By Bobby Ross Jr.
I love what I do.
I get paid to travel and tell interesting stories.
2023 marked my 34th year in full-time journalism, and I thank God for allowing me to live my dream. This year, I was blessed to report from a dozen states and four countries, including Cuba and Mexico. My stories from Australia and Vanuatu will publish early next year.
Related: Weekend Plug-in year in review: The best religion journalism of 2023
Just for fun, I picked my Top 10 best stories of 2023.
My list starts with my favorite:
1. Jesus at the ballpark: I traveled to San Diego and Los Angeles to report for ReligionUnplugged.com on why MLB teams host faith nights.
Besides on-the-ground reporting at Petco Park and Dodger Stadium, my 2,500-word story required a bunch of additional research and interviews. I loved the headline Christianity Today chose — “Take me out to the faith night” — when it republished my article. I also wrote a feature on the faith of Dodgers star pitcher Clayton Kershaw and his wife, Ellen.
As a bonus, I got to see my beloved Texas Rangers play the Padres in my first visit to the San Diego ballpark. This came a few months after I watched the Rangers vs. the Cubs in my first games at Wrigley Field in Chicago. And it came a few months before I witnessed the Rangers’ incredible Game 1 comeback en route to Texas winning its first World Series.
What a fun year for this baseball fan!
2. Showing love to refugees: Often, my work for The Christian Chronicle means catching a flight or driving hundreds of miles to get the story.
But for one of my memorable pieces of 2023, I caught up with an Afghan refugee family and the Christians who have welcomed them about a mile from my Oklahoma City office. I did fly to San Antonio for a related feature on a church’s ministry to Afghan refugees.
Earlier in the year, I highlighted a Houston church’s thriving outreach to Ukrainian refugees, led by a Russian immigrant. Just this past weekend, I wrote about a heartwarming Christmas blessing provided by that same ministry.
The 2023 stories reminded me of one I did in 2017 on a Syrian refugee family in Canada.
3. God in the Caribbean: I saw some beautiful beaches in 2023. But I worked hard. Really.
In the Mexican resort city of Cozumel, I learned how Christians care for homeless “angels.” And the rescued children aren’t the only ones blessed — so are the American supporters who keep returning.
Meanwhile, I finally made it to Cuba after delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I even got to watch a Rangers playoff game while there. My story profiled a minister and musician devoted to sharing the bread of life amid a severe economic crisis.
4. No limits: I witnessed multiple examples in 2023 of Christians defying physical limitations.
My feature on the Broken & Mended ministry in Woodward, Okla., hit particularly close to home as my wife, Tamie, lives with chronic pain. The related column I wrote on Tamie’s experience was intensely personal.
In Fairfax, Va., church elder Dennis Cesone and his wife, Cindi — both of whom were born deaf — bridge cultural and language barriers. A ride they gave me to church sparked my profile of them.
And in Lancaster, Texas, I met Della Souder. COVID-19 left her blind and claimed her father’s life. But she refuses to give up on God.
5. United Nations of Faith: I did a series in 2023 on racial and ethnic diversity in churches.
I covered a Chicago congregation’s first unity service since the pandemic, featuring worship in English, Korean and Spanish.
And I profiled two diverse New York churches — one in Manhattan and another on Long Island — as well as a Ghanaian immigrant congregation in the Bronx.
(Have I mentioned the Texas Rangers yet? My wife Tamie, colleague Audrey Jackson and I enjoyed a come-from-behind Rangers win over the Mets at Citi Field during this trip.)
6. Sacred Calling: My Christian Chronicle colleagues and I delved into the minister shortage in Churches of Christ.
I wrote about a Denver couple’s mission to fill empty pulpits and the reasons behind the shortage. In Castle Rock, Colo., I explored an effort to build up the kingdom — one small, rural church at a time.
In September, Jeremie Beller and I spoke about the ministry trends at Harding University’s annual lectureship. Frank Lockwood, religion editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, did a cover story on our presentation.
7. Synagogue hostages: I interviewed survivors of the Jan. 15, 2022, standoff at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, for a one-year anniversary piece for The Associated Press.
I’d written previously about Anna Salton Eisen, one of the synagogue’s founders and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. My retrospective story exclusively weaved together all that happened from the perspective of all four hostages. Although the FBI killed the pistol-wielding captor, the survivors’ healing from the trauma remains ongoing.
8. Historic churches: A few years ago, I planned a visit to the Cedar Springs Church of Christ in Louisville, Ky. 21st Century Christian lists it as the oldest continuously meeting Church of Christ in the U.S. But breaking news elsewhere caused me to cancel that trip.
But this fall, I seized the opportunity to cover the bicentennial of a Middle Tennessee congregation and finally visit the 231-year-old Kentucky church a few hours away.
9. Allen mall attack: Sadly, mass shootings seem to make my Top 10 list every year.
That frequency prompted me to ask “Have we had enough?” after the massacre at a Dallas-area shopping mall.
Eight people — including three children — were killed at the Allen Premium Outlets. I reported on a local church’s response, on prayer and protest in the community and on a Christian who recounted trying to help after the shooting.
10. Police brutality in Memphis: For Christians in the Tennessee city, Tyre Nichols’ death was a cause for concern and action.
I interviewed church members and leaders.
“Tyre is not the first, and he certainly won’t be the last,” Julie Williams Sanon, one of those Christians, said of young men of color killed in police custody. “Like with George Floyd, Trayvon Martin and so many others, the shock wears off, then we go on, and nothing really changes.”
Among other notable pieces in 2023, I wrote about the role of faith in Oklahoma’s recreational marijuana fight, the impact of the Asbury revival on Christian universities, the construction of a $50 million shrine to honor a slain priest and the still-relevant sermons preached after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination 60 years ago.
Faith. Family. Fastballs. 