The pandemic of 2020 forced all of us into innovation mode for a short time, and in some places there was great pressure either to continue online or to return to in-person worship in the building.
Overcoming Ethnocentrism
September 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment
A major barrier that impedes growth in multicultural, multiracial churches is known as “ethnocentrism,” the tendency to view the norms and values of one’s own culture as absolute and to use them as a standard against which to judge and measure all other cultures. Many times this tendency is cloaked under the attitude that “they don’t do it like us.”
Meditations on Mark: Permanence
September 19, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Scientists in Britain recently made a fascinating discovery. After centuries of mystery and debate, they finally located the body of King Richard III, who was killed in battle in 1485. The location of his grave was lost to history until February 2013, when DNA tests confirmed that they had indeed found the late king.
Bringing Our Pain to God
September 12, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Think about the people you know who are in terrible pain right now. Violence, death, loss, trauma, or physical or mental illness has touched them, even destroyed them. If they should come to worship, is there an appropriate context for them to acknowledge their pain before God?
In Community
September 6, 2023 by Leave a Comment
We are in all kinds of communities, and we should be grateful for each of them. There are of course the neighborhood we live in, the one we work in, our city or town. Our churches are communities of faith but also communities of friendship.
Visiting an Ill Church Member
September 5, 2023 by Leave a Comment
People who are ill at home, in the hospital, and in nursing homes need care far beyond medical attention. Especially at this time of year, we can find ourselves in hospital elevators or pulling into unfamiliar driveways to offer a kind word and warm presence. Before you visit, though, consider the following suggestions.
Self-fulfilling Prophesies
August 29, 2023 by Leave a Comment
When we were young children, our parents would tell us that we were smart, hesitant, too thin-skinned, impatient, or cute. We often accepted the labels our relatives gave us before we had a chance to understand the significance of our attributes.
Meditations on Luke: The Depth of Darkness
August 23, 2023 by Leave a Comment
One the greatest measures of human creativity is our ability to rationalize almost anything. No matter how destructive our actions, no matter how foolish our choices, no matter how selfish our behaviors, no matter how dark our impulses, we can always come up with a good excuse or a reasonable explanation for them.
Naming Our Demons
August 22, 2023 by Leave a Comment
In the ancient world, people believed that knowing a person’s name gave them a degree of power over that person. You might use your knowledge of someone’s name to give the person a blessing or place a curse on him or her.
Mission and the Families of the Earth
August 16, 2023 by Leave a Comment
The story of ancient Israel offers one powerful example of the way gives meaning to each particular family. The challenge is to find the point of intersection between the story of the family and the purposes of God in the world.
The Struggle to Cope with Time
August 15, 2023 by Leave a Comment
The prayer, “So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart,” serves as the turning point in the larger prayer of Psalm 90. The human experience of time is a major theme of the psalm as a whole.
Seeing People, Learning Lessons
August 9, 2023 by Leave a Comment
In a city like the one where I live, most growth is up. So all of us spend a lot of time on elevators. Thus we all know elevator etiquette: Do not speak to anyone. Do not make eye contact. Stare at the numbers as the floors change.
Honesty: Believing There Are No Ifs, Ands, or Buts
August 8, 2023 by Leave a Comment
This verse is about a merchant weighing out a customer’s goods. When the customer pays for a gallon or for a pound, the Lord demands a gallon delivered, or a pound, and not a drop or a hair less. Don’t even begin to walk down a dishonest path. But the command is about much more than buying and selling; it’s about honesty and truthfulness.
A Place at the Table
July 25, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Sometimes it’s easier to be a man. Your last name is not an issue. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Mechanics tell you the truth. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is “just too icky.” Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. The same hairstyle lasts for years.
A Bit of Hell
July 19, 2023 by Leave a Comment
“I’m a fake,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean that I get up and I teach my Sunday school class when I don’t even know if I believe what I’m teaching anymore.”
