Youth Retreat
“…if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 (NIV) The other day a friend asked me if I had heard about a recent...
Reflections on CBF Educators Conference
Earlier this month, I traveled to Decatur, GA with my stellar colleagues, Kyle and Mary, along with one of our lay leaders, Kim Wilkinson, to the 1st official C...
Holy Ambition: CBF’s General Assembly
This week, twenty First on Fifth folks traveled to Atlanta for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's General Assembly, the annual gathering of more than 1000 Coo...
Promotion Sunday
Each year, Promotion Sunday marks an exciting time in the life of our church family — a time when our children and youth officially “move up” to their nex...
Baptists to Call “Ours”
Dear Beloved Community, June is Baptist season around these parts. A number of global Baptist denominations gather in these early summer days each year for the ...
The Conviction at the Epicenter of Christian Life
Dear Beloved Community, Over the past two weeks, many of you have reached out to the church as questions have arisen about the impact of recent changes in our c...
Bold Witness and Stories of Resurrection
Yesterday morning, I gathered with over 150 folks for an optional workshop at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s Annual Gathering. Called ...
How to Unlock the Heart
I’m certain that music unlocks a chamber of the human heart in each of us where words cannot. Time and time again in my life, this has been true for me, and p...
The Connective Tissue of Blessing
Last summer while Josh and I were in Spain en route to our Camino de Santiago starting point, we were stuck in the middle of a long day of travel in our longest...
The Special Magic of Camp
As a young person, a week away at church camp has the power to transform. And when that week is spent at Passport, anything is possible!...
“PREACH!”
Baptists have been in the news this week; perhaps you’ve heard. The Southern Baptist Convention met for their annual gathering, and beyond any other headline ...