On October 14, 2012, Australian skydiver and extreme sportsman Felix Baumgartner rode a helium balloon-lifted capsule nearly 24 miles into the stratosphere and then stepped out the door and plummeted toward earth. He spent nearly four minutes in a free fall, reaching 843 mph at top speed. Baumgartner became the first person to break the sound barrier without engine power.

When Lynn* came in for Bible study at the jail, it was clear she was struggling. As she shared some of her story, we realized she had struggled her whole life. She told of the abuse she suffered as a young child, bringing tears to my eyes. Burned. Molested. How could parents/family do that?! The abuse left scars inside and out.

Pastors and church leaders are not short on vision. If anything, many are carrying more vision than their people can realistically absorb. What is often missing is neither desire nor effort. What is missing is clarity.

I don’t know why, but it always seems like this time of year presents a struggle for me. Maybe it’s the “winter blues.”

Sometimes I have to pinch myself. When I look at my wife and children, I cannot believe they are mine. When I stand before the congregation I serve each week, the privilege of leading them overwhelms me.

The wise preacher reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:7b that there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” But if you are a pastor, elder, or ministry leader, then you may feel the tension of discerning which one you need to do at any given moment.  

I recently read about a woman who worried for forty years that cancer would lead to her death. Eventually, at the age of 70, she died of pneumonia. She wasted 33 years of her life worrying about the wrong thing.

I once saw a bumper sticker that I very much liked. It said, “Exercise daily; walk with God.” What wonderful advice!

When I read true stories of people in the Bible who turn from the Lord, my stomach clenches. I know what is coming. “Don’t do it!” I want to yell. But their story has already been written. I only have to turn the page to see what happened.

A friend recently shared Pew Research data that stopped me in my tracks: Baby Boomers make up only about one-fifth of the population, yet they represent almost half of Southern Baptist church membership. 

At our house this week, the focus is on Valentine's Day. When you have younger children in your home, they are all about the cards and candy.

After closing our doors for two Sundays due to inclement weather, churches across our community met again this past weekend for what I am sure were powerful gatherings.

According to Oxford University Press, 2025’s word of the year is “rage bait,” which Oxford defines as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.”

The beautiful hymn, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," asks the Lord, “O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel!” Abide means to stay in one place, our hearts.

Most groups in local churches don’t fall apart overnight. They slowly drift from life-giving to maintenance driven. Leaders don’t usually quit because they don’t care anymore—they quit because the structure they are working inside can’t sustain long-term disciple-making.

"All of us are headed toward a storm, in a storm, or coming out of a storm." I do not remember the first time I heard those words or the first time I repeated them. Most pastors have offered a version of the remark in more than a few sermons.

On Jan. 22, 1984, Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday in January as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. His directive encouraged all Americans to value life, both born and pre-born. 

In recent days, news broke of the passing of Dr. Robert H. Stein, Senior Professor Emeritus of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In their tributes, many have noted that Dr. Stein was a highly acclaimed and prolific New Testament scholar and a Christian Churchman with impeccable integrity.

Not only did Jesus ask a lot of questions during His season of public ministry, He received many as well. One of the more memorable inquiries came from a lawyer, who asked, “Who is my neighbor?” 

History reminds us that God often works through the ordinary and the few. The life of Jesus Christ is a powerful example: His three-year ministry, shared with just twelve disciples, forever changed the world.

How can I know for sure that I am a Christian? The frequency of this question over the years has been staggering.

Recently I was invited to give a charge to the church at the ordination service for a young Kentucky Baptist pastor. It was an inspiring worship service, and many attended to encourage him and his family and to celebrate God’s call on his life.  

Nobody follows a leader they don’t trust. It just doesn’t happen. You and I might respect someone’s role, and so refuse to criticize. And we might give them time to prove themselves, or give evidence of something better/stronger after a series of missteps. But that’s about as far as it goes.

The news no pastor wants to receive came by phone one December morning over a decade ago. My wife and I had just left home to travel two hours to her family’s Christmas gathering. One of our church’s college students lost his life in a single-car accident on his way home from work.

We are Baptists, and there is something special about that. It means we have a voice in our convention and its direction. Our headquarters reside in the local church. Our leadership is made up of pastors and church members across our more than 3,000 churches.