By Kevin Shrum
Pastor, Inglewood Baptist Church, Nashville

For 200-plus years Western culture (especially America) has been shaped by the Judeo-Christian worldview. Not all citizens of the West were orthodox Christians nor were Western nation-states theocracies. Yet, the contours of the social and intellectual life of Western culture were largely moralistic and spiritual.

In the last 100 years things have changed. The West is largely secular and at times anti-religion, especially anti-Judeo-Christian. How did this happen? The process is interesting and revealing. To explain, let me borrow from Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor and his magisterial work, A Secular Age. [Read more…]

Josh Hussung
Pastor of Youth And Families, Grace Community Church, Nashville

Josh Hussung

Students today are facing a challenge that we cannot relate to, and the sooner we realize this, the better. For many believing teenagers, this challenge is a heavy burden that causes them to feel dread, guilt, and isolation.

Access to pornography has never been so widely available to any other generation in history. Even in the late 1990s my exposure to pornography was limited. Any student with a smart phone has access to millions upon millions of pornographic images at the touch of a screen.

I have worked with adolescents for over 10 years, and have talked with countless students and parents about this problem. [Read more…]

Vicki Hulsey
Childhood Ministry Specialist, Tennessee Baptist Convention

Vicki Hulsey

Imagine the scene as the Farr family arrives at church. Mr. Farr goes to a men’s Sunday School class on the third floor of the building. Mrs. Farr says, “I’ll meet you in the worship center after Sunday School,” and turns down the preschool hallway, where she teaches a three-year-old class. Molly, 14 years old, heads to the second floor to the youth class, and Joseph, the third grade son, runs in a different direction for his Sunday School class. And this is a church that promotes itself as being a family-friendly church! Churches must seek to minister to families as families and not just as individuals who ride to church in the same car.

What steps can your congregation take to become a family-friendly church? [Read more…]

By Johnnie Godwin
Contributing Columnist, B&R

Johnnie Godwin

You will never amount to more than you do right now unless a “tipping point” revolutionizes your life! In other words, your New Year’s resolutions and other resolutions are as futile as trying to keep all the Law to get saved. You’ll never get saved by trying to keep endless laws because salvation comes only “by grace through faith” when a person “repents” (Ephesians 2:8-10; Mark 1:15; John 3:1-18). That’s why one cliché stands out with truth: namely, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” As human beings, “inertia” is our spiritual nature: We tend to stay the same or change!

What I’m really writing about is repentance with the most literal meanings from its Greek word: which is “change of mind.” Until there is a change of mind so radical that it is like getting born again, we will likely keep on with old habits and old ways and the direction of all mankind cycle on till death. But besides the eternal tipping point of trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and getting saved by grace through faith, other tipping points can and have to occur if we change and move toward our potential. [Read more…]