Baptist Preacher

Baptist Preacher Takes the "Weird" Out of the Supernatural Demonstrating humor, candor, and personal vulnerability, this Southern Baptist preacher offers an entertaining, non-religious look at the Holy Spirit. He shares transparently, recounting his own history of depression and panic attacks until Jesus rescued him and showed him how to do the works of the Father. As Norris explains, "I had no paradigm for that." Then he challenges readers to engage with the supernatural. Even though Jesus said we will do even greater things than he did, we don't. Norris's engaging narrative style lowers readers' defenses and opens their minds to the idea that these "greater things" are more attainable than they think. Because we are loved more than we imagine, says Norris, we are more capable of doing the Father's works than we have ever considered.

In this inspiring, soul-stirring memoir, Lawrence E. Carter Sr., founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, shares his remarkable quest to experience King's "beloved community" and his surprising discovery in mid-life that King's dream was being realized by the Japanese Buddhist philosopher and tireless peace worker Daisaku Ikeda. Coming of age on the cusp of the American Civil Rights Movement, Carter was personally mentored by Martin Luther King Jr. and followed in his footsteps, first to get an advanced degree in theology at Boston University and then to teach and train a new generation of activists and ministers at King's alma mater, Morehouse College. Over the years, however, Carter was disheartened to watch the radical cosmic vision at the heart of King's message gradually diluted and marginalized. He found himself in near despair—until his remarkable encounter with the lay Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International and a life-changing meeting with Ikeda, its president. Carter knew that King had been inspired by Gandhi, a Hindu, and now Ikeda, a Buddhist, was showing him how King's message of justice, equality, and the fundamental dignity of life could be carried to millions of people around the world. What ensued was not a conversion but a conversation—about the essential role of interfaith dialogue, the primacy of education, and the value of a living faith to create a human revolution and realize at last Martin Luther King's truest dream of a global world house. In these dark and frustrating times, the powerful dialogue between Carter and Ikeda gives hope and guidance to a new generation of reformers, activists, and visionaries.

This project addresses the influence and role of the Southern Baptist (SB) expository preaching methodology by examining the role of expository preaching, its innate characteristics, and its espousal by SB pastors and theologians in the twentieth century for influencing personal and social values and politics in the twenty-first century.

A surprisingly reverent collection of religious humor clean enough to be used in the pulpit. St. Peter jokes, mock sermons, church bulletin misprints and age-old denominational rivalries are all here. Illustrated.