Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
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Welcome to the Park Road Baptist church blog - where we share thoughts and commentary on topics ranging from faith, to current events, to life. This is a progressive Baptist church that emphasizes independent thought, community service, social justice, and interfaith understanding.
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
3y ago
Many changes have taken place in Cuba since we returned from our last visit on March 9, 2020. We were the last group to travel there on a religious visa. Despite the many changes, the important components of our partnership have remained the same.
PRBC is blessed with many new members who do not know the rich history of our Cuban partnership with Resurrection Baptist Church in Carlos Rojas, and our many members who have traveled there over the course of our seventeen-year partnership are most likely unaware of the many challenges our partner congregation is facing in these difficult times.
A ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
3y ago
We need Andy.
For the better part of the last decade, we have been news junkies. Besides baseball, there’s hardly anything worth watching, even with hundreds of options. So, if the TV has been on in our house, chances are good that has been cable news.
That all changed last year. It just got to be too much. I’m not talking about bad news. With 24/7 coverage these days, from all over the world, we’re acclimated to bad news, all the time bad news. Tsunamis and wildfires, scandals and conspiracies, death and death and more death. No, it’s not all the bad news we had to give up, it’s all the anger ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
By now you have all heard the report from our PRBC COVID-19 Task Force. We have pressed “pause” on any activities that would allow us to be together until February 14 at the earliest. It was not a hard decision, really. Everyone on the Task Force knew it was the right thing to do. Following the recent call of state and local officials for everyone to do everything we can to bring about a healthy and safe community during this time of record high cases, we understood that we had to do our part.
The truth is even though we had eased some of those early restrictions, we still remained mostly apa ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
Last Sunday I preached from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. The first 18 verses of John 1 is John’s theological rendering of the birth of Jesus. No angels, no shepherds, no Magi. John presents a layered telling of the birth of Jesus the Christ. One verse caught my attention: From his fullness, we have all received, grace upon grace. (verse 16) I began to ponder – what does that even mean? It is such a lovely abstract thought, but I needed something concrete to hold on to in this new year.
Someone asked me to share what I had said, and I thought others might appreciate having it in wri ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
I was a pretty good kid. You cannot see yourself fairly in the moment (that perception may not get better looking back, either!), but at the very least I didn’t give my parents too much trouble. I made decent grades, chose pretty good friends, never spent time in the principal’s office. I didn’t drink or smoke (or go with girls what do!).
Though the younger version of myself probably looked a little too uptight most of the time. I hate to say it, but I was probably a little too self-righteous for my own good. (For anybody’s good!?)
But I was just trying to walk the straight and narrow. I thou ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
It’s been a year, hasn’t it? And 2020 just keeps on happening!
I’m not alone in feeling like the air is thick with gloom all the time. Just waking up and turning on the “Today” show comes with some anxiety: “…wonder what’s the latest crazy thing…?” In a sermon a few years ago, Amy quoted a commentator who noted that human beings are built to handle bad news. Disappointment and despair are part of the routine. We can handle bad news. What we can’t handle is all of the bad news all at the same time, and that’s what’s happening to us. From always-on cable news to 24/7 social media, we’re inundate ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
September 15 – October 15 is National Latinx Heritage Month. Can You Celebrate?
In 1968 President Johnson designated a week in the fall as “Hispanic Heritage Week.” That celebration, of some of our nation’s least-appreciated neighbors, was expanded in 1988 into a month-long commemoration by President Reagan and enacted into law later that year. Even though we are in the midst of that celebration, it’s likely none of us has heard a word about it. Sadly, there’s been very little celebration of our Latinx neighbors in the last few years.
National Latinx Heritage Month (originally known as Hispan ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
This past week it hit me one morning, a little depression. It's the first time I have had this feeling in four and a half months of this pandemic.
I feel so fortunate. Amy and I have followed the rules, have basically stayed home since the beginning of the shutdown. Yes, I have taken on several “honey do” projects, so I have made some trips to Lowe's for supplies. However, I have been a faithful mask wearer, a dedicated user of hand sanitizer, and a faithful hand washer. I've maintained social distance everywhere, but these opportunities to be out have given me a change of scenery.  ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
Did I say, “I don’t know.” If you didn’t hear it, let me say it again, “I don’t know!”
Should our kids be back in school, physically, or practice remote learning? Should our teachers have to go to class, opening themselves up to contact with asymptomatic carriers? Should schools postpone their start dates, alter their schedules, rearrange classrooms, limit or cancel extracurricular activities? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.
When all of this began in the late winter, none of us had any idea we would be having this conversation. None of us knew the toll that home-schooling would take ..read more
Park Road Baptist Church - Still Christian for a Reason
4y ago
A friend likes to say that he is “Sometimes wrong – but never in doubt!” Though I have my opinions, that’s not my motto. When I was an Associate Pastor, apparently I said it a lot, but then Amy and I accepted the call to become your Pastors. A colleague told me, “When you become the Pastor, you can no longer say ‘I don’t know.’”
Oh, yeah? Wanna bet!?
“What do you think about the requested budget increase?”
“I don’t know. I want to be responsible but also confident and courageous and faithful. What do you think?”
“What is your opinion on euthanasia?”
“I don’t know. It’s complex. I can und ..read more