Oh those days of feeling I’ve left too many to-do’s unfinished. Ever had those days? I had about 10 years’ worth in a row when my five children were little. I would get to the end of a day and think: Wait. Did I actually get anything done? Anything finished? Anything? Maybe it wasn’t so much that I hadn’t accomplished anything. Just not many/any of the genuine to-do’s on the list. When you have a bunch of babies in a short span of time, there are ever the little surprises in a day. Like … [Read more...]
Will Democracy survive in the United States?
EDITOR'S NOTE: J. Alan Branch serves as professor of Christian ethics at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. This article first appeared on Midwestern's "For the Church" website, ftc.co. Carl F.H. Henry’s 1996 book Has Democracy Had Its Day? is a provocative and helpful reflection on American democracy as he considers its future in an era when the Christian faith has been shoved to the side in favor of highly individualized moral autonomy. Since Henry’s death in 2003, the dramatic … [Read more...]
The MBCH a ministry of Christ-centered hope
In 1 Corinthians 13:13, the apostle Paul writes, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Why? Why would Paul write that “the greatest of these is love”? Well, let’s look at what Jesus defines as love. In the Gospel of John 15:13-14, Jesus says to his disciples, “Greater love has no one that this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Love is most important because love is central … [Read more...]
Advancing the gospel by money management
I love my job. Why? Because I get to focus on Advancing the Gospel. Although my position has looked different throughout my life, my calling has remained the same since I started at Siloam Springs Baptist Assembly. When I first walked that aisle as a teenager, I assumed it would be in youth ministry. Then I became a pastor and still serve in a wonderful church as an interim pastor (note we are all interim). But now, I get to live out this calling in the world of finance. To help people … [Read more...]
Let’s strive to provide a safe environment for everyone
The world has changed. Yet many things remain the same. Before 2000, we didn’t hear much about sex abuse among our Baptist family. That doesn’t mean the sin was not occurring. It simply meant it was too despicable a sin to talk about in public. I heard the warning with my own ears from Dr. Richard Land, then president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, now retired. “With the access the internet affords, the sewers of depraved humanity will flow into the homes of … [Read more...]
Could return to faith resolve nation’s ‘flight from work’?
Whether the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 achieved any good for society, I’ll leave it for you to decide. But one good thing, at least, it did for me. See, for all the decades of my life, I’ve lived under the delusion that toilet paper is always in ready supply. The lockdown undeceived me, once and for all. Come to find out, if a man wants a delicate roll of two-ply at hand, the multitudes must sweat and toil. They must labor at logging companies, toilet paper mills and packaging plants, in … [Read more...]
Metaphysical madness
Earlier this spring, I experienced the high honor of preaching at First Baptist, Wentzville, a very gracious church with a heart for the Word of God. While I was preaching, I had this incredible thought run through my head that absolutely blew me away. Yes, honest preachers have all experienced this phenomenon. You are speaking and – boom! – thought bursts into your mind that has very little to do with the text, but it profoundly impacts your perceptions. This time my text was 2 Kings … [Read more...]
Comfort flows from life, death, resurrection of Christ
Words of comfort come easy to most of us – at least, as the saying goes, until we suffer a toothache ourselves or stub our own toes. But one wellspring of comfort never runs dry – namely, the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the ages, Christians have sought comfort amid suffering by remembering the truths we celebrate on Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. Since Jesus lived and died for them, these Christians saw themselves in His story of suffering. In turn, … [Read more...]
Kids have problems, too!
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” – Genesis 1:27 Sometimes we forget that children, as well as adults, have problems. We, perhaps, think that all we need to do to make them happy is to praise them and let them have a lot of fun. Not so! Children sometimes worry themselves to the point of sickness. They have an added problem. They often don’t have the vocabulary or experience to be able to explain their feelings to … [Read more...]
Why do people deconstruct their faith?
A recent phenomenon has hit evangelicalism. People who grew up attending church and expressing faith early in life are walking away from their previous professions. The inevitable result is young millennials either completely rejecting Christianity or severely wavering in what they still believe. The movement is called faith deconstruction, the process of unpacking, rethinking, and reexamining previously held beliefs. With such a significant shift taking place in our churches, how should … [Read more...]
Leadership in transition
Since we asked the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Executive Board on March 6 to launch a search for the next executive director, Sharon and I have received so many good wishes from Missouri Baptists and from believers all over the country. We are deeply humbled. We pray the transition creates an atmosphere of continuity throughout the search process while maintaining leadership clarity. This transition is a process of changing leaders with the least amount of disruption for the missionary … [Read more...]
Even Pi Day points us to the Alpha and Omega
Many moons ago, after surviving an algebra class in my freshman year of college, I bid adieu to mathematics and intended never to take up the subject again. Even in childhood, when for a short time I dreamed vaingloriously of studying astrophysics in the footsteps of the great Einstein himself, I disliked math – naturally, since few people love subjects they struggle to understand. On my wall hung a poster of Einstein, with words of hope for me: “Do not worry about your difficulties in … [Read more...]
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