Dear Northway Church, Roughly twenty years ago, I picked up a copy of Newsweek  magazine—back when people actually read words printed on paper. I bought that particular issue because the cover featured an artist’s sketch of Jesus standing outside the empty tomb, with a bold question plastered across the bottom: “Do you have to believe in the resurrection to be a Christian?” The article inside included quotes from scholars who had concluded that the resurrection of Jesus never happened. They...

Dear Northway Church, Almost three years ago, I wrote the following article for our newsletter: Just before Christmas of 2007, I called my friend and former colleague Phil Anderson. At that time, he was the Family Life Minister at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, a place he’d served for 15 years. We had a good conversation about the possibility of joining our staff in the area of adult discipleship. The next month, Phil and Penny interviewed with our Personnel and Lead...

Near the end of 2007, shortly after I came to Macon to serve as the Lead Pastor of what was then called, “Vineville North Baptist...