Posts By This Author

From the Archives: February 1998

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 04-25-2018
By What Authority?

I AM Nancy Hastings Sehested, messenger from Prescott Memorial Baptist Church, pastor of Prescott Memorial Baptist Church, and servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am a full-blooded Southern Baptist. My mother is a Baptist deacon. My grandfather was a Southern Baptist minister for 70 of his 93 years. My dad is a retired Southern Baptist minister with 50 years of ordained ministry. ...

By what authority do I preach? ... It is not a new question. It is a question that was asked of our Lord Jesus Christ on a number of occasions. He had not the authority of the religious establishment, nor the authority of the state, but the authority of none other than the Holy Spirit that moved in his midst.

And so, by what authority do I preach and bear witness to my faith? ... By the authority of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, becoming a servant. And following in his footsteps, as a servant of Jesus Christ, who took the towel and the basin of water and exemplified the kind of servanthood that each one of us is called to live under, I found a towel with my name on it. And who was it that taught me this wonderful freedom of the Spirit? My Sunday school teachers. My pastor. My Southern Baptist church, who nurtured me and said, “God calls each one of us, so listen!” And so I listened.

God Behind Bars

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 09-01-2007

In the prison-industrial complex, is there hope for redemption?

Columbine, Kudzu, and a Colt .45

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 07-01-2001
'Columbine' used to refer to a mountain wildflower. Now it conjures up a national tragedy of teens killing teens.

Let My Pharaoh Go!

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 05-01-2001
Just when I become practiced in the art of waving my fist and demanding my rights, I get a divine yank.

Revenge or Mercy?

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 03-01-2001
The last time Jake saw his mother, he spit on her.

Eyes Wide Open

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 01-01-2001
"You don't know what it's like to have a husband, small children, and a congregation. There's no time for prayer."

The Resurrection Roller Coaster

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 04-01-1993

Lectionary reflections for April

Wilderness People

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 02-01-1993

Lectionary reflections 

The Flickering Light of Epiphany

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 01-01-1993

Epiphany reflections

'By What Authority Do I Preach?'

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 02-01-1988

The following is the extemporaneous speech that Nancy Hastings Sehested gave before the Shelby County Baptist Association on October 19, 1987.

Making a New Way: 'Not Ready for Women'

by Nancy Hastings Sehested 07-01-1987

Women in the Church Tell Their Stories.