Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Caleb Morell
4 Things Jesus Came to Do
1. Expose Misunderstanding and Disobedience A central part of who Jesus is and therefore what we are to believe is found in Jesus’s teaching about what he came to do. He came to do a number of things. Jesus clearly came to reveal misunderstanding and disobedience among the Jewish people and their leaders. One interesting way to see this is to examine the three Sabbaths mentioned in the book of John.
The Myth of Neutrality: Carl F.H. Henry’s Case for Prayer in Public School
Few arenas today expose the myth of a “secular” or “neutral” public square more than America’s public schools. As classrooms have become battlegrounds over everything from gender identity, to pronouns, to Critical Race Theory, each movement has presented itself as a comprehensive moral system, necessary for inclusion and justice.
The Woman Who Saved Capitol Hill Baptist Church
What if Agnes Shankle had stayed silent? What if she had simply gone with the pulpit committee’s judgment? What if she had thought, “Who am I to speak up? I’m just a Sunday school teacher.” In the entire one-hundred-and-fifty years of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, this might prove to be the most decisive moment. Had the church called Walker rather than White, the church would have likely headed in the direction of theological compromise and liberalism, like so many of the city’s churches.
The Woman Who Saved Capitol Hill Baptist Church
The Woman Who Saved Capitol Hill Baptist Church In 1944 America was in the throes of an existential crisis. With World War II still raging, the nation’s future felt uncertain. But amid the global turmoil, another crisis—less dramatic but no less significant—was unfolding in a church just a mile from the US Capitol. After forty-one years as pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church (later renamed Capitol Hill Baptist Church), Dr. John Compton Ball had finally decided to retire.
Francis Grimké: A Model for Christian Social Engagement
Francis Grimké’s life is the stuff movies are made of. Remembered as a “Black Puritan,” Grimké journeyed from slavery in South Carolina to seminary at Princeton. His story offers an almost unparalleled glimpse into the complexities of race, pastoral ministry, and politics during Reconstruction and Jim Crow.
Mark Dever’s Vision for Pastoral Ministry in 4 Words
Looking for Leadership When Mark Dever first got to Capitol Hill Baptist Church in 1994, the deacons had been talking about closing the church down. They’d been going through a really hard time. The church had gone through a rough split when a pastor left and took a lot of young families with him out to the suburbs, leaving the older generation behind wondering who was going to lead them. A new pastor came to the church who was incredibly gifted, but his godliness did not reflect his giftings.
How Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s First Pastor Changed His Mind on Slavery and Became an Abolitionist
On a crisp Virginia morning in September 1831, Joseph W. Parker sat across from Nicholas Sterling Edmunds, the owner of the nearly 2,000-acre Homewood plantation. Parker had spent the past two years as a schoolteacher for Edmunds’s children while simultaneously ministering to and evangelizing Edmunds’s slaves. He had seen remarkable spiritual fruit—both within Edmunds’s family and among the enslaved people.
MLK's Famous Letter Changed a DC Church
A newly discovered note from CT's first editor, Carl Henry, shows how King's Birmingham Jail missive shifted a white pastor's view on integration. Every April since 1963, thousands recall Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail and its timeless call to reject complacency in the face of injustice. Aimed not at staunch segregationists but at well-meaning white moderates, King's letter sent shock waves through the nation and countless churches.
How Not to Handle a Pastoral Succession
Pastoral transitions are among the most delicate moments in a church’s life. Retiring pastors, incoming leaders, and church leadership teams each have a vital role to play in ensuring a smooth and God-honoring transition. When approached with humility, wisdom, and trust in God’s sovereignty, these transitions can strengthen the church for generations to come. On September 17, 1944, a relatively unknown pastor named Kenneth Owen White arrived at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D. C.
The Story of God’s Faithfulness to Capitol Hill Baptist Church
Jesus Is Committed to the Church Jesus’s promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church (Matt. 16:18) was not given to any particular church but to the church universal. No local church is promised that it will remain until Christ’s return. Rather, from the days of the apostles, new churches have been birthed and rebirthed, died and disappeared to this day.
