Last week’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention garnered more attention than others in recent memory. Controversies mounting over recent weeks and months for Southern Baptists and evangelicals—from presidential politics to #ChurchToo—led to intense media coverage in the days leading up to and surrounding the meeting. Countless news outlets reported on the issues that […]
SBC Women: Next Steps (Melissa Edgington)
I am a Southern Baptist woman. As a baby I toddled up and down the aisle of my parents’ little SBC church in central Texas, squealing with laughter as one church member after another held my chubby hands to steady me. I grew up there. I knew all of the best hide and seek spots […]
Mike Pence & the SBC – It’s a Mixed Bag (Dave “Tarheel” Cline)
I want to say from the outset that I would strongly prefer that no elected politician, candidate, or official speak at the Southern Baptist Convention. I would even go so far as to suggest that the host city send a tourism or chamber of commerce representative to welcome us to their fair city instead of […]
American Family Radio Picking the Wrong Fight (Jimmy Meek)
As I come home from Dallas, I am refreshed at the Gospel unity shown at the Southern Baptist convention. I was however disappointed by what I heard on a Dallas AFR station. American Family Radio has a combination of broadcast sermons and political commentary shows, with a conservative Christian bent. One of their commentators on […]
Pensive on Pence (Fabian Portunato)
Let me begin by saying I was appalled and confused when I found out about the V.P.’s speaking at the convention. With all the rah-rah on unity, to put such a polarizing figure on stage seemed to be a blatant slap in the face. Though, and no one is more surprised about this than me, […]
Is There An Effort to Put Anti-Moore Trustees on the ERLC Board?
Editor’s Note: We received this from Derrick Lynch Monday and are deeply concerned. We checked out the story as best we could with several sources who confirmed it. The gist of this is a profoundly disturbing accusation which has been confirmed by three authoritative sources. Dan Anderson was replaced as a trustee of the ERLC […]
The Southern Baptist Convention Is a Symphony Not a Melting Pot (Luke Holmes)
In 1915 America was in crisis. The large wave of immigrants had threatened what people deemed the “American way of life.” In other words, people didn’t like that others were different from them. It was in this culture that Jewish scholar and writer Horace Kallen wrote his 1915 essay “Democracy versus the Melting Pot.” Kallen challenged the popular notion […]
5 Lessons and Reasons for Hope In Spite of the Recent Tensions in the SBC (Chris Hefner)
As a Southern Baptist I have been following the recent controversies and tensions at a distance. There is no shortage of opinions, commentary, criticism and defense. The tenor leading up to next week’s convention in Dallas promises to be eventful and significant. There is ample reason for self-examination personally and denominationally. There are lessons we […]
Miami Church Planter Fabian Portunato on Why He’s Attending #SBC18
My name is Fabian Portunato and I am a Send Network planter in Miami, FL, in my 3rd year of this plant. This will be my 4thconsecutive year attending the SBC. It is a commitment I made to myself and my church, that if we were to be Southern Baptists then we would be involved in […]
Three Reasons I’m Looking Forward to #SBC18 (Jim Drake)
With all the controversy surrounding this year’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, I have seriously considered canceling my hotel reservations and staying home. With each new “revelation” and Twitter storm, I have thought it might be emotionally easier to skip the trip to Dallas. After all, a 15-hour drive, wall-to-wall mini-conferences, meetings, and […]
The Time is Now: Why I Will be Voting for J.D. Greear (James Merritt)
I have been attending the SBC for over 35 years and was a buck private in the army that fought the battle for the Conservative Resurgence. I have been humbled and honored to be around some of the finest men of God who have ever lived who served as SBC president. Adrian Rogers, the greatest […]
On Theological Bigotries and Stumbling Blocks (Steven Newell)
Last night I heard the most remarkable story about how our theological bigotries (yes, I will call it that) put up stumbling blocks to the Gospel. A friend of mine and I are in the beginning stages of Appalachian Deaf outreach with the hope of eventually having a church plant. We have our planter but […]