Faith. Family. Fastballs.

Minister ‘Still Wrestling’ with his faith after murder of his wife and son

Bobby Ross Jr. May 19, 2018

“There were mighty dark days,” recalls Les Ferguson Jr., author of a new book exploring the doubt that consumed him.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

JACKSON, Miss. — In a few weeks, Les Ferguson Jr. will move on from the pulpit at Lake Harbour Church of Christ in Ridgeland, Miss., just north of Jackson, to a new position in Oxford, home to “Ole Miss,” the University of Mississippi.

The move and the university community, he said, offer the potential for more personal and spiritual growth. It’s also another move toward wholeness for a man whose life was fractured by tragedy nearly seven years ago.

On the afternoon of Oct. 10, 2011 — Ferguson’s 24th wedding anniversary — his wife, Karen, and the couple’s son Cole, 21, were shot to death in the family’s home in Gulfport, Miss., near the church where Ferguson was then preaching.

The apparent killer, Paul Ellis Buckman, 70, had attended the church until being charged three months earlier with sexually assaulting Cole, who had cerebral palsy. The same day that Karen and Cole were killed, Buckman was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his apartment two miles away.

“There were mighty dark days,” Ferguson remembered.

Now, he is the author of the new book “Still Wrestling: Faith Renewed Through Brokenness,” which explores the doubt that consumed him after the double murder.

Ferguson couldn’t imagine ever trusting in God again, much less proclaiming the gospel from a pulpit.

He was brought back in part by the people who reached out to him to return to his calling. “You took a broken, timid, uncertain man and gave him a chance to do ministry again,” he tells the Lake Harbour congregation in the opening acknowledgments to “Still Wrestling.”

Read the full story.

Religion News Service is a national wire service whose media partners include The Associated Press, USA Today and the Washington Post.

Related: Modern-day Job preaching again (reporting from Ridgeland, Miss.)

From the Houston Chronicle:

Christian Chronicle again wins top national prize, plus four first-place honors for my stories

Bobby Ross Jr. May 12, 2018

CHICAGO — For the fourth year in a row, The Christian Chronicle — where I serve as chief correspondent — was recognized as the top national or international newspaper in the Associated Church Press’ annual “Best of the Church Press” contest.

I was blessed to receive six individual honors — including first place in four categories — at the April 20 awards banquet.

In case my mother is reading, here is a list of the awards:

First Place, Feature Article, for “In Canada, Syrian refugees find love and hope” from St. Catharines, Ontario.

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First Place (with Bob Smietana), News Story, for coverage of mass shooting at Tennessee church, including my story “For survivors of Tennessee shooting, healing will take time and patience.”

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First Place (with Chellie Ison), In-depth Coverage, for coverage of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, including my stories “Faithful mobilize shelters for Hurricane Harvey flooding victims” from Belton, Texas, “In a small town, a church becomes a hub for Harvey relief” from La Grange, Texas, “After Harvey, hope for heroes and victims” from Houston and “18 vans, 150 volunteers, 465 miles, one goal: to help Harvey victims” from Houston.

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First Place (with Chellie Ison and Lynn McMillon), Theme Issue, Section or Series, for coverage of faith and opioids, including my stories “South Carolina church battles opioids ’emergency'” from Surfside Beach, S.C., ” “The leprosy in my neighborhood is addiction” from Pontiac, Mich., and “One church’s ‘compassionate and Christ-like’ approach to the opioid crisis.”

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First Place (staff award), Best in Class, National or International Newspaper, for The Christian Chronicle.

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Second Place, News Story, for “Catholic faith moves Houston’s ‘Mattress Mack’ to shelter Hurricane Harvey victims” from Houston. (This was a freelance piece I wrote for Religion News Service.)

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Third Place (with Bob Smietana), In-depth Coverage, for coverage of mass shootings at churches, including my stories “For survivors of Tennessee shooting, healing will take time and patience” and “Texas hero risked life to save others.”