Ill-fated fishing trip goes from near death to new life
Metadata: Topic(s): Evangelism, SBC News Share this post: CICERO, New York (BP) — Terry Robertson has officially entered retirement this month after serving over 20 years as the Baptist Convention of New York’s executive director. But as is the case with all pastors, “retirement” is a subjective term. Returning to his native Alabama will include training through the state convention to become a transitional pastor. He hasn’t ruled out serving as an interim.
5 things to do when God's plan for your life catches you off guard
Metadata: Share this post: It happens. Life s going well, it seems. You’re comfortable where you are. You’re enjoying what you’re doing. As far as you know, you could spend the rest of your life living where you live and doing the work you’re doing. Then, God unexpectedly changes your plans. Sometimes it happens excitedly, sometimes painfully – but surprisingly in either case. What do you do in those times? Know that God always sees a bigger picture than you do.
FIRST-PERSON: The forgotten role of Sunday Schools in church planting
Metadata: Series: First PersonTopic(s): Church Planting, DiscipleshipFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: Editor’s note: Caleb Morell, assistant pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., is author of the newly released book, “A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism.” For many modern Christians, Sunday School is primarily seen as a children’s ministry – a place where kids are taught Bible stories...
A Light on the Hill
Bibles Books Tracts Articles Donate By Caleb Morell, Foreword by Mark Dever ... Show All Format: Crossway+ members receive 30% off books. Learn more. Availability: In Stock Retail Price: $34.99 By Caleb Morell, Foreword by Mark Dever ... Show All God’s Faithfulness on Display in an Engaging Church Biography Capitol Hill Baptist Church, located just blocks away from the center of American power, has a rich 150-year history.
Podcast: The Surprising Impact of One Church in the Nation’s Capital (Caleb Morell)
This article is part of the The Crossway Podcast series. A Glimpse into the History of a Faithful Church In this episode, Caleb Morell explores pivotal moments in the history of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, from enduring wars and navigating modernist controversies to facing pandemics and pastoral challenges.
How Not to Handle a Pastoral Succession
How Not to Handle a Pastoral Succession On September 17, 1944, a relatively unknown pastor named Kenneth Owen White arrived at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D. C. (later known as Capitol Hill Baptist Church), eager to prove himself. In time, he would rise to national prominence—most famously, grilling John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential campaign and then later serving as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Pastor Who Almost Became President | Caleb Morell
Imagine an America where Andrew Johnson never ascended to the presidency—where, instead of the bitter and divisive battles between the White House and Congress, the nation was led through Reconstruction by a statesman-pastor who saw righteousness as the true foundation of national renewal. According to a widely repeated legend, that nearly happened.
Lessons from Mark Dever’s 30 Years at Capitol Hill Baptist Church
In January 1993, Mark Dever received a letter from Carl F. H. Henry informing him of a recently vacated pulpit on Capitol Hill. Dever wasn’t immediately enthusiastic—he thought he was preparing for the professorship, not the pastorate. He’d recently completed a PhD in ecclesiastical history while serving as associate pastor of Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge, England.
Anthony Comstock strikes back
When Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas recently invoked The Comstock Act (1873)—a 151-year-old law prohibiting the mailing of sexually explicit materials and abortion drugs—the left-wing media went into a frenzy. “Abortion-rights supporters are sounding the alarm that conservative Supreme Court justices want to use a long-dormant law to enforce a nationwide abortion ban,” warned The Hill.
3.16 Caleb Morell, David Schrock • Interview • “‘The Power and Duty of An Association’: Have Baptist Associations Historically Disfellowshipped Disorderly Churches?”
Timestamps Intro – 00:37 About Caleb Morrell – 2:23 Why is the History of Baptist Associationalism Important for Today? – 04:01 Walking Through the History of the Philidelphia Association – 06:35 What’s the Connection of the Philidelphia Association and the History of Baptists in America? – 08:18 What is Benjamin Griffith Arguing For with New Testament Churches and Baptist Churches?
"The Power And Duty of An Association": Have Baptist Associations Historically Disfellowshipped Disorderly Churches?
As the Southern Baptist Convention prepares to meet in Indianapolis in June 2024, the question of the authority of the Convention in relation to the autonomy of local churches is front and center. Messengers expect to hear a report from the 20-member, presidentially appointed “Cooperation Group” tasked with studying how the Convention should deem churches to be “in friendly cooperation on questions of faith and practice” as written in Article 3 of the SBC Constitution.
