Have a great 4th of July! July 4th – A quick history of the 4th of July. I Didn’t Know I Was Undocumented – Powerful first person perspective on illegal immigration. Why Hobby Lobby Matters – Great perspective on the recent Supreme Court case. 31 Signs You Might Be a Pastor’s Kid – So true! ‘Sextortion’ is an Online ‘Epidemic’ Against Kids – A cautionary tale for all parents of teens. Read more
originally posted November 15, 2013 I have 601 weeks left until my oldest son Zeke graduates high school. I know that may seem like a lot, but when he was born I had 936 weeks. I’ve already lost a third of my time with him. In his book Playing for Keeps, author Reggie Joiner makes a great suggestion to help parents visualize the amount of time they have left with their kids. He suggests that you get a glass jar... Read more
Today’s guest post comes from Janet Adams. I’m grateful for her sharing her perspective on church. I was born into a devout Catholic family and was expected to adhere to the Christian way of life. Every Sunday my parents (with great difficulty) herded us three pranksters to church. We would most probably doze off during mass and had to be prodded at regular intervals to listen to the Reverend. To be very frank for an 8 year old like me... Read more
Last week my family took our semi-annual pilgrimage to the mecca of children’s experiences: Chuck E. Cheese. We didn’t just go there. We shut the place down. Three hours (and a fistful of tickets) later, we walked out of there full, victorious, and with a few cheap plastic toys that broke within an hour. But that’s beside the point. On the drive home, I began to dwell on what elements in this restaurant would captivate the attention of my two-year-old... Read more
“I’ve just filled out the paperwork to start community college!”, she told me ecstatically. On the surface, those don’t look like words to throw a party over. I mean, it’s not like she got into Harvard or Yale. And she’s also 25, starting to get on the older side for college. If anything, she should be chastised for waiting so long. But here’s why I celebrated with her, and here’s why you should to: she was a statistic, another example... Read more
Here is week three in our current sermon series on the book of Ephesians. The Ephesians Challenge this summer is to memorize a chapter in Ephesians. Several people have already taken it, and you can too! Keep up with us on social media using #mtvconversation https://vimeo.com/99271302 Read more
Have a great weekend! A Different Kind of Millennial Problem – Wouldn’t it be great to have this problem in all our churches? How to Speak Your Spouse’s Love Language (And What to Avoid) – Great help for any marriage! 10 Questions for a Six-Month Spiritual Checkup – Great tool! Worth the read! A Letter to Married Couples Who Are Struggling With Infertility – Great encouragement! Where Do Millennials Attend Church? – More good insight into this pivotal generation for... Read more
Much of the news coming out of the SBC has been negative lately, with declining numbers and baptisms. (The only growing baptism age group is those under 5, because we don’t practice infant baptism, but apparently we’re great at toddler baptism). From 2013-2014 a Pastors’ Task Force was assembled to address the glaring fact that most Southern Baptist churches baptize almost no Millenials. They identified five problems and advocated five solutions (read their full report here). They got it half... Read more
Yesterday was ministry in a nutshell, a microcosm of what many pastors face week in and week out. The first half of the day was idyllic. I cocooned myself inside my office, spread out my Bible, commentaries, online tools and a pen and paper, and went to town. I brainstormed, researched, read, prayed, and planned. I created sermon series ideas for the next school year, dug into some of my favorite biblical texts, and imagined how successful all these upcoming... Read more
Today’s guest post comes from a friend of mine, Todd Rayburn. Todd is a 2000 graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Counseling. He’s worked in psych hospitals, clinics, school systems and in private practice. He currently has a private practice in Picayune, MS. My journey on the issue of homosexuality dates back to my high school and early college years (late ‘80’s). I found myself around an unusually high number of... Read more
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