Washington Post

‘Jesus loves me and my guns’: Faith and firearms touted at the NRA’s prayer breakfast

Bobby Ross Jr. May 12, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For The Washington Post

DALLAS — Midway through his 15-minute testimony at the National Rifle Association’s annual prayer breakfast Sunday, retired major league first baseman Adam LaRoche took off his sweater.

Underneath, LaRoche — who hit 255 home runs in a 12-year career — sported a black T-shirt with a message that drew cheers from the firearms-friendly crowd of about 1,300.

“Jesus loves me and my guns,” it said.

“Don’t get me wrong: Jesus is all about love, grace, mercy,” said LaRoche, 38, an evangelical best known for walking away from a reported $13 million contact with the Chicago White Sox in 2016 after the team asked him to bring his son into the clubhouse less often.

But that doesn’t mean Jesus “was a pacifist and always carried a white lamb around and tiptoed through life avoiding controversy,” he added. He pointed to Scriptures such as Matthew 10:34, where Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

The event came two days after President Trump made international headlines with a splashy, campaign-style speech Friday at the NRA’s 147th annual meeting. More than 80,000 attendees assembled from Thursday through Sunday.

The smaller Sunday-morning gathering — a $40-a-plate affair advertised as “a time of inspiration and encouragement” — took place mostly out of the media spotlight.

Despite the prayer breakfast’s lower profile, the Christian crowd that filled a ballroom at the Omni Hotel in downtown Dallas represented “such a nucleus of the NRA,” said Donna Hyde, a 68-year-old grandmother and matriarch of three generations of lifetime NRA members. She wore buttons with messages such as “I’m the NRA, I Voted.”

“It’s about God, country and the protection of our freedoms,” said Hyde, of Mabank, Tex., about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. “We don’t think we can be good Americans without this core value of Christian faith in Christ that gives us our freedoms of everything, and that’s what the NRA is.”

Read the full story.

This story appears in the Acts of Faith section of The Washington Post. Among other major papers picking up the story: the Salt Lake Tribune and The Virginian-Pilot.

"Jesus loves me and my guns": Faith and firearms touted at the NRA’s prayer breakfast https://t.co/eqj6EnTO3D

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 7, 2018

Religion News Service

He’s a major-league pitcher — and a plumber — whose faith helps keep him focused

Bobby Ross Jr. May 11, 2018

Detroit Tigers ace Michael Fulmer works as a plumber in the offseason and serves as a mentor for adults with developmental disabilities.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s not hard to stay humble when you’re unclogging a toilet.

Or when you’re throwing gopher balls to Miracle League ballplayers swinging for the fences.

At least that’s how Detroit Tigers ace Michael Fulmer, who works part-time as a plumber in the offseason and serves as a mentor to adults with developmental disabilities, describes his approach to living out his Christian faith.

“It’s a way for me to stay levelheaded,” said the 25-year-old right-hander of his part-time gig with Cyrus Wright Plumbing in his home state of Oklahoma.

Fulmer has emerged as one of baseball’s top young pitchers, winning the American League Rookie of the Year award in 2016 and earning a spot on the AL All-Star team in 2017. He has a 3.46 ERA in 58 career starts, and his fastball regularly touches 97 mph.

If you’re not a baseball aficionado, simply consider this: Now in his third season, Fuller will earn $575,000 this year.

In a Religion News Service interview during the Tigers’ three-game series with the Texas Rangers earlier this week, Fulmer said his goal — win or lose — is “to preach the Lord’s name.”

As Fulmer stepped to the mound at Globe Life Park for his start Monday (May 7), he couldn’t help but notice a special group of fans in the right-field corner.

Wings, a Christian nonprofit, offers vocational, social and residential programs for adults with developmental disabilities. The organization, based in Edmond, Okla., chartered a bus for 43 members and parents to make the 450-mile round trip to see Fulmer — one of the ministry’s biggest supporters — pitch.

