Last Sunday witnessed my 73rd and final sermon on Jeremiah. As the series began coming to a close the last few weeks, I experienced that familiar “preacher’s sorrow” of saying goodbye to a close companion. Jeremiah has never been far from my heart and mind the last two years….
Today I received an email from a pastor asking for my thoughts on why the ongoing debate over Calvinism and Arminianism is practically important. Is it “much ado about nothing,” that will inevitably lead to a split among Baptists the way that it split the General and Particular Baptists…
Watching the debate last week between James White and John Shelby Spong left me with several impressions. God built James White to debate. He is obviously gifted in his ability both to prepare and to present the fruit of those preparations in a formal format that allows for the…
I have been the fortunate recipient of several emails from brothers who are concerned about the subject of my last blog article. It is obvious from the public comments and most of those emails that many are upset about the comments that are attributed to Brother Bill Harrell in…
Bill Harrell is pastor of Abilene Baptist Church in Martinez, Georgia. He is also the new chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee. This is Harrell’s second tour of duty on the Exec Com, having been one of the first “movement conservatives” appointed to that powerful body in…
Our Reformation Celebration was a great success. Several young adults and older youth put on a Reformation Fair for our children, providing lots of fun and some significant teaching about Zwingli and the reformation in Zurich. Many of the children dressed up like characters from the 16th century. I…
Scholars say Baptists must recover church discipline. Who would have ever thought such a thing! Isn’t it hopeful that long forgotten Baptist distinctives (to say nothing of biblical teachings!) are increasingly becoming part of our denominational discourse? Pray that such discussions won’t die out without genuine repetance serious, practical…
See Kairos Journal: http://www.kairosjournal.org/Document.aspx?QuadrantID=4&CategoryID=9&TopicID=37&DocumentID=6234&L=1 Sociologist Alan Wolfe, Director of the Boisi Center at Boston University, spent several years studying the beliefs and practices of evangelical churches. Specifically, he studied whether evangelicals actually practice what they profess to believe. “In every aspect of the religious life, American faith has met…