As Christmas nears, one of my favorite things to do is look at Christmas lights. Nothing feels more festive than driving around that one neighborhood in town with the large historic homes decorated immaculately with twinkling lights and Christmas cheer….
The shock of being 60 years old
I turned 60 years old this past summer. I have not quite gotten over it yet. Sixty is just different. It definitely feels at least three years older than 59. “They” say age is just a number. So maybe this…
Once ordained, always ordained?
Long ago, Carlyle Marney, an irascible Baptist preacher of blessed memory, praised Ralph Waldo Emerson for leaving the ministry because his conscience prevented him from serving the Lord’s Supper. Marney noted if he ever left the ministry, it would be…
Mary, Our Mother (for Baptists): Mary, did you know?
This is the second in a four-part series BNG will publish every Monday during Advent. A few years ago, I preached on the Sunday after Christmas, low attendance Sunday, a regular occurrence for an associate pastor (and a woman) like…
Salvation as deliverance and blessing: Moving from Thanksgiving through Advent to Christmas
It was the Old Testament theologian Claus Westermann who startled me years ago by talking about the two ways God saves in the Bible: salvation as deliverance and salvation as blessing. Most theologians and preachers focus on salvation as deliverance,…
The present crisis for church staff
Churches in America have been living amid rapid change for several decades now, accelerated like a dive on a roller coaster by COVID. Previously, much of our attention has focused on institutional change and challenges, the big picture of congregations…
Six Scriptures undergirding my attitude toward other faiths
Recently, I wrote an opinion piece outlining six lessons I have learned on my interfaith journey. I concluded by stating it was really the way Jesus treated those who were different, the “outsiders,” that prompted my acceptance and celebration of…
On meeting death as a sister
What if death isn’t the enemy we often think it is? And what if reconsidering our theology of death might help us live deeper into the union of self and neighbor? In four weeks, Christians across the world will celebrate…
Introducing BWIM Month of Advocacy
Baptist Women in Ministry researches and publishes the State of Women in Baptist Life Report to provide statistics and analysis for women in ministry among Baptists that might serve as a metric and motivator for progress. The most recent report,…