
Experience and new research show that churches aren’t punishing morally wayward members like they once did. “There is less discipline overall,” said George Bullard, a veteran church and clergy consultant and director of missions for the Columbia Metro Baptist Association in…
The Christ-haunted hosts of Gospel Gothic
The hosts of the Gospel Gothic radio hour — Jake Hall, pastor of Highland Hills Baptist Church in Macon, Ga., as well as Wes Griffith and Brad Evans, local entrepreneurs and owners of 100.9 FM The Creek — are inviting Macon and listeners around the country to join them each Sunday morning in exploring “faith, music and meaning in the Christ-haunted South.”
Down to the river: A pastor’s journey toward real life, real sin and real redemption
The day Jake Hall discovered 100.9 FM The Creek, he nearly plowed through a red light into oncoming traffic. As Hall approached the Spring Street bridge in Macon, Ga., to pass over the Ocmulgee River, Darrell Scott’s “Down to the River” on the radio suddenly broke through his humdrum focus with communion of another kind.
Eating burgers, sinning boldly
When Martin Luther wrote, “Love God and sin boldly,” he was not in a fast food restaurant, but he could have been. Luther was inviting us to recognize what is important and what is not. There are times when you should order the salad, but sinning a little without worrying about it too much may, on occasion, be good for your soul.
Courageous conversations are no longer optional. It’s time to cross boundaries.
We’re going to have to do more, to move past talking (even preaching!) and into the messy and painful work of deep conversation held together by real relationship. In fact, it’s increasingly my conviction that this may be the heart of the faith community’s work in this moment: building authentic relationships upon which these difficult conversations can rest.
Sin? Of course. Depravity? Not so much.
Amy and I led a retreat for a wonderful Presbyterian church this weekend. The response to our leadership and the session material was excellent — though my wife scolded me for throwing John Calvin under the bus in one of…
What judgmental Christians and playboy Olympic swimmers have in common
When we allow judgmental individuals to set the ministry agenda in our churches, or dominate the air-time of our congregational energy, we surrender the church’s ability to be a conduit of God’s grace in the world. We put grace on the backburner.
Hard sayings, unexpected grace
By Bill Leonard Fifty years ago my parents got divorced after almost 30 years of marriage. A decade or so later, my dad remarried, this time to a “widow woman,” as Southerners say, whom he’d known since childhood. They remained…