By: Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon We emerged from COVID with a new understanding of how much congregational life had changed. The line from Wizard of Oz has never been more true; “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!” But when we have time to reflect, we realize that what we’re seeing now is […]
By: Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon For a number of years our church has observed what we call the “Season of Baptism” between Epiphany and Lent. It gives us time at the beginning of each year to revisit the particularly Baptist parts of our congregational identity. Our theme this year is Having Been Baptized: We Covenant Together. Those
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By: Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon Recently I have been reflecting on folks who were once at the very center of life at church. Many have gone on to their eternal home, where they wait for us to arrive one day. Others have moved away and created stories of love and ministry in new church homes.
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By: Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon Ministers have a particular if not unique exposure to trauma. (Trauma is our body’s emergency response to an experience that overwhelms our normal coping mechanisms). Not only do we carry the bodily memory of our own private traumas, but we can also be traumatized directly and indirectly through our ministry.
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By: Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon Folks in Western North Carolina are balancing deep empathy and compassion for the people in the hill country of Texas with a fair amount of anxiety and even PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). It is a tough balance to maintain. Nine months after Hurricane Helene, even before the recent news,
By: Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon I am blessed to serve in a congregation that has developed healthy attitudes and perceptions over the last 50 years of our 200+ year history. Both pastors during those years*, in very different ways, reminded us that “we’re going to do the right thing, the Jesus thing.” Pastors and lay
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By: Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon In the days when we were still numb in the midst of the devastation of Hurricane Helene, I was in a Zoom meeting with Baptist pastors from across Western North Carolina and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina (CBFNC). A seasoned pastor from East Carolina, David Elks, was there
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By: Rev. Dr Paul Raybon We live in crazy times. Not just for each of us as individuals, but for the church. And you know the old definition of insanity? “To do the same thing you’ve always done and expect different results.” The way of doing church that was perfected in the mid-20th century does
by Dr. Paul Raybon I went looking at the handwritten minutes of Hominy Baptist Church to see if there was more about the fire of 1923 than what was recorded in the official histories. (Yes, histories, when you’re 210 years old, every generation gets a swipe at telling your story). The simple entry above captured
Larry Glover-Wetherington This blog refers to the November E-ncourager article on “Five Spiritual Practices for Congregations.” The first spiritual practice was Listening. Listening to God, to one another, and to our neighborhood. Baptist congregations typically make decisions using Roberts Rules of Order, which are good as a structure for order of business, but in several
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