She stood with Furman through thick and thin, good and bad—including an ugly breakup with the Southern Baptists. Throughout this struggle, her grace and hospitality extended to everyone, including small church Baptist pastors and their families. My mother’s last football game at Furman came o...
Malachi begins with a promise from God, “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me” (Malachi 3:1) We see this promise of one who prepares the way especially clear in the work of John the Baptist more than 400 years after Malachi wrote these words. John is ...
I’ll always remember the trip to Young Life Camp in Colorado. 4) The youth of First Baptist Church in Lansing, Michigan. Chuck Landon mentored me as a pastor and also entrusted his kids to me. That group was awesome, funny, and kept me on my toes as we met in “the upper room....
and which gave me the confidence to do it. First, I had trust. Although I had never been to Germany, I knew that it was a real place, and it was the place that my grandparents had been born and that my parents had visited. Although I had never met Helga and Richard, I trusted t...
I grew up in the Baptist church and, while I didn’t really experience this kind of prohibition first hand, I definitely heard the jokes about Baptists and not allowing dancing. Or, I still remember when I got my hands on DC Talk’s Jesus Freak album. If you didn’t grow up in the...
“The Law” to which Jesus refers is the Law Moses received up on Mount Sinai, and “the Prophets” are those who proclaimed the Law, up to and including John the Baptist. But now, instead of a mountain, there is a kingdom. And now, instead of being sternly warned not to force th...
KODA’s musical education continued when he attended the prestigious all-boys’ Mfantsipim School in central Ghana as a teenager. There, he met future Ghanaian gospel singer Nii Okai, who offered the junior student musical opportunities and leadership positions—and something far more lasting. ...
I have been at First Baptist Church Newcastle (FBCN), Oklahoma for nearly fifteen years. It has been an incredible journey. We have seen hundreds added to the church and hundreds saved and baptized in my time at FBCN. We are currently building a new worship center and making major ...
Even if the building of Roan Mountain Baptist Church hadn’t received any damage, many of our church members (who are the true church) are currently dealing with roads that are washed out, driveways that are almost impassable, and bridges that are either unusable or gone altogether. Also, li...