What Makes a Baptist (3/4)
This article is the third episode in the sporadic series on what it means to be Baptist. It’s based on the “Four Fragile Freedoms” from Walter Shurden’s book, The Baptist Identity. Short book, big implications. The previous two articles were about Bible Freedom and Soul Freedom. More or less, being Baptist means you don’t need some person to keep the Bible or God’s grace…
What Makes a Baptist (2/4)
This week’s article will be the second episode in the not-so-regular series on what it means to be Baptist. The last time I wrote on this, I pointed you Walter Shurden’s excellent little book called The Baptist Identity. He writes about the 4 characteristics that have historically made Baptists distinct. I emphasize that because it’s not always the case, and maybe less so…
What Makes a Baptist (1/4)
We’re going to use this space to talk about what Walter (“Buddy” if you’re cool like that) Shurden identifies as the Four Fragile Freedoms in his book The Baptist Identity. If you’ve ever wondered what it means to be Baptist, which many of you indicated that you do, then I highly recommend this book to you as an introduction. We’re going to consider one of the freedoms…
Women in Ministry in the Bible
Over the past several weeks, there’s been much ado about the brouhaha with the Southern Baptist Convention voting out two churches whose offense was having a woman in a pastoral role. You can read more about it in the links at the bottom of the article. Although I’m not a Southern Baptist, I feel a need to say something about it for two reasons. First, I’m a pastor in a…
What Do You Do on Sabbatical? Part 5 – Spiritual Health
I think this will be the last one I’m going to write. As such, I may have to squeeze a skunk story in here because I don’t really know where else to put it. Oh, and if you’ve just stumbled onto this one, you don’t need to read the previous posts before looking at this one.…
What Do You Do on Sabbatical? Part 4 – Physical Health
Real quick, if this is the first of these posts about sabbatical that you’ve read, don’t even worry about it. They’re not required to be read in any particular order. The idea is that I had 10 weeks worth of time called sabbatical. Sabbatical is kind of a unique thing and folks…
What Do You Do on Sabbatical? Part 3 – Read & Write
There are two previous episodes of this series of blog posts, but these aren’t really meant to be a continuous story thread or anything. I was doing all of these activities more or less all throughout the whole 10-week period. I’d cook most afternoons (some longer than others).…
What Do You Do on Sabbatical? Part 2 – Cook
If you didn’t read Part 1, I’m cool with that. Who am I? You don’t owe me anything. I was on sabbatical for 10 weeks and probably most people want the general idea of what I was doing for that time. Others may want a little more detail. These posts are for the latter kind. This…
What Do You Do on Sabbatical? Part 1 – Vacation
As I sat down on my first full day back in the office (I snuck in Monday afternoon without alerting anybody), I began to imagine all the many conversations we’re likely to have. I can’t wait for them. I’m excited to hear from you and to share some of what I did over sabbatical. But, it occurred to…
Why Policy Matters – It’s about People
I’m writing this post on a Wednesday morning – the Wednesday after the tragic shooting in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Like all of us, I suspect, I’m overwhelmed with emotion in hearing this story. I’m hurt and angry and despairing and fully aware that my feelings are a single teardrop in…