By Jayne Hugo Davis When two of my sisters asked me what I wanted as a gift for my 50th birthday, I told them a collection of family stories — their personal recollections of family history, anecdotes or folly that,…
Loving God with our minds
By Scott Dickison It would be difficult to grow up in our church and not learn the verse from Scripture that Christians around the world know simply as the “Greatest Commandment:” You shall love the Lord your God with all…
The spiritual practice of load shedding
By Jayne Hugo Davis Does it ever feel like the demands upon you require more than the resources you have to give? Maybe it’s time or energy that’s in short supply. Maybe it’s money or creativity or answers. Or compassion…
Hinson-Merton friendship continues impact on Baptist spirituality
By Carrie McGuffin and Jeff Brumley The late Catholic monk, author and interfaith pioneer Thomas Merton is far more than a distant historical figure because the body of his work can actually improve the spirituality of Baptists even today, Baptist…
Freezing temps create First World problems
By Aileen Mitchell Lawrimore Have you heard about the record low temperatures we’ve had in North Carolina recently? Well, let me tell you: this weather has caused me some serious (First World) problems. For one thing, I couldn’t just go…
What do Jimmy Fallon, Ernie Banks and Pope Francis have in common?
By Doyle Sager OK, so maybe we can’t draw straight lines connecting TV celebrity Jimmy Fallon, the late baseball great Ernie Banks and Pope Francis. Perhaps the task will require more looping circles than straight lines. But it occurred to…
Tasting the Kingdom
By Bill Leonard Each January for the last three years I’ve joined a group of students in visiting the Haywood Street Congregation in Asheville, N.C., and each time we’ve gotten a taste of God’s New Community (aka the Kingdom of…
Sometimes it’s just a matter of showing up
By Jayne Davis It was really such a simple plan. The group would meet at my house at 4:30 for coffee and dessert and then head off together to the nursing home at 6 to sing Christmas carols for residents…
Weekly communion heals, unites N.C. church and community
By Jeff Brumley It was back around 2008, during a monthly Friday Lenten service at First Baptist Church on Highland Avenue in Winston-Salem, N.C., that Pastor Darryl Aaron made an unsettling observation. “The economy was real bad, tilting into the…
Pruning season: A time to make room for what matters
By John Carroll Some call them beautiful; others call them a reminder of our mortality — the changing leaves of autumn. Some find the brisk air refreshing; others find it a remembrance of winter’s coming. Some appreciate the shortened days…
Everyone needs to go to Arabia
By Bill Wilson One of the pressing concerns of 21st-century individual and congregational spiritual life is the question of depth. To be blunt, there isn’t much. Study after study has revealed the sad truth that much of what we call…
Spiritual gifts are from God
By George Bullard Many years ago when walking down the hall in the building where I worked, I decided I would stop by Ken’s office and ask about him. It was discovered several months earlier that Ken had a growth…