“The Power and Duty of An Association” (1749): What an Old Treatise Can Teach Today’s Baptists
A native of Wales, Benjamin Griffith (1688–1768) emigrated to America in 1710 where he served as pastor of the Montgomery Baptist Church outside of Philadelphia from 1725 to 1768.[1] In 1743, Griffith authored A Short Treatise of Church Discipline,[2] which was first printed in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin and subsequently attached to the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, and enjoyed a wide circulation throughout much of the eighteenth century.[3] 2.
Is It Anti-woman to Be Anti-abortion?
The distinctive contribution of ‘Pity For Evil’, however, is that feminism need not be understood as synonymous with pro-abortion politics. A more historically rooted feminism grounds the value and dignity of women in their capacity for virtue and care, not in their ability to mimic male sexual appetites. In spite of the lip service paid to diversity, the progressive left has become intolerant of self-described feminists who oppose unrestricted access to abortion. Were Susan B.
The Ones Who Fought Back: Pro-Life Feminism in the Nineteenth Century
Monica Klem and Madeleine McDowell, Pity For Evil: Suffrage, Abortion, and Women’s Empowerment in Reconstruction America. New York: Encounter Books, 2023. 328 pp. $34.99. Twenty-five-year-old Dr. Charlotte Lozier was practicing medicine in New York City in November 1869 when she was approached by a stranger who made a shocking request.
Is it anti-woman to be anti-abortion?
The organizers of the “Women’s March” made headlines in 2017 when they removed pro-life feminists as sponsors, prompting more than one observer to note with irony that if Susan B. Anthony were living today, she would politely be asked to step aside and let the “real feminists” have their day. As thousands gather again to march in January to purportedly “secure abortion access and counter far-right extremism,” the question that must be asked is this: Is it anti-woman to be anti-abortion?
When Did Multiple Services Begin?
When did evangelical churches in America begin holding multiple services? Throughout the nineteenth century, American churches traditionally held two distinct Sunday services: one in the morning, one in the evening. On special occasions—like a building dedication—a church may have held two identical services to accommodate more people.
Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation
Collin Hansen’s Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation is a book that defies comparison. Rather than a traditional biography, it is an attempt to explore the influences that shaped the well-known author, evangelist, and late pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.
Boundaries between believers
Years ago, Dr. R. Albert Mohler put out a call for “theological triage” as a means of determining a scale of urgency with which to respond to theological and cultural crises. First-order issues refer to doctrines essential for salvation (for example, the bodily resurrection of Christ).
“Making the World Home-Like”: Fighting the Sexual Double Standard in the Nineteenth Century and Today
Looking back from our twenty-first century vantage point, it is easy to draw a straight line between first-wave feminists and our rolling sexual revolution. Easy, but wrong. It’s true that the entrance of women into the world of nineteenth-century politics introduced a new type of political discourse and a new set of political values. But that vision wasn’t aimed at imitating the autonomy and sexual freedom of debauched men.
A confession rejected and a denomination undone
One hundred years ago, the nation was gripped by an antagonizing struggle over whether or not a Baptist convention had the authority to disfellowship a church for doctrinal drift. The church in question was the most famous in America—home to the Rockefeller family—and pastored by one of America’s most influential pastors: the brilliant and eloquent Harry Emerson Fosdick.
Baptist, Linguist, and Faithful Pastor: Introducing Henry Jessey
Henry Jessey (1601-1663) is one of the those “larger-than-life” figures from the Puritan era that J.I. Packer properly referred to as “God’s Giants.”[1] Born in 1601, Jessey commenced his studies at St. John’s College, Cambridge at the age of 17. This was a time when Cambridge was producing hundreds of godly, Reformed ministers.
Is the evangelical conscience still uneasy?
Seventy-five years ago this year, evangelical titan Carl F.H. Henry published his call-to-arms known as “The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism.” In that remarkable book, Henry called on evangelicals to reengage in politics through recovering Christianity as a “world-life view.” Not only did evangelicals at that time lack a shared vision for moral and social engagement; they shared a long and studied history of attacking efforts to alleviate social problems.
