This year our family begins a new chapter…travel soccer. I am officially becoming one of those parents that I used to lament as a youth minister. “These parents are more committed to soccer than the spiritual formation of their daughter.”…
What if a generation of women in ministry planted new congregations?
It is hard to believe it has been more than 35 years since I was ready to leave seminary in Louisville, KY for what I thought would be my first full-time church pastorate. Although I had grown up in Baltimore…
Does your church look like a warehouse?
For the last 30 years, it has become popular for new churches to build their worship and ministry space to look like a warehouse or storehouse (or use an actual warehouse). The “Emergent” or “Emerging Church” and ultra contemporary church…
In + Out: a few thoughts on breathing
Some time ago, thanks mostly to the Comcast home page usually concerning itself with tracking the intricate and myriad movements of the Kardashians, I came across an article ranking the “most stressed out” countries in the world. In the study…
Spiritual formation: more than a buzz phrase
Two words combined to be a buzz phrase have appeared at different times and in different ways in Baptist life lately, especially at CBF General Assembly last month: Spiritual. Formation. The new Dawnings CBF initiative that offers a missional visioning…
Ten reasons why I pray during Ramadan
My initial experiences with Ramadan years ago in West Africa were at times confusing to say the least. I will never forget getting caught in an awful traffic jam in the main thoroughfare of one of the most congested neighborhood…
iPhones and paper Bibles
He stuck his head in the classroom door like a substitute English teacher on the biology hall, looked at the well-dressed occupants and stepped back into the hall. His Sunday School class of 30-somethings was to begin meeting with this group of…
Eva and the evening
With anticipatory excitement, we sat huddled at the end of the driveway – Eva, my husband Mark, and me. It was summer, it was near dark and we were sitting in fold-up metal and plastic-webbed chairs, almost in the street. …
The stress of the movable Sabbath
Someone at church once asked me, “When is your day off?” I replied, “Friday.” “Wow.” He said. “I wish I could have Friday’s off. Must be nice.” “Well, I don’t get many Sundays off. That must be nice to have…
Remembering Will Campbell, a spiritual brother
Some years ago, songwriter and poet Mickey Newbury sat down to pen a song about Cortelia Clark. With the background full of sounds of distant trains and despair dripping from the trees, he led with this verse . . ….
Church uses vandalism as social media message
What do church leaders usually do when someone vandalizes the side of a church with graffiti? Cover it up, repaint, or remove the vandalism. A church in Randolph, New York was recently vandalized with the words, “Can I still get into heaven…
Thais of the heart
A Catholic nun and a Baptist minister walked into a Thai restaurant. They sat down and ordered Pad Thai. Over noodles and conversation they discovered that, long ago and some 500 miles away, they were connected to the same roots. …