Guest Blogger

Paul Thompson blogs at the Bridge. Unfortunately, evidently he also needs his mouth washed out with soap! The childhood fear of having my mouth washed out with soap haunted me this evening as I was responding to some push back from mycolumn this morning in the Times-News. I’m thankful for the opportunity to write a regular column for the Times News. They are kind to publish my 500-700 word column in a rotation with 5 others in the Magic Valley. Today’s post generated a small amount of discussion via www.magicvalley.com (the online version of the Times-News). In my attempt to dialog with … [Read more...] about “Your Comment Contains Profanity” (Paul Thompson)

Paul Thompson blogs at "The Bridge."  Today (October9, 2014) at 5 p.m., mountain time, we will know what the courts will say in regard to Idaho’s defense of marriage. In the mean time I’ve received messages like this in response to my calling the church (Eastside Baptist) to prayer. “OK, well in my place of worship my pastor fully supports gay rights. I’m a bisexual Christian I married a man when I was 19 and that man cheated on me and divorced me and with man or woman I’m happy and God is happy to call me his child and is proud that I spread love throughout the state.. So keep your rude … [Read more...] about When Those Who Preach Don’t Know God (Paul Thompson)

William Thornton is the SBC Plodder. The SBC Executive Committee has closed the books on the fiscal year 2013-2014 and Baptist Press reports that "The Southern Baptist Convention ended its fiscal year 0.76% below last year's contributions and missed its Cooperative Program allocation budgeted projection of $191.5 million by 2.58%..." Here are the relevant figures as compared to the last fiscal year. These are for monies received by the SBC Executive Committee for distribution to the SBC entities IMB, NAMB, the seminaries, ERLC, and EC itself. The figures, in millions of dollars, do not … [Read more...] about Designated giving UP; Cooperative Program giving DOWN for 2013-2014 (William Thornton)

 Luke Holmes blogs at "A Copernican Revolution"  and is pastor of First Baptist Church of Tishomingo, OK.  “Mr. President, Mr. President!” Three voices spoke almost as one. “Mr. President, do I have the floor?” The president’s gavel hammered vigorously. “The Chair recognizes Brother Stealey.” “Mr. President, we must settle this evolution issue at once,” Clarence Stealey said. “Let the messengers to this annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention vote now. It’s the most pressing matter before us in 1925. Brother Burts’s money report can come later.” “Mr. President!” shouted … [Read more...] about Overlooking the Cooperative Program (Luke Holmes)

Steven Schenewerk is pastor of Winston's Community Baptist Church in Winston, Oregon. He blogs at WCBCpastor's Blog.  I have seen countless articles encouraging young adults to consider serving urban poor populations. That is wonderful. But what I haven’t seen are many articles or encouragements for young adults to consider serving rural poor. Serving in a rural, poor community certainly is not glamorous and it is certainly not economically advantageous. However, there are several reasons I believe we need to encourage young college and seminary students to consider serving in rural … [Read more...] about A Call to Rural Communities (Steven Schenewerk)

William is the SBC Plodder.  My insightful friend and fellow blogger, Bart Barber, has a short article on SBC Voices entitled, "It's the CP, not the SQ", in which he says, "I write today to disabuse you all of the idea that defending the Cooperative Program means defending the status quo." I've concluded that our venerable denominational funding scheme, The Cooperative Program, has become an inherently status quo system with little chance of accommodating major changes. This article explains why. To discuss this necessarily involves dividing the question of status quo into two parts: (1) … [Read more...] about The CP and the SQ: A Response to Bart Barber (William Thornton)

Joel Rainey leads the Engagement Team for Evangelism and Missions at the Mid-Atlantic Baptist Network. He is on the adjunct faculty of two seminaries,and the author of three books. He blogs at Themelios, where this was originally posted on Monday.    October 3, "Left Behind" will debut in theaters across America, and its release will prompt a fresh discussion among evangelicals about our view of the end times.  Additionally, the movie will encourage general discussion about what happens after we die, who goes to heaven, and how they get there.  These are very important subjects, and for that … [Read more...] about Speculative Theology and the Great Commission (Joel Rainey)

You can read part one of this missive, Despair, Interrupted, here. The last few months have been a long slow slide towards a familiar companion. I no longer view Despair as the enemy; we've been together too long for that sort of animosity.  In many ways we're old friends, the type that go their separate ways for months and years, and yet remain able to resume their relationship without hesitation when next they occupy the same address.  We need no introduction, no explanation for our reunion. Heavens of stone and heart of glass.  A heart devoid of love and a soul emptied of grace. … [Read more...] about Hope, Interjected (Anonymous)

(This post was written by a friend of mine. He feels it necessary to keep his identity a secret, because he works in a Christian organization that might react punitively if it found out that one of its personnel struggled with this kind of issue. It is sad to me that such is the case, but I appreciate my friend for sharing this.)  I remember the first time I fell. My immature heart failed to recognize the abyss into which it stumbled; no one spoke of depression in the early 80's, especially not in our highly-conservative Baptist circle.  I retain a vague impression of blurry faces and … [Read more...] about Despair, Interrupted (Anonymous)

Ken Hamrick blogs at SBC Open Forum.  Instead of arguing for or against the scientific evidence, or arguing the merits of possible exegetical ways to reconcile Scripture with a billions-of-years chronology, I propose that---for the sake of argument---we eliminate the evidence question all together. We can do this by accepting all the scientific claims at face value, and still insisting on a recent supernatural creation out of nothing. In other words, we would not posit a young earth, but an old earth that was recently created by divine fiat. When God creates out of nothing, He is not limited … [Read more...] about Helping Old-Earth Creationists Face the Supernatural Question (Ken Hamrick)