First Baptist Church of Christ

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What is the source of reckless, lavish giving? Is it the fire-breathing oughts and shoulds of John the Baptist or the Spirit-breathed grace of Jesus? Since Jesus emphatically affirmed the ministry of John the Baptist, perhaps his answer would be Both.

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by Bob Setzer, Jr.
Last night, I saw a story on the evening news that saddened and disturbed me. Several times before cutting to a commercial, the news announcer offered a teaser about an upcoming story of ministers living a lie. I feared the worst.
And in some ways, this really was the worst: not local church pastors neck-deep in some moral scandal, the usual fare of such exposes, but ministers who are self-avowed atheists. Yet these ministers have not confessed their loss of faith. Instead, they bear it as a shameful secret while pretending to believe.
One of the two ministers featured in the story calls himself an “atheistic agnostic” I don’t think we can prove that there is not a God or that there is a God,” he says, (but) “I live out my life as if there is no God.” So why does he and his fellow doubting Thomas stay in the ministry? Because they need a job and feel poorly qualified to do anything else. Read More

Our church is one of an increasingly rare breed: a congregation that is multi-generational in makeup. More and more congregations are focused on a particular group: twenty-somethings, baby boomers, young professionals on the rise, and so on. It has long been recognized that in churches, as elsewhere, birds of a feather fly together.

Problem is, thats not what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like. According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is like a tiny seed that grows into a tree with strong, welcoming branches where all the birds of the air make their nests (Luke 13:19). Read more

As a Baptist boy growing up in the South, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. It was the one time of year my preferred sins were sanctioned: gluttony, especially of the chocolate variety, and getting to dress up like a ghost or goblin. The latter allowed me to go public with the fact there was a dark side to my good boy image.
Thus, for me, Halloween has always been a fun-loving time, both for the kids, and for the adults who get to revel in the wonder of a childs imagination and bravado. However, there are a good many Christians and churches who view Halloween as Public Enemy Number One (or at least, Number Two or Number Three). The objections, to the extent I can fathom them, seem to be twofold: (1) Halloween began as a pagan festival and therefore, is sub-Christian and (2) Halloween constitutes dabbling in the occult. Read More

There is a line in the Apostles Creed, an early Christian confession, that says Jesus descended into hell. That claim is based on some fairly obscure New Testament passages, 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 4:16, being chief among them. Did Jesus preach to the spirits in Hades, the abode of the dead, merely to announce his triumph? Or in proclaiming the Gospel to the dead, was he offering those condemned the proverbial second chance?
Ill let other argue the fine points of theology. Lets just say in the light of the Chilean mine rescue (and near disaster), I have a vivid picture of what it means to say Jesus descended into hell: It means there is Someone who loves you so much, he will stop at nothing to rescue you from whatever hell hole where you have landed. Read More