Review: ‘Confronting Jesus’ by Rebecca McLaughlin
On a cold and dark Siberian winter’s day in 1850, an inmate at a Tobolsk prison was handed a New Testament—the only book prisoners were permitted to own and read. Over the following 10 years of hard labor, that New Testament became a lifeline to him. It introduced him to Jesus. “I believe that there is nothing and no one more beautiful, deeper, more sympathetic and more reasonable, courageous and more perfect than Christ,” he wrote in 1854.
Carl F.H. Henry and Communism: The Failure of Liberal Protestantism and the Opportunity for Evangelical Public Theology
Rediscovered Notes on the 75th Anniversary of The Uneasy Conscience Reveal Convictions of Carl Henry If you were to walk into the pastor’s study of Metropolitan Baptist Church (today Capitol Hill Baptist Church) at 9:30 on any given Sunday morning in 1962, you would encounter a surprising array of figures: Senators A.T. Robertson (D-VA) and Strom Thurmond (D-SC), military generals Charles R. Landon and Paul C. Watson, National Right to Work President Reed Larson, evangelical theologians Clyde W.
7 Simple Steps to Preserve Your Local Church’s History
The members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, were gridlocked in conflict. Months of congregational votes as narrow as 53 to 52 had left the members exhausted and the pastor at the end of his rope. The year? 1884. Advertise on TGC The issue? The location of a second building and how much debt to incur. After the pastor refused to submit to the opinion of the majority, 60 members signed a letter calling for his resignation.
Ulrich Zwingli, Christian Nationalist? | Caleb Morell
On F. Bruce Gordon’s Zwingli: God’s Armed Prophet The publication of Bruce Gordon’s much-awaited biography of Ulrich Zwingli in 2021 could not have arrived at a better time. In the midst of debates over “Christian nationalism” and whether the content of the Christian faith demands external political forms–as if on cue–there enters into the conversation one of the Reformation’s most overlooked and most controversial reformers.
Divided by Prayer: 3 Pastoral Lessons from the Civil War
When news of the attack on Fort Sumter reached the nation’s capital on Sunday, April 14, 1861, the city’s residents were already on their way to church services. At E Street, Washington’s most prominent Baptist church, a mixture of Southerners and Northerners gathered for worship.
Stop Finding Your Identity in Christ
On the hidden implications of an unbiblical phrase Identity is everywhere—from identity crises to identity politics to sexual identity—the term is arguably enjoying unprecedented popularity. But identity is not just popular in secular circles. In fact, Christians are leading the way. In 2010 John MacArthur wrote Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ.[1] In 2013 Mark Driscoll published Who Do You Think You Are?
Stop Finding Your Identity in Christ | Caleb Morell
On the hidden implications of an unbiblical phrase Identity is everywhere—from identity crises to identity politics to sexual identity—the term is arguably enjoying unprecedented popularity. But identity is not just popular in secular circles. In fact, Christians are leading the way. In 2010 John MacArthur wrote Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ.[1] In 2013 Mark Driscoll published Who Do You Think You Are?
Three Lessons on Church Size from the Westminster Assembly
One of the many blessings of studying church history is learning that our predecessors in the faith faced many of the same challenges we do today. For example, did you know that the Westminster Assembly dealt with the topic of church-size and what to do when you outgrow your building?
The quarantine is an opportunity for churches to emerge stronger
Will churches return to the Sunday morning status quo when COVID-19 passes or can the liturgy of quarantine persist to breath new life into our church communities? It's been a defining month for the future of the Church in the United States. Forced to cancel services after CDC guidance to restrict gatherings of more than 50 for at least eight weeks, churches across the country restructured and revamped on the fly.
How DC Churches Responded When the Government Banned Public Gatherings During the Spanish Flu of 1918
Home / Biblical and Theological / How DC Churches Responded When the Government Banned Public Gatherings During the Spanish Flu of 1918 Rev. Randolph H.
How DC Churches Responded When the Government Banned Public Gatherings During the Spanish Flu of 1918
As World War I was coming to a close, still another enemy was making its way toward the nation’s capitol: the Spanish Flu. Between October 1918 and February 1919, an estimated 50,000 cases were reported in the District of Columbia; 3,000 D.C. residents lost their lives.[1] At the peak of the pandemic, the DC government banned all public gatherings, including churches. How Christians responded provides some lessons and principles for responding to similar dilemmas in our own day.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Caleb
Contact Caleb, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack