Dave Miller

After a long walk all over this convention center we found the site of the EC meeting at the moment Ronnie Floyd began his address. He said his report would be brief. It was. He is moving to Nashville and has sold his home in Arkansas. I ran into Dr. Floyd yesterday and he enthusiastically told me to contact him and said he wants to work together. He made a brief report to leave time for the big issues that lay ahead. … [Read more...] about Ronnie Floyd’s First EC Report

Watch his PC message! He is preaching blessed are the meek and used his experience of the last week as a model. He explained his reasons for praying for Trump and then made an equally strong case for why he might not have done it. He modelled meekness and humility and spoke of how pastors can respond to criticism. Home run! I will post it here when it is released on vimeo.   … [Read more...] about If You Criticized (Or Supported) David Platt…

My first Pastors' Conference was in 1979, the year the Conservative Resurgence started. Electricity filled the air as man after man stood up, preached the word, upheld the perfection of that word, and planted the seed from which the CR grew. Tonight, I heard a sermon that could walk tall among the best PC messages I have heard. Ed Litton preached on "Blessed are those who mourn." The whole sermon is great, but it is the part that begins at minute 25 that was particularly powerful  - directly addressing issues in the SBC. Ed Litton did not seem to have the support of everyone in … [Read more...] about Ed Litton’s Powerful Pastors’ Conference Message

It was foreordained. Last night, Jenni and I walked the convention area with Scott Gordon and his often poorly behaved wife Rhonda checking for a place we could invite you to gather with us.  We like to have an SBC Voices get together each year. In the end, the decision was made for us. We explored the local BBQ establishment known as Saws...you need to go but my living room is bigger. If 15 of us showed up we'd have to shut the doors. There's a make your own pizza place called "Your Pie" and we could have called it "Shut Your Pie Hole." Appropriate for a bloggers gathering, … [Read more...] about SBC Voices Dinner Monday – 4:30 PM at “The Southern”

Visiting a church in a church in Birmingham (well, Fultondale) thinking through some issues I am going through in my church. After 14 years there I haven't seen the progress I'd like to see. I get discouraged, angry down, frustrated. Sometimes it feels every day is a Monday. I sat...well, stood...in church and the praise team did a song I'd never heard. It was a moment. It was as if the words of the song were written to address precisely the situation I was going through. I am not going to be specific because I don't want this to be a discussion of the particular person or … [Read more...] about Blessed by a Song by a Group I Disdain

I have spent a lot of time and energy on this in recent weeks. I thought I would state a few things I think and believe, and then it is my intent to move on. These are random thoughts. 1. Gender issues will be key in the future of the SBC, but likely won't be a huge issue in Birmingham. If the Mother's Day Homilicaust had kicked off earlier, we might have gotten a spate of resolutions, but I doubt this will dominate the meeting. Abuse will be the issue this year, not gender issues. 2. Complementarianism is becoming a meaningless term. It is actually a noble word – men and women … [Read more...] about Random Things I Believe about Gender Issues in the SBC

I wrote a post a few days ago in which I argued that the path forward in the SBC on the "complementarianism brouhaha" was fairly simple.   We adhere to our common confession, the BF&M 2000 which details that the pastoral role be reserved for men and that there is a differentiation of roles in marriage. We adhere to our long-held principle of local church autonomy for the rest. As long as a church is faithful to the BF&M 2000, we allow the local church to decide precisely what role women can have in their local church. One church can fence the pulpit from women … [Read more...] about A Soft Question for “Hard Complementarians”