If you travel through the country side of Oklahoma, and prob other places too, there is one thing you can be certain to see. They go by different names depending on where you live. I’ve seen them called stone cribs, corner posts, or the ever descriptive “rock piles.” Every so often at the corner of […]
One Reason the SBC Is Divided
There is much more that could be said here. And I’ll preface this with saying I’m an idiot on much of this stuff. However, I do believe I’m making a correct observation here. In the book Coddling of the American Mind the authors note two types of identity politics. One, the way of MLK, seeks […]
What about the 40% of SBC churches that gave NOTHING through the Cooperative Program?
Ronnie Floyd threw a bunch of tables and graphics at us in his relaunch of the Vision 2025 message to the Executive Committee. You can view the message here. I’m picking a single item, the last one, number five from his list of five strategic actions: Increase annual giving through the Cooperative Program to surpass […]
No action on ERLC Task Force report
The Executive Committee’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Task Force presented their report to the EC today. Task force chairman Mike Stone gave the presentation on behalf of the task force. He gave a brief explanation concerning the creation of the task force. He then went on to describe the work of the task force. […]
J.D. Greear’s Powerful Message to the SBC Executive Committee
Last night SBC President J.D. Greear brought this message to the Executive Committee meeting in Nashville. It’s well worth watching in its entirety, but here are a few key excerpts in case you don’t have time for the full message. More coverage is available at Baptist Press. Key moments: 3:40 Greear said he had no […]
We Don’t Need Ronnie Floyd for Revival
Allow me a moment to defuse that flashy title. Nothing I’m about to write is meant as an attack on Ronnie Floyd. In fact, my hopes would be that if he read this article he’d give it a hearty amen. We also must acknowledge that we are at a watershed moment within the SBC. Who […]
Are Southern Baptists in for more Executive Committee surprises?
It’s been a year since the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee last met in-person. It was at that meeting that the Executive Committee voted to usurp the authority of the duly elected Pastors’ Conference President by giving him an ultimatum regarding the program. It was also in February 2020 that the EC took on the […]
We’ve Got Trouble, Here in SB City, With a Capital E, and that Rhymes with C…
The EC has been engaged, in the last two or three years, in an attempt to gain and assert a greater authority over other SBC entities than it has ever had. Mike Stone’s unfortunate tenure as EC chairman was marked by a consistent power grab. The Executive Committee has historically been a coordinating council with […]
NAMB and the State Conventions.
The NAMB controversy concerns mainly smaller, non-south state conventions but the great consumer of Cooperative Program dollars are the large state conventions. If we are to engage in finger pointing over declining statistics, a popular game in the SBC if not a productive one, the fingers should point to the places where we’re spending the […]
The conflict between NAMB and the State Conventions; take some time for weekend reading
A major issue in the SBC 2021 presidential election is the relationship between NAMB and state conventions, especially state conventions outside the south. One candidate, Randy Adams, has made NAMB his main platform as he campaigns for the highest elected SBC office. Charges of mismanagement, secrecy, top-down authority, rejection of historic patterns, partnerships, and principles, […]
Baptists You Should Know: EW Perry
It would be understandable if E.W. Perry was nervous as a silence fell over the hushed crowd. He had stood before large congregations of all sizes for most of his life. But never before had someone like him stood before a group like this. The seasoned preacher did what he always did. He opened his […]
Recovering Our Joy in Ministry
This past year has proved trying for everyone, especially those in the ministry. We’ve dealt with sickness and dying on a scale beyond our experience. Circumstances have forced us to serve in ways that are unfamiliar. (I still don’t like preaching to a camera instead of people!). We’ve had to learn new things and temporarily […]