For most of my fifty years in ministry, I’ve served as a foreign missionary or seminary professor. However, in my senior years, I’ve been called to serve as the Teaching Pastor of our church. This new responsibility has prompted me to think about the calling of pastors. For sure, it is a high calling, and […]
Randy Adams’ good idea for the SBC: transparency and openness in all entity matters
Here’s the way he puts it: 5. Operate in the Light – The SBC should be the toughest place to hide corruption, abuse, and poor stewardship, operating at the highest level of integrity and accountability. We must eliminate organizational tools, structures and processes that help hide wrongdoing and abuse. The SBC and its entities should […]
Prayers for IMB Europe January 20, 2020
Good morning. I hope everyone had a wonderful day of worship with their church family yesterday. Here are the prayer requests for this week from our IMB team in Europe. For the rest of the list, please click on Prayers for IMB Wales–A family in Cardiff, Wales asks for prayers for the Lord to open the doors to […]
Randy Adams’ bad idea for the SBC: remote access to SBC annual meeting voting
Randy Adams is the second person to be a declared candidate for SBC president. Baptist Press had a story on him on January 15th. I’m pleased there is more than one candidate (Al Mohler) and there are some things Adams has written that I like. The idea of remote voting for the SBC Annual Meeting […]
So You Want Your Church to Be a New Testament Church?
We often declare that all Southern Baptist churches strive to be true New Testament churches. I don’t disagree with that aspiration, but I wonder if we give sufficient thought to what that means. It seems to me that we often idealize the New Testament church. That is, when we speak of the “New Testament Church,” […]
Prayers for IMB Japan January 15, 2020
Here are the prayer requests for this week from our IMB missionaries in Japan. There are more requests at Prayers for IMB. Thank you for praying. Many Japanese are exposed to the gospel and relationships with Christians for the very first time while spending time abroad in the US for work or student exchange programs. Pray […]
Has “the SBC” ever blacklisted ministers?
The continuing rancor triggered by Paige Patterson’s invitation to speak at a church in Florida makes me ask this question: Has the SBC while in annual session, the SBC Executive Committee, any of the 41 state conventions affiliated with the SBC, or any of the 1,146 local associations of Southern Baptist churches ever blacklisted an […]
Behold, the lowly parsonage…
…that can’t get any respect. I can’t think of the last time I heard a pastor say anything positive about the fact that he lived in the parsonage. Maybe never. I don’t see data on it but church-owned housing seems to have been declining for a long time. Younger pastors are aghast at the idea […]
Prayers for IMB Europe January 13, 2020
Here are a few prayer requests from our IMB team in Europe. The full list for the week is at Prayers for IMB. Thank you all for praying. Australia–This isn’t from Europe, but please take some time today to pray for those affected by the wildfires in Australia. There are families who have gone on […]
Suspended & Silenced by an SBC Pastor (Dr. Susan Codone)
Dr. Susan Codone is an “SBC Voice” – an active and supportive Southern Baptist. Her approach to this issue has been direct but it has honored local church autonomy. The church in question is free to do as it chooses, but she is also free to dissent and to put public pressure on that church […]
Thou Shalt Not Lie: The ERLC, EIT, and George Soros (EDIT – Concerning Retraction by Hate-Blog Capstone)
NOTE: One of the chief offenders in spreading lies in the SBC is the Capstone Report, which anonymously publishes a string of half-truths and falsehoods, without conscience. They recently made up a story about Dr. Jason Allen that was related to his involvement with “Soros-funded EIT” and to everyone’s surprise, had the common decency to […]
Already? 2020 and it looks like a very interesting year for the SBC
Here are a few reasons why: We’ll elect a new SBC President in sultry Orlando in June. It was announced back in November that Al Mohler will be nominated for SBC prez. The early timing of the announcement was an eyebrow raiser. Mohler quickly responded that he would accept the nomination. Hey, I’m just glad […]