BP Toolbox

Most of us have entered the twilight zone of worship announcements at some point. A person approaches you with awkward determination three minutes before the start of a worship service. A piece of paper unfolds multiple times.

There’s a special sort of awkwardness that comes from not knowing how to be there for a friend in need. But that time of shared grief and presence is extremely important to a friendship. In this month of focusing on what it means to be comforted by God, it is good to turn biblical wisdom to caring for others as well.

My wife recently found a box of old church bulletins with notes from my previous sermons. She is a prodigious note-taker. These old bulletins contained thousands of sermon points. How many of them did she remember? I didn’t ask. 

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the passing of my pastor, Dr. Adrian Rogers. As a seminary student at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and church member at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., under Dr. Adrian Rogers, I had the privilege of being in the presence of a remarkable man of faith and wisdom, one of the 20th Century's great leaders and preachers. His life was a shining example of what it means to be a dedicated servant of God. In my time with and around him, I learned invaluable lessons that continue to shape my Christian life and ministry.

Thanking God for His goodness while we’re still in the process of making a request is biblical prayer as God intends it. God wants us to thank Him. In fact, Jesus was once astonished that people who had experienced a healing which was medically impossible in those days disregarded the opportunity to give Him thanks.

Just look at the post titles, though, and you’ll see I’ve had a tendency to focus on addressing the negatives after a given Sunday. That’s not the best direction, so I’m repenting today to move in a more positive direction. Here are some reasons to rejoice today – even if yesterday was a tough day.

Caregivers may sometimes feel like the “invisible” members of the church. For many reasons, the all-consuming nature of caregiving can create a sense of isolation. 

For hundreds of thousands of churches, the tradition stood the test of time. The majority of churches passed the offering plate (or some type of receptacle) during a designated time of the worship service typically called “the offertory.”

Americans are surprisingly optimistic about answered prayer. In fact, nearly 25 percent of people who pray told Lifeway that all their prayers are answered!

I was on campus at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary recently when someone asked how I was doing. I looked at the books I had just purchased at the bookstore and remarked I just purchased three copies of a book entitled, “I Have PTSD” — one for me and two for friends — if that tells you anything.