By Jon Duncan
Layman, Long Hollow Baptist Church, Hendersonville

Jon Duncan

Having been around children as an educator for close to 20 years now, I remain fascinated at their inability to separate fact from fiction.  More fascinating still is the unwillingness of adults to do the same. In children, this inability is biologically involuntary, cognitive limitation. In adults, this unwillingness is a voluntary, self-imposed limitation. Why let facts get in the way of a strong opinion, right? Regardless of the type of cognitive limitation — voluntary in adults or involuntary in children — the end result is the same: flawed reasoning, which leads to inaccurate, often irrelevant opinions. [Read more…]

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

Chris Turner

It can take a lifetime to build a stellar reputation. It only takes a single “tweet” to destroy it.

That, in a nutshell, is the dark side of social media, especially for ministers (but true of everyone). Many still find it unbelievable that social media has that kind of influence, but social media is like nitroglycerin: useful when handled with care but terminal if jostled the wrong way.

Here’s an example. Justine Sacco was the senior director of corporate communications at a large New York company. While on a layover in London, she posted this Tweet: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” [Read more…]

By Johnnie Godwin
Contributing Columnist, B&R

Johnnie Godwin

At age 29 and on the cusp of 30, I made a momentous decision symbolized by the use of green ink. Everyone needs something like a green-ink moment of decision.  Some moments mean more than all the others because they mean arriving at a decision, forming a conviction, and color-inking all life with a constant reminder.  My green-ink moment of 50 years ago still indelibly tattoos God’s will on my soul!

Context for my green-ink decision. Before I go further, you need a context for what I’m about to say. For a summary and to save space, let me point out that Jesus was born in God’s chosen moment of time and didn’t start His formal ministry until about age 30. What did Jesus do for those first 30 years? The Bible lets us know Jesus was growing at age 12 and ready to get busy about the Father’s will. Though I was only human and sinful, at age 30, and still am, I too had been born in a moment of time, had become aware of God’s call, and prepared. So what? Within my young pastor’s heart lay a holy discontent and sense that my 30s were a time for me to re-map my understanding of God’s calling and live a G-O-A-L: a God/Goal-Oriented Life (Philippians 3:12-15). [Read more…]

By Diana Davis
Reprinted from Baptist Press

Diana Davis

Each Sunday, we’d haul baby beds, sound equipment, and chairs to our temporary meeting place. We were church planters, and though it was hard work, the results were awesome.

Flash forward to present day. Our son-in-law and daughter serve as church planting pastor and worship leader for a new church. Every Sunday, they load a trailer to haul all kinds of equipment to their downtown Indianapolis meeting site. America is still a great missions field.

You are already involved in church planting — a portion of your tithe to your Southern Baptist church helps plant churches through the Cooperative Program, as does your annual gift for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. In Tennessee, Tennessee Baptists are involved in church planting when they give through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions. [Read more…]

By Jenna Fleming
Writer, Pastor’s Wife, & Member of Union Avenue Baptist Church, Memphis

Jenna Fleming

Children today (and perhaps adults in the general populace as well) are often not drawn to what they need, but to what is right in front of them. Truth, goodness, and beauty are available and can be found in nature, great literature, works of art, music, and such, but amusement and frivolity are available as well and easily accessible. Our parents’ generation had television. We have streaming services, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, along with television and its 500 channels that we don’t need. Now, before I come off anti-entertainment (maybe I already have) I want to be clear that I use many of these and enjoy them on occasion. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of it, but there is something wrong in how we use or misuse them.

As a parent, I am becoming particularly aware of how an increase of silliness in my children’s environment causes them to crave more. [Read more…]

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

Michael Julian

To say that America desperately needs God’s life-giving breath would be an understatement. In recent weeks, many people have cast ballots in the presidential primaries across the nation. We have prayed for direction, listened to our gut, or followed our anger and frustration, but nonetheless we cast our votes. Did we cast them for God or for Egypt (government)?

Now, what does that mean? In recent days, controversy has swirled around different religious leaders speaking for or about certain political candidates. Scores of opinions have flowed from fingertips out into the blogosphere. Many things have concerned me, but only one should be consuming me. Where am I placing my trust?

In the days of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, similar conversations swirled among God’s people. Should they stay in Jerusalem, or flee to Egypt? Isaiah said, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!” [Read more…]