I was very glad to see the resolution on Refugee Ministry be adopted by the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting last week. Today is World Refugee Day and a report was just released that states that the world now has 65 million+ refugees – now more than in the time period after […]
Southern Baptists See Rise in CP Giving, Continued Drop in Baptism/Membership
Image from SBCthisweek.com. Cooperative Program Giving is up. Lottie Moon Christmas Offering giving is up. These are things to praise God for! But, as the image above shows, church membership is down. The number of churches and missions are barely up. Attendance, small group attendance, and baptisms are down significantly. Much of this is […]
Anyone Wonder Why It Is All White Guys Running for Every SBC Office Again?
We were having an internal conversation with the SBCVoices editorial group and someone brought up the fact that every nominee for every SBC office this year was a white guy. Again. I had not thought about it, honestly, because I was not paying close attention this year and I have been pretty overwhelmed with other […]
Resolution on Refugee Ministry and Resettlement
Over the past year or so, the plight of refugees has filled our news cycles and made its way into our national consciousness. Just this week, we are hearing the stories of over 1000 refugees drowning in the Mediterranean trying to make their way to Europe. With conflicts in Syria, Africa, Asia, and Central and […]
Matthew 24 and Acts 17 Missions: The World Refugee Crisis and Reaching the Nations in North America Conference (August 26-27, 2016)
Southern Baptists and other Evangelicals are beginning to recognize the incredible opportunity and responsibility set before us. As the above infographic from www.ethnecity.com demonstrates, the nations have come to us en masse. Between 41 and 47 million foreign born peoples (by latest estimate) now live in the United States (13.2 million in the South). Many […]
Will Evangelicals Support Trump’s Mass Forced Deportation Plan?
Trump’s plan for the forced mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants and their 5 million U.S. citizen children is to forcibly deport 25,000 people per day for 18-24 months at the beginning of his administration, which would necessitate the suspension of Due Process (Constitutionally guaranteed even to those here illegally), would cost approximately $600 […]
Moore, Trump, and Our Gospel Witness in a Time of Political Turmoil
This was originally posted at Alan’s site on May 9. I was supposed to put it up here, but I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off! Sorry, Alan. It is a pretty good counterpoint to the harsher treatment that appeared here on Saturday. Let’s try to have a civil discussion, […]
How Religious Liberty Dies
For background on the religious liberty implications of the SC Anti-Refugee Bill, S997, I wrote about it here. How Religious Liberty Dies. S997 just effectively passed the SC Senate by a vote of 39-6. Churches and religious organizations will be held civilly liable for any crime committed in the future by refugees that they helped […]
A Coming Evangelical Civil War?
I wrote this post Feb. 27 and since then, reports have come out that church-going Evangelicals do not support Trump. Ask most pastors and they can tell you that they knew that already. On February 29, Russell Moore wrote about why he had come dislike the word “Evangelical.” It is with that in mind, that […]
Is Religious Liberty Being Taken/Given Away in South Carolina?
There has been much talk among conservatives of religious liberty over the past few years with a great deal of fear expressed that religious people would not be able to exercise their freedom of religion in the public sphere. This is a legitimate concern and religious liberty, like all of our freedoms, should not be […]
Advent Hope: Jesus Redeeming the Nations (Alan Cross)
This past Sunday marked the beginning of Advent in the church calendar, the season before Christmastide (12 Days of Christmas), which begins December 25. Advent was always one of my favorite times to preach as a pastor because of focus on Christ’s work in His Coming the first time and the anticipation of His Coming […]
Considering the Facts: A Christian Response From Alabama to the Syrian Refugee Crisis (Alan Cross)
Originally posted on alancrosswrites.com. Late Sunday night, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said that he would not allow any Syrian refugees to be resettled in Alabama declaring, “After full consideration of this weekend’s attacks of terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee […]