| April 4, 2012 | The Events of the Week Before Easter... | MP3 |
| March 28, 2012 | Thoughts Following White House Briefing: Our Baptist Heritage | March 14, 2012 | Baptist Leaders at White House Briefing |
| 2011 | ||
| August 22, 2011 | "What I Have Learned: Building Community" | |
| August 8, 2011 | "More of What I Have Learned..." | MP3 |
| August 1, 2011 | "What I Have Learned in 25 Years of Ordained Ministry" | MP3 |
| May 4, 2011 | "Our Inability or Unwillingness to See Racism for What It Is" | MP3 |
| April 27, 2011 | "God Finishes What God Starts" | MP3 |
| March 22, 2011 | "Challenged by 'Identity Confusion'?" | MP3 |
| February 7, 2011 | "When the Storm Hits, What Do You Do? | |
| November 29, 2010 | "Remember, Reconnect with Your Source of Life" | MP3 |
| October 31, 2010 | "Top 3 Internal Challenges for GRR Churches" | MP3 |
| October 14, 2010 | "Pay Attention to Time and Place of Ministry" | MP3 |
| January 14, 2010 | "We've Never Been This Way Before" | MP3 |
| October 23, 2009 | "Thy Kingdom Come" | MP3 |
| September 8, 2009 | "Preaching 'Falling in Love with Jesus'" |
MP3 |
| April 21, 2009 | "Christ Is Risen! So What?!" | MP3 |
| March 19, 2009 | "Presumptions and the American Religious Identification Survey" | MP3 |
| January 16, 2009 | "Travelling Companions" | MP3 |
| December 1, 2008 | "When Will There Be Good News?" | (MP3) |
| October 23, 2008 | "Ministerial Greenhouses" | (MP3) |
| August 11, 2008 | "Challenging Hidden Racism?" | |
| June 17, 2008 | “What difference does the church make in discipleship?” needs to be... | (MP3) |
| May 29, 2008: | "Dwight's Guest, Gary Baits, Reflects on Baptist Blitz and Costa Rica Covenant" | |
| May 20, 2008: | "The Great Rivers Region on Mission...AGAIN!" | |
| March 12, 2008: | "Relevance of the Resurrection" | (MP3) |
| February 6, 2008: | "Authentic invitation is..." | (MP3) |
| January 15, 2008: | "Not Busy-ness, but..." | (MP3) |
| January 1, 2008: | "Transitions Give Us Opportunity to Review" | |
2007 |
Top | |
| December 11, 2007: | "But in Jesus Christ, God is inviting us to stop trying to..." | |
| October 30, 2007 | : "The distinctive task of a pastor is..." | |
| August 30, 2007: | "Wrestling with the Fact that Believers Encounter Doubt?" | |
| June 19, 2007: | "All the attention given to functions—to the things we do—causes us to miss...". | |
| May 7, 2007: | "GRR Participates in Baptist Blitz with Habitat for Humanity" | |
| April 17, 2007: | "In Wake of Tragedy is not a time for bumper-sticker theology" | |
| April 3, 2007: | "The Test of Faith Is About..." | |
| February 20, 2007: | "Plowing with Jesus" | |
| January 29, 2007: | Reflections on the Missions Conference | |
| January 9, 2007: | Answers for Church Renewal? | |
2006 |
Top | |
| December 13, 2006: | Can We Respond to Homeless Children? | |
| November 15, 2006: | "Our Mission Context: Beyond Geography" | |
| September 1, 2006: | "Discipleship's Challenge to Meet a Global Need" | |
| August 14, 2006: | "One Way Your One Great Hour of Sharing Offering Is Making a Difference" | |
| May 23, 2006: | "What about the Secular Culture of America?" | |
| March 22, 2006: | "Beautify Your Mind" or "Your Mind Is the Problem" | |
| February 21, 2006: | "What Is our Response to Immigration?" - second in series | |
| January 25, 2006: | "Challenges of the New Context of Mission - first in series. | |
| January 2, 2006: | "Confronting Racism requires..." | |
2005 |
Top | |
| December 5, 2005: | "Something to Celebrate this Christmas?" "...God's love is more persistent than the human version..." | |
| June 9, 2005: | "Challenging Times" "It is an understatement to claim..." | |
| March 7, 2005: | "No Commission: No Church" " From the Gospels, I suggest five categories of things that Jesus commanded." |
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| January 12, 2005: | "No Conversion: No Church, Part III" "Discipleship and Discipline" |
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2004 |
Top | |
November 2004: |
"No Conversion: No Church, Part II" "Why should I want to "join" a local church?" |
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May 2004: |
"Church Renewal" The determining factor in church renewal is... |
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April 2004: |
"No Conversion: No Church, Part I " Contrary to Opinions of the Day - Then and Now?! |
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March 2004: |
On "The
Passion of the Christ" a
film by Mel Gibson What controversy? What results when two conflicting ideas meet. |
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February 2004: |
Doing Mission AND Ministry Make Churches Strong The church that longs to be strong will seek its strength in Jesus Christ through mission and ministry. There are no substitutes. |
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January 2004: |
Faith Community: Life in a Paradox Church as community is the basis for congregationalism...the home of New Testament Freedom |
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| November 2003: | No Community, No Church II The church as community is the basis... |
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| September 2003: | No Community, No Church I It is clear that for Jesus, being "gathered together" is an essential part of following Jesus ... |
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| March 2003: | No Christ, No Church ...we believe that the redemptive work of Christ calls together persons to become the "people of God" or the "household of God" (not isolated believing individuals). |
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| February 2003: | The Economy and Spiritual Health ...the financial state of a church is not so much a reflection of the economy as it is a symptom of spiritual health. |
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| January 2003: | What Is a Church? While convinced that a "true church" could only be known to God, [Reformers] were also confident that there would be signs, or "marks," which give a reasonable indication that a church is present. |
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2002 |
Top | |
| December 2002: | Process of Change Real change is desperately difficult and exceedingly rare for all... |
