The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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I’ve written good-natured laments in recent months about young preachers. I was one, and was called on at 15 and 16 to speak God’s truth. One of my friends told me about his first sermon as a teenager. “I had three points,” he said. “Go to church, read the Bible and be good. That’s all I had!” I suppose, likewise, I spoke sincerely but with little profundity. I was interested to see a recent story in Baptist Press about the Francis Lake Baptist Church in Georgia. Not only is the congregation...
I showered and dressed on a recent Saturday and drove to nearby Hoover for a Christian fest event. However, the parking lot was sparse when I arrived a few minutes before the scheduled hour. The nice reception lady searched the calendar and told me the event was the following Saturday. I suppose in my eagerness to attend I neglected the important detail of verifying the date. But I’m not the only one who’s been dressed and ready and missed an appointment. History is replete with those who...
The late Robert Schuller noted that the way we treat the English language is terrible. We say, for example, “This is the worst thing that could ever happen,” or “I’ll never get over this.” Most of us have said this at some point, and, most often, after dreadful things have happened. We probably believed the truth of our immediate response, though in retrospection would admit neither is true. But we continue to misuse words. I read someone lately who cited another misuse; namely when we say to...
I’ve often commented on our Baptist system whereby young ministers are sent to the pulpit immediately after announcing their call to divine service. Thus, some of us began to preach at 15 or 16 years old. And I have friends who began to pastor churches by age 18. Having young pastors might become more common since research shows a shortage of pastors. I’m yet searching for answers to this trend. A denominational official told me lately that he thought churches don’t encourage commitment to vo...
“The National Congregations Study of Expressive Worship,” in cooperation with Duke University, published some interesting research findings about American worship. In summary, worship has become more expressive in recent years. Those who raise their hands in the worship of God (churches, synagogues and mosques) are numbered in more than 62 percent of our congregations, up from around 25 percent in 1998. I can’t remember people raising their hands in my boyhood church, or in most of the churc...
I talked with her lately and she told me, good-naturedly, about her “divided” family. “I’m Episcopalian, and I married a Pentecostal,” she said. There’s nothing wrong with this. I’ve known several “divided” families who made it work. I think the main thing to consider is the children, whether they’re in dad’s church or mom’s church. The most unique blend I ever knew was when Aaron and Sarah showed up at our Baptist church. They made a point to ask me if they were welcomed. Then Aaron explained,...
He was a local business owner and a music director in a Baptist church. He asked to have a planning and prayer meeting at our church one evening to share an idea. I said fine. I’d be there and I’d host. Several of us met on the appointed night to hear him tell about the county-wide crusade he’d already planned. He said he called the local Baptist association and found nothing planned that week, and he called the high school about using their stadium that week and it was fine. He told us furth...
One of the ministry traditions I grew up with is that older ministers would often give us younger ministers a treasured book—either one from their libraries or a copy of one they found encouraging. I think this tradition is all but over now. Many of us older pastors have tried to give away portions of our libraries we’re not using now, only to find that the “young bucks” don’t value books like we do. Research suggests the typical pastor in my day acquired a library worth $50,000 or more. I think...
Pastors and music leaders have had good-natured arguments for years. Musicians insist pastors will be idle in heaven with nothing to do since preaching isn’t on the agenda, whereas music is. And pastors retort that the music program is the source of much church conflict on earth. As radio preacher J. Vernon McGee used to say, “When Satan fell from heaven, he fell into the choir loft!” I remember years ago when the piano music just before the message was simply gorgeous. I said this before I ope...
I met her at a conference in our state, and she quickly turned the conversation to her church, of which she was very proud. She loved the pastor, the members, the worship and the ministry. All of this is fine. Then I asked her where her church was located. I knew where she lived and was surprised that her church was 40 miles away Our denomination has traditionally supported members belonging to local churches through which they can serve their communities. The Church Covenant that evangelical...
Our music leader announced the first hymn for the "Let's turn to hymn 666." she said. Everybody broke out in laughter since 666 is the well-known "mark of the beast" in the book of Revelation. I remembered another music leader announcing the same hymn, but he said, "Let's turn to hymn 667 and go back one!" It seems that our hymnal publisher would've left page 666 vacant like buildings skip floor 13 in their elevators. John the Revelator wrote about a charismatic leader who would beguile the nati...
In an old biography of William McKinley, the author noted the president’s assassination was on Friday, Sept. 14, 1901, “as were the two previous assassinations on Friday.” It was Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when Lincoln was shot in Washington, and Friday, July 2, 1880, when President Garfield was shot in D.C. Then it struck me that the terrible event that traumatized my generation--the assassination of President Kennedy--was on an awful Friday in Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963. This is one of the inexp...
I thought about it last fall before a two-day hobby convention in September—our first in several years due to COVID. This trip was to neighboring Georgia, so not too far. I remembered years ago being invited as part of the Alabama delegation to a Christian citizenship conference in Washington. I remember the exact year since I’ve often referred to a prayer breakfast we had with Chaplain Richard Halverson from the U.S. Senate. He said he didn’t hear many prayers for public officials in his itine...
