Trevin Wax

Whenever I’m preaching and I need to make a point about the beauty of the Church in action, I often refer to the image of God’s people with arms outstretched running toward places of deepest pain and suffering — being first on the scene after a disaster, bringing hope and healing through physical and tangible expressions of love in times of darkness. This is the Church at her best, when we share and show the love of Jesus.

Book reading is on the decline. Fewer people read books these days, and those who do read less often than before.

Southern Baptists are facing decisions that could represent a significant shift in terms of who we are and how we cooperate.

In the New Testament, the people of God are described as a flock, and pastors are in the role of shepherds. We’re called to “be on guard” for ourselves and for “all the flock the Holy Spirit has appointed” us as overseers, ready to fend off “savage wolves” (Acts 20:28–29). Faithful shepherds remain alert, ready for battle when wolves invade the field.

For decades now, I’ve heard pastors, preachers, and theologians preach against “seeker sensitivity” as a ministry philosophy. They’ve warned about using “felt needs” as a method of attracting people to church because that’s just a way to satisfy the “itching ears” the apostle Paul foretold.

Why do we so easily lose our wonder at truths that have informed and inspired Christians for generations? How is it we find ourselves no longer wowed by old truths? Why are we drawn toward theological error? To better understand our susceptibility to this spiritual malaise, we should take a closer look at our context, to see the forces at work—in our world, in our churches, and in us—that diminish our devotion.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Is this "the year of black memoir?" Imani Perry, professor of African American studies at Princeton, thinks so, and she places recent books like Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me" and Clifford Thompson's "Twin of Blackness" squarely in the black literary tradition. People, however, may read such memoirs as representing all of black thought. "Telling one's story is one's story," Perry ...

This Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in June, Trevin Wax writes, may prove to be one that "casts vision and rallies our people around a great cause."

Trevin Wax writes about the 100-year legacy of John R. Sampey for Christ-centered Bible study. Sampey was a seminary scholar "who knew the conversations in Sunday School every week are just as formative and important as the debates in academic halls or the sermons from a pastor's pulpit."

Bible study editor Trevin Wax wants his son to win whenever he's in a soccer tournament, in part because "it's when you put a strong emphasis on winning the game that you're best equipped to learn from your losses."