IBSA News

Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

Columns

Pat’s Playbook: Offer both classes

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Question: Our church has always valued having every Bible study class using the same LifeWay curriculum. But we have one teacher that wants to do his own thing. Answer: LifeWay Bible study material encourages “open classes” that anyone can attend on any week and not feel like they have missed weeks of previous study. The […]

Paternity test

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Read: John 8:31-59 In April, a young man claiming to be a missing Aurora boy was found wandering the streets in a Kentucky town. Timothy Pitzen had disappeared eight years earlier at age six. His mother had left a note saying the boy was safe before she killed herself. A test using DNA from Pitzen’s […]

What kind of influence are you?

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In the golden age of piracy, a pirate captain had power, authority, and a wide-brimmed hat that set him apart as commander of his ship. His crew agreed to follow their captain wherever the seas took them. While the captain had legitimate power to move the ship onward, the ship’s quartermaster had a different kind […]

Grilled, not toasted

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Two things surprised me about my ordination: the interview was not nearly as painful as I anticipated, and it was scheduled 90 minutes prior to the evening service where I was to be set apart for God’s use. What if I fail the test? I thought. My mother drove 10 hours to attend the service. […]

Write it down

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If you are a long-time reader of the Illinois Baptist, you probably remember reading something by my father, Tom Adams. Through columns like “Problem Corner,” “Speaking Out,” and simply “Tom Adams,” Dad for 34 years shared practical, biblical perspectives and sometimes personal opinions on a number of contemporary issues. Former IB editor Dennis Dawson once […]