Church Life
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What Makes You a Winner?
Friday night football in small towns is a great event. I remember spending lots of Friday nights watching the Dexter (MO) Bearcats play and enjoying the pre-game and half-time shows by the band. A couple of weeks ago in southeast Missouri, the Jackson Indians played the Cape Central Tigers on Jackson’s home field. The game was really hard on Cape Central and the final score proved it. The final score was 35 – 0. Games like that are hard to take. You practice (in a lot of heat, I might add) and you travel to the town of the opposing team. Your hopes are high. The stands are full of fans. The cheerleaders are leading cheers…
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A Christian View of the Environment
As Christians, our faith guides everything we do. Every thought, action, interaction, motive, and belief is to be driven by Scripture. We simply are not to segment our life into a Christian side and a secular side. But we are living in times where it seems that everything has to be viewed in extremes. You’re either on “this” side or “that” side, and it seems that we cannot even try to find middle ground. While that is not always the case, it seems to come across that way more and more. And that is true when it comes to how a Christian views the environment. Too many in our culture…
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Effective Communication
Many years ago when I was in college (ouch, that hurts to say), I took a class on “Marriage and the Family.” I still have all the notes from the class and just recently I was dipping back into my folder for the sake of reviewing God’s allowances of divorce in the Old Testament. This, of course, would have been in regard to the question the Jews posed to Jesus about divorce in Matthew 19. Well, sometimes the search for something specific leads to the discovery of something else for which you were not looking. Instead of reviewing God’s thoughts about divorce I ended up pouring over some notes I…
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“Enjoyable for Him”
What I know about the NBA could possibly fill up a thimble. How much I care about the NBA would take up even less space. That may help to explain why I’m not too sure of the particulars of a conversation I remember hearing a few years ago. Some pundits were talking about what I assumed was yet another disgruntled NBA player. He wasn’t getting the playing time he thought he deserved – or – he wasn’t being used like he thought he should be – or – the “chemistry” on the team wasn’t right – or – the team wasn’t performing as had been hoped – or -… You get the picture. …
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Do You Ever Talk to the Preacher After Church?
It is in my mind to discuss this strange phenomenon all preachers experience every week. It is that time after the worship service has ended and you are shaking people out the door. If I go back to the first time I ever gave a lesson to the general audience inside a church building I can say that I have entertained about 30 years of post-sermon foyer talks. “Foyer Talks”: It would be a really good book for an older preacher to write about. I would read that book. I want to know all about memorable preacher to person, person to preacher foyer talks after church. There are some people…
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Quick Thoughts on the One Body
Mom and I were blessed to spend part of last weekend with some of the good ladies from the Estes church of Christ near Henderson, TN. Their retreat theme this year was beautifully exhibited in their actions and hospitality while we were there. That theme was “Many Members, One Body.” As I suspect they did, I’m guessing your mind went immediately to either 1 Corinthians 12 or Romans 12. However, being Faughn/Tatums, we did not go the expected route. Oh, we wound up there in Lesson 3, but we decided to look at things a little differently. While I can’t fully re-create three full-length lessons, I’d like to give you…
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The Christian’s Social Media Checklist
Social media is a constant in our lives. I sometimes wonder if future generations are going to wonder why half of our words started with a “#”! We spend hours on Facebook, Instagram (or, for you cool kids, “insta” or “the gram”), Twitter, and a host of other smaller platforms. There is so much good that can be done through social media, as we are able to share Bible verses, links to good articles (maybe this one? hint, hint), ideas of church activities, and more. But with the good also comes a lot of bad. False information. Arguments. Biting sarcasm. Even idolatry, as we post far more about some earthly…
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September 12th: A Full Mast Day
Driving down Willow Avenue towards the church building for work on a Thursday morning I saw something that made me pause and be thankful. It was a flag at full mast. The day before, our country had commemorated 9/11 and every flag was flown at half-mast. We were remembering and still mourning a terrible event that happened in America 18 years ago. There are certain days that will always be half-mast days. Have you ever seen a flag at half-mast and not know why it had been lowered? If you have, then perhaps you found yourself quickly checking the news. This reminds me that oftentimes people are in mourning over…
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A Combination That is Difficult to Beat
One of my favorite books in the Old Testament is the book of Nehemiah. It, of course, provides the reader with details concerning the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. From a historical perspective, that makes it interesting. However, that is not the only thing that intrigues me about this book. There are a number of lessons that are still useful for us today. Without going into detail, I would suggest, for example, that present-day leaders could learn a great deal from the qualities, personality, strategies, etc. of Nehemiah himself. We can also learn a lot from the people who “…had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). The book of Nehemiah contains one…
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It Made My Day!
I’ve been going to the gym lately trying to keep my knee joints moving so I can keep my own knees and not end up with some foreign parts in my body. I can hardly believe it, but I really like going. I get up early, throw on some exercise clothes, brush my teeth and hair and drive to the gym. I’ve met a few really nice people there. The young man named Joe, who helped me learn how to use the machines, was very kind to this older lady who needed a lot of help. There are a couple of women about my age who also happen to like the early…
