FIRST-PERSON: Remembering the Haystack Prayer Meeting
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--I have always had a love for studying (and even more being a part of) movements of God, from my childhood when our small church erupted in the Jesus Movement to teaching courses on the subject today. Santayana said those that do not learn from history are doomed to relive it. I think those who do learn from history can best deal with culture today.
FIRST-PERSON: Making evangelism good news again
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--On July 17, 13 pastors from Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., baptized 117 people at Beaver Dam at Falls Lake, which is near Raleigh. Every person baptized was, as is the custom at Providence, interviewed previously by a deacon to be sure about their Christian testimony.
Join the Movement!
Would you say Christianity, at its heart, is a movement or an institution? I asked that question recently at a national conference of church leaders. I intended for my interrogative to be rhetorical, asking the hearers not to reply aloud. Without realizing it, these wonderful spiritual leaders of churches from across the eastern United States […]
Things Must Change
Have you ever been to an Amish community? The first time I visited an Amish village it seemed as though I had stepped through a time portal into a world two centuries old. I watched people pass in a horse and buggy, observed white barns and quaint homes, and clothing that seemed to come from […]
Teach Your Children To Witness
As an evangelism professor, I like to ask my students how many of them have heard a sermon on the home over the past few years. Nearly every student raises a hand — and that's good. The home is a premier subject for preachers. But when I ask a follow-up question, almost without exception no […]
Snake Hunting And Soul Winning
I have always had an interest in snakes and other reptiles. I have a python in my office, my son has a corn snake in his bedroom, and my eight-year-old daughter loves to play with her little ball python who dwells in her room. My wife has no reptiles, but she does possess a great […]
Everything I Need to Know About Ministry I Learned Playing High School Football*
Football has had an enduring affect on my life. Maybe it stems from the matching scars I have on both knees from surgical repairs brought about from my gridiron days. One thing is certain: every fall I experience a strange phenomenon. Down the street from our house is the local high school football field. About […]
Playing Games or Pursuing God
When 1999 began, who would have thought that the last year of the second millennium A.D. would be remembered as the year martyrdom came to the American church? Who could have imagined that these martyrs would not be high profile, mature leaders, but young people? When Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott at Columbine died for […]
Say Grace, Be Gracious
I'll never forget the first time I went to England. My college choir went for a tour immediately after the spring semester. Dr. Gene Black, director of the A Cappella Choir at Samford University, gave his standard speech about being gracious in each home where we would be staying. In particular, he said to eat […]
Building Bridges into the Next Millennium … and for Eternity
The summer of 1996 I took a vow never to serve again as pastor at a week-long youth camp. Not because I hate teenagers or camps – on the contrary, I love them. But at this particular camp, I ignored my age and physical shape (I should say lack of shape), and entered the mud […]