Holy Hilarity: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
July 18, 2023 by Leave a Comment
The conclusion to the flood story addresses a variety of topics, including what we eat and how we eat it, capital punishment, and the connection of all life on earth. It does not specifically address Big Macs, whether to execute by firing squad or electric chair, or the importance of talking to your plants.
Waiting for You – Addie Davis
July 12, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Your achievements represent hard work and dedication—a milestone—but you will discover that there are no resting places, just breathers along the way, for you must get on with the tasks of missions, education, and employment. You must certainly get on with the business of living.
Loyal Dissenters: Reading Matthew 22:21 Together
July 11, 2023 by Leave a Comment
When English Baptists in the seventeenth century read Matthew 22:21, they heard Jesus establishing a limit on the authority of civil power. Caesar did have legitimate concerns in this world—collecting taxes, for example—and, in those areas, he could exercise his power as he saw fit.
Meditations on Mark: The Transfiguration
July 5, 2023 by Leave a Comment
It is an obvious fact that you cannot look directly at the sun. Expose your eyes to that much intense light for more than a fraction of a second, and you can do permanent damage. And yet it is also an obvious fact that were it not for the sun’s intensity, life on Earth wouldn’t be possible.
Caring for Country
July 4, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Even standing in line at the National Archives is inspiring. The original Declaration of Independence is on the left: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . . . . That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
A Preface to the Question of Why There is Evil
June 28, 2023 by
For almost five decades, I have been considering, thinking about, reading, and studying the problem of evil and suffering.
Helping Each Other Grieve
June 21, 2023 by
As well as being a joyous time, Christmas can be difficult for people touched by tragedy or loss in the past year. Grief is isolating. While the rest of the world seems to be celebrating, tragedies years and decades old resurface.
Pearls Before Swine
June 20, 2023 by
Forgive us, O Lord, for our sometimes judgmental attitude that causes us to be overly critical of others and for our sometimes hypocrisy that causes us to hold others to a higher standard than that to which we hold ourselves.
Live the Stories: Noah’s Ark
June 14, 2023 by
Remind the children of how Adam and Eve made a mistake in last week’s story. That mistake caused the world to be an unhappy place where people didn’t treat God or each other the right way. Begin by asking the children if they know what an ark is. They may respond by stating that an ark is a boat or something that Noah built.
A Plain Vanilla Alabama Boy
June 13, 2023 by
While the US census ranks it in the upper 4 percent of surnames, not many people actually know someone named Lolley. The state where one is most likely to encounter a Lolley is Alabama.
Meditations on Mark: Prepare the Way
June 7, 2023 by
This is the promise John the Baptist makes in the opening chapter of Mark’s Gospel. Mark doesn’t begin with the story of Jesus’ birth. Rather, he jumps into the middle of the story with Jesus already as an adult, ready to begin his ministry. This is the urgency in Mark: The Messiah has come.
Of Spirit and Mind: A Pentecostal’s Battle Against Depression
May 31, 2023 by
She stopped eating and looked at me. “Are you serious?” She was more commenting than questioning. “Why would you go see a counselor? They don’t have any wisdom. They can’t help you. Are you depressed?”
The Baggage We Carry
May 23, 2023 by
My excitement about being on El Camino De Santiago—the Way of St. James—walking in the footsteps of the millions of pilgrims who came before me, carried me for the first portion of my journey. My feet were still in good shape—no soreness or blisters, not even any calluses yet—and I was sticking to the schedule I’d designed to keep myself from overdoing it.
The Fourfold Pattern for Common Worship
May 16, 2023 by
When the people of God gather then for Sunday worship, the “order of service” is not accidental or simply because “we’ve always done it that way.” The structure of common worship should be determined by our very best understanding of who God is, what God is about, what God expects and wants, and who we are in relationship to God.
Interviewing Randall Lolley
May 10, 2023 by
Among the first questions a friend asked when I floated the idea of a Randall Lolley biography was, “Is Randall able to help?”
