When someone who is a registered sex offender shows up at church and wants to participate — even in such a simple way as attending worship — what should church leaders do? There is a five-step process pastors and lay…
Lady Liberty beckons us to ask hard questions in these days
In the year 1883, Poet Emma Lazarus wrote her sonnet, “The New Colossus,” to raise money for the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty would stand. The sonnet ends with the poignant, passionate words that were added to the…
After spiritual trauma, finding welcome in church once more
Growing up, the church always was a safe place for me. I grew up in the same small-town church my entire life, and a lot of our life revolved around the church. Sundays were filled with Sunday school and the…
Maybe we’ll just keep on preaching these five sermons
In 20 years, my wife and I have preached about 950 sermons from the pulpit of Park Road Baptist Church. (Amy and I have been co-pastors in Charlotte since 2000.) We’re both manuscript preachers, and we try to hold a…
Decades of life with the ‘Lost Boys’ from South Sudan: Charlotte church loves their neighbors as themselves
Martha Kearse knew the young men were out of their element as soon as she saw them milling in bewilderment at the grocery store’s vast array of options. Very tall, very thin and very confused, they stood out like flies in a glass of milk. Kearse suspected they were some of the Lost Boys of South Sudan that she’d seen featured on the TV news magazine 60 Minutes.
Photo Gallery: Lost Boys in photos
All photos taken in this photo gallery of the Lost Boys are by Norman Jameson. In this ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ series, we learn what happens when one church decides to live up to its covenant of “We will…
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CBF encourages congregations to ‘reimagine evangelism’
Does the idea of evangelism excite you or make you squirm? Does the Good News actually sound like good news anymore? In an increasingly post-Christian culture, how do we equip congregations to invite their neighbors to experience the way, the…
The irony of being told you aren’t invited or welcome at a celebrating cooperation banquet
God is waiting outside the banquet hall to catch the poor soul who is about to be thrown out for being so real and refusing to play the game. God is waiting for the brave souls that refuse to put on the costumes that hide who they truly are.
Our political mantra: ‘Get out of here!’
On Saturday afternoon, walking through Harvard Square on the way to my church, I saw a Muslim woman in a long black garment and niqab. As I passed her, a man suddenly emerged from the crowd, aggressively shouting, “Get out of here! I said get out!”