Editor’s Note: It’s not too late to attend a Church Revitalization Conference March 14-15 at Union University in Jackson. For more information, contact Steve Holt at [email protected].

Bob Brown
Church Revitalization Specialist, TBC

I suppose everyone has experienced that moment when something about which you were clueless suddenly becomes very clear. I have vivid memories of such a moment in my ninth grade algebra class. I had struggled for a good portion of the year, trying to grasp the finer concepts and meaning of this noble subject. Everything I tried amounted to no avail. The tutoring, the trying harder, the tearing and tossing of paper in frustration … all was useless. Then one day while gazing at the black board, inexplicably and without expectation it came to me. It was an “Aha” moment. [Read more…]

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

I sat down in a movie theatre with my 13-year-old daughter and I located the doors as I did. We would have been the first fatalities if someone stormed in with guns blazing. We moved.

I was recently at an upscale mall and passed two ladies who were obviously Muslims. I looked closely to see if I could detect any sign of an explosive device strapped to their bodies. I didn’t, but I quickly moved on.

Paranoia? Racial profiling? Xenophobia? Do those labels describe me? I don’t believe so. I’ve been a missionary, traveled extensively overseas and love other people and their cultures. So why such anxiety? I’ve searched for a word to describe the suspicion I feel toward the world around me and think I’ve finally found one. It came while enduring the political debates and listening to candidates belligerently hash through the issues of national security, immigration, and gun control. [Read more…]

By David Fowler
President, Family Action Council of Tennessee

When I got into state politics 22 years ago, I never thought I would see the legislature having to debate certain things like who can use a bathroom designated for males. But perhaps the most shocking thing of all is that the Tennessee Department of Education is officially okay with our public schools allowing boys to use the restrooms and locker facilities designated for girls.

A bill will be heard March 8 in the House Education Administration and Planning Subcommittee that would prohibit our public elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schools from allowing someone of one biological sex to use the facilities designated for use by those of the opposite biological sex. It does allow those educational institutions to construct or allow sex-confused students to use a separate bathroom or locker room facility. [Read more…]

By Johnnie Godwin
Contributing Columnist, B&R

When I was a Bible curriculum editor, an outside guest led us to play “Baldicer” in a work retreat. The leader of the game explained most of the rules and what “Baldicer” stood for. The word itself stands for “Balanced Diet Certificates.” The overall object of the game is to deal with world hunger and how a leader from rich and poor countries might work together in an informal United Nations to feed the world. However, sparse rule explanations left us individual participants and team members in a quandary. We tended to use our given certificates to feed our own country and competed with other countries until our country won and wiped out the other country. [Read more…]