Guest Blogger

Editor's Note:  I read the offending tweet at Justin Taylor's blog a couple of days ago.  I'm not much into Twitter so I've not gotten involved in this issue.  But Micah Fries recommended this post to me, from Aaron Davis, who blogs at "Renewed Mess."  I thought it was powerful, direct and redemptive.  So, here it is.  Thank you, Aaron, for allowing us to share this. It began with a tweet. A short, sarcastic tweet that went something like this: The military found a stockpile of pornography in Osama Bin Laden’s compound. I didn’t know Muslims had their own Acts 29 network. The tweeter … [Read more...] about Emir Caner, Acts29, and The Problem With Public Christian Debate (by Aaron Davis)

Another "Plodder" examination of the workings of the Cooperative Program.  William Thornton is the SBC Plodder and always has an interesting perspective on the SBC's inner workings. Editor's note:  If you want a good laugh, follow the link and read the Rev. Dr. Thornton's latest post about Theological Triage.  Nice work.  Now, back to the CP I blogged earlier in Cooperative Program Confusion about how state conventions, by utilizing accounting presentation techniques that are perfectly reasonable and understandable to them, probably confuse average Southern Baptists about the distribution … [Read more...] about CP Math: 50/50 = 55/45 or 60/40 (by William Thornton)

Les Puryear is in the process of planting a church with very little funding.  At his blog, "Joining God in His Work", he gave some very helpful suggestions how someone might plant a church without a large bankroll behind him.  I asked him for permission to reprint that here. With all the discussion over the funding of church planting, I thought I would share how we are planting a new Southern Baptist church with no outside funding. Yes, that's right; no outside funding. It can be done. Here's how we're doing it. 1. Get a secular job. Don't take any salary from the new church until the … [Read more...] about How to Plant a Church with Little or No Outside Funding (by Les Puryear)

(William Thornton, the SBC Plodder, shares another of his articles with us.) Our wonderful CP, an eminently sensible concept, is shrinking and churches have dropped from over ten percent to the CP to around six. One complaint about the CP is that state conventions keep too much of each CP dollar. SBC Executive Committee statistics show that the percentage of CP dollars kept by the states is around 63% and in the last 50 years has ranged between roughly 61% and 67%. There seems to me to be a growing criticism that more of each CP dollar fails to get out of the states. Bryant Wright … [Read more...] about Cooperative Program Confusion (by William Thornton)

A while ago, I published a challenge that we help CB Scott and the people of Westmont Baptist Church.  Bob Cleveland, who blogs at Eagle's Rest and is a frequent imparter of wisdom here at SBC Voices, got the ball rolling.  I saw his post, which I am reprinting here (with his permission) and then contacted CB.  Here is Bob's post describing some of what is going on. From Bob Cleveland: It started with a text message: "I have very limited phone service. We are OK. NO power. This area would make a great partnership ministry between Westmont and 1st Pelham. We are feeding all we can, but … [Read more...] about “Church, Behaving Like Church” (by Bob Cleveland)

Are Calvinists being told by some bloggers that they will only be accepted in the SBC if they agree to live as second-class citizens?  Bill MacKinnon, one of our regular commenters here at SBC Voices makes that point in the post he sent me a while back.  He admits to being a little sarcastic in some of what he says, but he raises some really good questions. The SBC simply must come to peace with the Calvinism issue.   Calvinists are not going away, and neither are those who do not agree with Calvinism.  There are certainly Calvinists who have been overly aggressive in advancing their … [Read more...] about “Acceptable Calvinism” and the SBC (by Bill MacKinnon)

Ricky Kirk blogs at Panta ta Ethne, and is a pastor is South Point, Ohio. I recently linked an article from the Resurgence on my facebook page on how the resurrection of Jesus Christ has become associated with bunnies and eggs. There were a couple of comments, but I chose not to address them on facebook (it is difficult to fully speak to an issue in a brief comment thread). Today I read another great article from the Resurgence responding to an article from the Washington Post's On Faith page by guest writer Erik Reece. His post, titled 'Save Jesus, Ignore Easter', explores his view of … [Read more...] about What Should We Do With Easter? (by Ricky Kirk)

Editor: William Thornton is the SBC Plodder and a keen observer of SBC life.  This is a repost from his site.  Yesterday he posted the part one.  "Why the CP has been Dropping Like a Rock, Part One." These are not in order of magnitude or importance: 9. It is too hard to change the allocation formulas. We just went through a heavy movement called the Great Commission Resurgence. If successful, international missions will get a little trickle of additional funds through the CP. Lots of effort, little result. 10. The Cooperative Program doesn’t allow the convention to easily adjust to … [Read more...] about Why the Cooperative Program has been dropping like a rock, Part Two (by William Thornton)

Editor: William Thornton is the SBC Plodder and a keen observer of SBC life.  This is a repost from his site It follows up on the discussion of the two previous articles he posted here, "SBC Presidents and the Cooperative Program" and "Dropping Like a Rock: The Cooperative Program." My humble conjectures about the decline of the once mighty Cooperative Program. Every Southern Baptist is a denominational pundit. Plodder's punditry, not in order of magnitude or importance: 1. It’s the moderates’ fault. Sure, SBC moderates were generally very strong givers to the cooperative program and were … [Read more...] about Why the Cooperative Program has been dropping like a rock – Part One (by William Thornton)