With as much smoke as North Carolina Baptist politics raises, I'd think there would be more interest in helping decide who will be stoking the coals. But Ron Hester, chairman of the Committee on Nominations, says his committee doesn't have enough names to fill the slate for the board of directors. So he is extending the deadline until March 15 to accept nominations.

A recent decision by the National Football League means churches in the future will be able to freely gather around the flickering hearth and use the Super Bowl as a focal point for an annual outreach.

Someone shared a story with me from one of the recent episodes of the television drama "ER." It depicted the conversation of a man dying with cancer and a chaplain who was present at his bedside. The scene was sobering.