It’s old-fashioned. Most people wouldn’t consider it exciting. We don’t serve food. The chairs aren’t the softest. The music is old-style, right out of the hymnal, with only piano accompaniment. Interested in attending? I’m talking about our Wednesday evening prayer meeting. We don’t put a lot of advance effort into...
It’s not unusual for me to set goals. I set them all the time. They help me think through what I should be accomplishing. They help me know where I’m going. And they help me devise strategies to meet those goals. But this goal is a little unusual. My goal...
Common courtesy is no longer common. We were taught it. Or at least I was. I was taught to treat people—all people—with a basic level of respect. They didn’t have to earn it, because it wasn’t about them. It was about me and my character. Common courtesy was to be...
Last year, I blogged about a young man living in our dumpster behind the church. He had a host of issues that led him to our dumpster. He had major family issues. He didn’t know his biological family and his foster family was unable and unwilling to care for him...
Christians have been using technology from the beginning. We were among the first to employ scribes to repeatedly copy the Bible. We were among the very first to use the printing press and later the radio. Our missionary organizations have been using airplanes for decades. And most churches I visit use...
I wrote this primarily for me, for I find it quite helpful for me to count my blessings. Nevertheless, I thought that some of you might find it helpful to read as a springboard for your own time of thanksgiving. This is by no mean an exhaustive list, for the more I...
Another major American leader had his career destroyed this week when an adulterous affair was revealed. And at this point, no one knows for sure just how far this investigation will go. Are there others involved? Has a culture of cheating invaded every aspect of American life? Even a cursory...
Like many other Southern Baptists, I read with dismay of the situation that occured at First Baptist Church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. A black couple who had been attending the church wanted to get married. They scheduled the ceremony and even had the rehearsal on a Thursday night, just two days...
It’s a dirty little secret that really isn’t much of a secret, but our denomination (the Southern Baptist Convention) was formed in a region and in an era of extreme racial prejudice. Many of our churches openly practiced discrimination and segregation for years, and many of our churches were on the...
There is always something going on at FSBCA designed to help people, and we don’t always take the time to tell the success stories we hear. For example, in April, our church was the host site for Project Connect, a ministry sponsored by our church and the Valley of the Sun United Way to...
