Bill Jones muses about Baptists, faith, ethics, justice, politics . . . and more
As I watched Katie Murray preach Sunday morning, I thought of the many blessings Joanna and I have experienced, since joining Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas 22 years ago, from hearing women command the pulpit in numerous worship services. Joanna and I joined Wilshire in August 2004, leaving a church where we had spent the Read more . . .
NOTE: In April 2014, I was asked to speak to the annual meeting of the Board of Consultants of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission (CLC), meeting at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. I was the first of a series of speakers who discussed, in turn, specific eras of the CLC’s history. My charge was to Read more . . .
Bernie Kaye passed away a little over a year ago, on June 17, 2025, at the age of 97. Bernie was one of my dearest friends, as I told him many times. We met in 2003 when I went to work for a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Frisco, TX. During the year that we Read more . . .
This weekend, the family of Sonny Ebert will gather to pay tribute to him and to the love that they shared with him through the years, then honor his wish for his cremains to join those of his daughter, Mickie. Sonny passed away on March 12. I’m diminished when I lose someone who has meant Read more . . .
Vivian Louise Otting was born 120 years ago today, March 16, 1906, to Gus and Lola Otting in Miami, Indian Territory, the year before it became the state of Oklahoma. On January 30, 1938, she married A. Jase Jones in Austin, Texas, becoming Vivian Jones. Their first child, my sister Patsy (Patricia Jean), was born Read more . . .
As I sat in Sunday School and worship at Wilshire last Sunday, March 8, I found myself thinking about all of the ways in which my 75-year journey has intersected, either directly or indirectly, with Wilshire’s. I was born on March 14, 1951, in Harris Hospital in Fort Worth. Wilshire was born 3 months to Read more . . .
It’s been 5 long years since the love of my life went to be with Jesus in the wee hours (1:16 a.m., according to the doctor attending Joanna in the hospital) of February 14, 2021. In those 5 years, I’ve written thousands upon thousands of words about Joanna and what she meant to me, which Read more . . .
“The devil sure got ahold of you!” – Steve Troxel, November 1970 In the fall of 1969, I had come to OBU, as many freshmen do, assured that – when it came to God, salvation, the hereafter, and so forth – I had all the answers. After all, I had been in Southern Baptist churches Read more . . .
Forty-nine years ago last night, I went to bed a single man in the apartment of my best friend, Bob Morris. Forty-nine years ago tonight, I went to bed next to my new bride, Joanna, in OUR new home. I’ve written so much about Joanna since she passed away in February 2021 that one might Read more . . .
Frank Sinatra, in 1965, recorded a beautiful song titled The September of My Years, which lent its name to the cover of an album he released that year. In an emotionally rich song, Frank wistfully reflects back on his life, “smiling gently as I near September, the golden warm September of my years.” Late that Read more . . .