Continue Reading »]]> I've read a number of books over the years and especially in the last few months. Recently, I've dived into biographies or memoirs of people. Thanks to the Goodreads application on Facebook which provides recommendations based on the books I catalogue I discovered Beyond Belief by Josh Hamilton. ... Continue Reading »]]> Continue Reading »]]> I almost didn't. I almost left. Something just held me back. It's not the doctrine. It's not the relationships. It's not the time I've spent investing in the Churches of Christ. There's something else that just won't let me go. Despite the fact that more of my peers have left than have stayed, I can't quite do it. Not yet. ... Continue Reading »]]> For the record, I am (was?)  a generational member of our tribe. Don't know much about my paternal side of the family and their roots in churches of Christ other than a lot of them, as I recall, were Baptists. On my mother's side, my grandfather was beloved as a Bible teacher and was instrumental in planting one of the healthier churches in Lauderdale County, Alabama. My grandmother was a "convert" from the Presbyterian church to churches of Christ but was quite the free-thinking student of the Bible, awakening every morning around 4am to study her Bible until about 6:20 when she would start breakfast. She was "church of Christ," but not all of it. And she instilled in me at a very early age of my life that I would some day be a preacher. That stunned our family on many levels for many years, but she proved to be somewhat of a prophet as I turned out to be somewhat of a preacher. ... Continue Reading »]]> not the ones that well-up mid-sermon
and lead you down the aisle at altar call,
but the ones you hold back until, car door
shut, you sob in the shadow of the steeple. ... Continue Reading »]]> Continue Reading »]]> Continue Reading »]]> I am a member of the Churches of Christ. I am a minister in a Church of Christ (though some Churches of Christ might not claim us). For the record, I love the Churches of Christ. ... Churches of Christ have some beautiful, worth-copying traits. And, we have some things we're still trying to let go of, improve, and be honest about. ... Continue Reading »]]> There is a wise old saying I learned many years ago that offers some food for thought: "Some people reach the top of the ladder only to find it is leaning against the wrong wall." Some are so intent upon climbing the ladder of success that they take no note of where it leads. As a result, many succeed only to fail. In defense of such persons, however, let it be said that many honestly believed that their ladder was leaning against the right wall; that when they had successfully climbed each rung and arrived at the pinnacle, they would achieve what they had genuinely set out to realize. ... Continue Reading »]]> Flavil Yeakley's detailed analysis of the causes of membership decline in Churches of Christ is a work that is candid, forthright, responsible, even circumspect. Just the same, Why They Left could as easily be described as a study on how to retain membership. And in that regard, it must be admitted that this book will appeal more to those who hope to preserve traditional doctrinal positions and the church's status quo than it will to those who might share any of the sentiments of former church members who left, or current members who contemplate leaving. ... Continue Reading »]]> Maybe the title of this article should be, “The confessions of a combat veteran of life, and following Jesus, and some of his failures.” Or perhaps something like, “Why would a slightly Pentecostal, mostly Reformed, staunchly independent person with a Baptist background continue to worship in a Church of Christ? Why do I stay you ask? First, how I got here. ... Continue Reading »]]> It's not just a song by the English punk rock band, The Clash. It's a question that a lot of church-going believers ask themselves, and sometimes their families and closest friends ... even their church leaders and overseers. Some of my dearest friends have asked that question, and have left. Not just their church home, but the fellowship identified with it. Some have stayed, laboring on, sometimes uncomfortably. ... Continue Reading »]]> Continue Reading »]]> Continue Reading »]]> ]]> Continue Reading »]]>