In the face of climate change, how do we tend to our spirits?
In true agrarian fashion, Norm Wirzba suggests starting small.
A Texas church's real talk about guns
What do our baptismal vows have to do with safety?
A liberal congregation burns hot under Trump
We were already active in our community. Now we're on overdrive.
Showing up for racial reconciliation
As a young white pastor, I learned the value of working with black organizations—and not trying to be in charge.
Politics beyond party
Do we bring our preformed politics into church or does the church transform us into disciples who practice a Jesus kind of politics?
Texas tough
Other states have a history of violence, suspicion of government, and more Baptists than people. What makes Texas different? Robert Wuthnow says it’s oil.
Description of the Parson in The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer
Nestled among corrupt church officials and worldly pilgrims is this small-church pastor who is always motivated by Christ-centered love.
The steeple dropout: Will Campbell, 1924–2013
When Will Campbell replied to my letter, I expected him to call me to fight “the Enemy.” Instead he encouraged me to love my enemies.
Bottled and sold: A church’s recycling mission
We live in the reddest part of Texas, a very red state. So maybe we shouldn't have been surprised when our city stopped recycling glass.
More on sharing life with the pipeline blockaders
Recently I wrote about the tar sands pipeline blockaders who have been coming to our church in Nacogdoches, Texas. Life with these young people is never dull. We’re learning to improvise and be light on our feet with them around.
Protesters in the pews: Young pipeline resisters come to worship
Four Tar Sands Blockade young people showed up at church one Sunday. They were hungry for fellowship and encouragement—and just hungry.
Church as problem and solution
Diana Butler Bass's new book is warm and winsome. But it lacks the particularizing power of her earlier work's grounding in stories about specific communities and people.
Food and Faith, by Norman Wirzba
Pastors have long known that there is more going on with food and eating than the mere filling of the stomach....
Firm in community
Second Thessalonians is concerned with encouraging a struggling congregation to stand firm, endure and persevere. Wendell Berry refers to the "art of the commonplace," a phrase that for pastors brings to mind the art, craft and skills by which we cultivate the common everyday life our people are called to live and share--and which will enable them to stand firm. It is about the mundane and about community.
Sunday, November 14, 2010: Isaiah 65:17-25; Luke 21:5-19
It was the spring of 1963 in Birmingham, and it looked as if the civil rights movement would suffer yet another defeat. The powers that be had more jail space than the civil rights workers had people. But then one Sunday, reports historian Taylor Branch, 2,000 young people came out of worship at the New Pilgrim Baptist Church and prepared to march.