Church Membership: Whose Idea Is It Anyway?
The Christian church constantly faces the challenge of tensions in its faith and practice. Believers have to look forward to heaven’s glories while avoiding gnostic tendencies toward escapism. Churches have to determine how addressing social conditions such as poverty relates, if at all, to the Great Commission. And more recently, Christians are learning to participate better in the environmental conversation while not succumbing to...
A Legacy Remembered: An Interview with Evangelist Bobby Jackson, author of “Yesterday”
One of the unique memories of my childhood was the trips from my home church to the annual Free Will Baptist Convention. Occasionally other pastors and their wives would hitch a ride with us on the large buses we would charter. On one occasion, I remember wondering why some old preacher and his wife were riding along with us. Nevertheless, this didn’t stop me from running up and down the aisles of the bus! Little did I know that if I...
“How Firm a Foundation”: Reflections on the 2012 FWB Leadership Conference
As people committed to their Free Will Baptist brethren, the Helwys Society frequently attends denominational events. We believe there is much value in many of these events, and the annual Leadership Conference is no exception. Recently, I was privileged to be able to attend the 2012 Conference in Nashville, Tennessee on December 3-4. The conference consisted of two plenary addresses on Monday and Tuesday evening, coupled with two...
Saving Schaeffer
On a shelf in the library archives of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is a box. Inside is an aging, well-worn Bible. Finding a Bible in a library is nothing special—but this one is. It, along with thousands of letters, cassette tapes, and videos comprise the Francis Schaeffer literary estate. While many Christians aren’t familiar with his books, many have heard his name. Some have even seen pictures of this unique man...
A Twenty-first Century Reformation?
Every year a new round of publications on the Protestant Reformation checker the pages of academic catalogs around this time. While the arguments and approaches of these books differ, they all implicitly point to the same conclusion: the Reformation’s significance to Christianity is enduring and will continue to be the subject of conversation going forward. Baptists are frequently dismissed as not being historically or theologically...
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