Baptist Studies Center Recordings

Change is a constant in church ministry, but we can either embrace change or be overwhelmed by it. In this webinar, we will be discussing what church leadership looks like during times of crisis, including what collaboration means for the future church. Dr. Dustin Benac is the author of Adaptive Church: Collaboration and Community in a Changing World (Baylor University Press, 2022) and is the co-founding director of the Program for the Future Church at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

Dr. Russell Moore, the editor-in-chief at Christianity Today, has, for more than two decades, been deeply involved in the shaping of public Christian life in the United States, first at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and now, in his new role with Christianity Today. In this conversation, we will talk about his own denominational journey and commitments, as well as what he sees on the horizon regarding the future of denominational life in the United States.

Migration is a frequently invisible aspect of our world, as people travel from country to country for work, to escape danger, and to rejoin families. M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas) and Elket Rodríguez join us to share about their work among migrant communities. We get to learn what Scripture has for us to hear about migration, and to ask questions about what it would mean for ministers to engage in ministry around this important matter.

Hunger has become a growing problem for communities across America, with 1 in 4 children in Texas having inadequate food during the day. In this webinar on September 29, 2021, we talk with Eugene Cho and Jeremy Everett about the state of food insecurity and hunger, and how churches can be involved.

In this webinar, professors Karen Swallow Prior (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) and Richard Beck (Abilene Christian University) will talk about the formation of virtue, the role culture plays in virtue, and the tools Christians should consider in living lives well. They will draw on their disciplines of literature and psychology to help participants see what tools are available to help develop virtue in their own lives and the lives of their congregants.

In this webinar on April 22, 2021, we learned about what it means for ministers to be involved in political life, listening to the ways in which Jemar Tisby and Preston Clegg have engaged issues of racism in their work. We also talked with Jennifer Hawks as she helped answer questions around the legal issues of ministers’ involvement in political issues. Participants learned not only practical strategies for engaging political life, but also how to navigate the legal issues surrounding the intersection of church and politics.

In this dialog with the authors of A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing, we discuss the dynamics of church culture that promote abuses and what can be done to prevent those dynamics. Drawing from research, from the New Testament, and from their personal experiences, Laura and Scot help point us to what we can all do to promote cultures of transparency, nurture healthy leadership, and care for congregants.