SBC Voices

At the #CaringWell conference last week, Rachael Denhollander recommended that Southern Baptists read Christa Brown’s book, This Little Light: Beyond a Baptist Preacher Predator and His Gang.[i] I read the book after receiving a copy at the For Such a Time as This rally at the SBC Annual Meeting in Birmingham at the recommendation of […]

Forget the Billy Graham Rule. You know, the one that classifies all women as potential, shameless seductresses. I can think of a few pieces of advice and counsel I was given early and often as a young seminarian and pastor. One of these is that you have to watch out for women in the church […]

A debate has raged on Twitter in recent days that strains credulity – not that the topic is being debated but the force with which it is being argued. The question is whether David’s sin with Bathsheba was adultery or did it constitute rape. Did David rape Bathsheba? That is a valid discussion, but as […]

…just get out of pastoral ministry if you’ve messed up your life and aren’t above reproach. I’m about 48% in favor of having a guild for Southern Baptist clergy that has the authority to deny credentials to rascals, scoundrels, Elmer Gantry types, and criminals; to incompetent hucksters, church-wreckers, and money-grubbers; and to just plain ecclesiastical […]

The thing about an article like this is that those who care already know. Those who don’t know the history and trends don’t much care. But consider a few things.   These three offerings combined totaled about $682 million for the most recent year’s data available. The CP, received by the states, was $463 million. […]

This makes three years running for record offerings to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.  NAMB, our formerly beleaguered entity with not one but two meltdowns is doing fine. Southern Baptists have bought into what they are doing. I can think of a few reasons why this is so and may update […]

I found it difficult to complete my recap series and summarize day three’s morning session—First, because the talks were so rich and full of compelling content that it’s difficult to condense into a concise summary and, second, because even 48hrs later, I remain physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted. This conference was one of the most […]

A church was experiencing explosive growth. Attendance was skyrocketing. Giving was rapidly increasing. Building programs, outreach initiatives, staff additions, and baptisms were all going up year-after-year. Then, things leveled off. Attendance was no longer going up and other statistics no longer showed eye-popping rates of increase. The church dropped from their accustomed place on various […]

In a statement from the new VP for communications, Jonathan Howe, Baptist Press admitted that their previous reporting on the Jennifer Lyell story was woefully inadequate. When Jennifer told her story, Baptist Press, though it was begged to do so by many, including Jennifer herself, failed to make it absolutely clear that there was nothing […]

Much of day 2 was taken up with breakout sessions, 4 in total out of 12 options. I won’t take time here to cover those because I could not attend them all and they are not easy to summarize. Note, however, that the sessions were recorded and I believe will be available online in the […]

Well day one of the Caring Well Conference is done and I’m gearing up for a very FULL day today. Here is a recap with a few comments from day 1:   Phillip Bethancourt opens the conference noting that the speakers have been given the freedom to speak whatever they would like without censorship. He […]