Frugality is perhaps one of the most prevalent characteristics found in college students, young seminarians, and millennials. Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, rising prices for college tuition as well as growing concern for market validity... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
If crisis does not lead to greater investment in community it will simply lead to deeper crisis. Often our inclination is to let crisis drive us towards isolation, but it is only within community that we can find real hope and help. So, crisis can... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
I couldn’t believe we were here. We’d flown in and out of Washington DC’s Reagan Airport more times than I could count, but never with Arkansas as the destination. In the past, God had called us to take what I had considered big leaps of faith by... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
The numbers are staggering. Experts estimate that approximately 1,000 local churches close their doors every year. What is even more disheartening about this statistic is that number only reflects Southern Baptist Churches — my denomination. Imagine... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
I have often said that I grew up a proficient sinner. My context encouraged it, and I was gladly spurred on by peers. I grew up in Maine, where cultural Christianity died a long time ago. It wasn’t until I was a 21-year old in the Navy when I first... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Every pastor has a general routine he follows each week in preparing to preach the Word of God on the Lord’s Day. I begin on Sunday night, reading next week’s text. I read it over and over, meditatively, throughout the week. By Wednesday, I hope to... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
Hardly a day goes by that I do not receive some communication from a young minister, often someone I taught in seminary, who cannot find a place of service. Forced to work a secular and usually unpleasant job while sending out countless resumes and... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
I cannot remember when hymns were not deeply embedded in my mental framework. How soon I began to go to “big-church” I do not recall, but the singing always made a deep impression on me and the language upon which I first began to meditate consisted... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
My daughter, Laurelen, graduated from a small, classical Christian high school. The school enjoys a commencement tradition in which the parents hand the diploma to their child, but only after speaking a few words of encouragement (usually... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
In other words, Theology is practical: especially now. In the old days, when there was less education and discussion, perhaps it was possible to get on with a very few simple ideas about God. But it is not so now. Everyone reads, everyone hears... [ ... ][ abbreviated | read original blog ]
