Go Grants
Some dreams take a long time to come true. When I first became Gateway’s president almost 20 years ago, one of my dreams was for every student to have an international missions experience while they were enrolled at Gateway. I even considered the idea of making this a requirement for graduation. Those were unrealistic expectations. […]
Send Relief to Turkey
Southern Baptists get a lot of bad press, particularly among those who delight in pointing out mistakes made by Christians and other religious groups. Sometimes, even for those of us who focus on the good Southern Baptists are doing, its easy to forget how comprehensive our global impact really is. Send Relief is the disaster […]
A Low View of Pastors
A recent Gallup survey had some very bad news for pastors, and by extension, for the church in America. In the survey, only 34 percent rated the honesty and integrity of pastors as very high. Among respondents under age 30, the rate was a much lower 20 percent. These numbers are the lowest since Gallup […]
Estate Planning
Gateway Seminary recently received a gift of almost $590,000 from an estate created by a Baptist layman who loved our school and believed in our mission. Leo Rollins could be described as an everyday believer. He was not a prominent leader; nor was he a wealthy man. Because he managed his resources wisely and owned […]
When Words Fail
For a wordsmith who makes his living speaking and writing, it’s hard to admit when words cannot be found. That was my response to viewing the Tyre Nichols police videos. After watching them, I sat in dumbfounded silence. The only word that comes close to describing what I saw is horrific. Brutal, inhumane, and gut-wrenching […]
Relationships Matter: Confirmed Again
The Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest in-depth study of human life ever done, started in 1938 by following the lives of 724 participants. The study later expanded to include more than 1,300 of their descendants. The researchers have used various tools to isolate factors which contributed to longevity, overall health, and quality of […]
Forgiveness, Restoration, and Pastoral Integrity
Leaders make mistakes. Most of the time, our mistakes can be rectified by admitting our fault, confessing our sin, apologizing for our actions, making restitution, and determining to do better next time. But what happens when a leader – particularly a pastor – makes a more serious mistake? What happens when a mistake includes unethical […]
International Seminaries
One Gateway initiative which often remains behind-the-scenes is our partnerships with international seminaries. Some of these relationships are formal (with written agreements to support one another) while others are fraternal (more intermittent and relational). We have several of these with schools around the world – mainly focused on the Pacific Rim but also including schools […]
One More Time, At Least
This Sunday is the soft-launch of the fifth church plant Ann and I have helped launch since 1989. In our first, I served as the founding pastor of Pathway Church in Gresham, Oregon. It was my privilege to preach there last month, celebrating Christmas with a few old friends (along with many members who had […]
Prayer in Crisis
When all else fails, pray. That’s the response most people make to a crisis—shown once again by the immediate response to the tragic injury to Damar Hamlin during the Buffalo Bills/Cincinnati Bengals game on Monday night football. Sports commentators, who normally eschew or lampoon references to religion, repeatedly said all they could do in the […]