What’s Really Real about the new Reality TV Show “Preachers of L.A.”
Recently Oprah Winfrey’s television network, Oxygen, released a promotional video for a new reality TV series called, “Preachers of L.A.” The new program will follow six L.A.-area preachers: Bishops...
View ArticleThe Gospel Wins Again
I just came back from an exciting weekend with our oldest son — Curtis, his wife, and their six children. Yes, you read it right; they have six children ranging from ages ten to four. We took with us...
View ArticleNot by Sight, Not by Comfort: Encouragements for Those Integrating Churches
As an African-American male who’s grown up in a predominantly white church, I was struck by Lou’s article about his son, Curtis. Now, no neighborhood “welcoming committee” has ever called me the...
View ArticleSlopes Really Are Slippery, Folks
Slopes Really Are Slippery, Folks The Detroit Free Press recently published an article with the provocative title, “Detroit Baptist Leader Resigns After Announcing She Married a Woman.” Yep. You read...
View ArticleIllustrating Much That’s Wrong with the Church: Preachers of L.A. “Preach-off”
Discussion and debate about Oxygen’s new reality show, “Preachers of L.A.”, hasn’t quieted much since the network announced the show. Four or so episodes in and people are still talking about it—and...
View ArticleWhat I Love About the People in Prosperity Gospel Churches
I have no love for the so-called “prosperity gospel.” Not even a little bit. But I do love the many thousands and thousands of people who belong to churches that preach the “prosperity gospel.” We can...
View ArticleJubilee Urban Leadership Initiative
The Jubilee Urban Leadership Initiative is an urban leadership development program/internship, which seeks to provide sound theological training, character development, and assessment of calling and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Need for Gospel-Centered Racial Reconciliation
Introduction President Obama’s historic election to the White House in November 2008 spoke volumes about how far the United States has come on the race issue since the dawn of the Civil Rights...
View ArticleThe Death of Jesus Christ as God’s Provision for Racial Reconciliation
Introduction In my first post on racial reconciliation, I proposed a gospel-centered vision for racial reconciliation. I suggested that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to the problem of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety and Public...
I love it when Amazon recommends something that actually interests me. It doesn’t happen often. But every once in a while the online merchandising giant flashes something before me that makes me go,...
View ArticleThe Actual Accomplishment of Racial Reconciliation
Introduction In my previous blogs on racial reconciliation, I discussed the need for racial reconciliation and the provision for racial reconciliation. In post 1, I proposed that racism fundamentally...
View ArticleAudio: “Gospel in Genesis” Sermons from New Life Bible Conference 2014
For twelve years now, the Lord has allowed New Life Fellowship Church in Vernon Hills, IL to host an annual Bible conference. The conferences focuses on exposition of the Scripture. This year’s focus...
View ArticleReflections on a Small Conference with a Big Message
The Gospel of Genesis “The Gospel of Genesis.” So was the theme of the 12th annual New Life Bible Conference last week. Over 100 attendants heard 6 messages traversing the entire book of Genesis, from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ask Yourself, Ask Your Church
Every Christian and ministry faces the slow, subtle, suffocating pressure of the ordinary. The creeping clutch of worldly concerns confronts us all. We settle into routines and ruts. Our zeal cools as...
View ArticleCrown of Thorns
O Sacred Head Now Wounded, With grief and shame weighed down. Now scornfully surrounded, with thorns thine only crown. With thorns thine only crown. Mark’s gospel tells us that, “they put a purple...
View ArticleThree Ways to Grow in Your Evangelism
Are you friendly and outgoing? Is it easy to engage non-Christians about the things of God? Do you prefer to keep to yourself? Those are the types of questions people, or spiritual gifts tests, often...
View ArticleDiscouragement: Inevitable but not Overwhelming
One of my favorite poems is “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. The poem ends with these words: “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep; but I have promises to keep, and miles to go...
View ArticleGreg Gunn and the Resurrection
Several weeks ago, I woke up to an NPR story on the radio. Lying in bed, I heard Greg Gunn’s name for the first time. I learned that Mr. Gunn, who was Black, had been murdered by a white police officer...
View ArticleSouthern Baptist Repudiation of Confederate Flag is “A Seminal Moment”
On Tuesday, June 14, 2016, during its annual meeting, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) made what I believe to be one of the most historic decisions in American Christian history. It adopted a...
View ArticleA Hope Deferred For The Hopeless
Here is a story of a child’s life that withered before it could even blossom. The other day, a young man told me a disheartening story. His best friend, only 14 years old at the time, suffered a...
View Article
