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Erich Bridges is a global correspondent for the International Mission Board, SBC. He's been covering and writing about missions and the international scene since 1981.
Ten years ago March 4, a bomb planted at a Philippine airport by a Muslim rebel group killed 23 people — including one American, a Southern Baptist missionary named Bill Hyde.
It’s ironic that Hyde, 59, died at the little airport in Davao City where he’d walked countless times — a place considered safe. He had made a habit of …
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Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
Regret is a painful thing. We look back on the foolish things we have done and the good things we have left undone. We lament wasted years, wrong attitudes, hurts inflicted on others, missed opportunities.
Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse, spent years caring for patients in their last days. She identified …
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Legendary NBA basketball coach Pat Riley has led multiple teams stocked with superstars, so he knows something about dealing with egos.
He also knows about winning and losing. What prevents potentially great teams from winning championships, in his view? Not lack of size, speed or talent. Rather, they are sabotaged by what Riley calls …
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Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was known as "the republic of fear" among opponents -- those who were still alive, that is.
The deposed dictator, who was hanged in 2006, so effectively instilled dread among Iraqis during his decades in power that the mere rumor of a visit from his henchmen was enough to make most citizens tremble and …
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He didn't have time to encourage a confused kid, but he did anyway.
He was Hoffman Harris, the busy pastor of fast-growing Briarlake Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. The confused kid was me.
I was a new member of his church back in the '70s. I was finishing college and struggling with a call to serve God. Pastor Harris had sermons to …
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A letter recently published on my local newspaper's editorial page helpfully summarized the view of many secular folks when it comes to religious expression in public.
We "stand for separation of church and state," the letter writer declared. "Pick your religion, believe what you want, pursue greater knowledge toward that end. Do it …
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Don't just do something; stand there.
Better yet, kneel there. Be there.
It's easy to switch the verbs in the old, accusatory challenge to do something -- anything -- rather than stand around. Lots of preachers, speakers and writers invert the familiar phrase to encourage us to slow down and be still. But it's hard for us …
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Is your church defined more by its reaction to “boring” churches than by its response to a needy world?
I had to sympathize with rock singer Bono when he discovered he was uncool.
Uncool? The frontman for supergroup U2, one of the biggest bands in the world? The activist who travels the globe and meets with kings and presidents? …
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A missionary with years of experience in the Muslim world was visiting back home in the United States when he struck up a friendly conversation with an immigrant shop owner.
"I said, 'Thanks for coming to America,'" the missionary recalls. The shop owner was moved almost to tears. "He put his arms around me and said, 'You're the first …
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Easter is coming. It's the day we mark the biggest moment in history: the moment the resurrected Christ conquered sin and death.
A few years ago I shared some "little Easters," the quiet epiphanies that continue to reveal His risen presence on the move around the world. Here are a few more.
STEPPING UP -- "This is what we've been …
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