Editor’s Journal :: Baptist Messenger of Oklahoma

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Ministry of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

Archive for Editor’s Journal – Page 2

Editor’s Journal: A painful end

As renowned atheist Christopher Hitchens dies a very public death from cancer, he has declared any idea that might be reported of a deathbed conversion to Christ should be relegated to a man under duress from drugs and a disease that has attacked his brain. In an interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, he made

Editor’s Journal: A nation still at risk

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. —A Nation At Risk – 1983 The education system in the United States

Editor’s Journal: The competence factor

Yale University historian Harry S. Stout identified the dominant influence in colonial New England as the local church. In his book, The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in New England, he reveals that the local pastor wielded great authority in the early communities across America precisely because his sermons were heard and later

Editor’s Journal: When the mourning comes

O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! —Psalm 39:4-5 Having worked at a funeral home

Editor’s Journal: Music matters

One of the most famous images of the United States Naval Academy is not the dome of the chapel, the Tecumseh statue on the Yard or the beauty of Bancroft Hall. The Men’s Glee Club is, by far, one of the most powerful sights and sounds of an institution that demands physical fitness, fortitude and

Editor’s Journal: Scene and heard at Falls Creek

For the uninitiated, summer camp at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center is a place where ideas of the Gospel and missions and Jesus and the church seemingly and almost effortlessly flow from the lips of people who seem to appear (at least on the surface) quite perfect. Seldom do you find someone who is not

Editor’s Journal: America’s God: A public theology examined

Not since the end of Great Britain’s Victorian age had such terror gripped the Western world like it would after Sept. 11, 2001. Twenty-first Century terrorism brought with it new challenges for many modern nations, and the motive of the terrorists’ actions seemed to have been simmering for years before erupting in a religious rage.

Editor’s Journal: The path forward

How is it possible that the Gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross? I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the Gospel, is a congregation of men and

Editor’s Journal: In search of the SBC majority

For a denomination that revels in numbers, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) seems to continually come up smaller and smaller. Total membership for the entire denomination in 2009 totaled 16.16 million (a decrease of 0.42 percent from 2008) gathered into 45,010 local churches (a 0.36 percent increase from 2008). With these figures, the SBC is

Editor’s Journal: Against the McDonaldization of the SBC

He that delighteth not in holiness, hateth not iniquity, loveth not the unity and purity of the Church, and abhoreth not discord and divisions, and taketh no pleasure in the communion of saints and the public worship of God with his people, is not fit to be a pastor of a church. —Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

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