“The church, by divine design and intention, is a spiritual force, a gospel organism. Her involvement in and impact upon the world socially, politically, and economically may not be insignificant, but it will be substantially incidental. The church does not exist to have a political life or role.”   It was recently my privilege to... Continue Reading

“I am deeply concerned about the impact the Supreme Court’s ruling might have on faith-based or other educational institutions—including schools from grades K-12, colleges, universities, theological seminaries and graduate schools—that hold to natural or conjugal marriage, which has only come into question within the past decade.”   As I stood before more than seven hundred... Continue Reading

“The narrative is repeated as a cautionary tale. It says that if institutions change, they are bound to die. For evidence, it looks to institutions that have failed, then points out how they changed. Implicitly, it draws a lesson for the remaining institutions: “If you change, you’ll die, too.”   I don’t know Pastor Travis... Continue Reading

“In the book of First Kings, Elijah faced a wave of persecution and mortal danger beyond anything any American has faced on American soil. He felt alone — terrified that all was coming to an end. He declared to God, “I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”... Continue Reading

“It could be argued that Baptists have been here before: placed outside the bounds of what a the majority considers respectable – or even acceptable – by the legally enshrined predominant collective conventions and social mores of contemporary society.”   A committed evangelical, today I write out of and to my narrower ecclesiastical tradition (Baptist) as I address the... Continue Reading

We each can name far more pastors who are faithful in their marriages than those who are not. And I suspect we would also say that it’s those faithful marriages, those ordinary, daily testimonies of richer or poorer, sickness and health, for better or worse that most influence us. One marriage fails that we might... Continue Reading

If you never need to look at someone on your team and say, “I am sorry, but…” then you are ignoring difficult conversations that would make the person and the team stronger. If you talk about people instead of to people, you are not a good leader. If you work around deficiencies instead of confronting... Continue Reading

It is not the church that is telling people today that a life without sexual fulfillment is not worth living. That is the message of our culture, not of our savior. Jesus himself came with a message to liberate us from such thinking. We have good news to share on this – very good news.... Continue Reading

Americans who still believe that civil liberty is, by definition, the relative absence of governmental restraint upon the freedom of speech, the relative absence of restraint upon religious practice, the absence of prior restraint upon the press and other basic liberties (e.g., life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness relative to civil life) need to... Continue Reading

“Remember the hole of the pit from which you were dug” said Isaiah the prophet. It’s a spiritual exercise that the Psalmist models for us in Psalm 40:1-3. Although the exact nature of the pit is not specified – it could be the pit of affliction, of persecution, of mental distress, or of family trouble... Continue Reading