Dave Miller

I read a tweet this morning by Jonathan Merritt that spoke triumphally of the fact that LifeWay was closing all its stores. He pointed out that while LifeWay was closing, Jen Hatmaker and others whose books LifeWay had stopped selling were still going strong. As is normal in the Twittersphere, there was a piling-on without much attempt to garner facts. The prevailing idea was that LifeWay was going under and to them, it was just desserts for LifeWay's failure to embrace the LGBTQ+ and progressive Christian agenda. Others in the so-called progressive Christian movement have joined in the … [Read more...] about Facts are Our Friends – About LifeWay’s Bad News

We discuss a lot of issues about what has gone wrong in the SBC. When I first started blogging, we were still experiencing minimal growth and we could argue that while we are not exactly in our halcyon days when the SBC was busting at the seams, we were not doing as badly as "those guys." That bubble has burst. We've had nearly a decade of consistently poor statistical reports revealing declines in most of the numbers we care about. We've had systemic divisions over soteriological viewpoints and a host of other issues, scandals that rocked us to the core, and general denominational malaise. I … [Read more...] about The SBC Will NEVER Fix the Problems in the SBC

Southern Baptists stand in agreement that we must demonstrate to the world that sexual abuse is a wicked thing, that we will protect and minister to victims, and that the days of cover-up among us have come to an end. When we leave our Annual Meeting in Birmingham, we want to have spoken with one voice and loudly that we are united on this issue. The exact path to achieve that end is less clear and there is certainly a hefty amount of disagreement as to the best way to achieve that end. Since the Executive Committee meeting a few weeks ago when our president J.D. Greear boldly stood up and … [Read more...] about Constitutional Amendment? Credentials Committee? How Shall We Address Sexual Abuse in the SBC?

Baptists disagree. We started out disagreeing with the Reformers over baptism, over state churches, and over the restriction of religious freedom. In the 70s and 80s, we began to dissent from the leftward drift in our institutions and entities, and a swelling tide of leaders expressed those concerns publicly. Perhaps, with hindsight, we would modulate our tone a bit, but men stood and spoke, saying the direction of the SBC was not what it should be. Dissent from our leaders is at the heart of Baptist life. It still is today. I am a loyal Baptist, a lifelong Southern Baptist and I want our … [Read more...] about Disagreeing Baptists

Last week, I posted an article about the problems at Trinity Baptist in Ashburn, Georgia. In that article, I mentioned that the pastor of that church, Rodney Brown, claimed to have received support from not only the Executive Committee staff, but from the Georgia Convention and from his association. This was upsetting, that Baptist entities would support a church that had a known pedophile openly serving in leadership. The Christian Index published a statement from Thomas Hammond, the new Executive Director of Georgia Baptists, that demonstrated real leadership. He admitted that he had … [Read more...] about Georgia Baptists See Leadership in Action from Thomas Hammond

A little more than a day after receiving information from J.D. Greear on the 10 churches named in the Houston Chronicle’s series of articles, the Bylaws Committee of the Executive Committee issued a wholly inadequate response that called for further inquiry into three of the churches, absolved six of them by saying that no further inquiry was needed, and pointed out that one of the churches was not SBC-affiliated.  (The offender in the non-SBC church moved from an SBC church after committing the offense, so it is easy to see how the Chronicle did not figure that out.) This report cannot … [Read more...] about The EC Bylaws Committee Investigation Cannot Stand

Dr. Adam Greenway has been unanimously elected the ninth president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to a release on the SWBTS website. He was also elected as a professor of evangelism and apologetics. In addition to Greenway, the board named Randy L. Stinson as provost and vice president for academic administration, also unanimously. They affirmed the work of Dr. Jeffrey Bingham during the time he was interim president, an affirmation I would strongly affirm. I have spoken to many from the seminary who tell of the work he has done in providing stability and a positive … [Read more...] about Greenway is Ninth President of Southwestern

I imagine there were some gasps last night among those in the Executive Committee meeting room when J.D. Greear laid out his plan for responding to the current abuse scandal which we’ve known about for a while and has been made national news by the Houston Chronicle. We are not used to this kind of bold and forceful leadership in response to charges of sexual abuse in the SBC. There was also anger directed at J.D. among some who thought he went too far when he named several churches – churches that were identified by the Chronicle as having hired or not responded appropriately to the … [Read more...] about A Word of Appreciation to J.D. Greear

  NOTE: I just read the third installment, and to be honest, I may be sick. It is hard to read. Wow. Demented men. NOTE: the second installment is out and is more specific, more maddening, and more saddening than the first. I will turn your stomach. I appreciate the research of the journalists at the Chronicle. They have done an excellent job of showing the problem. I read the first installment of the Houston Chronicle's "Abuse of Faith" story with much fear and trembling. The fact is that for those of us who have been following this story, there was little new there. The details … [Read more...] about Responding to “Abuse of Faith” and the #Metoo Movement

I made the assertion in a previous post, based on solid information that has been given to me, that there have been no minority interviews in the hiring processes at our entities. I asked, even begged for information to correct that. If one of the search teams has interviewed a minority, I would love to be corrected and will publicly and loudly publish that correction. To this point, I have received no such corrections. So, assuming that there have been minority applicants (there have - qualified ones) and that these minority applicants have not gotten through the vetting process to the … [Read more...] about Is Racism the Reason We’ve Had NO Minority Interviews?