Time and Patience
May 9, 2023 by
In my work with mediation and conflict resolution, there are two major tools: time and patience.
Trying to Make the Unhappy Happy
May 3, 2023 by
Trying to make the unhappy happy. There probably isn’t much future in this, God. We like to be liked, and we love to be loved. At least some of us. Well intentioned psychology has partly vilified some among us as people pleasers. Take away any personal tendencies, and we are left with more practical concerns.
The Weight of Pain
April 26, 2023 by
Why does pain almost always seem to weigh more, to have more substance, to impact us more powerfully, than joy? For many people, the moments that have been most life-changing have been, not the moments of joy, but the moments of pain.
5 Guidelines for Building a Racially and Culturally Diverse Church Staff
April 19, 2023 by
One of the best ways to communicate a goal of racial and cultural diversity is to have a diversified staff. Actions do speak louder than words.
Do Not Resist an Evil Person
April 18, 2023 by
How do you respond to someone who does not behave as a Christian ought to behave, whether they are or are not a fellow Christian? The easy answer is to quote Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, “turn the other cheek.”
A Quiet Life: Living at Peace with One’s Self
April 12, 2023 by
One great embarrassment of Christians is that we talk so much and so loudly. Interviews and conversations of all kinds often remind us of a pride of lions feeding, snapping and snarling, each lunging in for a moment and then getting shoved aside by others.
Presenting Portraits of Jesus
April 11, 2023 by
When Mark sketched out our first Gospel account of Jesus, he was not simply writing a direct history or creating a photo account about Jesus. He was doing something far more significant than recording a Vine. He was providing a testimony about the figure he believed was the most important person who ever lived.
Make the Most of Holy Week
April 5, 2023 by
I love worship. If I could spend the rest of my academic career studying worship, I would.
Brokenness, a Prayer for Lent
March 29, 2023 by
God, it takes courage to be the creatures
you made us to be.
Year after year we add to our experiences of the world,
pushing against our limits
to find out what will budge and what will not.
Thou Shalt Remember Thou Art Creative
March 22, 2023 by
The question I get more than any other—more than “What’s the meaning of life?”, or “Why do people suffer?”, or “Why are the New England Patriots so . . . them?”—is “Can I learn to be funny?”
A Wilderness Point of View
March 21, 2023 by
In Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus tells his daughter Scout that there’s a “trick” to getting along with all kinds of people.
A Worship Hour Outline: Dreams
March 15, 2023 by
We come to dream with you, Spirit of Hope. We confess that some of our dreams have been selfish ambitions, and that we have often been driven by personal gain and little interest in others or your will.
Learning to Walk on Water
March 14, 2023 by
I once saw a saying that really spoke to me: “Be like Jesus; rebuke the storm, and if it persists, walk on it.” How many times have storms taken control of our lives?
Justice, Kindness, Humility
March 1, 2023 by
One morning in my eighth grade social studies class, the teacher said, “The world is one-third Christian, twenty percent Muslim, and thirteen percent Hindu.” We thought that was the goofiest thing we had ever heard. Where I grew up in Mississippi, there were four religions—Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and heathen.
A Prayer for the First Night of Fostering Placement
February 15, 2023 by
Yesterday, I was someone different. Today, I am a parent. Tomorrow is yet unknown. In all of it, I am yours, God.
Your Commute as a Spiritual Discipline
February 8, 2023 by
My morning commute reminds me that I am not the Christian I should be. I drive nine miles to my job—two miles of neighborhood, three miles of suburban commerce, and four miles of houses.
Grateful for Mistakes
February 7, 2023 by
“Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings.” (author unknown)
Noah’s Lawsuit: Is God Trying to Say Something?
January 31, 2023 by
The headline reads like a punchline: “Owners of Noah’s Ark sue over rain damage.” Does God have a sense of humor or what?