By Larry Robertson
Sr. Pastor, Hilldale Baptist Church, Clarksville

As pastors, we are often confronted with issues that we don’t necessarily feel equipped to handle.

Addictions might fall into such a category for many of us.

It’s easy to preach salvation to a fictional addict we’ve never met. But through the years I’ve witnessed the slavery aspect of sin and it’s made me reconsider how we as pastors, Christians, and churches should respond to addicts and their addictions.

First, humility marked with grace should be our guide. How quickly we rail against others’ addictive behaviors without really considering our own. Those who give themselves to alcohol, drugs, or sexual immorality become easy targets for Sunday sermons. But what about gluttony, lust, or pride? Can we really boast because our sin is different from someone else’s? “There but for the grace of God go I” was one of the most valuable phrases I ever learned. [Read more…]

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Stop.

Just pause what you’re doing for a few minutes and think with me about a couple of very important things.

Have you ever stopped to consider, I mean really consider, what’s important in life? I feel one of the lesser qualities we as Americans seem to have in our DNA is that we scurry from one place to another — one activity to another — never stopping to get introspective. Our lives are too often like the shell game you find played on the street corners in New York, and we’re the ball chaotically being shuffled from one place to another!

More importantly, have you ever stopped to consider what God feels is important in your life? I believe we tend to overcomplicate what we think God expects of us when Scripture lays it out pretty clearly in Micah 6. “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

WEBER CITY, Va. — Johnny Morelock makes it very clear. He is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic.

As a result he is able to relate to both groups and that has opened numerous doors for him to share how God rescued him from the grips of alcohol and drugs.

“I can talk to an addict. They respond to like-minded people,” Morelock noted. “They won’t listen to people who haven’t been there themselves,” he added. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary provides several definitions for the word “addiction.”

Among them:

• a strong and harmful need to regularly have something (such as a drug) or do something (such as gamble);

• an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something;

• the quality or state of being addicted; and

• compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (such as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.

This issue of the Baptist and Reflector provides articles on addictions. Why? Does the Bible even mention “addiction?” It does but it uses the more common description of “sin.” [Read more…]

By Johnnie Godwin
Contributing Columnist, B&R

Stanton, Texas used to have a sign at the city limits that said, “Three thousand friendly people and a few old soreheads.” That sign probably describes most churches to one degree or another. If the church is the size of a rowboat, it just takes one or two to upset the whole boat. As the boat becomes larger — or like an ocean liner — a good bit of the church may be less happy than the majority of the folks know about. But the pastor and deacons and some others know about it. The truth is that no church is going to be equally happy all the time, but joy is the keynote of the New Testament. And joy ought to be the keynote of Christians and local churches. So let’s look at some joy factors. [Read more…]

By Don Pierson
Pastor, Stewart’s Chapel Baptist Church, Flintville

A few years ago if someone had told you that our nation would be debating whether a person could marry a person of the same sex, you would have said, “No way!” Yet we are not only debating it, some of our states are already doing it, and even some churches are doing it. We are in critical days, the Bible describes these days as the Last Days and “perilous times.” [Read more…]

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

There is an ancient Afghan proverb that states, “If you think you’re leading and no one is following you, then you’re only taking a walk.” I love the truth in that statement, but it begs a question. “If they aren’t following you, then who did they go follow?”

More concisely, is someone else really in charge? [Read more…]

By David Evans
TBC Evangelism Specialist

I have had many conversations about Easter egg hunts and evangelism. Many churches that I have recently spoken with feel incomplete concerning their Easter egg hunt plans. They have a great turnout but it seems to just be another event.

The Easter egg hunt seems to be consumed with preparation leaving little to be offered afterwards. I understand that some church leaders struggle with having an Easter egg hunt or not. This article is not intended to defend one position or another. Instead, the purpose is to equip a church to do loving follow up despite the type of event utilized. If you have an event like this or another type of event the following idea/principle can apply. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Growing up in a Southern Baptist church I always knew that church attendance usually was higher on Easter Sunday and the Sunday closest to Christmas.

I naturally assumed that a lot of those Easter/Christmas attendees were non-believers. The more I have researched and talked with people who know more about church attendance than me, the more I realize that’s not necessarily true. [Read more…]

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

I recently reread an old letter that stopped me in my tracks. The author’s passion was evident, and I could imagine the anguished expression on his face. I’m sure tears streamed down his cheeks and into his beard as he wrote.

“With Christ as my witness,” he penned. “I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed — cut off from Christ! — if that would save them.” [Read more…]