Read the full story.

Religion News Service is a national wire service whose media partners include The Associated Press, USA Today and the Washington Post.

Christian Chronicle

From Vietnam to Kenya, two boys’ lives touched by God

Bobby Ross Jr. May 10, 2018

How an 11-year-old came to donate ‘the biggest gift’ ever received by a California church.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

MALIBU, Calif. — A little boy from Vietnam.

A little boy from Kenya.

This is the story of how one of those boys — all grown up — paid forward his blessings from God.

The recipient of that boy’s extreme gratitude? The other boy.

At age 11 in 1975, Hung V. Le escaped Vietnam on a military transport plane, but he was forced to leave his family behind. Just a few weeks later, Saigon fell to the communists.

For the next several years, Le lived with foster parents in the Seattle area. When he finished high school, a guidance counselor urged him to consider Pepperdine University. That’s how he ended up at the Southern California university, which is associated with Churches of Christ, in the fall of 1983.

At Pepperdine, Le — who had grown up in a devout Roman Catholic household and contemplated becoming a priest — studied the Bible and felt he truly understood it for the first time. The campus minister, Tom Reynolds, baptized Le, and he met his future wife, Corinne, a fellow student, through the University Church of Christ.

“God just gave me so much more than I could ever imagine,” said Le, who earned a degree in business administration and worked on Wall Street for a few years before returning to serve on Pepperdine’s staff in 1990. “I expected a school, and I found a family.”

Not only did Pepperdine nurture Le’s faith, but the university community also rallied to reunite him with his family.

Read the full column.

This column appears in the June 2018 edition of The Christian Chronicle.

Christian Chronicle

When God comes with a loud thud

Bobby Ross Jr. May 2, 2018

Why an old, declining church closed to make way for a new, growing congregation to take over its building.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jeff Pendleton met and married his wife, Marcia, at the Red Bridge Church of Christ, a once-thriving congregation less than a mile from the Kansas state line.

He baptized his daughter, Kelly, there.

When loved ones died, he sang hymns and shed tears there.

“It’s a cherished place for so many,” said Pendleton, who served as a church elder. “There are so many memories there.”

At one point, average Sunday attendance topped 350. The church expanded to two morning worship assemblies.

But in more recent years, the congregation became older and grayer. The numbers shrank, down to about 80 on a typical Lord’s Day. Attracting and retaining young families became increasingly difficult.

“Lord, show us your will for Red Bridge,” the church’s leaders began praying a year ago. “What do you want us to do? What do you want us to become?”

The answer came not with a whisper but with a loud thud — as God opened the door for the old, declining church to close and a new, growing church to replace it.

Read the full story.

This story appears in the May 2018 edition of The Christian Chronicle.

Road Notes: 19-year-old cancer victim’s faith inspires parents to keep serving (reporting from Kansas City, Mo.)

GetReligion

The very definition of old news, and what a joy to read: A feature on a 400-year-old church

Bobby Ross Jr. May 1, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr. | GetReligion

About five years ago, I traveled to rural Iowa to report on a 156-year-old church surrounded by corn and soybean fields and a cemetery where generations of deceased members rest in peace.

The news angle was that the tiny congregation was working hard to survive despite immense challenges facing it and similar houses of worship.

As part of the same “Rural Redemption” project, I spent a Sunday with a 200-year-old assembly in the farming and coal-mining country of southeastern Ohio.

I thought those churches had long histories!

But Washington Post religion writer Julie Zauzmer recently wrote about an Episcopal congregation in rural Virginia that is marking 400 years — 400 years! — in 2018.

The Post’s headline pretty much nails it:

This 400-year-old church is older than almost any institution in America

This won’t be a long post because my basic message is simple: This is an interesting, well-reported story, and I’d urge you to read it.

What did I like about it? I’ll quickly mention three things.

Read the full column.

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All of my GetReligion columns (May 2018):