This new year I am going to drown out the stale, deafening noise of despair by listening to more jazz. And, this new year I am going to pay a little less attention to the negativity around me by paying more attention to God's creative hand at work smoothing out rough edges, lifting up the lowly, pulling together the broken people, and weaving together (seemingly out of nowhere) a beautiful, rich tapestry of life – of earth and sky and everything and everyone. Read more
To follow in the footsteps of Dr. King, to raise awareness around the persistent rural poverty in America, and to advocate for racial justice and healing, CBF’s Together for Hope has created Civil Rides. April 4-6, this will be a 3-day trek from the steps of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi. Read more
Who better to review the year than the one who leads the Fellowship, Suzii Paynter, and the one who coordinates the storytelling of CBF, Jeff Huett? We examine the extraordinary work of churches, clergy, field personnel, chaplains, and partners, as well as look ahead to what’s in store for 2018. Read more
This episode features the ChurchWorks keynote speaker, Dr. Jon Singletary. Jon is the dean of the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University. Read more
As a culture we do not do a good job of creating space for survivors of abuse to tell their stories. We often discount, shame, and blame them because their revelations make us uncomfortable. (It’s no wonder people wait so long to disclose, if they ever do so at all.) When shut down the conversation, we prevent survivors from seeking emotional, spiritual, and physical healing. We let predators move about the world, emboldened to perpetrate their crimes against others. Read more
In its simplest sense, a trial is anything that causes us to question God’s goodness and faithfulness. Trials try to get us to take our focus off God and God’s provision and place it on other things. Trials are the kryptonite of faith, sapping us of spiritual energy and making our faith vulnerable. Read more
So, I'm hoping for a great Thanksgiving. I'm hopeful for a great Thanksgiving for all the victims of the floods. I'm mindful of the families who will have a place missing at the table because a family member was taken from them through gun violence. I'm hoping for a great Thanksgiving for all the victims of sexual assault who have spoken out recently about their experiences. I'm also grateful for all the churches who are reaching out to these persons in need. The recovery process will take a long time and there won't be easy answers, but I'm thankful for those who are being the presence of Christ in a timely manner. Read more
The criticism is that because he is not paid clergy, he has no accountability to the local church, and can say whatever he wants. For Zack, this could not be any further from the truth. “Yeah, it would be easy to say, ‘Well, God told me this. I’m right and you can’t tell me any different,” confessed Hunt. “But that’s certainly not Christianity. That’s not healthy. That’s not me. So, for me accountability is tremendously important,” he added. Read more
Maybe I'm a feminist because of the Bible itself. Despite the Bible having been written over thousands of years by many different hands, and cultural male-dominance having led to some of the writers to confuse “the way things are” with “the way God intends everything to be” (we still do that, don't we?), despite all that, from the very beginning, up through the end, we can still see the subversive Spirit of God moving and pushing and prodding and birthing the Kingdom along in this world through independent, disobedient, non-submissive women. Read more
CBF Advocacy urges people of faith and all others who stand #WithDREAMers to contact their members of Congress and ask for their support of DACA recipients like Itzayana and Jemima. Watch their video testimonies. Read more
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In