When I turn on a screen, it is often for entertainment—laughing at Facebook posts, catching a game (remember sports?), or watching a TV show or movie. Entertainment is passive. I may stand up to cheer when the Nationals hit a home run.
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When I was in high school, growing up in an idyllic suburb of Atlanta, the life of Rich Mullins jolted me. I loved Rich’s music from the time I started singing Awesome God in youth group. I bought every one of his albums and pored over his lyrics in the cassette tape’s liner.
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Two months ago few of us knew “coronavirus” was an actual word. Now it is the top news story, with reports of new cases and preventative measures updating throughout the day. How do we follow Jesus faithfully through this new and unexpected situation?
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Hopefully the gradual improvement of our online worship services shows how hard our staff, audio/visual, and worship teams have been working to facilitate a meaningful time of hearing God’s word and singing praises to him.
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Confession time. Four years ago, when Rachael and I were praying about coming to Groveton, I deployed a spy to visit the church and let me know what she thought. There is only so much you can learn about a church from a website, so my sister made the drive.
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If I want to make one of my twins squirm, all I have to say is, “Son, when a mommy and a daddy really love each other…” We’ve had the sex talk, so they know where that conversation is going and say, “Dad!” and look for a quick exit.
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Game 6 of the World Series last night was one for the books. Not only did it display brilliant pitching and hitting from the Nationals, it set a World Series record for 6 away-game wins. With the news of Max Scherzer unable to pitch Game 5 but slated for tonight’s game.
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This summer, our Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission issued the “Caring Well Challenge” in response to reports of abuse in Southern Baptist Churches. Groveton took the challenge, holding training sessions about abuse care.
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One of my hobbies is making movies of our family events or vacations. No one wants to sit through 3 hours’ worth of video and pictures from the beach, but if I can boil it down to 3 minutes of highlights, we can all remember the shared experiences.
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About 10 years ago I attended a funeral that included a hand bell selection. As I looked at the group in robes and gloves ringing praises to God, a thought entered my mind: how did we get from a radical rabbi teaching about the kingdom of God on the dusty roads...
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“And [Christ] gave…the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” (Ephesians 4:11–13)
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"There are two types of people - those who are man-centered and those who are God-centered. And of those who are God-centered there are two types of people - those who think God is man-centered and those who think God is God-centered."
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This is the question I asked the search team the first time I saw Groveton’s attendance numbers and the size of the sanctuary. I was not yet the final candidate for the Senior Pastor position, so my question was out of sheer curiosity.
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On the morning of December 16, 2017, as we were preparing for Ted Prince’s funeral, a homeless man wearing a helmet walked in the front door of our church. He said nothing. He looked at no one. He simply made a beeline for one of the chairs in the foyer.
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The most well-known expression of Jesus’ outrage was in the temple when he drove out the money changers, overturning tables and blocking the commerce. “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
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Virginia’s governor, in response to a bill relaxing the constraints on late-term abortions, spoke about a birth in these terms: “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired.
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On Sunday we launched our new focus on spiritual growth. This is something the Leadership Council has been planning for many months, as we believe growing spiritually is one of the greatest needs in our church family. What is spiritual growth?
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I am still flying high from our 75th Anniversary Fall Celebration. From the hymn sing (which I sadly missed, due to a nasty but short-lived virus) to the time to connect to the elegant Saturday evening dinner to the rousing homecoming service on Sunday morning.
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Three weeks ago, God put a prayer in my heart that I haven’t been able to shake. I wasn’t asking for it or even thinking in its general direction. But in one of my prayer times, when I was still enough to listen, this is the question that God asked me to ask him.
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Recently we have given attention to the biblical theme of God’s name–his character, identity, and reputation. As we pray about what this means for our church’s vision, I thought it would be helpful to look at a scene from the biblical storyline of God’s reputation.
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God is calling us to be A House of Prayer for All Nations. What exactly does that mean? The phrase occurs in Isaiah 56:7–“for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples [nations].” The context gives us three beautiful descriptions of God’s house of prayer:
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Two more stories of men misusing power have hit the news today. Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor join the flood of men–from sophisticated journalists to crude comics–to be outed for abuse of power after the accusations against Harvey Weinstein.
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Hebrews 11 chronicles the spiritual “Hall of Faith”—the radical lives of Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and other faithful Israelites that resulted from their faith in God. Toward the end of the chapter, the author begins summarizing the exploits of leaders and prophets.
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About halfway through our adoption training in 2005, Rachael and I ran into another couple from our class. They had news. A birthmother had chosen them to adopt her baby. We instinctively rejoiced, an exultant reaction that met sober eyes and strained smiles.
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