Doomed To Repeat It

It is always a tragedy when a church is torn apart by conflict, but the tragedy is compounded when that conflict is splayed all over the news media. It is even more tragic when you realize this scenario plays out the over and over again in church after church after church on a daily basis. That great philosopher and social commentator Yogi Berra once described a situation by saying, “It’s like déjà vu...

The Best Gift

If you travel in the mountains of North Georgia between Gainesville and Cleveland, you might pass by a church with the unusual name of Dewberry Baptist Church #2.  If you drive on a little while longer, you will come upon another church called Dewberry Baptist Church.  When I first encountered these two churches years ago, I asked a friend of mine who was the unofficial Baptist historian for North Georgia about...

Quote of the Day

After spending way too much time today reading through over 50 comments on a post about R.C. Sproul, most of which were just downright mean and nasty (imagine that, Christians on the Internets being mean and nasty), I ran across this great quote from Jeremiah Burroughs, the great Puritan preacher who spent his last days devoted to healing the divisions he saw developing in the Body of Christ in the mid-1600s:...

Where Do You Draw the Line?

There is a great scene in Fiddler on the Roof where Tevye struggles to deal with cherished lifelong traditions being challenged and forced resettlement causing them to leave their beloved village. He paces the stage thinking out loud, debating the pros and cons of the situation when he suddenly stops and resolutely declares, “But if I bend that far I will break!” Where is that breaking point for you?...

Will There Ever Be Another Billy Graham?

The month of June has seen the dedication of the Billy Graham Library and the passing of his beloved wife Ruth.  At both of these events we’ve been reminded again how frail Dr. Graham is.  He retired from public ministry a while back, but these events have also reminded us of the awesome impact this son of a North Carolina dairy farmer has had on the world. The vast majority of Americans don’t remember...