Lunacy
During the holiday season, one of my granddaughters danced in a production of The Nutcracker. She was a bon-bon, and of course, the best one on the stage. Her small part of the two-hour production was designed to introduce the youngest performers to the big stage in front of larger audiences. The older performers—mostly middle […]
Christmas Tradition
Christmas Traditions One of our favorite Christmas traditions is listening to Christmas music. During the holiday season, we enjoy a remarkable Christmas program at our church, hymn singing in worship services at our church, some Christmas musicals on television, downloads of Christmas albums by favorite artists, and satellite radio songs of the season as we […]
Pastoral Accountability
One type of troubling email that comes my way is when a disgruntled church member asks me to intervene and correct behaviors by one of our graduates currently serving in pastoral leadership. Many church members assume the Southern Baptist denomination has some means to hold pastors accountable for their behavior. We don’t. They assume seminaries […]
Free Resource
Baptists are more liturgical than we claim to be. Just change the order of worship in a church and the complaint level will reveal how committed we are to doing things the “right” way—week in, week out. Our liturgy appears informal, but only because we base it more on tradition and feel than on prescribed […]
Mission Tension
Can you imagine a law passing unanimously in the House of Representatives and with a 97-3 majority in the Senate? It happened in 1996. That law was the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which legally codified the definition of marriage as one man married to one woman. President Clinton signed the law, settling the issue […]
Contentment
Ambition and contentment seem like incompatible tensions in character development. Phrases like get ahead, do your best, make something of yourself, and pursue excellence are cultural mandates describing ambition. Even the Bible affirms ambition with encouragement to maximize our gifts, commit to global impact, and aspire to leadership roles (1 Tim. 3:1). In contrast, one […]
Secret Sauce
Attending eight state conventions this fall has reminded me how cooperation is foundational to the work of Southern Baptists. Most outsiders miss this point. Both unbelievers and believers in other denominations do not understand how cooperation is the foundation upon which our work as Southern Baptists rests. The Southern Baptist Convention has no authority over […]
The Changing Nature of Elections
It’s election week in America which prompted me to think about past elections, my participation as a voter for more than 40 years, and my previous observations about this important process. So, I Google-searched myself to see what I had written about elections. These comments, written after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, reveal […]
Intersect 2022
Truth is supposed to be defined as what is true—always, all the time, in every situation and context. Today, truth is a malleable concept—a Gumby-like collection of whatever a person perceives or wants to be factual or accurate. The phrase “my truth” best describes the modern understanding of truth—meaning whatever a person claims to be […]
Not Just Words
Profanities and vulgarities are becoming more common in American culture. Words once reserved for the locker room, barracks, or factory floor are now shouted as cheers at major sporting events. In San Diego, the Padres vanquished their hated playoff rivals—the Evil Empire known as the Dodgers—and a player coined a rally phrase which has been […]