Guest Blogger

Joel Rainey is the Director of Missions at Mid-Maryland Baptist Association, an adjunct professor at Capital Bible Seminary and blogs at Themelios. This post was originally published at his site. Much is being written of late about the milennial generation (b. 1978-circa 2000) and the profound effect they are already having on our culture, including the western church.  Since two members of that generation live in the same house as me, I have a front-row seat to how their perceptions, choices, and preferences are driving everything from marketing and education to social policy and perceptions … [Read more...] about The Promise and Peril of Young Evangelicals: Passion, Politics, and Idolatry (by Joel Rainey)

Joel Rainey is the Director of Missions at Mid-Maryland Baptist Association, an adjunct professor at Capital Bible Seminary and blogs at Themelios. This post, the second in a series, was originally published at his site. Here is the introductory post and the first post. There is much talk these days among organizations of all stripes about "de-centralization."  For most, this term simply means a spreading of a still-centralized bureaucracy to more than one location.  But the essence of whether an organization is truly de-centralized surrounds the location of three things:  power, personnel, … [Read more...] about The Future of the Baptist Association: Spreading our Influence (by Joel Rainey)

William Thornton is the SBC Plodder. Perhaps I am in the wrong churches to evaluate the state of congregational singing in the Southern Baptist Convention but I rarely find a church where it appears that there is much concern about the congregation, rather than soloists or the choir, doing any serious singing in worship. The whole assembly was worshiping, singing the song, and blowing the trumpets...   2 Chronicles 29:28a There is always music planned for worship that is called congregational singing but not much singing seems to occur. The choir, praise team, music leader, platform … [Read more...] about The Death of Congregational Singing (by William Thornton)

Joel Rainey is the Director of Missions at Mid-Maryland Baptist Association, an adjunct professor at Capital Bible Seminary and blogs at Themelios. This post, the beginning of a series, was originally published at his site. This is the second in Joel' series about Baptist associations. Here is the introductory post.  If you try to do everything, you end up doing nothing well.  That principle is never more clearly observed than when examining the way so many denominational entities operate today. Last week, I spoke briefly about a number of issues that need to be addressed in the modern … [Read more...] about The Future of the Baptist Association: Identity Crisis (by Joel Rainey)

Marty Duren blogs at Kingdom in the Midst. In the aftermath of the Kermit Gosnell “House of Horrors” Aussie theologian Michael Bird produced a provocative piece at Patheos.com. Entitled “Infanticide: The coming battle” Bird, a former military man, warned how this encroaching mindset was already in the academy. He notes, after postulating that euthanasia will be the next death culture domino to fall, Then as regards to, “what’s after that,” I am convinced it will be infanticide. Already we have seen a vast array of philosophical arguments put forward for it by Peter Singer. Last year there … [Read more...] about Against infanticide: Introducing Protecting Infants and the Remember Ashkelon blog (by Marty Duren)

Joel Rainey is the Director of Missions at Mid-Maryland Baptist Association, an adjunct professor at Capital Bible Seminary and blogs at Themelios. This post, the beginning of a series, was originally published at his site.  Over the next few weeks, I want to narrow my focus here a bit.  Though I try to contribute to ministry and mission discussions that transcend my own denominational tribe, I'd like to speak specifically to what I believe to be the potential future of local entities within the Southern Baptist Convention; most notably the Baptist Association.   Full disclosure:  my mortgage … [Read more...] about The Future of the Baptist Association: A Prelude (by Joel Rainey)

I often have conversations with young Christian men and women who have become entangled in the “snare of the Trapper” (Psalm 91:3). Their entanglement is far too often directly related to the use of beverage alcohol. During these conversations, these young men and women tell me that they thought they could “handle it.” They also tell me something else. They often tell me that their parents, who are “very strong Christians,” have taught them it was “OK to drink, if I did so responsibly.” Some have told me that their Youth Pastor uses beverage alcohol and told them it was “OK to drink, if we do … [Read more...] about Wine Is a Mocker (by CB Scott)

Alan Cross blogs at Downshore Drift I am moving away from the Disney and India illustrations and want to keep exploring this topic that I began in the first two posts HERE and HERE. By way of introduction if you are just jumping in, I am a 38 year old pastor trained in the Organic/House/Cell/Relational/Missional Church Movement that grew up on the West Coast in the 1990's (and lots of other places too). We talked about relational ministry and "life-giving" approaches and how we needed to be free and open different and relevant to our society. We constantly critiqued the "institutional … [Read more...] about Why We Need Christian Institutions, Part 3: Is Church Planting, Missional Innovation, and The “New” Overblown? (by Alan Cross)

HOW TO HANDLE A TRAYVON-ZIMMERMAN MOMENT BY WILLIAM DWIGHT MCKISSIC, SR. No one disputes that George Zimmerman initiated the communication with Trayvon Martin. No one disputes that Neighborhood Watch Volunteers are trained not to carry a weapon. No one disputes that Neighborhood Watch Volunteers are trained not to personally intervene if they observe a suspicious person or activity, but rather notify law enforcement. No one disputes that the 911 dispatcher counseled Zimmerman not to pursue Trayvon. No one disputes that Trayvon had just as much right to be on those premises in Samford, … [Read more...] about How to Handle a Trayvon-Zimmerman Moment (by Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr)

Alan Cross blogs at Downshore Drift. My first post in this four part series was about how I am rethinking the need for Christian institutions and seeing that organization and building something that will last is a lot more important than I used to think. Of course, I wanted to see gospel movement last, but I thought that if we just preached the gospel and lived it out, then everything else would take care of itself. I am finding that we need a bit more than that. We need strong churches and ministries and Christian hospitals and colleges and businesses. We need people to work in all different … [Read more...] about How Disney & India Taught Me That I Was Wrong About Our Need for Institutions, Part Two (By Alan Cross)