“So then, my brothers and sisters, who I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.” Philippians 4:1 What is success in ministry? What does a “win” look like in the life of a local church? What metrics should we use to gauge the success of the work of Preston Highlands Baptist Church? My best friend and roommate in college asked one of our professors one day what success looks like in ministry. The professor’s answer was simple and profound. It has [...]

Baptists have long believed and taught that local churches are independent. They are not ruled or owned or led by anyone outside of themselves. The biblical and theological foundation for this is in Jesus’ teaching on the “keys of the kingdom” (Matt. 16:19, 18:18). Because Jesus gives the “keys” to local churches, they have authority over their members and doctrine. In other words, through the “keys” Jesus makes local churches autonomous, or independent. No Council or Convention or Pope or Presbytery can tell a Church what to do or [...]

           Last week, my brother-in-law, Rusty Morris, died. It was not unexpected, as he battled brain cancer for nineteen years. But it is undoubtedly painful. The sobering separation that death brings between us and our loved ones is hard to capture in words. Suzy compared it to feeling like something is just not right, like wearing a shoe on the wrong foot. As we stood over Rusty’s grave, I told my sister, “This is not the way it’s supposed to be.”            But death is part of life. It comes for [...]