How to Evaluate a Sermon: Listening with Discernment & Faith

January 14, 2025 By Layne Wallace

How to listen to a sermon For Protestants, particularly Evangelicals, the sermon is the center of worship. The centrality of preaching is even reflected in our sanctuary design. In most Protestant sanctuaries, the pulpit is in the center. With the centrality of preaching, one would think teaching people how to listen and evaluate a sermon would be vital practices of the Church. Surprisingly, this does not happen with any regularity at all. As a result, people often evaluate a sermon... Read more

The 10 Commandments of Thanksgiving

November 26, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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Thanksgiving Is Coming! Thanksgiving is nearly here, and, although I am not Moses, I have 10 Commandments to help you and your loved ones enjoy the holiday. For the last two Thanksgivings, I have had COVID and have been unable to celebrate. Banished from family activities, I have endured the last two Thanksgivings in front of my TV watching the football games in isolation trying to chase the metallic taste from the medicine out of my mouth. This year, I... Read more

Helene the Horrible: The Windows of the Heavens

October 1, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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” . . . And the Windows of the Heavens Were Opened . . .” Genesis 7:11 On the evening of Thursday, September 26th, Hurricane Helene hit land near Perry, FL beginning its relentless, remorseless onslaught against the southern US. Announcing her arrival by blasting a 15ft wall of water against Florida’s coast, she flung cars and boats out of her path as if they were a collection of Legos in the path of a locomotive. Cars, boats, homes, beaches,... Read more

Planned Parenthood in the Pulpit

September 24, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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Planned Parenthood in the Pulpit While abortion is commonly addressed from pulpits around the world, it is seldom addressed the way Rev. Rebecca Todd Peters did at the Community Church of Chapel Hill last July. The title of her sermon was, “Reproductive Justice: Beyond the Abortion Imaginary. How Three Imaginaries, or Myths, Shape the Conversation about Abortion.” Link to Sermon Excerpt Striding to the pulpit in her black clerical vestments, Rev. Peters’ clerical collar and bright pink Planned Parenthood stole... Read more

Pope Francis and Non-Christian Religions

September 16, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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Pope Francis and Non-Christian Religions This weekend Pope Francis, the persistently provocative Roman Pontiff, made comments sure to cause facepalming among his advisors and frustration among his faithful. In remarks in Singapore Francis said, Religions are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all. Since God is God for all, then we are all Children of God . . . If you start to fight, “My religion is more important than yours, mine... Read more

9/11: 23 Years Later

September 11, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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23 Years Later I cannot fathom it has been 23 years since 9/11. It feels like yesterday. It also feels like a different world. I was supposed to be at a leadership training event on the morning of 9/11, but one of my members was facing surgery. So, I decided to swing by the hospital for a visit. Pulling into the hospital parking lot in my grey Honda, I turned on the radio to listen to the news. The report... Read more

The Olympic Opening Ceremony and a New Religion

July 29, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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What Was That? The Opening Ceremony of the Olympics generated significant controversy over a performance that looked like it was a blasphemous presentation of The Last Supper. While many will argue about that, what is apparent is that the ceremony was a worship service of a new religion. The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Games was shocking and divisive. Among the conflicting reports is hard to know now exactly what Thomas Jolly, the creator of the Opening Ceremony, had in... Read more

Mohler, Ware, Nicaea, Heresy: Louisville We Have a Problem

June 18, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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Louisville, We Have a Problem Albert Mohler is one of the conservative lions of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Since he assumed the presidency at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville, KY, Mohler has led the seminary to turn sharply to the right on theological, social, and political issues. Long reviled by moderate and progressive Baptists, Mohler has portrayed himself and SBTS as guardians of conservative orthodoxy in the SBC, protecting the faith from the onslaught of liberalism... Read more

IVF, Women Pastors, Nicene Creed, and the SBC

June 13, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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The 2024 SBC Annual Meeting Even for those who are members of a Southern Baptist Church, the machinations of the Southern Baptist Convention can be a bit bewildering. At the close of the SBC Annual Meeting, it is helpful to summarize what the SBC did in Indianapolis this week. As always, there were controversies and oddities. This is the SBC, after all. Controversies included women pastors, IVF, and the Nicene Creed. IVF In a very controversial move, the Messengers[1]... Read more

The SBC and the Nicene Creed

June 10, 2024 By Layne Wallace

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The SBC 2024. The SBC and the Nicene Creed The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is gathering in Indianapolis this week for its annual meeting, and the agenda is full of controversial votes. Messengers will vote on the Law Amendment which addresses the role of women pastors in the SBC. That amendment will have the most publicity. What is arguably more important though is the amendment proposed by Research Professor of Theology at Southwestern Seminary, Malcolm Yarnell, to add the Nicene... Read more