ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 14, 2022Yesterday, on my front door, I found a “tract,” a religious pamphlet that someone had left. On the front cover, it asked: Are you a good person? In Mark 10, a man runs to Jesus and refers to him as a “Good teacher,” but Jesus responds by asking, “Why do you call me good? No one is good, except God alone. ” The response of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 13, 2022Today is the first Saturday after the start of school. I have very specific memories of this day as it changed from elementary school to middle school and then to high school. As a younger kid, after being “forced” to wake up early for a few days that first week after summer break, there was something wonderful about that first reprieve. Of course, later in
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 12, 2022I love the story of the Christian Women’s Board of Mission (CWBM), a powerful organization within our denomination during the first fifty years or so. This organization empowered women beyond what many other Christian denominations were doing at the time. These were in the years following the Civil War, in which over 600,000 men had been killed. There was often a gap in leadership, especially
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 11, 2022George Ricks, also known as Parson George, was a former slave who became a preacher in Alabama and Mississippi after he was freed. His moment of transformation happened as he listened to Alexander Campbell preach, eventually becoming a well known black preacher in our denomination’s early history. As a free man, he became a farmer, eventually owning 300 acres of land. Some of the land
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 10, 2022“Raccoon” John Smith was one of the unique individuals in our denomination’s history. He became an itinerant preacher for this new movement after hearing Alexander Campbell speak. In fact, Smith was so compelling that he baptized over 2,000 people in 1827 and nearly that many in 1828. Those are some pretty good numbers. Smith was drawn to the ideas presented by Campbell because of his
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 9, 2022This past Sunday, as I continued the series: The Disciples In A Nutshell, the sermon focused on Alexander Campbell and his strong support of free public education. Alongside it, I talked about his opposition to school-sanctioned prayer in public schools. I feel confident in saying that it was a surprise to some people. You may also find it interesting that Baptists, early in this country’s
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 8, 2022Prayer for the Week: A 16th Century PrayerGod be in my head and in my understanding;God be in my eyes and in my looking;God be in my mouth and in my speaking;God be in my heart and in my thinking;God be at my end and at my departing.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 7, 2022In worship this morning, I will be talking a bit more about one of our denominational founders, Alexander Campbell. This is part of a worship series entitled: The Disciples in a Nutshell. Campbell held an intriguing, if not naive, belief in the human capacity to seek truth above all else. He wrote, “We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 6, 2022Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.~St. Catherine of Siena This quote was in our weekly Highlights on Thursday, and ever since I came across the words, I have been both fascinated and troubled by them. I believe they are true, yet if they are true, why isn’t the world on fire with goodness, grace, kindness, justice
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 5, 2022I have always found it a bit baffling how Christianity has become so dogmatic, claiming absolutes in the name of a teacher who, according to Mark 4, climbed into a boat, sat down, and began to teach a large crowd using parables/stories. He did not say, “Here are the seven necessary truths one must know and claim as holy-conferred…” He did not provide a well-structured