Dave Miller

I was ten years old when Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis. I remember that we were watching TV when reports came in about his death. I did not really know who he was or why his death was significant. I did know that it was a time of racial strife. The news was filled with reports of riots and unrest and I understood that there was trouble in our nation, but I did not have the grasp on national affairs to understand it. I can remember when I was in 8th or 9th grade, I did a report on the "I Have a Dream" speech of August 28, 1963. I was amazed and inspired by those words. But … [Read more...] about Reflecting on the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My church is working to upgrade our technological and organizational structure. One of the things we are considering is purchasing and subscribing to a "Church Management System" software package. Do any of your churches use such a software? Are you impressed? Upset? Tell me what you know about Church Management software. … [Read more...] about Discussion Forum: Do You Use Church Management Software?

I've had plenty of practice in recent years. I'm a sports fan (in case anyone doesn't know that) and over the last few years I've watched as many of my athletic heroes have fallen flat on their faces. Man, I hated Roger Clemens - everything about him. Then, he donned the pinstripes and I have to admit that it took a while for me to warm to him. But I did. I really did. I remember watching Roger walk off the mound for the last time, with a tear in my eye. And then it turned out that his greatness likely came from a syringe. I cheered for Tiger Woods when he was a scrawny little kid winning … [Read more...] about When Your Hero Falls

Do you ever read a passage of Scripture and think that Paul (or another biblical author) may have had a prophetic vision of blogging when he wrote it? In reality, the issues that come up in blogging are not new, they are just human foibles in a new format. Social media does not create new problems; it simply reveals old ones in a new way. I was reading a post at Mike Leake's site, Borrowed Light, which had a link to an article at "Gentle Reformation" called, "Short Rules of Blogging." In that post, the author quoted a verse from 2 Timothy 2, and it drove me to get the Bible out and read that … [Read more...] about Paul’s Admonitions to Bloggers (Well, to Timothy)

I've been preaching through Acts on Sunday nights and I keep getting more confused as time goes on. You see, I went to seminary and I got me an edumacation and lots o' book-learning. I've been to evangelism conferences and training sessions. And, with all that I have learned about evangelism and cultural engagement, I am left with only one conclusion: Those poor folks in the church in Jerusalem just didn't get it. They did not know the effective evangelism strategies that we have learned today and they didn't know what we now know about engaging our culture in a positive and tolerant way. … [Read more...] about Evidently, the Early Church Didn’t Know How to Do Evangelism!

As one who loves baseball, I absolutely cannot stand this commercial! … [Read more...] about Worst Commercial Ever?

I want to say a public thank you to Mississippi Baptist men and a ministry they have that has blessed me three times over the 22 years I have lived in Iowa. The last two times they did it, I didn't have a forum like this to say thank you, but now I do, so here goes. I know a lot of you young whippersnappers preach in t-shirts and sandals, in your ratty ol' ripped blue jeans. But those of us who, like fine wine (grape juice?) have matured with age still wear our suits and ties when we preach on Sunday morning. And those suits do not come cheap, especially when you pastor some small church in … [Read more...] about Thank You, Mississippi Baptists!

I am no expert on World War II, but I have read about the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, which took place from mid-September of 1944 to February of 1945 on the German/Belgian border. By the accounts I have read it was a fierce battle, which caused 33,000 casualties on the American side and around 28,000 on the German side. Bloody. Brutal. And according to most of what I have read, largely unnecessary.  Charles B. MacDonald, an Army historian who also served in the Battle of Hürtgen called the battle "a misconceived and basically fruitless battle that should have been avoided." Evidently, as the … [Read more...] about Blogging and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest

Louie Giglio is hardly a fundamentalist firebrand. But in the brave new world of Obama's progressive secularism, little distinction is made between Giglio and Fred Phelps. Anyone (and according to Lifeway research, that is 44% of Americans) who believes homosexuality is a sin is unwelcome in the public square. One who holds to the biblical truth about this subject will not be eligible for appointed office or elected to significant places of service. I mentioned this in a post last week, that we are going to have to get used to being a minority, and increasingly, I believe, an excluded and … [Read more...] about If You Had Any Doubt, Evangelicals Are Now an Unwelcome Minority in America!

Ecclesiology is always a hot topic among Baptists. One of our bedrock beliefs is congregational church government. But not all congregational government is constructed alike. I've been the senior pastor of three churches over the last 27 years. My first church was governed by its eight deacons, who ran the church with something just less than an iron fist. Everything went through the deacon board. The church's committees and officers had to go through the deacon board to get anything done. They even felt they had the authority to tell me what I could and couldn't preach (let's just say we … [Read more...] about Every Church is Elder-led; Every Church is Congregational