A New Urgency
Over the Christmas Eve/Day weekend, we attended five different churches in Southern California. Although the churches were diverse in their size, constituency, and methodology, there was one common emphasis—a somewhat surprising emphasis given the season—in those Christmas services. At each service, the pastor presented the gospel and urgently called people to respond. A gospel presentation […]
Mission Discipline
Mission discipline is when most aspects of organizational function line up with the organization’s mission. No organization is perfect, so expecting all aspects to align totally with the mission is unrealistic. But the more an organization’s behaviors (actions, policies, budgets, personnel choices, rewards, etc.) align with the mission, the healthier the organization will be. Leaders […]
Mission Alignment
Durability
It was my privilege to speak recently at the 150th anniversary celebration of the St. Joseph Baptist Association in Northwest Missouri. The association was founded in 1871 and now has 46 cooperating churches. They have maintained a consistent witness for the gospel, cooperated on multiple ministry efforts, planted churches, and otherwise extended the gospel in creative […]
We Wait You
More than a decade ago, a Gateway employee wrote a book detailing her experiences as a missionary in Romania just after Communism collapsed. She was invited into the country as a university lecturer and given freedom to speak about democracy, human rights, and the gospel. After her first presentation, which included the gospel, a Romanian […]
The Chauvin Verdict
I stepped off a plane on Tuesday and heard the news Derrick Chauvin was convicted on all counts of the death of George Floyd. Like many others, I had been thinking about some observations I could offer that might contribute to moving all of us forward in positive ways once the verdict was announced. My […]
Crises in our Churches – One
Classrooms at Gateway are more than conduits for information dissemination. They are a leader-shaping laboratory. During a recent presentation on ecclesiology, students poured out their discouragement and frustration over the state of their churches. The professor set aside his notes and addressed the issues at hand. He followed up that class session with a series […]
The Long View
Thomas Jefferson Bowen was the first Southern Baptist missionary to both Nigeria and Brazil. His largely forgotten, but captivating story is told in the new book Unthinkable: The Triumph and Tragedy of Forgotten American Hero T. J. Bowen by my friend Jim Hardwicke. The Nigerian and Brazilian Baptist Convention each have millions of members, thousands […]
Calling Future Leaders
Christian leaders face a significant challenge of staying focused on our core mission of making disciples. Doing this requires evangelizing the lost, stabilizing new converts, developing stronger believers, and ultimately producing new leaders for our movement. There are so many other distracting agendas—political, social, moral, ethical, and even denominational—that demand attention. Staying focused on our […]
More Churches
One of the most challenging aspects of Christian leadership today is staying focused on our core mission—the Great Commission—and devoting our efforts to fulfilling strategic goals toward that end. Competing agendas constantly shout for our attention. Focusing our attention on what really matters is even harder today. Since our denomination lacks centralized authority and one […]