This Spring/Summer, the Montgomery Baptist Association (MBA) has been working to kick off an association-wide MultiHousing Ministry. The idea behind MultiHousing Ministry (MHM) is that local churches would identify apartment complexes and trailer parks where individuals and families dwell together in close proximity and they would engage those areas in prayer, service, acts of love… Continue Reading
Philando Castille. Alton Sterling. Gregory Gunn. Tamir Rice. Freddie Gray. Eric Garner. Walter Scott. Eric Harris. John Crawford III. All shot dead or killed in the past two to three years. I might not know all that happened, but I know that someone should not die in response to selling CD’s or reaching for their… Continue Reading
What if we are not that different from refugees and sojourners? What if their story is our story and their presence is actually God reminding us of our own deep need for Him and for community? And what if how we treat them speaks to where we find our own hope? Rejection and displacement are… Continue Reading
The 2014 Alabama Baptist State Convention will take place in Birmingham, AL on November 11-12. I am submitting the following resolution to the convention. It calls for holistic gospel ministry to immigrants in our state by Alabama Baptists. The resolution also encourages our elected officials to work together to agree upon equitable immigration reform. Alabama… Continue Reading
“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The… Continue Reading
A couple of weeks ago, something of a dust up occurred after blogger Rachel Held Evans wrote a piece for CNN declaring that Millennials were leaving the church because of the vapid nature of Evangelical religious experience. I wrote a reply to that assertion and declared that there was actually a lot more to it… Continue Reading
Gateway is starting a community garden this Spring. The purpose is to grow food for the people who participate in it and have enough left over to give to the poor through our food pantry and other venues. But, I have another reason for it. I hope that it will be living metaphor for how… Continue Reading
I think that we often get Christian marriage all wrong and the result is devastating for both Christians and non-Christians. We hold up an ideal relationship of love and fulfillment and we give people strategies for how to go after it so they can be satisfied. Christians get married so they can share their life… Continue Reading
Doing research tonight and I was reading about the German Confessing Church during the Nazi regime of the 1930's and 40's. Of course, I ran across Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Christian, Pastor, and philosopher who opposed the Nazi regime on the basis of Christian fidelity. Here are some quotes that challenged me deeply: “Jesus Christ… Continue Reading
At LIFE Group this past Friday night, we were sitting outside by the fire and talking about prayer and fasting and how the discipline of fasting has a two-fold objective, which is to put away distractions and dependencies to bring us to God and then to give ourselves away to others. Gabe Posey, a member… Continue Reading