It was a church conflict in my early days over something that’s a “back burner” issue now. We had a college student helping on an interim basis with our music. One Sunday she came to church dressed casually. I asked her in the following week to dress more formally for the pulpit. She grew angry and asked what dress had to do with worship. I gently explained I believed that we represented God and needed to dress accordingly. When I was in college our pastor, Bill Jackson, took several of us “p...
Somehow the Kyoto Tachibana SHS Band found me on Facebook, and it’s been a good thing. This Japanese group plays beautiful music while making dance moves, and they’re fun to watch. However, this is not what I remember from my years with the Minor High School Tigers Marching Band. I do remember a “two-step” we did while playing Herb Alpert’s “The Lonely Bull.” Our bass drummer had trouble with these steps, so we joked maybe he could be the bull and remain stationary! Our greatest challenge was...
Our pianist played a beautiful offertory arrangement a few weeks ago, as she always does. I found myself singing along in my heart with the familiar melody. On a lark, when I came to the pulpit for the message I asked with a show of hands how many people recognized that song. About half the congregation did. I suppose it was only us “children of the 70s” who remembered “He’s Everything To Me” by Ralph Carmichael, originally written for a Billy Graham film entitled, “For Pete’s Sake.” ‘Til b...
U.S. Minister to France, Benjamin Franklin, read the Old Testament book of Ruth to court patrons who delighted in this love story and were often surprised to discover it was from the Bible. Ruth is preeminently a love story and demonstrates the hand of God through the adversities of life. The book contains three tragedies. First, Elimelech and wife Naomi left Israel for Moab during a famine, and Elimelech died there. Their two sons married Canaanite women, contrary to the Jewish law (and to Paul...
I was territory I’d not seen before—the mountains of North Carolina. The mapping app took me via interstate the entire route to Asheville, but I decided I’d take my time on the way home and drive the backroads. Little did I realize how isolated these backroads would be. I remember the intersection where I messed up. I should’ve turned left on highway 74, but I turned right on highway 28. I’m not sure why. It was a winding road in the middle of nowhere. I lost cell service and couldn’t follow the...
I enjoyed O.S. Hawkins’ new biography of legendary pastor W.A. Criswell, a role model for my generation of pastors. Criswell served 50 years at First Baptist, Dallas, and was an itinerant preacher and an avid writer. Hawkins is remarkably honest about Criswell’s successes and failures. Criswell taught young preachers to devote Saturday nights to rest, and weekday mornings to time alone in study and prayer (he maintained a home office for his study). I tried to follow this guidance for many years...
One of the ministry traditions I grew up with is that older ministers would often give us younger ministers a treasured book—either one from their libraries or a copy of one they found encouraging. I think this tradition is all but over now. Many of us older pastors have tried to give away portions of our libraries we’re not using now, only to find that the “young bucks” don’t value books like we do. Research suggests the typical pastor in my day acquired a library worth $50,000 or more. I think...
It was a church conflict in my early days over something that’s a “back burner” issue now. We had a college student helping on an interim basis with our music. One Sunday she came to church dressed casually. I asked her in the following week to dress more formally for the pulpit. She grew angry and asked what dress had to do with worship. I gently explained I believed that we represented God and needed to dress accordingly. When I was in college our pastor, Bill Jackson, took several of us “p...
“What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve said from the pulpit?” he asked. It was a strange question, but a pastor friend asked privately at lunch, so I felt it was fine to respond. I didn’t have to think long, and it was a word not even in scripture. I was preaching about the different postures of prayer, the point being that whether we’re standing, walking, sitting, driving or kneeling, many postures are acceptable in prayer. Two classic hymns have lines about “falling prostrate at...
A property committee member complained some “knucklehead” installed the wrong bulbs in a room at church. I had to confess the knucklehead was me. I mistakenly took LED tubes from the supply closet and tried to insert them in fluorescent fixtures. No damage, but no light, either. This reminded me of the old joke about how many Baptists it takes to change a light bulb. In this case, the correct answer is “two.” But the traditional answer to the pun is, “Change? What’s that?” Thom Rainer of Chu...
It’s been my experience that funeral home directors generally have a great sense of humor. I asked a gentleman about this once and he explained that a sense of humor is the only thing that saved him from awful depression. I can imagine these men and women deal with the greatest of tragedies. But on the other hand, I’ve heard some interesting stories from them. One funeral home employee told me about trying to salvage a graveside service after several pallbearers were drunk, and one fell into the...
Over the past year, thousands of student archers competed in regional tournaments throughout the state for a chance to draw their bows at the 2024 National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) Alabama State Championship in Montgomery on April 4-5. During the event, nearly 2,000 archers from 105 schools competed for top honors and the opportunity to advance to the NASP Eastern National Championship on May 9-11, 2024, in Louisville, Kentucky. This year, the Alabama Department of Conservation and...
