By: Rev. Dr Paul Raybon In my recent article I pointed to the radical days of Pentecost as a model for the church to navigate uncertain times. There is another option found in Acts 5.Do you remember old Rabbi Gamaliel? Rabbi and mentor of Saul before he was Paul? He speaks out at the trial […]
The Gamaliel Option Read More »
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 Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon I’m continuing to read and reflect on this idea of “resilience” as a metaphor and design for what we do as church. (See here if you missed it.) One of the practical applications, as described to me by Co-Pastor Ernesto Bazan of Iglesia Bautista Kerygma in Holguin, Cuba, was reorganizing
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By: Dr. Paul Raybon You may have heard this word in the news, it is one of the “go to” words of our times. Resilience is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulty, trauma, and disaster. The interesting thing about resilience is that scientists have determined that there are ways to build
By: Dr. Paul Raybon Last time I wrote about how seeing your church facilities as a gift to be shared can change how you do ministry and how you relate with your community. Churches can also use that gift to generate alternate streams of income. As churches we are rightfully wary of becoming profit-oriented and
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By: Dr. Paul Raybon My church, Hominy Baptist in Candler, North Carolina, is over 200 years old. We are a small-medium sized congregation, which in the post COVID world means about 150 folks participating in worship and/or ministry on a regular basis, and about half that number in worship on any given Sunday. Many churches
Your Building Is a Gift! Read More »
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
by Dr. Paul Raybon You may remember doing a values clarification exercise in school with this prompt. “Your house is on fire, what 10 things will you try to save?” Then a follow up, “Time is running out! You have to leave five, what will you keep?” Individual lists are then shared in a small
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By Rev. Dr. Paul Raybon One of my very favorite people, a long-time lay leader, is a retired teacher who, when she gets really mad, will exclaim “Anglo-Saxon ad infinitum.” Because as we all know, all the best curse words are Anglo-Saxon. Put another way, how many people yell “excrement” when they hit their thumb
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By Dr. Paul Raybon I have to start by confessing that I am a lover of words. I still have my crumbling 45-year-old paperback Roget’s Thesaurus, although truth be told I am more likely to consult thesaurus.com in a pinch these days. And to be precise, I am not a lover of all words, I
Impactful or Meaningful? Read More »
