Sword & trowel: Politics, religion & Him
If you scroll through your social media posts, what’s the most common topic on which you focus? Perhaps it’s sports, food or movies. If you’re a Christian, hopefully the Bible and Jesus are often discussed. With the 2020 Election just days away, a quick survey of social media reveals that for most Americans, they are talking all politics, all the time. A new poll reveals that this all-politics mode is wearing on people....
First Person: Finding meaning in a broken world—my first Sunday back to church
My first Sunday back after quarantine, I sat in a daze on the pew in my Central Asian church. The IKEA Christmas star still hung suspended from the ceiling above the baptismal in the corner. To my side, the audio-visual equipment that made our months-long online meetings possible overwhelmed the narrow aisle of the small sanctuary with its cables and devices. Around me, church members sat carefully distanced from one another. No one...
Rite of passage: ‘Can I call you my dad?’
One of the highlights of my life as a dad is teaching my oldest son Jeremiah’s classes once a year. He serves in a public high school in the Dallas area, where he teaches geography and coaches basketball. Many of his students are either African American or Hispanic. In one class, he has four students who speak no English. Recently, I spent two days taking over his classroom. I brought in various tribal objects, from Panama all the way...
Barrett confirmed; SBC leaders focus on prayer
WASHINGTON, D.C. (BP)—The U.S. Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in a nearly party-line vote Monday evening, Oct. 26, and Southern Baptist leaders focused on prayer for the new justice. The Senate voted 52-48 for confirmation of the federal appeals court judge. Only Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, broke from her party, joining with Democrats to oppose the confirmation. Barrett was given the constitutional oath by...
Encourage: 3 key moments
Only nine weeks until Christmas. Wow! This year, the one we thought would never pass, will soon be history. Time marches on. In fact, before you read the next edition of the Messenger, three things will have come and gone. I want to touch briefly on each one while we still have time. I will take them in order. First, October is Pastor Appreciation Month. If you have not done so already, don’t let these last few days of the month pass...
Churches link arms in response to California fires
SANTA CRUZ, Calif.—On Aug. 16, Pastor Drew Cunningham woke up to an urgent 1:30 a.m. text from Tyler Hurt, his associate pastor. A family of eight Cunningham knew had been evacuated because fires were coming through the Santa Cruz Mountains, and they had nowhere to go. It was the beginning of a mega fire that would cover 86,000 acres, destroying more than 1,200 homes, ravaging 40 percent of the area’s redwood forest and displacing...
