Like so many of the families with whom she shared a field, a song, a smile, Aracely Salazar is here to love this country, to work hard, to help her family thrive and to find peace.
What can we learn about poverty from those who work along the Texas-Mexico border?
Where opportunity for education and employment abounds, the fight against poverty remains spiritual, rooted in the heart.
What to do about seminary?
About a week and a half ago, I spent the day talking about leadership with my colleagues. We sat in a circle, nibbling on chocolate mints and letting the unseasonably warm wind blow off the water and into the house.At…
Volunteerism, vital for missions, transforms individuals and churches
By Brian Kaylor The leaders of faith-based disaster relief agencies know it as they respond to catastrophic weather in Texas. And so does Greg Morrow, pastor of First Baptist Church of California, Mo. What they and others know is that…
Answering God’s call isn’t like choosing the right door
By Amy Butler Most days I’m very grateful for my conservative evangelical childhood. For one thing, I can beat almost anybody at sword drill, which has never actually come in handy since I reached adulthood, but I’m not discounting the possibility…
Holy exhaustion
It’s never good when you hear a phrase that starts with, “I’m tired of…” It communicates that there is something in one’s life that is draining their energy, including their emotional and spiritual energy. Even though the actual words “I’m…
How much should we pay the pastor?
By Robert Dilday It may be one of the most uncomfortable — and sometimes contentious — questions in congregational life: How much should we pay our senior pastor? Ministers struggle between commitments to a self-sacrificial calling on the one hand…
Demystifying Christian vocation
By Molly T. Marshall “I am working in the field of adoption. I wasn’t able to find a church position after I finished seminary.” “I oversee the freshmen dorms at a state university. You would not believe what comes through…
Prayer is our shared vocation
Make a list of some of the intractable problems facing us: natural disasters, deadly violence, international conflicts, human rights violations, mutating bacteria, political impasses, hunger and the like. That’s just my short list. You probably can add quite a few…