I have heard all my life that the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” According to Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) the phrase is “an American proverb or metaphor used to convey the idea that the most notable (or loudest) problems are the ones most likely to get attention.”

According to a Pew Research report in June of 2022, only 1.6 percent of the United States population identifies as transgender or binary; that is that their gender is different from the sex they were born with — either male or female. That number increases to 3.1 percent of adults age 25 or younger, according to Pew Research.

I am not a math major, but that tells me that at least 95 percent of American adults identify as male or female. [Read more…]

We waited. I was the first to arrive. The bride was the second. We waited for the groom. Others began arriving. Suddenly, we heard a siren. It was a Tennessee state trooper, going in a direction nobody we knew would be coming from. Then an ambulance, followed by a Sherriff’s deputy.

 All went in that direction where we thought we had nothing to worry about. I began taking pictures of the unique venue for a wedding, a unique wedding. 

This wedding was between two friends whom I’ve ridden with before. The three of us rode our motorcycles in a funeral procession a few months ago, along with dozens of others. [Read more…]

I’m so thankful for my mother. She made it to heaven this past year, but she left an indelible mark on my life. Growing up, I thought my mother was the strictest, most penny-pinching woman on the planet. As an adult, this theory has been confirmed. I used to think this was a flaw more than a virtue. I was wrong.

Mom was prepared for every crisis. The apocalypse, the tribulation, and the nuclear meltdown never happened, but if they did, the world would have turned to her and they would all receive stacks of canned hominy, frozen vegetables, and enough toilet paper to go around. But not the two-ply toilet paper. Much too expensive. … 

I remember our weekly runs to the bread surplus store to get expired cinnamon bread at half price. If it weren’t for the commercials, I wouldn’t have even known that McDonald’s served French fries until I was over the age of accountability.  [Read more…]

It is never the wrong time to do the right thing. 

And the right thing was done Monday, May 1, with the decision by trustees of the Executive Board (EC) of the Southern Baptist Convention to not elect by a vote of 50-31 former EC board chair Jared Wellman as EC president/CEO.

Credit to the EC for taking a meaningful step toward restoring a measure of credibility to an entity that desperately needed to send a message to Southern Baptists that would bolster confidence in the entity. The EC members studied the issue, were encouraged to vote their conscience, prayed, and decided to stand on personal conviction regardless of consequences. [Read more…]

Churches today realize they need to be reaching young adults in their community. A vision of winning and sending young adults out as disciplemakers is paramount for the church. 

In order to execute fruitful discipleship, churches must be willing to develop flexible strategies that consider the lifestyle of a college student. Assumptions are often made about college students that can hinder effective discipleship. Below are two assumptions about college students that guarantee fruitless discipleship efforts.

Students know and live the basics of the faith. Thousands of people varying in age, gender, ethnicity, religion and upbringing exist on a single college campus. If a church desires to engage in fruitful discipleship, it cannot afford to assume that any student understands the gospel or knows how to live the Christian life.  [Read more…]