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| November 2002: | Church Renewal I have never heard anyone say "we don't want renewal," but I have often observed a sense of puzzlement and even despair about what to do... |
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| September 2002: | Multigenerational Congregation "We have no young people." How many times have I heard that lament in talking with Pastors and church leaders? |
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| August 2002: | A Time for Everything! Dates are printed on foods to inform shoppers that there is a "window" during which the product must be used-and, after which... |
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| June 2002: | Ethics and Process American Baptist clergy are held to a standard of behavior outlined... |
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| May 2002: | Finances
in a Baptist Church Pastors cannot wash their hands of financial matters. Their leadership must include the financial affairs of the church. In that spirit, I suggest five specific roles for Pastors. |
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| March 2002: | State of the Great Rivers Region The churches in this Region are committed to faithfully living out God's call to mission and ministry in this time and place... |
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| January 2002: | Things Change Times change. Circumstances change. Needs change. The same is true for... |
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2001 |
Top | |
| December 2001: | Christmas Thoughts God is utterly different-yet remains engaged with creation. This is the grand paradox of the Christian faith, and the logic behind the Incarnation. |
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| November 2001: | Self-Care for Clergy Ministerial leaders must be more deliberate about their own spiritual lives, their own physical condition, and their own mental health... |
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| September 2001: | Leaves of Worship the real issue is how worship addresses and engages those who choose to be in our worship services... There are at least four needs... |
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| August 2001: | All People Groups I want to focus on "all ethnics." We are not authorized to neglect or exclude any people group from our discipling.... |
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| July 2001: | Better than Success Early books on leadership focused on technique. More recent studies have emphasized the... |
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| June 2001: | Planting Churches How will we plant new churches? Some churches may decide that the most effective way to meet a particular ministry need is... |
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| May 2001: | Proclaiming
Our Heritage ... there is some theological content to the meaning of "Christian" and "American Baptist" that deserve wider discussion. |
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| April 2001: | Raising Ministerial Leaders, Part II Can we give a persuasive reason for persons to listen for, and respond to God's call to congregational ministry? |
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| March 2001: | Raising Ministerial Leaders, Part I The Region cannot solve this problem, but we do intend to spotlight the need...To this end we will... |
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| February 2001: | Sharpening Ministry Tools Every "tool" that a congregation uses as the "cutting edge" of its ministry gets dull, and needs to be sharpened. Ministry tools fall into two broad categories... |
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| January 2001: | New Disciples Evangelism and discipleship are inseparable. And churches struggle because... |
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2000 |
Top | |
| December 2000: | The Manger Is it possible that the scandal was too much for aunts and uncles? Had they already been turned away by extended family-or... |
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| September 2000: | Culture The cultural issue is a thorny one for Christians. We cannot escape culture. At the same time, our transcendent connection with God through Christ calls us to... |
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| August 2000: | Compassionate Outreach Healthy disciples and churches share in this extravagant love. They are truly com-passionate ("passionate with" God)... |
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| July 2000: | Loving Community When present, loving community the thing most ....When absent, it is the thing most ... |
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| June 2000: | Vital Worship One of the significant characteristics of both believers and seekers as we transition into the 21st Century is a deep-felt desire to ... |
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| May 2000: | Youth
Ministry and Beyond Each of these needs and components of faith formation need to be part of our thinking as we plan and resource ministry in our churches-regardless of the age group. |
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| April 2000: | GRR Goals and Your Congregation I would hope that these goals would challenge YOUR congregation to think about their four or five goals for the next few years. |
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| March 2000: | New Century, Same Christ One of our spiritual gyros as we cross into the unknown of the 21st Century has to be the words of Jesus Christ... |
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| January 2000: | Discipleship Revisited Making disciples has got to be one of the fundamental criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of... |
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1999 |
Top | |
| December 1999: | Effective Organization The best organization for a church maintains the creative tension between... |
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| October 1999: | Effective Leadership Some have asked that I might more widely share my thoughts which were presented to the Women in Ministry dinner [about the cultural environment our church leaders deal with today]... |
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| September 1999: | 50 Ways to Leave Your Church 56% of American employees suffer from wo |
Current Thoughtsfrom Dwight’s Corner