by social@thebtscenter.org | Jun 3, 2016 | 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review 2016, ChurchChange
“So,” I said, “what I reckon it all comes down to is, how can I preach if I don’t have any answers?” “Yes, Mr. Crow,” he said, “How can you?” … “I don’t believe I can,” I said, and I felt my skin turn cold, for I had not even thought that until then. He said, “No, I...
by Kay Ahmed | May 27, 2016 | 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, ChurchChange, DigitalMinistry
Earlier this year, one of our award-winning Bearings contributors, Kelly Baker, wrote a piece about the challenges, for white people in particular, of thinking through and talking about racism. Especially with other white people, including goodhearted,...
by social@thebtscenter.org | May 11, 2016 | 21stCenturyBible, 21stCenturySpirituality, Bearings Review 2016, ChurchChange
As my father might say, it was déjà vu all over again: Driving to Andover Newton Theological Seminary (ANTS) for the last class of the course I taught this semester, closing out my year as a visiting professor there. Rather than some “school’s out for summer” kind of...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Mar 31, 2016 | 21stCenturyMinistry, ChurchChange, DigitalMinistry
I write this on the last day of Women’s History Month. Over on my Twitter account, I spent the month highlighting—via the hashtag #BlackChurchHERStory—African American women religious leaders alive today who have been trailblazers in ministry and in the academy. These...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Mar 18, 2016 | 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review 2016, ChurchChange
On the evening of our first dinner church gathering, my then three-year-old daughter sat on the sidewalk in front of our banner that read, “God is not a boy’s name.” The picture struck a chord and continues to circulate on social media, in part because she is a happy,...
by social@thebtscenter.org | Oct 7, 2015 | 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, ChurchChange
I spend a curious amount of time discussing, studying, and writing about polity—the structures and procedures of congregational/denominational governance. As other theologians and sociologists of religion speculate about the decline, revival, or re-emergence of...
