Creeds developed early in the history of the church. "Jesus is Lord" may well have been the earliest one. The Apostle's Creed came later, followed by a number of creeds developed and approved by church councils. Most early Protestants continued to generate creeds.

Creeds sought to accomplish several goals. They gave formal expression to the beliefs of those in power in the church. Most creeds al ...

What's a Christian to do during the political "crazy season" (i.e. the race for the presidency of the United State)? When asked, I usually answer in terms of what a Christian should and should not do.

My personal list of "should nots" goes as follows.

First, ...

This past Sunday morning I spent some time with one of our adult Sunday School classes. They had spent several months working through a study of doctrines important to Baptists, and I had been asked to visit and wrap up the study. After some thought, I decided to talk about why I choose to remain a Baptist Christian.

The topic is important to me. I have a number of friends who have left Baptist ranks to m ...

Many of us have read each volume of the Harry Potter series. While I've never lined up at the bookstore to snatch up a copy at midnight, I've throughly enjoyed the books.

For one thing, they are well written. Rowling knows how to tell a story. I especially enjoy her willingness to allow her characters (both young and adult) to grow, sometimes in surprising ways. Rowling creates characters we come to care ...

Recently I began working my way through a book entitled Ancient Christian Devotional. The book provides a year's worth of scripture readings in combination with selected comments from the church fathers. Thanks to excellent work on the part the editors, Thomas Oden and Cindy Crosby, some of the wisest insights from the church fathers are now readily available.

For example, in a commen ...

When did it become sinful to change one's mind? When did the ability and willingness to think, learn and adjust cease to be a sign of maturity and wisdom and become the sin we labed "flip-flop?"

Don't get me wrong. I value consistency. For example, I expect a Christian to be consistent in his or her determination to worship only God, practice kindness and generosity toward all others, bear witne ...

Over the past few decades a substantial number of Baptists have fallen in love with lists of beliefs. All deal with theological matters. Behavior, sociological, and political positions often crop up as well. Some lists are public, approved by a church or denomination or other organization. Others are personal.

The lists are used in various ways. Some Baptists utilze them as litmus tests for employment, pa ...

Someone once asked me for a one sentence description of a pastor's life. Many possibilities, of course, came to mind. With Ed Scrugg's recent decision to accept the position of Conductor/Artist in Residence with Mid-America Productions in New York City, the response I once gave popped out of my memory. I answered, "The pastor's life feels like a ongoing series of farewells."

Farewells constitute ...

Religious freedom, actually radical religious freedom, is in the DNA of all healthy Baptists. Truth to tell, religious freedom may be the only special theological contribution Baptists may claim to have made to the broader Christian community.

Our Baptist forebears insisted such freedom must be absolute. It is for everyone, regardless of the decisions they may make with regard to religion. Thomas Helwys, ...

A few years ago a seminary student on the verge of graduation asked me a question. The student had served in some part-time church staff positions but now faced the prospect of being called as pastor by a small church. The question came over coffee at a local fast food establishment:  "What does it take to be a pastor?"

Since then I've pondered the question, and my answer today would in ...